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Last weekend, I finally cut down the tree-bush thing that was blocking my shed.  Ain’t it a beaut? Okay, so it needs a bit of work.  Namely there are a few things that need to be done hopefully by the end of this summer.

1. The Roof.  It needs to be replaced.  You can’t really tell from this picture, but the actual boards that are the roof have water damage/are rotted. It is only a matter of time till the roof falls in.  It may already leak, not really sure, and that leads me to #2.  I am still debating on whether or not I should do shingles, or if I should get some metal roof pieces.  Shingles would be a lot cheaper, but metal would look cleaner I think.

2. The floor of the shed. The floor is mud.  Yeah, mud.  Generally they build a floor when they make a wood shed like this, but in this instance they did not.  Ironically however it does have a concrete foundation.  If you were gonna go all out and pour a foundation, why not also pour a floor at the same time?  In front of my house, there is a large sand pile. I intend to take that sand and spread it out on the floor of the shed, then cover it with some concrete paver stones.

3. Along with the roof, all of the fascia board are rotted or just plain missing.  They will need to be there, so that I can add…

4. Gutters. You can see just a little piece of gutter still hanging on there.  The whole length of the shed has the rear gutter, but its hanging wonky, and needs to be replaced.  What I want to do is rig the gutters up to a rain catchment system, but I need to figure out a way to filter that water first, before I can use it in the garden.

5. The ultimate goal, is for me to be able to put all of my yard implements (mower, blower, tiller) inside.  To have a place to put gas cans, and hand tools like shovels, rakes, hatchets, and the like.  I would also like to build and place a planting type of table inside.

Today, I took my first steps with the barn.  I replaced the hinges on the door.  The old hinges were rusted so much that when you opened the door, you were actually twisting a piece of wood.  The new hinges allow the door to open and close freely.  Yay!

I did unfortunately find some bad news, it would appear around the old hinges, the wood of the door is rotting, and should probably be replaced.  It makes me wonder, if I should replace all the siding on the shed. There is already one other panel on the shed that needs to be replaced.  It seems the previous owner liked to use the shed as a giant dog house.  There is a large dog sized square opening on the back…It needs to be fixed before I’m gonna feel comfortable putting anything in there.

I also want to paint the shed.  I’m thinking a nice barn red.  Since my house is red brick, I think a barn red will look good with the house.  I could paint all the trim pieces white.  And so I’m debating, do I paint the shed, and replace the door and one other panel. Or do I replace all the siding, and then paint.

This weekend was a busy one.  On Saturday, my dad and I cut out the old evergreens that were in front of my house.  I have never understood the purpose of putting evergreens right up by the base of the house.  Why do people want to hide their houses?  In this particular picture it looks a little dreary.  Thats mostly the tinting of my windshield I think.  In addition, we got most of the leaves and gumballs out of the front (stupid gumball tree), and pretty much leveled the front yard.  It still has some ruts in it down by the road from when the plumber had to dig up my front yard.  I’ll have to get a truck of dirt to finish the job.

I don’t really know what all I am going to put in my front yard now.  Later this spring my friend Jackie and I are going to go in together and get some blackberry bushes.  I don’t know if I want to put them between the sidewalk and the house, or in front of the sidewalk, in front of the door.  My idea is to partially obscure the front door, which I think would be helpful for when things get delivered and left outside.  In any case, I still need to get the stumps of the evergreens out.  I tried using a hatchet, but after 20 minutes, I realized it was pretty much a loosing battle.  I might try the chainsaw on them next weekend, but I don’t know if that is such a good idea, with all the rock that was around them.

Today, Sunday, I finally finished running  the power for my bedroom outlets.  Goodbye extension cord, hello working outlets.  It’s not so much that it’s hard work, its just time consuming.  Next on the power agenda is the front and back walls of the living room.  It shouldn’t be too hard (famous last words), with my giant flexible drill bit.  The only problem with the bit is that it really doesn’t work with the outlet boxes I have.  Not that I have a choice really.  3 of the 6 outlets sit directly above the trunk duct, the duct that supplies heat/air conditioning to the whole house.  Removing the old box is just easier, plus, because of the way there were installed, it means I get to use the reciprocating saw.  Fun!

Next weekend I need to start digging for the garden (I’m kind of excited about that), and cut up the old evergreen branches that are currently just stacked up in my back yard.  I ordered the veggie seeds a few weeks ago.  Some of them have come in, but the others have not.  I am getting a little antsy.