Little Garden Shed

I built a little garden shed! My vision was 6' X 6', but it turned out a little bigger because I'm an accountant, not a builder. However, I love to build stuff, even if I don't do everything right. I also needed a little storage for my garden accessories. Pictures will show my gardens were rip roaring at the time I took these pictures. And lastly, I wanted to build a shed roof because they are so appealing to me, both in the way they look and also because this old lady can do it alone.

4 concrete deck blocks, 2 X 6 floor joists, 2 X 4's for walls, cedar siding, rubber roof, windows, lots of screws, lots of bandaids.

It's really as simple as buying some concrete deck blocks and placing them in a square for a shed this small. First, you gotta dig to make the concrete deck blocks level. It's a lot of measuring, digging, and making sure everything is level and square. This took hours upon hours. And once the blocks are all level, then you gotta get those heavy 2 X 6's to fit in the deck blocks and screw them together. I spent a lot of time getting this square. Fortunately, I had my cats keeping me company.

Sadly I only have 1 picture of the floor. These are 2 X 6's covered with plywood, covered with plastic because it rained, and I'll have a teeny tiny front porch to sit on with my coffee while I admire my garden.

Next, I went to the garage and built my 4 walls. A neighbor was giving away free old windows, so I built the walls so the free windows could fit. Later, I replaced the old school used windows with Menards windows.

Probably the most rewarding part of building is when you get to put the walls together. You can see I was working sometimes into the evening. I screwed everything in rather than nailing. I'm afraid of nailguns and if I make a mistake, I can unscrew. It's harder to remove a nail. All 3 walls up. The 4th wall, the front, is slightly taller than the other sides, to make way for the shed roof.

I used 2 X 4's for the roof joists. Saved a lot of money! I thought 2 X 6's would be overkill. I then cut plywood and hauled it up in sections and screwed the plywood onto the 2 X 4's.

I used beveled cedar siding from Menards. Super expensive, and hard to find good pieces. Each side of the shed was probably $200 worth of siding. It stains well. I was testing out stains as I went along. I did not use plywood under the siding. The cedar was screwed in directly onto the 2 X 4's. It's just a shed!

I had experience with rubber roofs because I built a tiny house years ago. Menards sells rubber roof kits. They come with the roll of rubber and the termination bars which hold the edges down, plus the adhesive. You buy the rubber in a big heavy roll, lay it out in the yard, and cut to fit with a generous overhang. You then climb up there and lay it so it hangs over each edge, and you let it rest for 30 minutes. You then fold it halfway down like you would a bedsheet, and spread on some stinky adhesive to the plywood ceiling, then fold it back over the adhesive, use a broom to put pressure on the adhered rubber, then fold up the other half and do the same. After the adhesive is dry, you can install the termination bars, and then trim the excess rubber.

I added a cat door but my cats are too fat to get through. For the interior flooring, I got some old barn wood, which is a nice touch. I added some aluminum siding for the front to give it kind of an industrial look and also because I ran out of cedar siding. For the front door, my neighbor gave me an old door with a window, which I painted green. I am also working on an awning to put over the door to hide my crooked frame and door installation. For the interior, I added a corner shelf where one of my cats sleeps. I also added a few other shelves.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. With the windows in, the squirrels can no longer sneak in and rip up my grow bags. It's a great place to store my shovels and seeds and all sorts of gardening paraphernalia.