She Shed He Shed

It Was a Case of She Shed He Shed

It all started when she said “I want to start a garden”. Then I said good idea! Little did I know that the garden would need a lot of water, a fence, mulch, seeds, and tools and of course a shed?

A shed? of course a shed to keep all the aforementioned items handy. Now as luck would have it we purchased a small lot adjacent to ours and it had a long abandoned concrete building about the size of most sheds you might buy from Home Depot, Lowes or lumber yard.
Cool you say we’re saving money already. Not so cool because of course being long abandoned it had been neglected for that long too.
Now the rusted metal roof had to be removed and hauled to a metal recycling center where I was rewarded with $9.62 for my troubles.
Meanwhile back at the Ponderosa my wife Yong had previously tilled by hand the soil then spread compost and some topsoil before adding seeds and some marigold plants that she says keeps bugs away.

Deciding to take a break and go pick up the clear corrugated panels is when our troubles really began. Checking the website of the big box store we were going to indicated they had more than enough to fulfill our needs. Yep you guessed it there was none there.
Back home we went a little discouraged and disgruntled but figured tomorrow was another day and we would pick up where we left off. This time though when Yong called same big box store in a neighboring town just further away I said ask them to physically check the inventory. Naturally she trusted the employee who said he checked and yes they had many. Off we went in a great frame of mind only to be told by several employees they didn’t have any. Finally a veteran employee of these types of encounters said that at the very bottom of the website in very small print are the words must be ordered online! So once more empty handed and chastised we returned to our home and her shed.

On the third day we set out once more for additional garden supplies. This time we stopped at Lowes and checked out the roof materials. Finding some 8 ft clear panels we decided we would buy them and cut them down to 6 ft lengths.

Now we were ready to tackle the shed. All the old framework supporting the old roof was rotted and of no use so we ripped that off and began to build a new frame. Here is where it should be noted that after many years of settling the structure was no longer level or plumb as carpenters like to say. No matter what we tried we were always going to be a little off at either one end or the other.
We managed between the two of us with only the bare necessities as far as tools and ladders were concerned to frame it and secure it so that it wouldn’t fly off in the first strong storm to come along.

All that is needed now is a fresh coat of paint, a new door and utilize the well water that is very convenient to the garden and will cut down on our water bill.

A follow up blog will be posted once those things are completed as well as the bounty we hope to reap from the soil. For now it’s a She Shed but stay tuned!