The Final Frontier.....A New Shed

Built exclusively by my amazing husband with help from yours truly.

This shed was a kit. We bought it from the Lifetime Store at the beginning of the summer with hopes of completing it before the snow began to fly.

There were four boxes in all, full of shed pieces. Instructions? Yes! A picture book. No words, just pictures. And those pictures required great thinking skills by all involved.

We started early on a chilly Wednesday morning thinking that for sure we would have the shed completed by early evening.  But when we couldn't figure out exactly how to lay the floor pieces...the very beginning of the shed, we got worried.

We called the customer service line, got some instructions and off we went. We were cruising along. However, these things take time and when it began to get dark Wednesday evening and we weren't done, we felt a little panicky. After all, there was a wild and wicked storm brewing.

Boyd made arrangements to take Thursday morning off so we could finish.

Thursday morning we were having problems with the roofline over the door. It just didn't fit right. My suggestion was to leave it and fix it after the storm was over. Boyd would have none of that.

He walked into the house and arranged for a couple more hours off of work and thought about our problem. He came outside with a solution. We had to unscrew some trusses and remove part of the roof and saw exactly what the problem was.

Once we fixed everything, the shed came together fast and almost perfect. I am so proud of both of us. And even more proud that I only said two naughty words to Boyd......

He didn't say any, which shows you what a better person than me he is.

Yet Another Home Improvement Project

In addition to putting a fence around our back yard, we decided to add some more driveway to the side of the house...an RV pad of sorts.

We offered all the grass on the side of the house to our neighbors IF they would come and get it themselves. Best idea ever. They cut it with a sod cutter and hauled it all over to their yard and we both got what we wanted.

Then we found an amazing company to pour our cement.

They prepped our back yard to pour a pad for our shed and also got the area on the side of the house ready...complete with a drain from the house and 4 inches of gravel.

The day finally came when they were ready to pour.

These guys literally wheelbarrowed the cement to the back corner of our yard, dumped it out and came back for more. It was grueling work.

Filling in our shed pad one wheelbarrow at a time.

Pouring the last of the side driveway.

The Paget brothers did such a great job. We love our driveway so much.

We went from one adult child living at home to three adult children, all with their own cars. We poured this extra cement just in the nick of time. There is room for everyone to park.

The only bad part is that it has tripled our snow shoveling this year. We have shoveled our brains out and are now running out of spots to put the snow.

We are so tempted to buy a snowblower, but then...it might never snow again.

A Little Reminiscing

We have waited a long time for a new fence.

The horrible wind storms a year ago made it necessary to consider this matter carefully.

I knew one thing:

I only wanted my brother, Jon, to do the fence for me.

He hesitantly agreed and began the arduous labor of preparing for the foundation of the fence.

He and a friend literally dug out BY HAND a one foot wide and 1-2 foot deep trench all the way around the side and back of our house.

He worked like a dog.

Finally the day came that we could pour cement.

The pump truck driver came first and began setting up his hose.

Then the cement truck came.

And finally, here is Jon, his friend, Trent, and my nephew, Paul setting the posts in the cement.

Jon made those posts PERFECTLY level.

It was a long, difficult process, but they got it done.

When there isn't 3 feet of snow in my backyard, I'll post a picure of the finished product.

It is spectacular and worth the wait.

In other news, I have loved going through my pictures in the fall and seeing green grass.

It gives me hope of spring coming....