I began bringing home 2x4s, 4x4s and plywood as I came across it at work. The roof would be 3/4" plywood, in the hopes that the sturdyness of materials would help make up for an overall lack of technical expertise. The walls would be sheathed in 5/8" plywood, because it was what happened to be around. The overall size would be nine feet wide by eight feet deep and it would have a steeply sloped roof, finished with cedar shingles. The siding of the shed would be our old beautifully weathered cedar fence which I had meticulously disassembled, de-nailed and stacked in one corner of our yard the previous year. I brought home a large box of assorted nails (looked like floor sweepings from a nail factory) and a couple of nice single-pane, true-divided wood windows. This is the general shedly image I had in mind:

I imagine that at this point in the narrative, people who've been to my house in the last month, or who have asked me about my shed project at some point in the last two months are beginning to giggle. The rest of you will have to wait and read the rest of the story before the humor makes itself apparant. I suppose that it is typical of my projects that my initial detail-level projection is vastly more simplified than the final, completed Goldbergian contraption. Scot has given me the title of "Contraptor", due to the nature of many of my completed projects. In my own defense, I have to point out that it is not as though my projects don't work out. It's just that they acquire... more facets as things go along. They get a little, uh, complicated, sometimes. Because as I work on them, you see, I get ideas for improving my original design, making it more useful or versatile or durable or what have you.

The forts were built of materials scavenged from landfills and other sources, along with deadwood and the occasional felled sapling. I'd drag lumber through the woods to my chosen building site, careful to not take the same route twice, as I would have quickly eroded an obvious trail straight to my fort, which was to be avoided at all costs if I wanted to be able to leave stuff in my fort and have it be safe from troublemaking neighborhood yardbirds. My Valdez forts were the most elaborate, as they were the only way I had of getting any privacy and peace, what with the long rainy summers and five people living in that wee motorhome. They were rainproof and mosquito-proof and quite comfortable, if a little small. The last two forts I had in Valdez had rain-catching and storing contraptions, an army cot, a basin to wash in, a stove, a method of heating water, and a way of storing food away from animals. I would make very large paintings on bedsheets, which I stretched taut between trees, using every kind of paint I could get my hands on. The forts were not permanent, however. Every fall, I would disassemble the site, stacking the building materials neatly and covering it as best as I could with a tarp or branches. If I didn't disassemble it, the fort would buckles under the weight of the snow and the materials would break and warp. If I disassembled it, most of the materials would be re-usable if we came back the next summer. If we were gone for more than one summer, however, much of the material would rot, laying on the ground under wet leaves in soggy ol' Valdez. Sometimes the undergrowth would hide the pile and the faint trail entirely and I'd be completely unable to find it again.

The hovel I built in the fish plant's Tent City was constructed around my storebought dome tent, which was pretty spacious for a tent but still kind of small to live and work out of, especially when you'd like to be as far as possible from the fishy clothes and boots you work in and are unable to wash on a daily basis. Nautilus supplied us with large square platforms constructed from four pallets and topped with plywood, which we were to pitch our tents on. My tent was smaller than the platform, though, which caused rain to be directed under my tent. Not good. So I dragged home a lot of driftwood and with my second paycheck (the first meager one went to food, blankets, a coleman lantern and fuel for it) bought a large tarp, some nylon rope, and a five-pound box of nails. I found just the right rock to use as a hammer and built a very luxurious outer structure that encompassed the platform, my tent, and two more VERY HEAVY slightly damaged pallets I dragged up from the beach. I built a bench, a clothes drying rack, a table and some shelves in the tunnel-like "mud room" outside of my tent, and some shelves and a table to make more useable space inside my tent. It was the overall framework and aerodynamics of my structure that I was most proud of. Every year, some very strong winds blow through Valdez, and every year, Nautilus' Tent City suffers. While the fences shielding unsightly Tent City from public view blew down, fiberglass tent poles snapped and whole tents full of posessions blew into the bay, the gently curving planes of my hovel withstood the wind and flexed gently without breaking. I was fortunate enough to have built my igloo-shaped structure with the entrance shielded by a very large city-owned warehouse that bordered Tent City on one side. Considering that many people had only a leaky tent to live in, I was very well off.

