Replacement Shed Construction

The old shed was on the opposite side of the house from the garage, which makes no sense to me, it's long gone now.

Gregg convinced me to not build the shed in this kit but to build one from scratch, it will be cheaper, stronger and built exactly how we want it.

Pete and I moved the pile of dirt left over from the deck project to the other side of the house then I set the pier blocks.

When it's complete I am going to pick up some topsoil and seed that big area that has no grass, it will be nice to not track mud all over when you go to the back yard.

Just like under the deck I put down landscaping cloth to block the weeds and just like the deck I don't want to ever have to build another one of these.

A half yard of 5/8 crushed gravel and eight or so wheel barrow loads it's done.

These 4x4 posts will be the foundation, the shed floor is built on top of these.  Once the floor is built and the back wall erected we will slide it within a few inches of the house, anchor it, and trim the posts flush.

After the floor was frame and sheeted we framed the back wall and sheeted it with the exterior plywood that I pre-painted a few weeks ago.

We mounted the ridge beam and had to frame and sheet the front triangle, you can see the chicken wire we put down to protect the new sod from the raccoons.

The inside of the shed is much taller than I had planned in my head.

Once we got the front triangle, rear triangle, and the ridge up the supports went up easily.

The Simpson hangers and pneumatic palm nailers make very quick work of it.

We blocked in the gaps just like the house and cut holes for vents that I'll staple screen behind after it's painted.

After nailing on all the drip edge we stapled down felt paper before starting the shingles.

This is an 8 foot step ladder so you can get an idea how tall the inside of the shed is.

We used asphalt architectural shingles instead of cedar shakes, we will eventually change the house roof as well.

We've never done architectural shingles before but learned that the ridge shingles come pre-cut, the whole thing went up in about 2 hours.

We found these cedar plates that were already cut for outlets, switches and exterior lights that I'll be wiring soon.

The cedar siding was pre-primed so that will save a bunch of time and it went up very quickly with the jigs that we made to line it up.

We copied the base detail on the front of the house and ran it all the way around the shed, basically a 10 inch board with a drip edge on top.

The top of the garage is covered with cedar shingles instead of siding, we duplicated that on a smaller scale on the shed.

This is just after the starter row, Gregg did all the cutting on the edges, he really has the gift to figure out some of the crazy cuts.

We used the pneumatic stapler and some liquid nails to attach them.

The shingles will be painted grey and the trim white just like the house.

The bottom plate is for an exterior outlet, the top one for a yard light, and the middle for the light switch.

The corner trim really finishes off the edges and almost makes it look like it's part of the house.

We splurged on the lock but we love the dead bolt version of it we have on the house, it's great to not have to remember a key.

The small conduit on the right is the feed to the shed, I installed a 20amp GFCI breaker in the main panel.

I tried to make the conduit run match the run for the hot tub and the deck.

I'm not all that happy with the conduit's entrance to the shed but it's hidden by the garbage cans and will be painted to match.

On the other side of the wall in the shed the wires from the panel are connected to the romex for the lights and outlets inside this junction box.

The flourescent light on the ceiling is just plugged into the outlet that is controlled by the switch just inside the door.

This is the switch that controls the outdoor light, it lights up the corner of the backyard perfectly.

We decided to just get another light just like the ones we put on the house last year, the painting is finished on most of this wall.

With some wood scraps I built a small work bench and some shelves behind it.

I added a small loft shelf on both sides to add more storage space and to save floor space for things like the mower and pressure washer.

So far I've found a space for everthing, the garage looks a lot bigger with out it all.

All the stuff I need to take care of the yard is now in the shed, maybe we'll be able to park in the garage someday.

The color isn't perfect because we had to have the paint store do an optical color match, in the right light it looks perfect though.

I found a can of paint in the garage that seems to match the color of the front and garage doors.

The small stones keep the water falling off the roof from splashing mud all over the side of the shed.

The stone stair tread is the same type of stone as the one beside the deck, we like the natural look they give.

Priming and painting the shingled section above the door was a pain, it completely ruined the brush too.

I used almost 2 tubes of caulking to seal up the gaps around these eve blocks, you can also see the screens that are stapled inside the vent holes.

I found these bins for things like open bags of grass seed and fertilizer and spare parts for the sprinkler system and hot tub.

The floor made a huge difference in how the shed feels inside, you can see the new pressure washer right there too.

The tiles are just about 13" x 13" and have interlocking edges so they don't even have to be glued down.

It will be nice to be able to clean up spills and all the dried grass that falls off of the mower and weed trimmer.