In planning our home renovations, we have deliberately chosen living space over storage space. Our philosophy has always been that it’s better to cull your belongings to fit smaller storage than lose real floorspace to store rarely used things. Our bungalow doesn’t have a garage, so there’s no place other than the shed to put outdoor stuff like tools, bicycles, tents and sports equipment.

When we moved in, we put up a Winchester shed by Royal (that link is to the company, but for some reason they don’t have anything on their site about their great sheds). It’s 100% vinyl, so it will never need painting, it went together very easily, and it looks as good 10 years later as it did when I put it up.

The old 8×10 Winchester wasn’t cutting it anymore, though. With 7 bicycles, the lawnmower, sports equipment, sleds and camping gear the shed was a thigh-deep pile of interlocking junk. I decided it was time to do something about it. I’m going to put up a few posts here about how I went about organizing the back yard storage.

The first step was adding more floor space. With the bicycles and the lawn mower, there just wasn’t enough room for it all. Royal sells a small lean-to style shed that matches the Winchester, so we bought it and I put it up:

I put it on the same kind of base as the original: pressure treated 2×4 frame covered with pressure treated 2×4 decking, all sitting on pressure treated 6×6 beams. I dug 12″ deep trenches where the beams go, and half filled them with well-packed large limestone gravel for drainage. Then I assembled the shed and ta-da….

It looked terrible.

Even though the two decks were perfectly even, the peak of the new shed was at least 2 inches higher than the roofline of the old one. Wouldn’t you think that two sheds, by the same maker, that seem to be designed to fit together, would actually FIT TOGETHER? Nope.

I set up some pulleys and eyebolts and with the help of a large team of child labour we managed to slide the entire shed and its base off the beams. Then I removed the beams and redug the trenches deeper. We hauled the shed back up on to the beams and it now matches and looks fine. You can see in the picture that the small shed’s deck is lower than the large one. Stupidest design flaw ever.

But it’s in. And, with some shelving and organization, it will be enough space for a while.

Hopefully.

Related posts:

1. Getting Sorted Out
2. My First Lee Valley Disappointment
3. Forget Heroin, Try Decluttering
4. Shelving Factory