Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Bark louder, little dog.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

This really is a full service blog.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

So many bastards, so little time.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The willow is too close to the house.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: A Garden Shed From Scrap

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: A Garden Shed From Scrap

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From indefatigable gardener / commentor OpieJeanne:

This used to be a chicken coop that the previous owner built out of scraps and “found” materials. You can see the flap door next to the door.

The floor had rotted away because it sat on the ground and it leaned to one side.

By the time this was taken we had raised it off the dirt, leveled it, and added 8” to the height because Mr opiejeanne fell in love with a door at Second Use that needed the extra height. It’s bright green and has lots of small window panes.


We had a window we picked up at a garage sale several years ago and we installed it two weeks ago. I’m surprised none of the panes were broken in all of that time.




These are the pieces of the floor.


Last Sunday my nephew in-law helped us install it.


We had some bead board left from a project and thought that would be good for the lower half, and pegboard above the chair rail.


After we had the lower paneling installed on one wall we decided to insulate the shed. ?


There’s another window that we picked up at Second Use that will go on this wall.

***********

I still have a dozen mail-order tomatoes to plant out, but I need more fresh potting mix. And then I have to haul the tomato ladders out of the fenced yard, drag three dozen 15gal rootpouches all over the damned lot, get the nascent fruit bushes transplanted or at least out of the way, and sort all the tomato pouches so everything will still be accessible when they’re (I hope) growing tall & sprawly in August…

As Dorothy Parker is supposed to have said about writing: I hate gardening. I love having gardened!

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  2. 2.

    Planetpundit

    Love the floor. I hate building stuff; love having built it. (My toolbox was long ago placed in “strategic reserve status”)

  4. 4.

    HeleninEire

    That’s awesome. Please keep us apprised of the progress. Would love to see it completed.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Job well done! Saving old structures is always cool, cooler than building new structures, tho sometimes definitely not worth the trouble. My buddy with the Civil War barn also has an old outbuilding of similar age and construction: Post and beam with rubble and cement filled walls. His wife wants me to save it. I tell her I can fix it all with a match.

    After we had the lower paneling installed on one wall we decided to insulate the shed. ?

    Ain’t that always the way of it?

  8. 8.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?!

    I can see by the thread lengths that I’m not the only one who finds I haven’t much to say that’s worth filling out my posting info every time. Hope Alain gets that fixed soon.

    In a fit of insanity I ordered two more trees and a shrub, and they’re probably going to arrive this week. Two are smallish ornamentals, one is an Autumn Blaze maple. Not sure exactly where I will put that sucker, but it’s a beautiful tree. My iris garden is in glorious bloom, I’ll try to take pictures. But the weather yesterday, today, and tomorrow is broiling so I’m not doing anything until it cools down after Tuesday. By then the grass will be calf high again.

  9. 9.

    JAFD

    Nine years ago, was temp US Census worker, wandering suburban Philly with wrist computer checking ‘housing units’ – how many apartments in buildings, new construction, burned or demolished.

    The number and elaboration of some ‘garden sheds’ – I told folk who’d listened to too much Rush L that half the world would find them quite habitable.

  10. 10.

    Alain the site fixer

    @satby: I’ll be fixing it this morning. I am living in two places, and moved and damaged my work laptop, but got things sorted yesterday. After I get breakfast, etc., I’ll get the issue solved. Sorry for the hassle.

  12. 12.

    Raven

    Just a note that there is little point in posting the pics of the roses I sent, they are gone.

  15. 15.

    Lapassionara

    Love the shed. I am looking forward to seeing green door.

    Good morning, everyone.

  18. 18.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: glad I passed that test. FYI, Ozark, you mentioned old homes in Kirkwood some days ago. Do you recall the house of 7 gables? Someone bought it recently and has done big renovation with slate roof and copper (?) gutters and downspouts. Also adding on, so not sure how many gables there are now. House of 9 gables?

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara:

    Do you recall the house of 7 gables?

    Not specifically. Can you jog my memory with an intersection? (I do vaguely remember a renovation of such a house on Geyer rd).

  21. 21.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: The floor is 3/4″ plywood. I painted it and mr opiejeanne put three coats of varnish on it. It kind of looks like old linoleum because of the slight yellowing of the varnish.

