shed – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

The Shed Bed

Published on October 25, 2017 by JennaLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write for the blog, but I found a few minutes today to share one of the last projects of the season before the snow started to fly. I added a whole new flower bed along the side of the shed! This space used to be a dumping ground for pallets and scrap wood we were saving for future projects, but its one of the first things you see as you pull up to the house and now that the green house was over her I wanted the area to have a more structured look. So the Hubs helped clear out all the wood at the beginning of the season and I started planning out the layout once I confirmed the exposure this space gets is mostly shade.

Here’s how it was looking as fall started to arrive. I’d used left over edging stones to create a border and placed a few pieces of garden art to start establishing the structure of the layout. I stopped at an end of season plant sale near my office and got several options that should do well in the shade. I planned to fill in with other plants from another bed that will be eliminated next summer. Since this whole area is rocky back fill I put down a layer of top soil to create the base of the bed.

Once the top soil was in and the plants were in the ground I covered the areas around each plant with newspaper to prevent weed growth next season. It was an interesting process since the wind decided to kick up about the same time so I had to quickly put mulch down over the paper to hold it in place.

While I alternated between piecing newspaper sections around plants and chasing them across the yard as they blew in the wind, my assistant was quite busy catching up on her dirt baths…

I used wood chip mulch because it was inexpensive and I had several large areas to cover between this bed and some other projects. The Hubs got me a full truck load of wood chips for around $20 the same day he got me the load of top soil and gravel to go around the green house.

Since I’m using perennials, I left plenty of room for things to spread over the coming years. I used lambs ear around the rusty metal tank to create a batch of low visual interest along the front of the center of the bed.

These two hostas were transplants from the shade bed at the corner of the fenced yard which will be eliminated next season when we build a new outbuilding. I call it “The Barn” but the Hubs thinks it’s a garage. We’ll see who wins that debate. 🙂

Another transplant is this little astible. This is the third placement it’s had since coming to our house. He started in the gifted garden but was getting too much sun so I moved him to the shade bed where he did much better. Hopefully the third time is a charm holds true for him and he continues to grow even fuller in this spot.

I also used a few new catmint plants since Luna loves the ones we have in other beds already and it’s an easy keeper that fills in areas nicely. These will give her a couple to choose from so she alternates which she rolls in each day so they all get a break to recuperate!

I also transplanted a Seal of Solomon that surprised me in the gifted garden. I’d brought him back from my Mother-In-Law’s garden in Washington and hadn’t seen him in the spring so I thought he hadn’t survived the winter. This spot should be a much better exposure for him and he looks quite cozy behind the little quail family who are now safer from my active four-legged children!

Here’s how things looked once everything was in. I’m excited to see how it all comes back next spring and watch it fill in the space.

There’s still some finishing touches needed, but this is a much better first impression as you come up the driveway. It will look even better when I get that gravel the Hubs got me spread in front of it! Fingers crossed the weather will cooperate to let me do that next week when I have some time available so we don’t have piles of material at the corner of the driveway all winter! And while I’m doing that the Hubs can get the last of the shed’s gutter completed so we have a ready supply of water when spring returns. 🙂

Our Big Massive Shed Update

Published on November 12, 2014November 12, 2014 by Jenna1 Comment

The hubs has been working very hard the last few days to get this project finished and just has a few details left to wrap up. There were a few hiccups in the process, but it looks amazing, especially since he did it all by himself.

Luckily, now that the roof is complete and the siding is up, except one spot in the back wall, he can start taking things out of the garage and putting them in the shed. Which means I’ll soon be able to park in the garage again – something I’m very excited about with winter snow just around the corner. And now that it’s done we can start cleaning up the job site. All the debris and tools laying around has made me twichy the last few weeks, so I’ll be glad to get everything organized and tidied up before winter sets in.

There is one spot on the front above the door where he pieced together two scrap pieces rather than buy a whole extra sheet of siding, so he’s going to caulk that seam to make it less noticeable. Then he plans to add some trim over the siding joints and around the corners to finish things off.

Another big project checked off the ever expanding to-do list. Now he gets a little breather, before we tackle another. 🙂

Constructing A Massive Storage Shed

Published on November 3, 2014November 7, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

Even though we have a three car garage in our new home there still isn’t enough room to park our two daily driver trucks, my classic truck and our side-by-side and still fit all the things that tend to end up stored in the garage. To solve this problem the hubs decided to build a shed. But this isn’t just any lil ‘ol shed. It’s a mega shed. Seriously. It’s 11′ wide by 20’ deep! But it has to be pretty big to house the lawn mower, yard tools, our side-by-side and various other odds & ends.

I don’t have much of the step-by-step info since he’s been doing the construction solo while I’m busy crafting, cleaning and editing photos but hopefully these pictures give you a good idea of the basic framing and set up. He started with freebie I-beams that were headed for the dumpster at a job site to lay out the base of the shed. Because the location of the shed was a bit uneven, he used cinder blocks we had on hand under the subframe on one side to make everything level.

The I-beams were topped with a layer of plywood and OSB so the floor of the shed has a solid surface and additional strength. Next he framed up the walls, figuring out the angles needed to create the pitched roof line. The side walls were made in two panels.

Once those were ready I helped raise the walls and held them in place while he nailed them in. That’s when you start to get a sense of just how big this thing will be.

The side closet to the house will be taller than the far side, which should help reduce snow build up during the winter and eliminate any water build up during the rest of the year.

He’s now moved on to framing the roof and adding the clear panels which will let in natural light. Both sides of the roof have a bit of overhang, which should help keep water away from the base of the shed.

That’s the progress thus far. He’s hoping to get it finished and filled before winter hits, but we’ve already had one snow (as seen in the first pictures) so who knows how long that will be. I’ll post another update once we have some more progress to show, so stay tuned!

He’s added supports between the rafters for additional strength. After the first few rows he had the ingenious idea to use left over pieces of the I-beams to save the more costly wood for other areas.