Our first task was finding a door for the shed. I've always wanted a dutch door (door cut in half). I think this idea started after my first Mr. Ed experience. Seriously, what kid wouldn't want a door that let their horse hang out?! So, I found this "really cool" architectural salvage place (online) in north Austin. So, this "really cool place" turned out to be a "mecca of overpriced hippy stuff with terrible customer service" (slightly revised - direct quote from Jeff). Hey, it's a family friendly blog and what he actually said wouldn't make sense with all the redacted words. We did find a door I liked but at $85.00 it wasn't in the budget.
On a last minute whim we decided to go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore downtown Austin. We found the perfect door.
I painted it (Mint Majesty by Behr) and Jeff cut it in half. We had our new backyard neighbor, Frank, helping us that weekend. That's him holding the lights since this picture was taken at 9:30 Saturday night.
Once the door was finished (read: cut in half but half hung), the guys went to work on the porch. They completed the roof and topped it off with a beautiful tongue and groove ceiling.
And that was the end of week 2. A Glamor Shot of the shed at the end of the weekend:
That week we both went to our day jobs and returned home Friday with a plan to finish the shed. Lofty goals. The next step was to add the Hardie plank siding, paint, add the sofits and trim, paint again, and finally to hang the door. We got halfway through our list before it was Sunday evening.
Observations regarding Hardie siding:
It's heavy...very heavy.
It's made of concrete.
It hurts when it's dropped on your head.
OUCH! When we were hanging a piece of siding, it slipped and fell on top of my head. I cried a little. I held my hand over my head to apply pressure (in case of extreme bleeding; none BTW) and tried to walk it off by going around the house. As I walked to the garage a SNAKE slithered in front of me and INTO the garage. I cried harder.
After this experience, I went inside to take a break. Don't judge me. I was in pain and had just run into a snake. A SNAKE! After 45 minutes I went back outside ready to kick some butt. Only to have a metal tool fall and hit me on the head 15 minutes later. I went and sat in the hammock for a few minutes after that.
Despite all the bumps and bruises and SNAKES, we made great progress. Here's the latest picture of the shed.
What a keen eye you have. Yes, that's a paint swatch on top of the already painted shed. I ended up hating the purple/grey color (Dolphin Fin - Behr). Looks like I'll be repainting the shed this weekend (Paving Stones - Behr). More pictures to come, I'm sure.
