1998: The Shed
As soon as the pool was finished, we built a shed next to it, partly to block the pool off from the yard next door, partly because we planned to add on a pumphouse, but also because we wanted a garden shed for tools and other gardening paraphernalia.
We had a great plan, provided by a book called Sheds - the Do-It-Yourself Guide for Backyard Builders, by David Stiles (Camden House 1993). I studied the plan minutely and made Craig a list of supplies: so many two-by-fours, so many boards, so much plywood. He went and bought it all, along with nails and bolts (which he figured out for himself).
We'd had a slab poured next to the limestone decking of the pool, so we had a nice clean concrete surface to work with. We had agreed where the shed would sit on it, and followed the exact size of the plan in the book: eight by ten feet. The pumphouse would be added onto one end afterward.
Before we got started, I worked through the entire stack of lumber with a tape measure and a thick black felt-tip pen, marking every single cut of every piece. I marked the top and bottom rails and all the joists. Then on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning in mid-February, we nailed together the four walls. One had a door in it, and one had a window.
The next day, in one exciting but somewhat scary episode, we raised the four walls, tacked them in place, secured the rails to the slab, and then tied in the top rails. We followed the plan in the book exactly, and voila! We had framed a little shed.
It was the beginning of a beautiful, sturdy, square cedar shed. And what fun it was! We had even more fun the next weekend.
Once again, I diligently marked all the lumber in advance, but this time, I was doing something fascinating. I was drawing in little bird's mouth notches! This is the quaint and descriptive name of the right-angled notch that you cut in a rafter to hang it on the top rail of an outside wall.
I marked each of ten two-by-fours, and Craig carefully cut them. Then we nailed together the pairs of rafters, and hung them on the walls. Then we did the first really hard thing: we lifted sheets of plywood onto the roof and nailed them to the rafters. But once we managed that, the roof and walls were rock-solid.
Neither one of us had ever framed a building before. It has to be one of the most satisfying activities available in the world of crafts and hobbies. And an eight-by-ten shed is the perfect size. We had the shed wired during the week right after we framed it.
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During a third weekend, I marked and Craig cut cedar planking, which we nailed on all around. That was simple work, and when we finished, we had a cozy little woody-smelling shed.
The only part I didn't like was the fourth weekend's work: roofing. I was the one who nailed on the cedar shingles, and for me the height was scary, even though it was only a maximum of about ten feet. We had a cute rabbit weathervane to finish with, though, and we went ahead and hung a few shelves inside and moved in some tools.
Adding on the pumphouse was anticlimactic, and since we didn't have a plan to work from, it was not as well thought-out. The opening is too low, and you have to know to duck or you will bump your head. But it is a clean and quiet place for the pump and pool controls.
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All in all, what fun! When we finished, I hung Craig's suede and leather toolbelt on a nail inside. By morning, a wren had started building a nest in one of its pockets, so it has hung there ever since.