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: Ha! My youngest tells me that her husband will sleep there when they stay over, because he’s so allergic to our cats.

  24. 24.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yes. Luckily, there was still room to stuff the insulation panels into most of the first wall.

    When we started I wasn’t sure this project was really worth the effort but now the spiders that were holding up the building by holding hands have moved on wince they are no longer needed. We didn’t evict them, they just left. The progress is so much fun to see that we have to tear ourselves away to pull the weeds that are still swamping some of our garden beds.

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    @JR: We built 4 “walls” that were 8″ tall and as long as each wall, and jacked the building up and bolted them to the underside of the existing “mud sill”.

  27. 27.

    Lapassionara

    Ok, so I am a nitwit, but maybe someone can help me. Have been seeing that I should “reboot my router.” I think I know what my router is, but how do I reboot? Is that tech speak for “turn off,” or is there something else I need to do?

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara: Drawing a blank. I have a friend who has one of the smaller bungalows in that neck of the woods. I could drive right to it but can’t remember which street it is on, might even be Woodlawn. Don’t tell anyone but I use the Kirkwood recycling facility for all our crap 3-4 times a year. Even tho there is no sign saying “For the Use of Kirkwood Residents Only”, I rather suspect I’m not really welcome there.

  30. 30.

    satby

    @Lapassionara: turn it off and back on, most easily accomplished by disconnecting the power and waiting a minute or so before reconnecting.
    Or if you can find a reset button you can use that.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    I could do with a bit of tech advice too. My phone battery seems to have swollen, causing the phone body to bulge out. Should I get a new phone?

  33. 33.

    Schlemazel

    @opiejeanne:
    Nice work on the building! It looks like a big job but it is very cute & a great addition to the garden.

    Like Ms. Parker, I love the idea of gardening, the reality less so. I am finally getting around to building a stone garden on the hill left after the country road project. Having a ton & a half of blue stone delivered that I hope I can install in a random pattern that will look like a natural outcropping. Then I will plant little things in the spaces around the stone, I’ll send pictures (maybe) when done

  34. 34.

    germy

    Adulthood is like the vet, and we're all the dogs that were excited for the car ride until we realized where we're going.— Stephanie McMaster (@Smethanie) May 1, 2013

  37. 37.

    opiejeanne

    @satby: The plan is that this will be my studio for all of my art supplies and that I’ll be able to write out there except in the winter. It doesn’t have electricity yet so it will be too cold and dark for several months. Also, it doesn’t have a ceiling yet, just the underside of the roof, and it’s open under the eaves so all manner of creature can come in. I’m surprised we haven’t had birds nesting in it, but there used to be rats sharing the building when it was on the ground and full of garden tools.

  39. 39.

    opiejeanne

    @Pete Mack: So it can be used for a couple of months longer during the year as a studio. It wasn’t my idea to insulate it but our kids and my husband thought it was a good idea. We’re using sheets of Styrofoam that stick to the inner walls pretty well because of the little nails sticking through that hold the shingles onto three side of the building.
    Also, some of those same people think they’re going to sleep out there. I live near Seattle. It gets pretty cold here in the winter.

  40. 40.

    tobie

    Amazing what you’ve done with this shed! I am in awe of your family’s building and designing. Please send more pictures of the fully restored shed, inside and outside. It’s giving me ideas.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: Reminds me of a Far Side cartoon. Spot has his head out the window of a car backing out into the street and he’s looking at the neighbor dog with great joy. Balloon over his head says, “Guess what? I’m going the vet to get tutored!”

  44. 44.

    Skepticat

    As a Yankee and an islander, I salute the superior job of fixin’ up. I do much the same kind of thing—but not half as well.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @opiejeanne: it says on the Google that the average low winter temp in Seattle is 37 degrees. That’s nearly T-shirt weather here. I’ve camped out in a tent in weather that cold. An insulated shed would be like the Ritz ?

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    No gardening for me this weekend. I’m really glad I said no to the garden tour again this year.

  47. 47.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Reminds me of a Far Side cartoon

    I remember the Far Side cartoon family of roaches on vacation driving past the Roach Motel. Kids in the back seat yelling excitedly “Dad! See if they have cable!”

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense:
    I’ve been lurking more and haven’t been posting much. But how are you? I was not worried, exactly, but concerned. All OK in ME?

