A new neighbour was showing me the work they were doing in their garden and said they were getting rid of the shed. I offered to buy it from them and they said we could have it for free.
Of course everything has a cost. Mine was about 6 days of work. In one back corner of our garden there is a wasteland. Think post-apocalyptic. We had no idea what we were going to do back there as it would require quite a bit of work, and until there was a purpose, a vision if you will, we didn't know what the work would be.
But now we have the vision, the purpose. We have a shed.
As a result I spent a number of days excavating - the land is not level. And I had to go slightly deeper then I would have liked. There were rocks under the fine soil, some as large as a schoolboy's head. And tree roots as well. The tree is long gone, but those roots were up to 4" across.
So as well as a shed I now have an axe.
In the end I dug out more than a ton of soil, and although I didn't find any Roman ruins - not uncommon around here - I did find some bottle cstoppers that are amore than 80 years old.
I then carted nearly a ton of pebbles from the front to the back in smallish tubs. We might have a shed and an axe, but we don't have a wheelbarrow. Oh, and front to back is mostly steps.
The excavation then needed to be leveled, with a weed membrane put down, and cement blocks to keep the shed of the block. Then a layer of pebbles to allow for drainage, and it was done.
I must say I am pleased with the results. It was a race again time before the weather became too cold, and despite being chilly and damp each day I did beat the clock. There still needs to be work done in that corner, and the now-dismantled shed needs a few repairs before being assembled, but that corner is now almost civilised.
And so we have a shed, and and axe. And in telling this tale to a friend, who asked why I didn't use a wheelbarrow, we now have one of those. He had a spare, an old one which he was getting rid of.
I might wait till the weather warms a little before erecting the shed.
But did I mention, we now have a shed.
