This is the 1st post about our project redoing our home in Port Ludlow. AdventurerHome is the blog site name because the house is on Adventurer Lane in PL. There is good backstory on how we ended up in PL and why we chose this home and I’ll touch on those details in this and future posts.
For those who don’t know us I’m a retired technology guy who has dabbled in construction and spent my last career years as a general contractor. Renee is my partner of many years who retired from a career in family counseling who also likes to turn houses into homes while giving them our stamp. I’m the more linear thinker and she’s more creative but we are fortunate to have enough overlap that our projects turn our better than either one of us could do alone.
So this post is about our 1st project which was adding a storage shed. The house was built in the late 70’s and hasn’t been changed much since the original owners built it. If they did their own yardwork there weren’t signs of where their tools lived so we decided to add shed space for ours. Fortunately, there was a perfect corner spot that would make the shed look like part of the original house so we began.
A Home for the New Shed, This unused corner on backside of the garage is a perfect spot to locate my new shed
Our neighborhood has an HOA which has a say in house and yard improvements so I drew up plans for them and hoped they encouraged home improvement. That turned out as well as I could have hoped for and constraints were minimal and easy to meet. The shed will be tucked into the corner of the house and use 2 walls from the foundation as it’s walls to make it less obtrusive.
I always underestimate how long site prep will take regardless of the number of projects I’ve done, and as I age it gets harder and harder to do. I still work out which allows me to keep doing this stuff, but I’m all about renting equipment whenever it’s an option. It wasn’t in this case so days with a shovel and wheelbarrow later I was able to start laying my foundation.
Laying the Shed Foundation, Once the ground was leveled I used pier blocks and 2×6 treated lumber for the foundation
I like framing because it goes pretty quickly and you get a lot of bang for the buck time spent. Unfortunately, I was framing just after the peak in the pandemic when lumber prices spiked. That was painful but my labor costs didn’t change since I was the only person onsite. Renee and I work together on most projects but this one ended up mostly in my court once she finished helping with the design.
Shed framing in progress , Floor is ¾” plywood, 2×4 studs, 2×6 ledger board
And here’s the finished shed. It’s 16’ x 8’ and almost 11’ high where the roof meets the house. Siding is T-111 which matches the house and note the skylight. I added that because my HOA didn’t allow electricity and it adds lots of light keeping the inside bright even on cloudy rainy days.
I’m happy with how it turned out and we use it constantly since yard projects are most of what we’ve been doing while working on design plans, permitting, and finding the skills needed for the remodel. It’s good to have the 1st project a success, it sets a good precedent for all those in the future.
Finished shed, trimmed and painted
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