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: One of my all time favorites was of 2 very satisfied polar bears standing beside an igloo with the top caved in. One says to the other: “I love these things. Hard and crunchy on the outside, warm and gooey on the inside.

  54. 54.

    Immanentize

    I LOVE the shed project. I have one made by Reeds Ferry and I love it, but now I think I might give it a new floor.

    Gardening:
    I took pictures this week to send to A.L. as some “before” pics for you jackels. Lots of of my fabulous double-white azalea. For those keeping up, I replanted two “pinned” branches in the back yard — and they bloomed this year! There is another one in the front ready to relocate to the back.

    Also, gave my forsythias big hair cuts and put in the veggie garden — tomatillos, 4 types of Chili’s, and seven types of tomatoes. Yes, salsa summer has begun.

    Also photographed the five volunteer rose bushes ? I transplanted. None have died — yet!

  56. 56.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly: The cat husband and wife (wife of course wears “cats eye frame eyeglasses) peering out the window of their house to see neighbor cat couple approaching. “They show up every time we open a can!” the husband complains.

    I remember the very first time I saw a Far Side cartoon. “this guy must really be into Kliban,” I thought. My first impression was that he was a Kliban copyist. But his work and his gags were solid.

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    @satby: Yeah, that’s the average low. In the past eight years we’ve seen 26F most years, and down into the teens one year. We’ve lost plants that are usually hardy in cold weather because there was no snow to act as insulation. We mulch the more tender plants pretty heavily for the winter, like the artichokes that we’ve had in the garden for 3 or 4 years, and the rose bushes.

  66. 66.

    Immanentize

    @JPL: thanks, I think….

    My son has been crushed with exams — Finals, APs, SAT, ACT. We are torturing these kids just to move them on the next stage…. So I am doing whatever I can to feed and water him until June 9.

    Then he needs a summer job!

  68. 68.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize: @satby:

    I’m ok, just dealing with some pain and discomfort. I don’t tolerate pain meds well. Because of my blood disorder, I’m a slow healer.

  69. 69.

    Gelfling 545

    Love the shed! My sister and her husband built an aforable shed out of almost completely garbage picked materials including 20’s era French doors. I have shed envy!
    Still haven’t done much garden work. The 10 lb lifting restriction is really limiting. I did plant up my big pots. Now I’m waiting for my daughter to help me re-tie the climbing rose onto the arch and prune out the dead bits. On the plus side I have finally found a lawn service to mow the small amount of grass I have remaining. Also the pond goldfish survived another winter. They’re getting quite large. Hardy little beasts they are.

  70. 70.

    Barbara

    @opiejeanne: How I envy you. My husband has built not one but two accessory buildings that are actually very nice and do have electricity, however, even though they were built for “all of us” they quickly become a dumping ground for “stuff” he can’t part with. And, of course, he can’t part with anything. That’s after we spent money to have our basement refinished to be “an office.” Well, it’s an office, if you count 20 years worth of now obsolete computers sitting on the desk as an office.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Made me laugh, too. In fact, just about all the animal photos in that Guardian are pretty great. Love the one of the bears. Especially love the one of the kissing puffins (or kissin puffings).

  72. 72.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: It shortens the battery’s memory, (or at least it used to, new battery technology and all that) I always drain my rechargeables all the way before putting them on the charger.

  73. 73.

    Immanentize

    @Amir Khalid:
    My son found a device that charges his phone only to 90% then turns off. He is a big fan of this tool to save battery life (we both have 1+ 3t smarty pants Androids which I highly recommend)

  74. 74.

    tobie

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not fair! I woke up my husband and showed him the diamond pattern on the floor and told him that’s what I want in the basement.

    I’m off to the airport this evening for the first leg of my trip to Stockholm, then on to Germany, France and Switzerland. The travel is work-related but I’m planning to spend time sightseeing and will try to send Alain some pictures from the road. Keep your spirits up, folks! The most important thing are the midterms in November. Everything else is noise. Tend to your garden or hobbies to recharge your batteries.

