The Shed

This is not really an epic story. There was indeed a stretch of time from beginning to end, and of course some traumatic happenstances along the way. The Shed does not have the dramatics or dynamics of The Shack (if you are familiar with that book) There is however a list of character's, who are characters. There are weather elements and without doubt procrastination. The Shed is done, but I'll begin at the beginning;

The old storage shed was rusted, bent and in general an eye-sore. After much debate, trips to the stores, the consideration of the various types and materials involved a decision ws made. We decided to get the exact same shed we all ready had. The shed was ordered on August 2, 2009. It was shipped on 8/4/2009 & received here 8/11/2009. I was expecting two boxes. Had been told there would be two boxes. So the one box was stood on end and leaned against the work bench in the garage. August became September and I'm fuming. Where's the other box?

So, I sat down with the invoice, my telphone headset in place ready to paunce on whomever answered the phone at customer service. While on hold, listening to elevator music I re-read the invoice. OOPS. I hung up the phone and lowered my head in my hands. There is only one box after all. How in the hell did they get a 5.5' x 8' shed in that one box? The box continued to lean against the bench, for some time.

Work in earnest began at the end of October.Completion date about the 2nd of November.

We learned: There is a method to removing a shed;
1sr - tear down old shed - stack old metal for pickup.
2nd - level or remove pavers to smooth out sand base of old shed.
3rd. Most important - put it all off for one reason or another.
4th - while putting it off, reconsider, deciding to build a wooden platform rather than build directly on ground.
5th Talk son into doing it, the platform that is.

There is a method to building (an erector set) storage shed.
1st - at the home depot store you purchase lumber to build a base for the shed that will last forever and starts out looking better than what was there.
2nd bring all materials home. Stack neatly.
3rd -  wait for son to show up (excellent carpenter - does this stuff for a living.)
4th - live through a period of weird looks and facial questions all amounting to: "when will it be done?"
5th - son builds platform. wait
6th platform sits. wait.
7th - Mary and I put shed pieces together in garage. wait.
8th - base of shed mounted to platform - wait.
9th - Mary and I start building shed. All goes well until...
10th - father over stretches back, spine out of alignment, go to bed rest. wait.
11th - after waiting and a partial recovery, Mary and I continue the process, building the shed.
12th EUREKA - The shed is done. It gleams in the Florida sunshine. A marvel of architechtural design, and a shrine to stedfastness. So what if everything didn't line up peerfectly at the end. We redrilled holes, left no holes uncovered, picures were taken and now. What's Next? Bring it on. Mary and I can handle anything.

There were 24 pages of instructions. We finished in 15 steps. On a scale of 1 to 10 as shed builders we came out an 11. Much credit and thanks to Aaron for his help. Mary is a great driller and screwer. I honed my skills as diagram reader, and project coordinator. Construction boss.

At the end of the process, I celebrated as depicted in the photo.