Between Deluges

I've never had a proper workshop, a dry organised place to keep tools where there's clean bench-space to work on projects. Having lived more than six decades, the situation needed rectifying. I bought myself a wooden kitset shed. All I needed to do was build it.

However, the weather had other ideas. It rained and kept doing so for weeks and then months. This held up preparation of the the ground. Meanwhile, my kitset panels were stored in a leaky carport. Not ideal. Despite tarps and corro laid over the top, some of the floor panels got drenched and warped while in storage. Oh dear. Hopefully extra screws at construction time would pull them into line.

I had to clear the site of old falling down pallet sheds which had served some purpose for nearly 20 years but were now riddled with borer. An old chook shed also needed removal and the site had to be leveled and graveled for the new shed foundations and floor.

Doing all this in mud between torrential downpours was tiresome and pretty unpleasant at times. But I had a short window of fine days to get the shed up and watertight before the next onslaught of wet. I ploughed on.

After barrowing 20 odd loads of top-course from the driveway, I was ready to level and compact for the foundations. Then I laid out the floor bearers, squared them, screwed them up and re-checked all the levels. All good-to-go for the walls.

The wall-panels were 600mm wide and easy to manage on my own. The main roof beam was massive but I figured a way of getting it up and secured. The only thing I couldn't manage by myself was moving and setting the double-doors. The missus came to the rescue.

Rain threatened and the roof wasn't done so I put up tarps two nights in a row.

That's a solid pool of ice on the tarp. And more on the ground. Very chilly work in the mornings.

Finally, ready for roofing. I made myself work slowly. Too old for bouncing off ladders these days.

And she's weather-tight, yay.

I love it. I quickly realised the first thing I needed inside was a shelf for my tea mug. A few tweaks are still needed obviously; proper spouting, another coat of paint, more organised storage. Plus tidying up the surrounds. But still ... sometimes I just sit in wonder.

I've already completed several projects in the comfort of the new shed, the biggest being new perspex windows for the truck canopy - an upcoming post - and several small repairs for the missus. It feels luxurious to just open the doors to the quiet, clean workspace and have everything to hand.

One anxious moment: The missus was looking at the window in the gable end where I've nailed an old curtain remnant. She suggested making me some new curtains which was so kind and then she mentioned the word "net." I've since locked the doors.