Shed

Back in January we constructed a shed in the backyard. We bought a vinyl one from Costco, and it's roughly 7.5' by 9.0' We had to make a pea-gravel foundation to raise the structure several inches above the grass; we had to make a foundation anyway, since the poured foundation that was in the backyard was not level and damaged. We built a wooden frame out of 2 x 4s and placed it on top of the bad foundation. Then we poured pea-gravel into the empty frame and leveled the whole.

Front of shed:



Side of shed:




Inside of shed:





Once we built the shed, we filled it with all the gardening supplies from the garage. We then cleaned out the garage and installed a tool bench, and a tool rack. Unfortuantely we forgot to take pictures during the construction process, but it was a fairly easy job.

The tool bench with miter saw and tool rack:







Having built a shed, we then started thinking about what would be the easiest way to mow around it. After talking with my mom we decided to build a "porch" in front of the doors, and then make a gravel bed all around the edges. The gravel bed is something we know we should have done before - it will better anchor the foundation by providing support from the outside to keep everything in place.

The porch part was a little time consuming. Nate killed most of the glass where we planned to lay the pavers two months ago with Roundup. Then we pulled away the dead grass and moved the dirt/mud around to make it angle away from the shed. Once that was close, we added some sand and placed the pavers. We worked on two pavers at a time, from one door to the edge, and then from the other door to the edge.

Dead grass:



Pavers set out on the grass:





Placing the pavers:





Leveling:







Aftwards we placed sand on the top and I swept it into the cracks. The sand was somewhat wet, and I've found that it needs a couple of applications to settle all the way between the cracks. We are happy with the result.









We still need to finish the edge next to the shed, and fill that with gravel. I'll add those pictures once we've finished the project.