Day 139 - May 23rd

Today the kids got to play in the sprinkler for the first time! Yay! There was much loudness.

This was an unusual Saturday in that I worked the evening shift - starting around 3pm. So I had the entire morning off! My next major project was the sheds. They are going on the skinny south side of the house. The original plan, the one I've been going off of for four years, called for two sheds, 7 feet by 3 feet each. One would be for the yard/garden and the other for the kids bikes. I've had the plans picked out for a while. Here's how the site looked Friday at lunch:

By Saturday early, the pallets were chopped up for the firepit, the rest cleaned up and during the day, I carted around 13 loads of gravel to the site. Meanwhile I studied the plans I loved so much. I was really looking forward to building them! Of course, I had to modify the plans a bit, because the one I linked above is a different size. By the time I left for work, the site looked like this:


I then had to make a painful decision. The more I studied the plans, the less likely they were to happen. I ALWAYS wanted wood sheds - they stand up to kid abuse so much better. We had a metal Arrow shed at the old house and any nick in it could eventually turn to rust. And they just don't make wood sheds the size I need.

BUT...it had to be waterproof. And for that, it needed to be built in the round. Which meant building each one in the yard, renting two industrial pallet jacks and several spare sheets of plywood and moving them carefully into place. The more I thought about it, the less practical it was to pursue my beloved course of action.

So I made a painful, painful decision. I abandoned my four year old dream of building my own sheds...at least for now. Home Depot had an Arrow shed on sale this weekend that was close - it's 8' x 3', so they'll stick out from the house a bit. I ordered two and they should be here next week. HOWEVER, they are not for bicycles. We've had to come up with a more creative solution for them.