Okay, so the new shed is in.

Next it’s time to do some organizing. The big shed looked like this inside (actually, this is AFTER I had removed at least a third of the stuff and then remembered to take pictures):

The first step was to get some order to the piles of sports equipment. Lee Valley sells these hangers which let you put blue recycling boxes or Rubbermaid bins on the wall. I hung some 1x4s on the wall to spread out the load of the hangers, and mounted a bunch. I left enough room underneath for a row to sit on the floor, and enough room between them to put things in and take things out without having to take the bins down. They look great:

I then added some homemade shelves, hung on simple triangular plywood brackets. The wooden thing against the back wall is a very large wooden loom that we’re storing until we have space in the basement to assemble it.

I wanted a shelf across the back, but I didn’t want to interfere with the loom stored at the back, the bin hangers or the stack of hockey sticks that go in the back corner, so I hung one end from the ceiling. I think it worked out okay, we’ll see if it’s still there in the spring…

I added a large (4×3 or a bit larger) shelf at just-higher-than-lawnmower height to the small shed for the camping and gardening gear:

And it’s done!

With bikes!

Here’s a link to the photo gallery of the above images if you want larger looks.

I’m very happy with how it turned out. My two goals were 1) As little as possible on the floor, and 2) Enough room to get the bikes in and out without causing damage or having to get them all out to get at a certain bike. Mission accomplished.

Now I can get upset at how the toys aren’t back in the bins or the bikes aren’t back in the shed, rather than being upset at the disaster mess in the shed. Progress!

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.

Jenn found this great post on instructables on making a cute Halloween decoration for outside.

I have a number of circles to cut out of plywood soon (bedroom decorating project, polka dots…) so I took this opportunity to spend some time making a simple circle cutting jig for the bandsaw and practice with it! Some gloss white paint, 10 minutes on Google Image Search for “bat silhouette” to find a good one, some scrollsaw work and flat black spray paint (outside on the steps in the dark in the rain…) and voila!

I chose the size of the moon based on the scientific and mathematical process of “What’s the largest piece of scrap plywood I have in the shop right now?”. It’s not as large as the one in the instructable, next year I’ll make one that’s about 150% larger. I put some heavy picture wire across the back using some short screws and hung it with these brick clips from Lee Valley, which work very well.

We’re really happy with it, and I have plans to make more for different seasons. A giant snowflake for winter, a Christmas decoration, a flower for spring, perhaps. I’m going to need some accountability help though, so I don’t turn in to one of those people who fills my yard with plywood figures of people bent over gardening and showing their bloomers, or little children hiding against the wall, or plywood cowboys.

It was a sad day.

A great silicone scraper broke. All the Pages loved this scraper. It worked well and it was easy to clean. What a sad little scraper.

I slipped out of the mourning crowd and entered the workshop. I knew a handle had to be both strong and water resistant. Finally, I had a use for that block of lignum vitae! It’s the hardest wood known to man, and it was used in olden days for propeller bearings on ships, and for block and tackle. Carpenters often have mallets made out of a single piece (handle and all) of lignum vitae. A year or so ago, I got a 16″ x 4″ x 1″ block for $10 at a clearance sale at that greatest of all stores, Lee Valley, and I’ve been looking for something to do with it. I checked on the ‘net and found that it’s nontoxic and is often used for spoons and other cooking utensils, so I was confident I could do something for our poor scraper. I took a small section off of one end or the block and set to work with band saw, newly acquired scroll saw, and copious amounts of sandpaper.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Lignum vitae is incredible to work with. Its sap is actually waxy, so it cuts rather easily and it sands and polishes up like nothing else I’ve ever seen. I stopped at a fairly course 400 grit sandpaper, but I’m sure that if I moved up to 1000 or so this handle would shine like glass with no finish on it at all. The finished product works beautifully and I think it will outlast any of the other wooden spoons (and hopefully most of the plastic ones) that we own.

Now I have all sorts of dreams about other things to make with the rest of my block of lignum vitae, and I’m pretty sure MrsPages does too.

In trying to furnish the kids rooms, we have been looking for some shelves to put on the wall. We found the perfect shelves at Home Depot and bought a pair. A few days later we decided to go buy more, because we will put two or three in each kids room.

They no longer carry them. We bought the last ones.

Sigh.

But wait! What’s that on the horizon? A bird? A plane? No! It’s WOODWORKER MAN!

Working from the ones we bought, I whipped up a pattern and then LittlePage3 and I knocked out another dozen or so shelves. LittlePage2 assisted with rounding edges and voila. The ones in the front are from the store, the pile in the back are the ones we made.

See dear? All that money, time and floor space in the basement isn’t for nothing!