View on Outdoor Storage

We are still working outside because the weather is wonderful and we have to take advantage of good weather while it lasts.  When we are not watching all the wildlife, we are most likely getting something done.  This latest project was a concept of Don’s that I had a hard time grasping in the design phase.

Last fall, my mom decided that she needed a shed (a miniature garage) in which to keep all the things she was unable to part with after her move from her 1600+ square foot home to just under 400 square feet.  Since winter was rapidly approaching and we were still up to our eyeballs in work on our new house; and the fact that a local shed company was offering a substantial discount for cash and no sales tax; and we could get two sheds delivered for the price of one; mom bought herself a 10’ x 20’ shed (4’ of porch). We jumped into the deal and purchased a 10’ x 16’ shed to store our outside stuff like kayaks, four wheelers and miscellaneous tools.

We understood a shed of this size would not suffice for the long term.  There also seems to be a prerequisite to living up here in that almost everyone build a giant shop, about the size of our house for everything you need to do or store outside of the home.   Most of the ‘shops’ up here are bigger than the living quarters and are two stories tall, complete with a woodstove for winter work. 

We included an insulated garage as part of our house for winter “shop” work.  We also knew that we would eventually need more storage space.  After all, every working country family has a tractor, a brush hog, a post hole digger, a snow blower or truck with plow, several off road vehicles and, of courses, the required fishing boat.  Some are lucky enough to have a wood splitter also.  Hence, more space!

Don said he was going to “add on” to the shed.  I didn’t understand this.  I mean it’s a shed!  How much more space can you get by adding onto it?  When you add-on to a house, you get a patio, an extra room, something much smaller than the original space.  How much more space can you get by adding on to a 160 square foot shed?

Little did I know, you can achieve quite a bit of extra space!  Our shed is now 560 square feet bigger!  The next thing one might ask is, “How well built can that be?”  Well, you would be surprised.  Don made sure it would hold any snow that stayed on the roof by placing the rafters 16” apart.  He added 10’ x 24’ to each side of the existing shed and another 8’ to the back.  It’s actually pretty awesome!  We will now have what is basically a 30’ x 24’ garage space built for less than five thousand dollars! 

The roof is solid.  There is a floor in the original shed only (so far), but one entire side (10’ x 24’) will be closed-in for our boat storage.  The original shed houses our four wheelers for now, along with our garbage (to keep the bears out between dump runs), our kayaks and a bunch of miscellaneous tools, etc.  The open side (open at the ends) houses our tractor and implements with room to spare.  The back center section will hold firewood and kindling, and is tall enough for a small storage loft.

I painted the trim and siding as Don put it up and we still have to figure out a door for the boat side, but we now have lots of outdoor storage.  The best part of all is that it completely blocks our view of the neighbors’ house!