My Shed

As part of our landscaping overhaul this summer, we considered ways to store and organize our outdoor items. The side yard in particular had all our winter tires stacked up, our garage was cluttered with wood and tools, and it was a pain to have to back the car out every time we accessed our lawn mower.

At first we thought we could build a long and narrow shed for the side yard, but ruled that out quickly. We shopped around for shed kits and pre-built sheds, finally deciding on a 12' by 8' shed kit from Costco. We saved a bundle of money, particularly compared to having one built.

The kit was delivered and it sat a few weeks while my cycling injuries healed some more and we decided where to put it. Sadly, we had to use some of our garden space as that was the best option.

Then there was the underestimated job of preparing a foundation on the sloping ground. We used landscape timbers for borders and then gravel for the foundation.



We hauled the kit materials around from the garage to the side backyard as we needed them, following the kit directions.


Walls going up.


Got greatly appreciated help from Blair, Emily, and the kiddies.




It turned out to be quite the consuming project for about four weeks. Used all our spare time weeknights and Saturdays, working until all daylight was gone. There were numerous trips to Home Depot for random supplementary materials, most notably paint, roofing, and replacement lumber for warped pieces. I felt like I was feeding a habit.

Once we had the roof on the kiddies decided to sleep overnight in it, but lost their resolve before going to sleep.

I put our garden tools in it, the lawnmower, winter tires, garden chemicals, paint, propane bottles, and various lumber. It served to clean up our yard and clear out our garage admirably. We are very proud of it, and it was an extremely satisfying project.