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    @JPL:

    Thanks. My brain is working better so that’s nice. One of my son’s friends does fundraisers for Planned Parenthood and I just had an idea for a design. If it works, I’ll make some unisex accessories and give them to her for a silent auction/raffle item. I’ve got another charity item to make In the next two weeks so I’m going to try and pick out the colors today.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Barbara:

    they quickly become a dumping ground for “stuff” he can’t part with.

    The inevitable fate of every shop/garden shed or any other out building not occupied on a daily basis.

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    OpieJeanne, I love the chicken-coop-to-writing-shed transformation! I hope it gives you years of inspiration.

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Yeah, I’m out of touch with all the new technological improvements in battery design. On the swollen battery front, I would probably throw the whole phone, battery and all, in a concrete bunker and set off a controlled explosion just to be on the safe side.

  83. 83.

    Jager

    @debbie: My favorite Far Side Christmas card was the guy standing by the fireplace, a skeleton in a Santa suit crumpled in the hearth, the caption “I think I found the problem with your chimney.”

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Following on the electric car discussion of last night, Tesla allows you to set the range you want it to charge to, and suggests (in the absence of other information) that you set it well below “max charge” for daily driving. When it’s cold, my husband sets the charge to stop at a specific mileage, then starts it up again when he warms the car up. This means the car won’t lose mileage as it warms up (because that’s when it really uses rated miles, especially when it’s cold). I think we just couldn’t use our phones like that, it’s too much bother when you can get a new battery.

  89. 89.

    HeleninEire

    @Pete Mack: Reading room/library.

    ETA, so it’ll be an art studio. Close enough! Library = Art Studio. Just depends on your preference.

  91. 91.

    SiubhanDuinne

    From the morning tweets:

    Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt? They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation…They went back home in tatters!

    Anybody have a clue what he’s on about here?

  93. 93.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’m guessing not migrant children, whose parents came to the US with stars in their eyes, thinking the country was a bastion of freedom and hope.

    I’m losing my mind over this policy. The more I read about it the closer it gets to concentration camp evil. I know that’s an exaggeration because presumably the children aren’t being gassed, but my god, what has this country come to?

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: Is that for real?

    Is it that the starry-eyed youngs can’t get jobs, because being starry-eyed about Trump is a marker for idiocy and unsuitability in the job market?

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    @ OpieJeanne: beautiful shed. I wondered if you might use it for writing eventually.

    Creative use of materials.

  103. 103.

    oldgold

    My sulphurically scented neighbor from the nether regions, DeeDee Plorable, having refused repeated requests to secure her dilapidated chicken coop has spawned the mother of all free range chicken wars.

    Yesterday, after DeeDee’s robust-randy rooster, Phil Anders, pecked the irenic pride of the Tall Clan, Jen Tall, her unibrowed, square jawed old timey grandmother, Nandra Tall, went Stone Age. DeeDee’s feathered alarm clock will crow no more. Even Faye Tall was taken aback by Nandra’s bruTall attack.

    The neighborhood, immersed in fuss, feathers and guano, is currently at defcon 2.

  104. 104.

    jnfr

    Here in my Colorado yard and garden we’ve had such a wet spring that we’re still struggling to finish up the spring grass-and-weed mowing. The grass is over a foot tall in places so it takes some effort.

    The strawberries are up and blooming, as is my peony and the catmint, but I haven’t been able to do any actual gardening yet. Just mow a bit, mow a bit, haul everything in out of the drizzle…

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    Incidentally: good news on an overnight (?) thread from Lizzy L: her brother has improved; he’s conscious and does not appear to have brain damage (I think she said) … She has cancelled her trip out to Phoenix at this time, since he seems out of imminent danger.

    Sending good wishes for continued improvement.

  108. 108.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @debbie:

    I used to buy Far Side Christmas cards.

    I requested – and got – the complete Far Side and the complete Calvin & Hobbes as wedding gifts. So much better than a toaster.

  111. 111.

    Jager

    When i was a kid my Gram raised chickens on the farm. When she got out of the egg business, there was a little, unused brooder house. All of my attempts to clean it up and make it my club house didn’t work. It always smelled like chicken shit and if I spent more than an hour in there, so did I.

  112. 112.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    It’s a Lenovo, not one of the exploding Samsungs*. Anyway, it’s getting on for two years old and is probably due for replaced anyway.

