The Shed

Abigail and Mark moved into their home in December of 2023, just a couple months after Jamie was born. The one area of the house they knew they were going to have to tackle was the garden area. It came with a raised fishpond that they knew would not be good for a growing child. Also, the home was over a hundred years old, and many layers of dirt had been added to the back garden area and some of this dirt was preventing good air movement under the housel. All this meant there would have to be many changes to the garden.

Work first began in the summer and fall of 2024. They removed the pond and excavated a bunch of dirt. There was some drain lines added and plans for more leveling and raised garden beds were planned. The one area that was a concern was the brick shed. At some point someone added a window and door to the brick shed, but did not add the proper infrastructure around each and over time these two walls began to sink under the load of the roof. Most of the brick shed was in good shape, but these two walls were falling apart. Mark asked me if I thought it was possible to take down just these two walls and replace them with timber walls. I said it was and thus was hatched the plan to do just that.

Back in April, over Easter weekend some more leveling work and removal of all concrete tiles and was completed. Now, we were ready for the walls. Johnthan, Mark’s father, came with many tools. We rented some jacks to jack up the roof and we got to work. I had never done a project like this, but YouTube is always a great resource. I think we were all a bit nervous, but the tearing down went very smoothly and was all down in less than 3 hours.

We than began the rebuild. Timber walls were not used a great deal in long history of the UK. Most homes are stone or concrete. We were going to be replacing both the window and door with new ones. Over the rest of the day, we got the initial structures built, but not really completely installed. Mark and I did the installation on the next day. Mark’s good friend, Johnny, came by at the end of the day to help put on the OSB sheeting and that first part was completed.

Next came wrapping the new walls and then working to install the window and take care getting the electricity run into the building. None of these things actually took a great deal of time, but it did involve several trips to the store for tools and parts. We began working on the door and got the frame fitted and installed. Unfortunately, the next day we realized we had not put in part of the door frame correctly and had to take some it apart. This was a short day because it was Sunday, and we only had the afternoon and part of the evening. All through these days Jamie was very much not feeling well. Becky spent a great deal of her time following him around, taking him to the park, trying to feed him, and changing many diapers.

Finally, on the bank holiday, Mark and I got things figured out and after a few trimmings on the door, much chiseling for hinges and lock, and man handling the very heavy door, it was installed. It actually looks very good and works nicely. We did have to take it down another time as Abigail and Mark need to stain it before it is finally installed for good. Mark and I were both very happy to have the door installed as it really became our biggest obstacle in the whole build. I finished up spraying in foam around the window and doors and once the door is up the shed is fully dried in. Mark and Abigail will add some cladding to the outside later in the summer. There is a plan to build an interior wall to make a nice little office space and then a place for toys and tools. It will really be nice when finished. So glad it all worked out.

Abigail, during all of this building, was painting fences, both in the backyard and at the front of the house. Becky helped sometimes, between taking care of Jamie. The whole thing is slowly coming together and is really going to be a great space for the family when finished.