New Shed

Adding to my list of things to do, Suzanne and I decided this was the year for a new shed.  We've had a "tough shed" ever since Suzanne first moved into the house.  I use the quotations because tough is not the word I would use to describe this shed.  Even when Suzanne was first looking at the house, her Mom had come with her to check out the house and when they checked out the shed, her Mom got stung by a yellow jacket that called the rotting shed floor home.  This is just one example of problems we experienced with this shed.  I could go on and on about the problems Suzanne and I had with this shed but to just list a few:

• The floor was rotting through, including many holes that had broken clean through.
• The front and sides were rotting through.
• The doors were hanging by one hinge each because of the poor quality of building materials.
• The shed was in a weird spot in our yard.
• There was not enough room for all of our tools and equipment.  
• Because the doors only hung by one hinge, the doors could not be properly secured.
• The paint was haggard and had peeled most of the way off.  
• The shed was not level.
• The shed did not have a foundation and was sitting directly on the soil so the rate of rot was rapidly accelerating.
• The position of the shed provided too much shade on out garden area.
• The shed had an overall shabby appearance and made our yard look cheap. 

There.  Like I said, I only listed a couple of the reasons we loathed the old shed. 
Anyhow................... A couple of years ago I helped my dad build a new shed in his backyard that was to some serious industrial standards and ever since then, Suzanne and I have wanted one like it in our yard.  Having one would greatly improve the quality of the overall shed, the aesthetics of our yard, and the amount of space we would have to store and maintain our equipment. 

Now, in order to begin our project I first had to tear down the old shed.  I started by relocating all of our stuff to the garage to protect and secure our goods.  Then the fun but pesky part of demolition began. 

 The most difficult part of the demolition project was the roof by far.  The shed had been re-shingled once so there was two layers of shingles on the roof.  Because of this cutting through the roof with my reciprocating saw was eating my blades like there was no tomorrow, so I left the roof sections largely intact.  My aversion to using up blades only caused me more grief because I had to figure out how to remove 200 lb 8ft long sections of the roof without assistance.

Here is one of the 8ft sections I removed.  I had to set it down and take a break before tossing this pig over the gate like a real man!  

Here, I needed to prop that pig up to keep it from collapsing on my head with all the shingle nails poking through to impale me while it was at it.  I removed the section just to the right first because it was shorter and lighter and then I removed this section last.  

Finally down to just one wall and the floor.  I avoided this wall till last because I hadn't wanted to deal with my wood pile quite yet.  Eventually I took care of business and removed the whole thing, section by section. 

Here is an example of the stellar construction were were dealing with here...  As you can see, the 2x4's under the floor sit right in the soil there, facilitating the rotting nature of the shed.  I'm fairly certain the hole right in the middle of the photo is the hole the yellow jackets used to victimize Suzanne's Mom.  This was one of the worst areas of rot we had going on in the floor but there were other holes elsewhere.

This was the front of the old shed.  Originally I was just going to remove the bulk of the front wall and rebuild it all, but the rot had gotten so bad through both the siding and the framing that there was just no way to do it that way.  

Yet another example of the rot of the old shed. 

Here lie several sections of wall awaiting the city dumpster I have scheduled to come so I can dispose of all this stuff once and for all. 

Another view. 

Construction on the new shed finally began after demo was completed.  My dad came over and helped me lay out the foundation with the Transit, so all 6 pier blocks are nice and level with one another and the building as a whole is nice and square.  Then we busted out the outside framework.  

Here is the outside framework and the floor joists mounted every 16 inches on center for some serious floor stability.  Notice the shed being build above ground here...  not straight on the soil so this one rots in a year or two like the old one.  This one will be built to last.

This is an ongoing project so this is all I have right now, but Suzanne and I will check back in in a few days to update the completion or near completion of this project.  Also coming soon is the before, during, and after of our basement bathroom remodel which I haven't completed, nor posted about yet.