Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT The distraction shed, my 12x16

[murd]

I actually started the build last September. My wife and I had parted ways with our business partners (her family, kinda messy) and I needed a way to keep the mind off of things. I had been planning to build a full garage at some point, but hadn't gotten it together and wasn't sure with the rising material prices. So with those two things in mind, I figured this would be my distraction shed.

I was fortunate to still be working from home at the time so I managed to get most of this done before we went back into the office in November. I've only ever built a treehouse before this, but I found a plan on the internet, modified it a bit to what I had in my head and slowly started putting it together.

Here goes. Here's my side lawn. We had most of the trees removed and some fill brought in to bring it up. I rented a post hole digger and found out that the fill that was brought in was mostly large boulders. Spent the full weekend getting 6 holes down about 4 feet. Had to chisel a couple rocks to get them out of the holes
.

Ended up mixing the concrete in a wheelbarrow, string lines are probably not perfect either but it went well enough to continue.

 

[murd]

Once I had the posts in I picked up some pressure treated for the flooring.
I had the rest of the lumber I calculated I'd need delivered. And made a jig to build the trusses once I had the floor in place.



Put the trusses aside and started on the walls.

 

[murd]

Once I had the walls kinda up, I figured out where I wanted to put the door. This came from my parents house in town. The mail slot still has the hook the milk tokens were hung on. They replaced it 30 years ago and put it in the basement. My dad was known for being a bit of a pack rat. I still have piles of windows and doors that were removed ages ago. I think I still have keys that would fit the deadbolt.



Then I started putting the trusses up. Around this time I ordered a metal roof from the local guy. It needed 10 days to come in. On the advice of a coworker I checked with a local building supply for windows they had replaced. I managed to score two that worked perfectly. Cost me $50 each.



At this point I was waiting for the siding and roof to come in. I did manage to pick up a garage door for $100. I haven't actually installed it properly yet, just pinned it up once I had the lawnmower inside.

 

[murd]

Siding arrived. I had thought I had a bunch left over from the when the house was done. Turns out it was only enough for one side. Luckily, the local sales rep was able to find me some more. Looks like I didn't get any photos of putting the roof on. Went good for my first time installing metal roofing. The last photo is pretty much how the outside ended for the year.

 

[murd]

We ended up having a pretty mild winter, so I could still work on the inside. Insulated and put up vapour barrier, along with plywood in the rafters for storage. Around this time my work was moving locations and ended up throwing out a bunch of plywood. The beige shelving came from a government auction site about 15 years ago. I've been storing it until I had somewhere to use it. Last two photos are where it was almost organized and tidy for a day
.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Looks good so far .

 

[murd]

I found I was having an issue with the water running down the hill. It would get to the flat where the shed is and sit. It was actually leeching up through the floor on especially rainy weeks. I had been expecting some water issues, we seem to have more and more of it and less snow in the winter. In the fall I had talked to the local excavating guy about putting a french drain in, but he was still too busy in the spring to get to it. So I ended up renting a mini excavator and digging my own. Actually managed to get it dug in a day and swapped it out for a Kubota tractor to finish up with.



I ended up keeping the Kubota for the week and got a few other things done, another FD in the driveway, pulled some stumps and ran power and network to the shed.


That pretty much brings it up to current. When I got home from work tonight there was the faintest start of grass. With the rain for the next couple days hopefully more will come in.

 

[murd]

Looks good so far .

Thanks Blake. Once I have the lights wired up I'll have to do some reorganizing.

 

[hardtop5000]

That's my kind of shed and nice to see stuff come out of storage and be useful. Top work, murd.

 

[captain14]

Good looking shed for your first build. How many pauses were there while you referenced some Infomation from the internet?

You may consider fastening some hardware cloth to the bottom of the joists and digging it into the ground (like an “L”) to keep the critters from moving under the shop.

How far is the house from the shop?

 

[murd]

That's my kind of shed and nice to see stuff come out of storage and be useful. Top work, murd.

Thanks hardtop!

Good looking shed for your first build. How many pauses were there while you referenced some Infomation from the internet?

You may consider fastening some hardware cloth to the bottom of the joists and digging it into the ground (like an “L”) to keep the critters from moving under the shop.

How far is the house from the shop?

I tend to research everything pretty extensively before I get onto it. The slowest part was setting up the board and batten. Kept second guessing myself, and overthinking before I started.

You're right about the critters, I should get some cloth down. Every time I open the door I'm expecting to hear some rustling.
The shed is about 70 feet from the house.

