Long, Slow Burn

This is the first post of the blog about building our new shed even though this is the second day.

On day 0 (zero) the kids helped me cut down a large sweetgum tree. Sweetgum trees are the weeds of trees. They drop pointy sweetgum balls all over the yard that fly about when you mow over them and are a general nuicanse. We’ll be planting some evergreen shrubs between us and our neighbors to help soften the edges of our shed.

Here is what the shed is supposed to look like:

On day 1, my neighbor Tom came over and helped me start framing the deck of the shed. The nail gun helped us get that done is short fashion. The only thing that threw me is that the deck of the 8′x12′ shed is really just 7′5″. I thought we got shorted on some of the timbers but it was just me mis-reading the plans. Tom had to leave for a conference call so I used Kim’s parents post hole digger to dig up holes where the posts were supposed to go. By the time I got that finished, it was close to being dark.

On day 2, Tom came back over in the morning and we shimmed up the platform, and used the nail gun again to tack in the 4×4 posts in the holes. We then started mixing cement and filled in the holes with the 4×4s in place. There it must stay for 24 hours while it cures.

Later today, we’ll be framing the walls. My wife will be painting the exterior walls.

I’m really feeling it in my muscles after digging those holes but overall I’m really happy with how the shed is coming along.