| We all need our space. I love my family but I need a | | | | try it from raw lumber, with good plans there should |
| little 'me' place. I started thinking about how to build a | | | | be detailed measurements so you can order it |
| shed. We had the room in the backyard and I kept it | | | | pre-cut from your lumber yard or DIY store. I've |
| tidy, the problem was I didn't know where to start. I | | | | always found it best to rely on the expertise of |
| was an electrician by trade and knew nothing about | | | | people who have done it before. There is never any |
| carpentry or sheds. I just wanted somewhere I could | | | | mileage in re-inventing the wheel. Someone else may |
| go, listen to my old records in bad stereo, set up a | | | | have designed it but it's still your shed, your own |
| small TV and perhaps read an old book. I eventually | | | | place to sit in. If a bunch of stuff arrives, flat packed, |
| worked out how, after a lot of trial and error, that | | | | with instructions, it's just not the same. It's not your |
| was a while ago and it has served me well. | | | | shed. Get the plans and talk to the lumber yard. |
| There is lots of stuff on the internet about sheds | | | | At the end of World War Two we had more |
| delivered to your door, fully equipped, I knew that | | | | aluminum than we knew what do with. It was sold as |
| wasn't for me. If you want your own shed, you've | | | | house cladding, replacement pathways and guess |
| got to build it. Otherwise it's just not the same. Go | | | | what...sheds. Well I, for one, think that the good old |
| for a DIY shed. You can sit in it with a sense of | | | | Dakotas are made of aluminum and sheds are made |
| achievement, it's the product of your own labor and | | | | of wood. It's a good structure, it grows with you and |
| it's saved you money. As time moves on, you can | | | | your children. Mine has got some moss on the north |
| decorate it with the photos and drawings of your | | | | side. My eldest daughter called it pleurococcis (or |
| children as they grow older. The beauty is that | | | | something). I'll need to get her to write it down, in |
| everybody knows you built it and will knock before | | | | my shed. I've run another cable from the house for |
| entering. | | | | the telescope. I don't know much about astronomy |
| Before you go off into the woods with a chainsaw, | | | | but like looking at the moon. Sometimes the whole |
| consider shed plans. Unless you are a carpenter, don't | | | | family comes out at night to my shed. |