A new home for Alfie!

I now have two recumbent tricycles. These are big machines and our current arrangement of sheds was not satisfactory – we have various boat articles laying around the garden and the dining room is full of sails and bikes. A new shed was needed.

We realised we might as well get a huge shed and put it in our front garden (which is fairly large – back garden is small) and so ended up ordering a 10ft x 14ft shed which was delivered on Tuesday.

We had already had the concrete base made by our Audaxing handyman friend.

Now the very large package of Norseman Apex shed had arrived!

We took off the packaging – an awful lot of wood.

We laid it all out to check everything was there.

See the green floor joists – of which there are five? There should have been seven!

Fortunately the Shed Centre drove straight round with three more. They weren’t long enough (our shed was a non-standard size) so James cut the third one to fit on the other two.

He creosoted them as they will be the base of the shed.

We now had to lay the frame shape and the floor joists. It was very important to get this absolutely square otherwise the shed construction later would be impossible. We measured, and measured again.

We were periodically watched by both dogs – Poppy the Cockapoo and Lucy the Weimaraner.

Once the frame was square we decided to call it a day as we were running out of energy (we’d started in the afternoon).

The next day we took Poppy out on a nine mile walk and then, when we got home, decided to do some more shed. Just a little bit.

We had covered all the shed bits over with polythene overnight. When we took it off it appeared hundreds of spiders had made their home amongst the wood. Yikes!

We re-measured the base frame to check it was still square – it was!

We then decided to lay out the flooring but not screw it down in case it moved the base out of shape. It was very easy tongue-and-groove and was quickly laid.

We have two spare floor pieces that we may find a use for in due course!

We put a couple of bits of wood in the back to keep everything in place as it wasn’t screwed together but it was perfectly fine to walk on.

Now to start building up the sides like a giant jigsaw puzzle!

Before we put the door in we counted up how many back and side board pieces we would need to put in from inside the shed and moved them in there as it’s a tight squeeze to get round the back by the hedge.

Next was the door – this was very difficult to lift in and to slide down. But we managed it in the end!

It was getting easier to put the side pieces in now the building was holding its shape better.

Now to prepare for the window!

The window was lifted in easily enough and we added another two courses of boards. And then realised the window was in the wrong way round (screws visible on the outside) so had to get it out and turn it round. A bit of a challenge but not impossible. Removing the door would have been impossible if we’d got that wrong!

And now the view from inside:

As it was dinner time we decided to call it a day for now. Next job will be the roof and then woodstaining it.

So… the next major phase. James on his own for all of this as it’s a one-person job really (and I was out for the day!)

Roof beams in place

Power tools at the ready

The first few roof boards in place

And now the next day, double-checking Alfie will fit in!

Phew, he does!

Poppy takes a look inside the shed too, and takes up her standard seating position – on the trike!

More roof boards

Almost finished!

That’s it for today – just the roof felting and then woodstaining to do. Hurrah!

Oh, and working out some security features – probably an alarm or something.

 

 

Soooo….. the final major push to complete the shed.

For this section all I’ve done is made some cups of tea, provided some cake and occasionally held up a bit of wood or two. James has done the lion’s share of the shed building since we slotted all the side/back boards together.

Anyway, today was the day for the roof to be felted.

I missed the beginning of this as I was out on the bike with Poppy in the basket on the back. When we got home, we found this on the roof:

From the back garden it was odd to see a man on the roof!

A health and safety nightmare?

As I had the old Trice Q out (it has the dog basket attached) I thought it time to check that it fitted through the shed doors as it’s wider than Alfie.

Phew!

James measured out the roofing felt:

Then cut it:

Then got the roll ready on the top of the shed, clamping the edge down once it’s straight:

He then pushed it as hard as he could so it unrolled:

Using a long stick to push it the rest of the way:

And then finished up on the hedge side (which was rather prickly!)

This is a close-up of the alternate boards system:

Now for the barge boards at each end – which were slightly longer than necessary and might become a head-bumping hazard, so were trimmed to the right length:

And nailed in place:

And now for the front, the slightly wavy boards:

And to finish off, the little diamond shape where the barge boards meet:

And that’s it! All we need to do now is the timber treatment which I shall probably do this week (whilst James is on a well-deserved sailing holiday).

Now to fill the shed with a brace of trikes:

Plenty of room for the old Trice Q with basket:

Poppy inspects. She is dwarfed by this shed!

So we’ll install a ground anchor or two shortly with some chain to attach the bikes too, plus will nail down the floor properly, but otherwise (once the timber treatment is done) all is complete. The shed took about a day to build overall but we did it in four sessions.

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