 

[murd]

It's been a little while since my last post, but I haven't been up to too much in the shed. Mostly doing yard work, making plans for an actual garage. Seems everyone is flat out and it's hard to get a quote or returned phone call.

I did get our old mower working and took it out of the shed. Because the door still isn't installed properly, I had to take it down completely. Just put it back up as it was when I was done. My wife was happy, it has a smoother transmission than its replacement.



After that I figured I would clean under the deck on the side of the house and get our generator into a more perminate position. I put a bed of gravel down and was planning to build an enclosure for it, but I'm thinking of maybe just putting a roof above it (under the deck) and getting a good cover for it. I also put enough down on the side to make a spot to store the lawnmowers for the winter.


Here's a couple of updated photos of the side yard. The grass is still a little thin in spots, I'll have to reseed once the weather cools a bit. We haven't had a lot of rain this summer, but there was enough one week to know the drains are working, and the shed has stayed dry.

 

[murd]

Ida just arrived so I went out to check the drains. Looks like they are working well. The outfall has a steady stream coming out and the lawn is mostly unsaturated. The shed floor is dry.

Went to an auction last weekend with my brother in law. Picked up a vise for a decent price, I've been looking locally for one for awhile. Most of the other tools went for close to retail.

 

[murd]

Finally got the power wired in for the shed. A friend came over to do the final connections. I had my son help me move another workbench in, then we mounted the vice on the end. I've since added an old iMac I had kicking around for youtube while I'm out there.


I went to another auction this weekend. The estate of an older man who fixed up trailers and did general welding. There was a ton of stuff and most of it went pretty cheap by the end of it. I didn't have a lot of space in my car so I had to miss a few things. I picked up a small compressor and nailer, brand new heat gun kit, some trailer parts and a Rockwell drill press that I was most interested in. I ended up bidding my max amount. I'll have to give it a bit of a cleaning and figure out where I'm gonna put it.

 

[GlenW]

Hi Murd,

Saw your shed build link in you post, so thought I'd check it out. Should have had you build my garage. LOL! Nice work. Nice finds at that auction as well. I'll need to start checking those out once I have the garage space.

Cheers!
G

 

[murd]

Wow, it's been a while since my last update. I have a few projects underway, one will go on here. The other will eventually get it's own thread, hoping to start that one later this summer.

So the project that involves my little shed will be a greenhouse built on the end. I have it pretty much worked out in my head, so with the weather getting nicer, I started the actual building. Spent a good week getting it dug out, level and square. Pulled some pretty large rocks out of the ground.



I decided last minute to add drainage to the project. Just a simple drain and one for a sink. It will only be used for watering plants, so it's just going to empty out behind the shed.



And here's how it finished up today. I didn't want to compact the gravel until I have the boards secured better. A friend of mine drives a concrete truck and said he should be able to drop his extra concrete when he's in the area. I am going to dig out the upper side a bit more and put some drainage there. The water doesn't come down the hill like it used to so it should be ok.

 

[xtremek]

..............A friend of mine drives a concrete truck and said he should be able to drop his extra concrete when he's in the area. ...

Those are pretty nice friends to have.

 

[captain14]

Will someone be around to finish the concrete or build a quick form for the extra he drops? My neighbor had a side wall poured with “extra” concrete. His wife was able to finish the partial pours.

 

[murd]

Will someone be around to finish the concrete or build a quick form for the extra he drops? My neighbor had a side wall poured with “extra” concrete. His wife was able to finish the partial pours.

He said he'd do a rough finish, but I think I should be able to be there when he's around. He said he'd give me a couple hours notice.

 

[murd]

Got a call last Thursday at lunch that there was some cement on its way to my place. The downside was it wasn't my buddy delivering it (and helping with it). But on the upside, my wife had taken the day off work so she was there to help. The pad for the greenhouse is about 60 feet (downhill luckily) from the retaining wall where he loaded my wheelbarrow up. This fella was delivery only, he didn't move from the truck. I had also made a small pad for a future chicken coop. It's just to the left of the truck in the photo below. I figured I'd get it done at the same time if possible. One issue with the short notice, I had planned to oil up the forms to take them off after, but I got there at the same time as the truck. I figure I'll probably just leave them on.

 

[murd]

Now that the slab is in, I've started doing a little more on the greenhouse plans. I'm still trying to line up everything for the trusses on the main garage so this will be a bit of a time filler.

I'm planning to have the addition unattached from the shed, in case there's any movement over winter. I'm going to finish the wall in, and side what will be outside of the greenhouse area. Once it's all done I'll take the garage door out, probably put something in to close it off when we want to some heat retention.

