Storage Shed Preparation

Hey Everyone!  Did you miss me?  It was weird not being able to post anything for a while.  My hard drive died, I lost time and 3 months of work.  Still trying to put my computer back together and get everything sorted out.  It was no fun!  Now with things on the mend I can get back to doing one of thing I like to do most, share my crafting adventures with you!

Have you been getting the Better Homes and Gardens magazines in the mail lately?  Or any other kind of similar magazine?  Have you noticed how they're all writing about porches and decks and how to make them amazing?  I have been and I'm really itching to spiff mine up, but first I have to get rid of the mower and weed whacker (yes, some weird people call it a weed eater, I'm from the north, we call it weed whacking!) off my porch!  I have a nice enclosed side porch that comes off my house that has the potential to be really amazing.

 (this is what it looked like when we first bought the house)

 

In order to get them off my porch I need some kind of storage shed.  Nothing too fancy, just something with some kind of wall, door, floor, and roof.  But have you seen the costs of storage sheds?  Unbelievable! I have this section of my fence that would be perfect.  My back yard has a tall wooden privacy fence on the left, at the back there is a wall and a space behind it that would be perfect for a storage shed.  It's about a 7ft by 7ft space.  Nothing too big, but not too small either.  It already has three walls, so all it needs is a front section with a door, a roof, and a floor.  We were thinking about what to do about the floor, trying to figure out some way to save money.  A concrete pad we would pour ourselves would cost about $100 for this small section.  Not exactly money we wanted to be spending.  When we came home from our trip I notice my neighbor, who is a contractor, had what looked like pallets in the back of his dump truck.  I sent Josh over to the neighbors to investigate and they turned out to be chunks of an old deck he was getting rid of from one of his jobs.  They were headed to the dump!

So in my crazy mind I was thinking, we can use them to help build our storage shed floor.  They'll need a little bit of fixing and some piecing together, but with the large thick frames underneath and the planks of wood on top it'll be great for a makeshift floor.  And you know what the best part was?  It was free!  Stay tuned for that part, it might take a while for this first step.

For the first step what we needed to do what clear out that indented area of the fence.  This is what it looked like in the beginning after a very little bit of digging.

I didn't realize how much creeping ivy was back there!  I pulled out tons.  I was digging up trees and ripping out ivy for 45 minutes.  After I ripped most of it out it looked like this...

Then I got the rake and that really helped to clear it out and make it look better.  After all that initial work this is what is left after today.

There is still a bit of ivy on the ground and a little on the walls, but that'll have to wait for another day.  For now I'm pooped!  Next up is to dig out the ground and create a space for the floor/decking to go in to.  Digging out the ground a little bit will help with getting a more precise measurement for things.  Not too bad right?

Have fun!