There is no photographic evidence yet – but I have put half of the roof on the shed – and need to keep a look out for more chipboard to do the other half.
almost ripped my left nipple off climbing up to fix the screws in – one of my ikea shelf brackets inside the shed was not strong enough to support my weight. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised there.
The full sized shed is almost complete. It still needs a roof and one of the sides is still not clad – but I am waiting to find some suitable timber for this.
I got a pack of unwanted feather edge timber from a friend which has made the front look fantastic. I also got a great door from Eastbourne’s answer to freecycle (Freegle) and made a handle from a cherry tree branch. Window made of old window frame with glass broken out and plastic Polycarb tri-wall inserted instead.
Had the afternoon off – so a short visit to the allotment was in order – I wanted to rake out the huge mound, at the rear of the plot, that I had dug over at the weekend – but it was hard going and the skies were trying to rain – and my son wasn’t quite in the mood today.
so I raked out some – but managed to break my 2 yr old rake (the top metal part just broke) as well as an old rake that I found 2 weeks ago under the old compost heap.
I resorted to shovelling out the soil towards the lowest areas – but it was getting hard work – so called it a day before I had finished.
The mini shed has been temporarily re-located into the middle of the plot while work take place at the back. For a small structure it sure is heavy to move around. I did enlist the help of my neighbour for that one.
Once the back are is flatter I can start thinking about building a shed there beside the cherry tree. As you can see I already have a pile of timber piling up – which needs to be used for the shed cladding or raised bed edging.
Been having a little think about a shed – and how I’ll make it. This is my first attempt at modelling it. I’ll probably not model what ends up getting made – it’ll probably just be the result of screwing lots of bits of wood together on-site – with no real plan. That’s how I usually do things.
My thoughts are that the shed should have a secret door (ie no visible handle or hinges) and that the windows will look out over the neighbouring compost heap so that it gets the sun but cannot be peered into. I have also been playing with the idea of having it so that the doors open out and can be fixed open – making the space seem twice as large – using all of the decked area outside (made of pallets).
Got some timber bits today that may go some way towards making a shed structure.
I saw on freegle (my local version of freecycle) that someone was having some work done on their garden and had taken lots of old fencing down. This was all being thrown in a skip unless anyone wanted it – so I went along this morning (luckily I had the day off of work) and there was quite a lot of fencing posts which were still fairly chunky and robust, lots of fairly good quality gravel boarding which should be fine to clad my future shed (if not – it will make excellent side panels for a compost heap), and lots of fairly crumbly old trellis.
I have used the one intact bit of the trellis in my own garden as we had recently bought a Honeysuckle that needed support – and I have taken lots of the gravel boarding down to the allotment for use at the weekend (today was really not an outdoors day).
I have also recently found a couple of old sash windows – that I will probably strip the paint off of. I think a homemade shed is fine – but the parts should all probably be the same material (not a white window with a green door in a new pine structure with old weatherboard). That’s the plan anyway.
I’d like to strip the paint off of any old bits that I find in skips. Also – I know the allotment society frown upon home-made sheds made out of old doors etc.
Mine will not just be made out of old doors – but it will be made out of old, found and donated parts as I cannot afford a new £300 shed from a DIY store – I do not want one of these either. I’d much rather make my own and enjoy learning something as I do it. Not sure my girlfriend would agree though.
The gardener that I met this morning (Pete the Pond his name was) told me he is always taking timber and paving slabs to the dump – so I gave him my number and am looking forward to a delivery of old paving slabs soon. I could probably do with another 30 or so slabs to replace the path that my neighbouring allotment holder has borrowed to re-create some sort of gravestone art installation.
So – get looking on freecycle if you need to stretch your budget for such things. Gumtree and Friday ad are 2 other places where free stuff can be found.
Home-made shed updates (including pictures) will follow soon – once we get some pleasant weekend weather.
My first visit was with my 4 yr old son and we spent 2 whole days over the weekend – to get some of the plot dug over and to construct a small shelter big enough for the both of us should it rain.
I took plenty of partly prepared timber and polycarbonate sheets that I had acquired some time ago from a skip belonging to my very local double glazing company.
Hi
I have just been given the keys to a 5 rod allotment plot after being on the waiting list for nearly 4 years.
The plot has been left in fairly good order (no brambles anyway) and is mostly covered in short grass and weeds, abandoned compost heap and a large Cherry tree.
I am hoping that the frosts have finished now so I should be able to get on top of things before it all runs away with itself.
I’ll try to take regular pictures of progress as it gets dug over and as I get a shed built out of found materials.
