Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Shed Plans are Complete


During the cold, nasty winter New England weather, we've been working on our shed plans. We've decided that the main project for 2011 will be to build the shed. There will be other things to do of course, but that will be the main goal.
We are planning to build a "monitor style" barn with one wing. I found a great set of plan in a book about building your own barns. Our goal is to have three areas: parking for a rider lawn mower and tractor, a workshop area, and a storage area. The plans we chose fit that bill perfectly.
We are planning to do all aspects of building the shed ourselves. So over the winter, we are getting our plans on paper. These are plans that we will submit with our building permit. It has also forced us to investigate what building materials we will use and the steps involved. It is also helping us develop our budget.
We know the first things we'll have to do is clear the building site and dig the foundation hole. But to do that, we have to buy a machine (tractor). Justin has been doing research on what machine will best suit all our needs. I think he's narrowed it down quite a bit, and has been looking online for one. So once we buy that and spring comes, we can get started.
I'm excited to be doing this ourselves. I've taken on the responsibility of developing the blueprints and creating a materials list. I have never done any framing (except building a dog house - which came out great by the way), and after all the research I've done, I think I can do this.