'One Shed' McDonnells

 

   There's a Monty Python skit in which a famous composer is being interviewed on TV. But the interviewer is obsessed with the composer's nickname, which is "Two Sheds." Instead of talking about music, the interviewer keeps asking about these two sheds. It's funny, if you like that sort of humor. It's on YouTube: Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson.

   We used to have two sheds, but now we have only one shed. The two sheds have merged. When we bought our home in suburban Wannaska in 1974, there were two 8x10 sheds on the property. One had been a chicken coop and the other was good for storage.

   When the kids were young we kept chickens until we got that out of our system.  When the chickens left we cleaned out the coop and used it for storage. Twenty years ago, the coop was already in need of maintenance. The roof shingles were blowing off in the winter gales and the wooden siding began cracking. I wanted to tear it down, but Teresa said it had classic lines and put it on our list of historic places.

   The other shed, the non-chicken coop was holding up better. Animals, even chickens, can be hard on a place. When we built the Shêdeau, our guest house, ten years ago this shed was in the way, so our friend Steve came with his tractor and pulled the shed across the yard and lined it up ten feet south of the coop. And there they sat, serving as places to store our  surplus stuff as they quietly returned to the earth.

   The next part is my own fault. I found a picture of a cute potting shed and made the mistake of showing it to Teresa. She liked it and thought it would be nice to have a place to put dirt into flower pots and wash produce from the garden. We had a left-over sink in a corner of the coop which could be used in the potting shed. Over the next few years we contacted numerous builders to turn the building into a potting shed. But the job was too small for them. All the builders were busy building houses.

   We even offered to fly my carpenter brother in Maine out. He was interested, but then started building a garage for his own place. OK, we'll do-it-ourselves then! I decided to start on the coop and acquire the skills needed for the more formidable potting shed. 

   First I bought a load of tongue and grove wooden siding. Have you bought lumber lately? Wow! It's expensive. I painted the siding and our friend Joe dropped off his chop saw for my use. This saw substantially cut down on the amount of time it took me to correct my numerous mistakes. Teresa and I pulled off the remaining siding and the plywood roof and shingles. From inside the coop the 2x4s supporting the roof looked good, but with the plywood gone, I could see some of them were rotten and would have to be replaced.

   I won't bore you with the details of the reconstruction. Over the next month I put in five to six hours most days re-siding and reroofing the shed. For the roof I used recycled corrugated steel roofing that had to be cut to fit. A couple of carpenters could have done in two days what took me a month. Mistakes take lots of time to correct. Wood is hard to compress, but it's even harder to stretch, so I learned to cut long and trim to fit.

   When I was half way done, Teresa said we should pull the two sheds together. I was against this at first as an unnecessary complication, but she convinced me by saying no one could ever call us 'Two Sheds' again. Steve came over with his tractor and soon the sheds were joined at their back walls.

   With the coop done and looking good the hard part, the potting shed, now loomed. I thought we had done enough for one year, but our son Matt in Massachusetts heard of our project and he and his wife Heather flew out to help. Matt is an excellent self-taught carpenter.  

  We just spent Monday and Tuesday of this past week getting a huge start on the potting shed. Teresa and I can continue to work on the shed before winter sets in. We are grateful to our helpful friends and especially to Matt and Heather.

Soon to be cute potting shed with coop annex


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Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson's second best shed