Walls Up

Quick update on the shed project.  I took a couple of weeks off but got back to it today.  I continue to be amazed by people's generosity.  From the floor joists to the subfloor to the studs and tin roof EVERYTHING (even many of the nails I have used) has been given to me from tear downs, excess material or people's kindness.  People are even leaving me things in my driveway that I don't ask for, am I the cool neighborhood recycler or quickly becoming people's trash man soon-to-be wood-horder, hmmm...!  Hopefully I don't end up on some reality TV show about people who meant well but went wrong!  The idea of turning down a usable 2x4 does feel crazy to me so I might be in trouble.

I had mentioned in the last post that Ken had offered me the tin roofing Miles had given him because he wasn't going to be able to use it.  It's a beautiful old (early 1900s) piece (~12'x14') of standing seam roofing.  It is beat up, no doubt.  The seams have long been pounded down and it has holes to patch in many places, but what re-purposing project in a historic neighborhood would be complete without a recycled tin roof from two blocks away!  Below Greg and Jeremy are shown on the last leg of our tin roofing retrieval campaign.  Ken lent us his trailer and we walked it the 2.5 blocks to my house.  It was an adventure, but went well!

Jeremy helped me out again today, which was huge.  We started by banging down the tin roofing that had been sitting on the shed floor since we brought it over.  While there remained a 12'x8' platform to hammer it out on we thought we would take advantage of it.  It went a lot quicker than we thought.  It's never going to be totally flat, but we got it close and then moved it to the yard so we could start on the walls.
 

A view of the underside of the roofing

I spent part of the morning debating whether to change the roof design.  My plan all along had been to build a gable that ran in the same direction as the gable of the house, but attempting to truly embrace the recycle concept I wanted to build a roof that would require no additional tin (besides patching).  Uncle Greg suggested a "shed roof", which slopes from only one side thus greatly decreasing the surface area of roofing that needs to be covered.  So grudgingly I decided he was right.  I switched the plan from 6 foot walls with a peaked roof to one 8 foot wall that slopes down to a 6 foot wall opposite (from east to west).  I'm not in love with it, but I do like that I sacrificed my aesthetic desires for practicality and function and hell lets be honest: money savings!

Jeremy and I spent time collecting all of the old 2x4s I had, sorting them, pulling nails and figuring out which to use.  We settled on old 2+" dimensional 2x4s (1920s vintage) for the west and east walls and newer, but still old (~1950s probably) for the north and south walls.  For the top and bottom plates the long (14') 2x4s from Brad's construction site were invaluable.

Above: a view of the four walls from the deck

 

 

A view from the driveway.  There will be a door on the right for easy access.

A row of old time 2x4s ready for new clothes

A view from the backyard.  There will be a door and steps for garden access on the left side of the structure

 Tomorrow I hope to get a lot done.  I'm planning to use old fence pickets for clap board siding (taken from unnecessary parts of my fence), which I hope will go quickly, and to get the rafters and roof on.  We'll see, but that's the plan!