After over 14 months of dreaming about it, I cannot tell you how happy I am to finally start using our backyard shed! It has been a long haul….. but only time will tell whether it was a worthwhile project.
Isn’t it gorgeous? Doesn’t it just make you want to move right in…..not as a shed, but maybe a cute little office…..or even a place to read, take naps and daydream a bit? LOL! I totally agree. If only this was in my backyard instead of this……
Hmmmm……what happened??? Definitely don’t want to move in, set up a comfy daybed and toil the day away dreaming….. 😉 But it certainly will fit the bill for all of our garden crap!!!!
I know you are asking what the crap happened! I don’t know other than my project manager (B) failed just a smidge! It is a good thing he is my son and I love him to pieces. Should I give you a little of what happened all these months? After the deck stairs and now the shed, I am beginning to think these kind of things only happen to us! I warn you….you will hear the word crap a lot!!
Our local high school has a class (I believe it is called the engineering class) that builds 2 sheds every spring. It is part of the FFA program run thru the county’s Butler Tech program. Needless to say, I have always wanted a shed, just could never convince PT of it…..or it was not in the budget. Flip them in and out, and these were the 2 reasons it never came to fruition. A couple of Springs ago I approached the teacher in charge, asking to buy one…. only to find out that I was too late. Happened again the next Spring……and I was truly bummed. These sheds are a hot commodity around the ‘Little O’. I know I could have gone to Lowe’s and just bought one, but I loved the idea of having a shed built by student’s. Fall of 2012, B now taking this class, I knew I had a chance.
The teacher made reference to them building a shed in the Spring, and B later told me that his hand went up like a rocket. I wonder if in reality he heard the word shed, and it woke him from his 7th period snooze? He informed the teacher his Mom wanted one! Yes I did!! I met with the teacher, told him I didn’t want the standard shed that they were used to building, and could he and the class build this…..
He said yes, but would I agree to swap out the shingle’s for siding and did I really want 1/2 the door to be glass? He was concerned with break-ins, etc. I agreed to the siding (as long as it matched my house), and sadly agreed to having the upper 1/3 of the door being glass. Similar to this door…… Inspiration for the: Foyer.
School ended at the end of May, my baby graduated , and we waited and waited to have the shed delivered. As we were told it would be delivered in June we cleared the site, placed concrete blocks on the perimeter and down the center for support, leveled everything out and back filled it with river rock. We waited…… and waited…… and waited some more…..
I seriously was about to give up when I finally got the email asking if they could deliver it that night. Can I tell you it was November when I finally got the much awaited email. November 2013!!!
I was really nervous for them to deliver it as it had rained all day! They were also going to back it through 2 side yards with a semi truck and place it on the designated site. Should I also tell you it was 7:30 at night!! They delivered the other shed first….we were second on the schedule! I know….right!! I swear to God my neighbor was sweating bullets when he saw the semi start to back up through our front yard angling into his! I was too! It is a good thing we are good friends with this set of neighbors….. the other side just might have called the police!
I honestly didn’t know how in the hell crap they were going to lower it into place. I still can’t tell you how they did it, and I watched them the entire way through. All I know is they got it onto the blocks with only a little fuss and muss (what the 2 of them were thinking is another story).
Not exactly my inspiration piece, but at this time I really didn’t care. I just knew that I was finally going to get some of the crap out of our garage. Only one problem….
.….. the doors wouldn’t open without brute force! Seriously!!! Do you see that they also swing in? Who makes doors that swing in? I contacted a friend who just happens to be a contractor and asked if he could build me new ones. Unfortunately, this dang weather got the best of us this winter, and he wasn’t able to get to them until a week ago……
I am sooooooo happy with the new doors. This is a shot of it right after I primed the doors. I still need to spackle and fill in all the holes (I said I would take care of all of this to keep the cost down), but have already seen the difference it is going to make to our garage!
There is a lot of crap that happened in the middle of this shed saga, that I definitely do not need to go into with all of you. Just know that even with all the crap, (didn’t I warn you I was going to use that word a lot) I am over the moon to have a shed in our backyard. There is just something to be said about having a class build your shed that is cool! Plus, now I can harass B when I find little things wrong with it. 😉
All in fun….all in fun! He is quick to tell me that he had nothing to do with doors. Would I do it again? Yep, but I would be a very active general contractor next time!
I am very excited to come up with a landscaping plan to make the shed ‘cuter’ this summer. Sometimes it is all about being cute….know what I mean?
Things left to be done:
Prime and Paint the trim (already started this)
Paint the door
Build a ramp to attach to the bottom of the door (where the plywood is exposed)
Landscape around it
What color do you think the doors should be?
Shaunna
**I just want to disclose that we paid for this shed….every piece of wood and every last nail/screw! This may have been a class project, but we still had to pay for all of the materials. This was not a freebie, although with all the fuss and muss over it, maybe it should have been. Wishful thinking……wishful thinking!
It really is gorgeous!
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Thank you, can’t wait to make it as ‘cute’ as my inspiration shed! Thanks for stopping by!