This is the shed that Helen (and others) built

It has taken a while. I bought the shed kit back in July, tried get a concrete slab organised a bit later but had trouble connecting with contractors, had the unmade plans interrupted when the neighbour arranged to replace the ageing side fence (and then those contractors were delayed), and then had a bit more trouble connecting with concreting contractors, but finally, at the beginning of December a concrete man turned up and started digging a hole and putting in some formwork, prior to the arrival of a concrete truck which somehow managed to manoeuvre into and out of my long driveway. At the end of the day I had a slab. At the end of the next week I had a slab ready for things to be built on it.

It was then time to rally some assistance (my sister Catherine, who has skills in things construction-y, and my Dad, who has assembled the odd one or two sheds in his time) and to start assembling the shed. There was an online video to show some of the key steps; this made it seem that the whole process should be straightforward and quick. 

But no. There were misaligned holes, missing screws, and things that had to be undone and then redone without clear instructions, places where there should have been holes but weren’t, and various other niggly frustrations along the way.

Eventually all the panels were assembled and we could enlist some extra help (Imogen and Joshua) to start putting the shed structure into place.

The roof proved particularly problematic, but eventually we got it into position … but by this time it was nearly 10pm and my hopes of finishing the job before sunset at worst were well-and-truly dashed (so much for the ten minute video!). We hadn’t even begun to anchor it to the slab, so I had to go to the Scout hall for some big tent pegs and rope to tie it down for a couple of days until Catherine could return with a decent drill and appropriate masonry bit.

A day or two later and Catherine had got the shed anchored; I managed to finish off all the extra screws (the ones with no pre-drilled holes) and gable ends, and so, at last, we had a shed.

Because the shed is going to be used to store some of Lisa’s memorabilia for the kids, I decided that I should probably line it with some insulation to reduce the range of any temperature fluctuations. This turned into a bit of a saga as well, until I got the hang of the best way of affixing the lining. Once I did, though, it was just a matter of methodically working my way around all the panels, using the foil/foam insulation as efficiently as possible. At the end of a few days of off and on work I had managed to line the whole shed with very little left over of the big roll of insulation.

“All” that remains is to fill it … in some vaguely organised fashion.