Finished the Woodshed

I was thinking today that I'm a pretty busy guy ... I play golf and tennis pretty regularly, I draw for pleasure, I read (and write) a lot, and now that I've finished my woodshed, I'm about to start paddle tennis season and go back to making some pottery ... sheesh. I love it though. One of my longtimest hobbies is spare time functional carpentry. I was a carpenter for seven years before I started making furniture full time in 1980. It's waaaay more relaxing than furnituremaking (1/8" ? close enough ... nail it ... ), and I just like the process of dreaming something up in its space in the landscape, drawing it, and always having it to tinker with when I get the urge. I plan to write more on this later ...
I've been working on the woodshed below since early April and it started out in my head as something totally simple, a one pitch place to put my firewood for the wood stove we installed last year , like the one below I built in 1975 ... Then, Kit pointed out that it would be the first thing you saw when you drove up ... and then, the design just took off on it's own ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

Original in 1975 ... Pine handhewn beams (by my brother-in-law and I, broadax and all) Notice the fine mustache and trim figure

Revised sketch in the Greek revival mode to (sort of) match the house and garage .. Gable end ornaments next year...

A little inspiration from Architectural Digest ... I think I'll pass on the reflecting pool

Early April start, this spring .. Previous posts here and here

As it was this morning .... cleaned up the leftovers last thing yesterday ...

I had this piece of stained glass from my old shop. It was made in 1981 by a friend of ours, Stephen Gormley who has gone on the become an internationally famous glass artist ... Correction. ... a really big deal internationally famous glass artist Check out some of the projects on his website ...

Steve and Dan  1981, actually ... 

Anyway, we took teh window when we sold the Arlington property and I've been looking for a place to use it since we left there in 1997 ... Looks good here ..


Back side ... I put a tarp over the back for the winter .. I'll take it down for the air to flow through again next spring
I might if Sam were to get inspired to contribute some serious help, have a new metal shop in me for next summer ... We'll see ... It doesn't cost much to imagine what it might be like and I have all winter to sketch ... ..
Here are a couple other 'small, spare time buildings'

Kit's garden shed ... this one went on with the back wall unfinished for about 5 years, or maybe even more

Front side from the front porch

The garage and metal shop. Actually, I had a contractor frame and roof the main, two car part, but did the siding and metal shop on the far end as a 'spare time' thing ... That one lasted, I think 3, maybe four years

Back side with the metal shop on the far right and the wood shed just peaking out in front of the house

The sawdust shed ... All for now ... I have to find my treehouse pictures from Arlington....

The Woodshed ... Update

update 6/3/09

Ready for the roof boards ....planed and cut to length today

I did lower the pitch a bit so I could use 10' rafters
Update post 5/25

5/25/09 Well It started out innocently enough. It was just going to be a simple shed like the woodshed above I built back in 1975.... (Note the fine mustache and actual hand hewn by Dan and his Brother-in-law, Paul, beams ) ... Then it morphed, as buildings can do, and it will henceforth now be known as 'The Temple of Wood' .... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

New sketch

Inspiration photo ... I'm gonna skip the reflecting pool ...

Picked up the beams at Coleman Hills ... barely made it back over the mountain

Planed 'em, half lapped 'em, and put them up

Mocked up the pitch ... hmmm ..might lower it a little

The deck

I'm building a new woodshed this spring ... Got a stove last fall and I want to have wood with no snow on it this winter. Started a couple of weeks ago when the weather was just getting warm. It's really nice to have an outside building project in the spring time. Particularly one that doesn't involve the close tolerance work that goes on in the shop everyday. Out of square by 1/4" in in 224" ???? Noooo problem. Nail it. I won't bore you with the running commentary. Click the ones you want to see up close. I'm just diarying the process. Kit doesn't do scrapbooks anymore ....

layout

holes (by hand .. ugh)

Pete of Pete's Pizza Ovens and Barnegat Bay Sneakbox fame helped with the concrete

The concrete crew ... Pete, Sam, Dan ... Jim taking the picture

the mulch under the deck

the deck

The framing, completed .note leaves coming out

Lay dry boards tight ... add rain ... get puddle ...

and nice sunset after ... and more leaves

A Walk in the Yard ... Springtime in Vermont

It was just such an awsomely beautiful spring day that I thought I should post the pictures I took today before it turned into 'just another day in paradise' as Jimmy Buffett might say. This post is similar to 'A Walk in the Woods' , one I wrote in the fall that had the same flavor but covered a little more geography. Today, for the initial photos, I never left the yard..... If you've never seen a springtime in Vermont, it's something to see (as I guess, really, spring is something to see everywhere), but this one was mine and it was just one of those days when everything feels just right. Click the pictures to enlarge them...

I started out studying my new woodshed and had no pressing plans except to meet an old friend at his sawmill over the mountain in Bondville to get some lumber for my shed deck, stop at the other lumber yard for some red cedar for a shop project coming up and then hit some golf balls at the driving range on my way home. After that I thought I might chat with the wife, read the paper and have a beer, take a nap and do a little hammering when I woke up. Got everything done but the nap by dinner. Did the nap after dinner and here I am ... writing away ...
After my little study, I went in for another cup of coffee and went out the back door and it was just beautiful ... everywhere I looked, everywhere I went ....

Kit has the hummingbird feeders up as of yesterday. They should be arriving any minute ...

Looked to the East, to Peter's Peak, generally, the first and last sunlight in Dorset.

Turned and went past the aspargus patch ... we've been eating that for a couple days now.

Past the hay fern patch with the little (inedible) fiddleheads just coming up ...

Came around the lower edge of the lawn to the front of the house again

Past the Chinese chestnut Kit planted, also for the hummingbirds...

All that green stuff coming screaming out of one little bud at the end of each branch

Past the woodshed again and then past the crabapple about to burst into total pink on the front lawn ...

Over by the metal shop where Sam is working on a tabernackle, the part that allows the mast to hinge up and down for this Barnegat Bay Sneabox that a friend bought last year. I'm helping him with the mast tomorrow ...

Close up of the tabernackle out of it's hole. As I understand it, it's held in by gravity as the mast is held by the rigging when it's up.

Past the pear tree, about to bloom ...

and down to the ravine between the house and the shop to the wild leek patch. Came with the property.

There are also about a million red terilliams there with em.

and the stream that goes to the duck pond. You can see the shop in the backround.

Up the hill past some funky burnt sienna colored something or other

to the back of the house, and then off to Bondville, a little behind schedule ....

to Coleman Hills Farm ... About as 'Vermont Life' looking as you can get ...

Picked up my lumber and headed back over the mountain.

Stopped by Gale Meadows Pond where my wife and I fished often before we had kids...Might be fun to do that again now ...

Stopped at the scenic overlook to admire the green in the valley and the brown at the top
Had my beer, finished the deck framing, had a nice dinner, unloaded my truck, had a nice nap ... nighty night now ....