My fort-making skills provided me with a good framework on which to build knowlege of small structure construction. On top of that, I added some knowlege gained by disassembling houses for Second Use, as well as things observed during the destruction and re-construction of various parts of our house during remodeling. To round it out, I purchased a book called "Sheds: a do-it-yourself guide to backyard construction", which has been indespensable. For example, I never would otherwise have known that the cedar shingles cannot be placed directly on top of the plywood roof sheathing, but must instead be attached to "nailers" - narrow boards that run the width of the roof and allow for circulation under the shingles. Nor would I have guessed that rain has a tendency to follow the undersides of windowsills back to the side of the house and rot out the wall there. I learned tricks for making sure the roof fascia goes on straight. It has forestalled many problems and answered many questions. It also gave me several new ideas for my shed.

I decided that it would be great if the shed had a large window in the front, to let in sunlight so I could use the shed to start seeds earlier in the year, and to overwinter some of my more delicate outdoor potted plants, like my herbs. By looking at several photos of sheds, I determined that large eaves were preferrable to short ones, and decided to have eaves that stood out 16" from the side of the shed. This was my new mental shed:

Then I came up with the cunning plan of putting my rusted antique woodburning stove in the shed as well. After replacing the mica in the door, it will be fully functional and will make the shed a lovely place to work in the winter.

Another drawing in the shed book gave me the idea of having an oversized roof placed off-center to create an overhang for the door and a loft inside.

After I had the rafters up, I realized that there wasn't much room in the loft. That's when I decided that what the shed needs is a dormer in the loft.

Enough of my line drawings. How about some actual photos. First, I surveyed the area and staked out the four corners of the shed and the two posts that would flank the door. Then I dug holes to pour the concrete that would hold the posts into the ground. Here is a photo of the six posts trued up with crosspieces of old fence, awaiting concrete. I had also just begun stacking up the rock retaining wall along the fence. This photo was taken April 8, 2002.

Here's a photo that shows the way I buried cinder blocks and then set the posts in them and poured concrete around the posts.

I would have liked for the shed to have been freestanding, but I wanted the floor to be sand with slate pieces set into it, rather than wood. But having the wooden shed sitting on the ground, in contact with moisture-retaining sand, sounded like a recipe for disaster. So I came up with the idea of having the posts imbedded in the ground, with two runs of brick strung between them and a pressure-treated 4x4 on top of that. The studs would sit on top of the pressure-treated 4x4. That way, the bricks would hold the sand in and deal with the accompanying moisture. I probably didnt explain that very well. Here is a photo. In it, I have poured the concrete for the posts, cut the posts off level, attached 2x4s to the tops of the posts, mortared in the first run of bricks and cut and fitted the second run, in preparation for the next round of mortar. This photo was taken May 19, 2002.

Next is a photo taken of the southwest corner of the shed, with the pear tree in residence.

Then we have a photo taken through the future front door, looking in at the west wall with the rough-in for the future push-out casement window.

Finally, a photo taken through the future casement window, looking through the future front door at the veggie bed and trellis.

That concludes the documentation for the month of July. The next photos weren't taken until August 16, 2002. By this time, a lot had happened:

Here is a photo that shows the dormer and the loft:

Here is the dormer and loft, as seen from inside the shed:

Here is the view as seen looking through the door rough opening. The stove now serves as a surface on which to set nails and tool. The rough-in for the casement window is now much more apparant. The electrical is in, too.

Here is a different angle of the shed.

