Naked Shed

When we first toured the house last Auguest we noticed a lack of storage and because we have a lot of junk stuff personal items we knew we'd have to fix that. We moved in late October and didn't have a lot of time to get to work before the real cold set in. We didn't have the time to plan, design and build our own shed so we ordered a 'shed kit' from Shedman. Jeff visited their Pickering location where he got to check out all their different styles and get a sense for the quality of the workmanship. He was happy and because it was the end of the season we got a smoking deal on one of their 'barn style' sheds. What they basically delivered was a pile of wood (all cut to length), screws, roofing shingles and the directions (which we promptly discarded). We figured it ended up costing us less than if we had bought everything piecemeal from a hardware store AND it was delivered right into our backyard. Score!

First we had to remove the rotting planter at the very back of the yard. When we tore it apart it was a treasure trove of discarded junk; pieces of concrete, rocks, a 2' length of pipe, random childrens toys, a ballon and other random bits of garbage. It was like the previous owner had chosen to use his planter as a garbage instead of a place for pretty flowers.

Sometimes Jeff likes to tackle major projects by himself. After all, he's a man and can do anything. But when it came to building our new shed he called in reinforcements. On a bitter cold Sunday in November my dad, father-in-law and sister's boyfriend all came up to lend a hand (I ordered pizza and kept the cat company inside). After many hot cups of coffee and a 24 slice pizza we had this monstrous thing of beauty...

{That shed is perfectly level. It's our entire lawn that's on a slope}

Excitedly we went out and bought 2 gallons of paint to pretty this girl up. And then the temperatures dropped and it was too cold to actually get any paint on her. We thought about giving it a shot and crossing our fingers but apparently if you paint when it's too cold out it doesn't stick well and it could bubble off. Which would be gross and counter productive. So we waited. All winter. And our shed was naked.

Then it got nice again and we got off our butts and dug out the cans of paint that had been sitting unused all winter and got to work. ***sidenote: When I say 'we' I mean 'Jeff' - this was all his baby.

{One coat of 'Elephant Skin' and she doesn't look too pretty)

Halfway through we ran out of paint (because that's how we do things around here). It took 2 whole weekends but she was finally done.

It only took us 7 months from start to finish, but I think it was worth the wait. Not only is the shed super pretty, but also HUGE (8'x10'x10') and solves so many of our storage problems. Jeff has already installed a loft for added vertical storage, he's built a workbench and currently working on an organization system for everything. Once he's done I'll post pictures but for now I am sworn to secrecy.

I love looking back on where we started and seeing how far we've come. The backyard (and frontyard) are in need of some major rehabilitation which we plan to spread over the next few summers, at least now we have a place to start those projects and store all the necessary stuffs needed to make it happen.

{Click to enlarge}