Hey Blog! This is an update post on the very thing which names this blog – the Shed!
Readers of the ‘About me and my shed’ page will remember that the shed was built in autumn 2020, and looking at the original picture on the home page, it showed a shed with a door, a window (there is actually another window on the side, you can’t see it in the photo), dense holly tree behind and a latch on the door. Well, it’s changed a bit now; the latch fell off, the paint wore away, the tree has been trimmed as the council have a stupid rule saying you can complain if a hedge is over 5 ft, and to cut a long story short the hedge was shortened extensively. I, on the other hand, have not shrunk but grown, and as I did it was the shed that seemed to shrink. As a result, the shed got too small for me to comfortably stand up in, and I kept knocking my head on the beams that held the roof up. The felt on the roof that kept it waterproof also began to fail, and one of the roof panels went rotten, and sagged.
For half a year the shed has been in want of mild repair, but last weekend we went out to re-felt and paint it. Once we had taken the roof off, to replace the panel, we realised there’s no time like the present and increased the job by adding an upwards extension. It is now almost Dad’s height (6’5’’) and I can happily stand up in it. Hopefully I will not need another roof raise any time soon!
Luckily, we had enough and of the right length pieces of wood. Now and again, Dad brings a pallet home and we dismantle it, build something, and the rest goes in the log store. There are a few pieces as long as the shed, which are very useful for nailing the felt on, and we knocked out a few panels and replaced them to tie the new bit in. Instead of raising the roof the whole way round, we decided to just raise the front. Originally, it was like an Orkadian standing stone – that is, straight up on the sides with a slanting roof down at the front. We have now reversed this – the down is at the back and the front is higher. With the roof increase of more than a foot, we have put in another window at the top, and this is now in place with hinges fitted.
The most fun bit of the job was probably where we had to use the ladder to put the roof in place, and the worst was putting the nails in on one end, as at that point there is one very slippery railway sleeper’s width between the shed wall and a foot drop past that – neither of us could reach from that far down, and for a 5’10’’ boy and his 6’5’’ Dad that’s not a common occurrence! When we made the shed the first time, we made each wall separately and nailed them together – so it was easier. Dad even said “you don’t often hear me say this, but I’m a bit too short for this job”!
It’s rather nice inside there, and though in winter I might not use it in the same way, I am looking forward to enjoying myself in a taller, lighter and (hopefully!!!!) tidier shed!