The roof is small and light enough that I didn't need trusses: instead, I bought a very nice, very long 2x8 from 2nd Use to use as the ridgepole. Then I bought 10 brand-new ten-foot 2x4s to use as rafters. These rafters are just about the only lumber I purchased new for the shed. I didn't want to, but there was a severe shortage of suitable lumber for this particular application. The rafters absolutely had to be straight and in good condition. If I had been building king trusses or something, I could have used smaller lumber and just worked around warps, cracks and knots - the way I did for the rest of the shed (some of the wall studs are HIDEOUS). The rafters, however, had to be perfection personified. I purchased some rafter brackets (the only other "new" purchases that I had to make for the shed besides the ten-foot rafters were some of the rafter brackets, two bags of mortar, and two 2x4 studs) that straddle the ridgepole and are attached to the ends of the rafters to prevent them from pulling out. This might not have been strictly necessary, but the whole idea of not using trusses gave me the creeps, so I kind of overkilled on the reinforcement of the roof. I cut birdsmouth notches into the rafters where they sat atop the top plates on the east and west walls, then drove 4" nails through to ensure the roof wouldn't lift off in a wind before I could get the wall plywood up.

The dormer has been difficult. I didn't really know what I was doing when I started it. I just knew what I wanted it to look like and went from there. I couldn't even find any diagrams or photos on the web. So I had to learn as I went along. If I had it to do again, there are a couple of things I would have done differently, but I think that it has worked out well.

I'm going to go ahead and slap this page up. I just took more photos of the recent developments, but a few people have expressed interest in my shed progress, so I'll put up what's here and just update it as I get more done. I'll mention updates on the malcontent.html page, and put the "new as of" date at the top of this page.

Thursday, August 29, 2002. It was closer to eighty degrees today (as opposed to ninety yesterday), so I worked on the shed. Bought a chalk line last night. Today I used aforementioned chalk line to snap and cut the front eaves. It made a world of difference. Maybe the neighbors across the fence from the shed won't be as horrified now. I can only imagine what sort of awful hideosity the shed looks like to them, with its patchwork plywood exterior and some crazy white girl climbing all over it, sweating like a pig. Since the last photos, I've:
put more plywood on the roof
cut some of the excess rafter ends off (finally hit my head on one today)
pretty much finished the dormer
put a lot more plywood on the front and back of the shed
braced-in the big window
put the plywood on the underside of the loft floor

Here: have some photos.

Thursday, March 06, 2003. Long time no see, eh? Well, it's been a long, cold, wet winter. I've been working on the shed little by damp little. Kept forgetting to take photos and update the web site. Since the last photos, I've:

put on all exterior plywood
cut off gable and eave ends
put tar paper on the roof
put 1x3 "nailers" on the dormer half of the roof
put in all windows and the door
added electricity and the porch light
sheathed most of the exterior walls of the shed in plastic sheeting
started on the siding on one side of the shed
installed most of the flashing
poured a small concrete slab for the loft steps to rest on
started on the dormer face shingles

Here are some photos. First is a photo of the west side of the shed; the one with the little pear tree and the push-open window that I optimistically see myself one day reaching out of to pick a pear. This photo shows the window, the tar paper on the roof, the edge trim on the shed, and the cedar lap siding I started on. The siding was so exciting (i like how that sounds) and satisfying to do that Scot and Windy both joined in. Makes me think of the story of the little red hen and the loaf of bread!

Next is a photo of the east side of the shed. In this photo you will see the dormer, the door, the porch light (sort of - i had to blot out the glare by positioning one of the porch posts in front of it), the nailers on the roof, and the neat tall window next to the door.

Pretty great, huh? It's really starting to come together now. Coincidentally, the ugly piles of plywood and scrap and crap are dwindling. I wonder... could these two occurrences be related? Lastly, I took a close-up of the dormer face to show the shingles I started on today. Gives you some idea of how it will go.

That's all for now.

Saturday, March 8,2003. It's been raining quite a bit, but I've been working on the shed. Pretty much have the face of the dormer complete. There's a couple little issues regarding trim that I have yet to clear up, and I still need to sheathe the underside of the gable overhang and add the fascia, but I'd say that the wall itself is 99.9% complete. Here's a photo I took from up on a ladder:

This photo was taken just a few days later. Shingles! Don't worry; they're not contagious.

Here is a photo of a corner of the shed just after i poured the concrete footing for the stairs to the loft, followed by a photo of the same corner, insulated, with plywood and the stairs.

Back to the photo index page.