I'm planning to paint the trim when I do the siding. I've also added some hardware cloth to the eaves, there was a little squirrel activity over the winter. When I put the drain in, I added a tee on the left that I plan to put a sink at. In fact, I found a great one in heavy garbage when I took my young fella out driving, should fit perfect.

 

[murd]

Finally had a good weather weekend with no other commitments, spent both days out in the yard almost entirely on the greenhouse.



I started laying out the walls, then realized the inside of the windows were all different sizes, just by a couple of inches.
These are custom aluminum storm windows off my parents’ house that have been stored since they were replaced.



I did some adjustments on the layout and it looks like everything is going to fit close enough to work.



The storm door came in a half inch too tall so I took the router to it, closes now. With how close the measurements are I wanted to double check the fit before I finished the walls.



Luckily, I decided to paint it before the windows went in. I had picked up this sprayer at an auction last summer and I wanted to give it a try. Worked well enough, but between learning how to use it and the wind, I went through a bit of paint.




The final photo is how it is currently. We’re back into a few days of rain, and then I have a road trip planned for this weekend.

 

[murd]

Started work on getting the walls finished. Kind of going at it backwards to make sure the windows are fitting right. I did pick up some flashing to direct the water away from the osb. I know it's not pretty, but I think it'll work.



I couldn't start the roof until I had the shed sided, so I started getting that end wall done yesterday.
We've had a record amount of rain over the past two days, but I did get the peak done between downpours this morning.

I made a jig for cutting siding, made it a lot easier, and I can use it when I side the main garage.



Hoping the rain is done and I can get back at it tomorrow.

 

[Ford52PU]

Looks like a fine job on the building! Great job

 

[murd]

Had a wild night of rain. Our area had about 5 inches fall in 24 hours. No damage, but a lot of other places weren't so lucky. The drains were working to capacity, you can see one to the left of the upright, spilling onto the lawn.
.

I got the main beam up, then the rain started again. Used the break to go into town and get some materials. Then this evening it cleared up and I managed to get all the rafters set. There were a few cutting errors, but overall it should work well enough to support the plastic roof.



I still have to decide how much of an overhang to have on the front. I'm hoping for a few days of sunshine so I can get it painted.
Then I'll get the roof on, and finish the exterior walls and siding.

 

[murd]

Had a full weekend working on the greenhouse. Saturday I got the roof panels on, then took the garage door down. Today did some siding. I'm sure my neighbour is happy to see it cleaned up and finished.

This evening I started building the counter for the sink. **** luck, I had some old plywood to use for the counter top, fit perfectly. The sink came from heavy garbage.

The wife is very happy with it, she came down to give the windows a clean today. And finally, picked one of our garlic to see how well it was doing, might be our best year yet.

I ran out of starter strip for the last wall of siding, and I need to pick up some screen for the end wall. Then I have some shelving in storage I need to bring home to install. A bunch of little things to finish, but it's almost done.

 

[Prospecter]

Impressive garlic. How soon / late do you think you'll be able to use your greenhouse?

 

[murd]

Impressive garlic. How soon / late do you think you'll be able to use your greenhouse?

We're probably about the same climate as you. Actually, just looked it up, we're a 6A in our area, looks like Maine is a 5a.

Hoping to get from March till November, which should give us some better onions. Also going to add spinach to the mix, and see what else we can grow. Tired of getting veggies that are rotten when you get them home.

 

[murd]

Finished siding the greenhouse on Saturday, and started getting the shelves up. It rained off and on all weekend, with a bit of thunderstorms. Going to start getting the space the way we want to use it. I'm hoping to get started on the gutters and rainwater system later today. I also have to finish the end rafters and put up some steel cloth under the eaves.

 

[murd]

Just a quick update as most stuff is now happening on the main garage. I finished getting the shelving up and brought the tomato plants inside. We picked up some lights for a little nighttime ambiance. Still have to get some plexiglass for the end triangles, there's just screen there at the moment.

 

[murd]

On Saturday I finally got the rainwater system up on the back of the greenhouse. I still have to run the drain inside. I'm planning to have a gravity feed system off one of the barrels and I'm going to use the other for the sink. I'll have to figure out how that will work. Probably something to do over the winter. I also put the last of the rafters up on the end wall, even painted them. I'm planning to add a gutter to the shed section next year to capture more rainwater.



Found an old thermometer from my folks garage that I've put there for now. I need to find something with humidity on it as well.



We had some new equipment delivered at work today that gave me a great trolley for the bag of dirt. That'll make it easier to get over to the sink for potting. I had previously saved the wheels from another delivery. This is why I never throw anything out lol.