The Woodshed Is Becoming Real Now

While I've been dealing with what seems like WAY too many doctor and lab appointments (all finished now, though, and all with good results), DH has been working on getting the woodshed from paper to reality. He's been planning this for years, and this was the year to tackle this project. He wants to remove the piles of cut wood we have surrounding us so that he can expand the garden and work on the upper trellis. Today's blog will be a lot of photos to show why we're building the woodshed and how progress is coming along. 

Looking behind our patio table and chairs, you can get an idea of
what I'm talking about when I mention logs waiting for the
woodshed. Let's take a closer look. 

To my left, as I sit at the table, are these logs. They have
wonderful mushrooms on the ends, and I'm sure they're
home to all sorts of interesting things, but they're a
bit oppressive too. 

Behind me, the pile continues. You can see a bit of the fencing
peering through the upper part of the photo, and that large tree
is actually on the upper terrace level and stretches over the patio
table and chairs, offering shade and protection. 

On my other side, the far side of the table, the wood pile
continues, vying for space with our lillies. I'm quite
fond of the flowers and would love a bit more space
for them. There are some very large logs standing
on end at the far left of the stacked pile. 

First - why a woodshed? Well ... we have a fireplace that we haven't used in years because getting to the wood and having the wood protected from the elements has been next-to-impossible. In the days of the old patio, it was stacked man-high in a rough-and-tumble pile along the eastern side. It made a good wind break. After the patio was constructed, DH moved the wood pile to the back of the curved walls to have it out of the way. It was never going to be the permanent home - a woodshed was always in the plans, but where to put the woodshed and how to construct it took a lot of research and thought. 

He started out by laying out the concrete blocks and leveling them. He
wasn't happy with the final two, so dug them up again and re-did them.
He had pre-cut a 4x4 into shorter sections and had a frame already made
to fit over them to get things aligned perfectly with each other. This was
how last week ended. 

On Tuesday, DH was ready to actually get
started on the construction. He was still working
on the final foundation blocks, but by the
end of the day, had done a preliminary
fitting of the frame around the
4x4 posts. 

This was the year. He tried some things last year that he wasn't happy with, so poured concrete and already prepared post holes were analyzed and largely uprooted and abandoned and a new plan was hatched with specialized concrete blocks for stability placed level in prepared soil (class 5 - remember that from earlier?) and now, bolted to within a inch of life with huge bolts. The darned shed may outlive us! LOL. 

Yesterday, DH kicked into high gear, heading back out
to Home Depot for some new lumber - he wanted larger
boards - and some extreme bolts. (The drillbit is larger
than his drill - a bit frightening.) When I came home last
night, this is what I saw. We're starting to get somewhere
now!

This is my detail shot. You can see the bolts at the
bottom of the framework, top and bottom of each panel.
The drill ran out of power for the final bolt, but he
was able to recharge enough to get it in. Then he
called it quits for the night. Today the build will
progress. I have no idea what the completed shed
will look like, but it's clear in his head. 

So here you have photos of the wood we need to put into the shed (which will be three sections), and the shed as it was as of last night. We're finally getting somewhere with this project, and I'm very pleased that things are finally progressing from paper to reality. 

On that note, I'm plugging in photos and heading up for breakfast before I leave for work. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.