    *Insert obligatory “It’s a good band name” suggestion

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    @Jager: The smell of chickens was long gone by the time we started this project. I don’t know how long ago the previous owner stopped keeping chickens in it but we’ve lived here 8 years. I’m also unsure that the chickens used it much; from what the neighbors tell me these chickens roamed free and committed acts of vandalism in a neighbor’s kitchen while they were on vacation.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: I trust the jackals here to keep apprised of when Jarvanka moves household. Preferably to the Big House. You know NY Mag is on it. So I think they’re still (le sigh) prisoners of Kalorama and the White House.

    So: I think it’s Hope Hicks, or maybe it is getting back to El Jefe that starry-eyed alumni are poison in the real world. Who knows what is in the great man’s mind this morning?

  122. 122.

    Gelfling 545

    @SiubhanDuinne: Since he’s the only e who damaged their reputations as they are now branded stupid for having worked for him, it would seem to me it’s his responsibility.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    @Lapassionara:

    In addition to “rebooting” (restarting) your router, you should go to the manufacturer’s website to see if there are any firmware updates that need to be applied. There almost certainly are. You’ll need to know the exact model number of your router, which should be on a label somewhere on the unit.

    The website should have instructions on how to perform the updates, but if you have questions there are always Cliff Clavin blowhards here ready to weigh in.

    ETA: Obligatory Cliff Clavin.

  127. 127.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Big garden news in my yard!

    I have a couple of areas that are covered with pebbles. The pebbles had gotten weedy, and the underlying weed cloth was showing through in places. I had tried to work on them over the years, but they finally got ahead of me. Yesterday and today, I had workmen clean them up and add more pebbles and more weed cloth where it was needed. It looks beautiful! So the next step is to work on the flowerbeds, which I had let go somewhat. It was hard to see improvement in them when I worked, because the pebbly areas were getting so scruffy.

    And I might add that the manager and all the workmen were immigrants. Hard workers, all, and pleasant to have around.

  130. 130.

    opiejeanne

    @Cheryl Rofer: That sounds great. We did a massive cleanup two years ago for a wedding here and the shed was supposed to get painted. It did not happen, there were so many other things to take care of. The area around the shed had had weedcloth and stones but the weeds were finding a way in and the stones are too big to be nice to walk on. We pulled the weeds and added “beauty bark” over the top of it, deep enough that you didn’t see the rocks. It looked good but the bark has mostly broken down now so I’m considering new weedcloth and pea gravel. We might do it ourselves but it was so nice to have someone else install it in the raised bed area of the garden and they did a great job. Those guys were immigrants too, and pretty nice guys.

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    “I remember the very first time I saw a Far Side cartoon. “this guy must really be into Kliban,” I thought. My first impression was that he was a Kliban copyist. But his work and his gags were solid.”

    The first time we visited Denver was back in the late 1980s. We always hit the local Museum of Natural History wherever we go. This was a real jackpot as they were hosting a huge show of Gary Lawson “Far Side” work, just jammed in between the existing exhibits. You know how museum goers are usually so serious and quiet? Not this crowd, chuckles and guffaws from all around. Giant cut out cows! The whole works. We loved it, so happy.

  133. 133.

    scav

    Only good weed cloth ever seems to do here is generally provide a clear layer I don’t have to did beneath to remove the weeds. Not that I mind that much.

  134. 134.

    J R in WV

    @oldgold:

    Yesterday, after DeeDee’s robust-randy rooster, Phil Anders, pecked the irenic pride of the Tall Clan, Jen Tall, her unibrowed, square jawed old timey grandmother, Nandra Tall, went Stone Age.

    My grandma lived in the country and back in the day before my time farmed, with orchard, grape arbor, etc. Her neighbor kept roosters in little individual coops on leashes, for fighting and wagering purposes. These birds were worth some scratch, as lots of money could be made on a well-bred aggressive bird.

    One morning she looked out her kitchen window to see the prime rooster in her garden, pecking her precious tomatoes!!! She was a good shot, and the .22 rifle from the back porch steps did her work. She immediately took the bird home to his previously proud owner, so it could at least be a chicken dinner that afternoon. I wish I had video of the delivery… No doubt something about keeping one’s chickens at home.

  135. 135.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    It could also be that chick what’s-her-name who joked about McCain dying. Though technically she hasn’t left yet, Trump’s been defending her and her remark.

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