Happy birthday to me

As of today I can no longer officially (or at least truthfully) say, "I just turned 40." Now I have to say, "I'm in my early 40s." Anyway. It's my birthday. Thanks to all who've gotten in touch to wish me well.

Moving on:


Above is the basic plan for the front of the infamous building. Click the image for a BIG picture, including questions at the bottom.

To respond to various comments:

1. Robin, hi! Great to hear from you.

2. I'll just post on my progress here. No name yet, though there are a few I'm considering. I might do a separate website at some point too if I end up producing any interesting work out of it.

3. I will definitely check out Reuse and Restore – thanks for the info! Urban Ore IS pretty pricey, for a salvage yard.

4. Nice talking to you this morning, Beans – I will be going over these plans with Dad & would love to have you guys come out and help nail it together, if you have the time!

5. About the toenail fungus – my black toe incident was sixteen years ago, but you're on the right track with the toe injury theory – MY toenail fungus issues started right after an ingrown toenail got smashed by a falling cinderblock. Yee-ow!

6. About permits – the nice lady at the county assured me I don't need one, as long as the building does not exceed 120 square feet. So that's why it's going to be 10x12.

I'm doing framing sketches now so I can put together my shopping list. I'm also considering something several people have suggested – that I draw up a plan for what I have, and have the Tuff Shed people build it for me as a frame kit, or hire someone local to do the whole thing. Part of me says, YES! No slaving away in the hot sun cutting and hammering all summer – the sooner the building is done, the sooner I can get to work on all my other ideas. But a bigger part of me really wants the experience of building it myself. Everyone in my family builds houses. I grew up in a series of three houses that were constantly under construction; with the last two my parents designed them and supervised the construction themselves. I've built fences, arbors, chicken coops, dog houses and room additions ... This is just a tiny little 120 square foot shed – I don't think it's going to be all that hard to put together. Exacting and time-consuming, yes, especially since it's my first actual human-size building – but not hard.

Yikes. Doth I protest too much? The truth is I know this is going to be a lot of work for one person, and it's important to me that it be perfect. Also, Sunday morning I had an especially disturbing nightmare that alerted me to the fact that this project holds some major symbolic significance to me – it's more than just a shed to draw and play and do yoga in. So I'm going to need to spend a little time with some of those issues before I get too much further into it.

Anyway – here's the south wall. Just one door, no windows. The facing wall on the north side will have one or two windows. The front wall is ten feet, sloping down to eight feet at the back. The back wall backs up into trees and may have a shallow row of windows just under the roofline, or a door, or maybe just all shelves.

Both of these drawings are pretty much exactly to scale, by the way. Of course it will eventually become all gnarly and weathered, with all kinds of vines and plants growing up all over everything. I'm envisioning it staying pretty rustic. Kind of like the photo at the top of Rozanne's blog, actually! I've been drawing and collecting photos of this type of building since before I started college, so it was cool to find a picture right here in my own personal blogosphere where it is convenient to direct those curious about my vision of the "after." Thanks, friend!