With fall and winter approaching, I knew I would need more space in the garage. My current wood-working operation was mostly done out in the driveway, where the breeze would handle the dust and sawdust could fly where it pleased.
In order to move into the garage, I would have to move some of our storage out of that space. I decided that I could build a shed on the edge of the driveway to act as storage for our summer items like gardening supplies and our bicycles.
I had never built anything before, so I expected this to be a difficult project. In a strange throwback to Thoreau and Walden, I really wanted to build this shed completely by myself.
I look online at various plans and figured out what I would need to build the structure. I settled on a plan I found at construct101.com
I set up the floor using 2x6s and 3/4″ plywood and began to put up the 2×4 frames.
Then the rest of the walls came up and header was made for the wide door.
Then the roof rafters were nailed into place. The 18 deg bevels ensured a smooth resting point.
I then painted the plywood walls and put up the back walls.
Then the other walls began to come up. Next, was the white-painted trim.
After the roof was somewhat assembled, the interior still showed some gaps, likely due to some poor measurements on my part. So I decided to add some additional trim pieces to close the gaps.
The roof was sealed tight and all the trim was set. The doorway was looking nice.
Now I just needed to finish the rest of the trim work.
I then put on the roof felting and overlaped the roof tiles. Unfortunately, I ran out of shingles and had to put the rest on hold for a couple days.
Next, I put together the doors. I then realized that the door frames were made with 2×4’s, but the door trim was made with 1×4’s.
So, I added some additional 1×4 scraps to ensure the hinges would align nicely. With a few pieces of hardware, the outside of the shed was finished. I don’t like that the doors are a bit twisted, so the doors don’t close very flush. However, I suppose I could reinforce in the future.
As a final touch, I added a shelf on the left side with all the 2×4 scraps to hold my garden pots and soil. I created custom bike racks to allow the bikes to hang vertically, maximizing the available space. Now there was plenty of room for my bike trailer.
