I've been absent from the blogosphere for the last few weeks, heavily engaged in but not finding time to write about eminently blogable events - a trip to Florida, the annual Burk family picnic, hosting Floridians and Texans at Wiser Times, the 28th edition of the Spinner Invitational, another trip to Florida, and my 50th year high school reunion. During this time I've had very little time in front of my keyboard. And what I did have I indulgently used to rest my brain through one of my favorite activities - looking for more cowboy/dinosaur movies on ebay.
But finally, I've dropped out of warp drive and slowed to half-impulse, so it's time to catch up on a few things that need to be documented for posterity. Let's start with this way overdue item - The Barn.
When Nancy and I first acquired Wiser Times in 2005, it had two outbuildings. Both were extremely tired storage sheds. The first was in such bad shape that we had it torn down in the first few weeks. It was a roughly 8' by 10' wooden mini-barn that stood on the slab on the road side of the cottage now occupied by our grill-area picnic table. And as far as I can tell from a search of our extensive photo archives, we have no picture of this ailing structure (in this shutterbug-happy family, that's quite an affirmation of disregard).
The second outbuilding fared somewhat better. It was a rusted steel shed on a partially disintegrated plywood platform nested discreetly in the stand of pine trees between US 23 and the back of the cottage. Here is a shot from 2007 of this fixer-upper and its humble owner.
Note the fact that the door opening is approximately eight inches lower than the top of my head. This unfortunate fact dis-endeared me even further from this wretched assembly of sharp edges, exposed metal screw tips, splintered flooring and twisted metal hangars, most of which hung right about eye-level. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that I had way more stuff crammed into this chipmunk hotel than the designers had likely contemplated. My aging cranium survived frequent trips into the bowels of this man-eater only because I placed (after a number of wounds - slow learner) pieces from an old Styrofoam noodle around the most lethal of the threats.
Despite my rocky relationship with this killer shed, it actually survived for almost ten years. It's only redeeming virtue - that it was there - turned out to be a powerful force. That and the fact that it was going to cost more to replace it than the cash I was laying out for first aid supplies.
The shed even had a rebirth of sorts in 2010. During one of my reorganizing fits (see The Purge) I cleaned a lot of old stuff out of the shed and reinforced the floor a bit. Nancy even gave it a fresh coat of paint. Here's a shot of her handiwork.
The second outbuilding fared somewhat better. It was a rusted steel shed on a partially disintegrated plywood platform nested discreetly in the stand of pine trees between US 23 and the back of the cottage. Here is a shot from 2007 of this fixer-upper and its humble owner.
Note the fact that the door opening is approximately eight inches lower than the top of my head. This unfortunate fact dis-endeared me even further from this wretched assembly of sharp edges, exposed metal screw tips, splintered flooring and twisted metal hangars, most of which hung right about eye-level. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that I had way more stuff crammed into this chipmunk hotel than the designers had likely contemplated. My aging cranium survived frequent trips into the bowels of this man-eater only because I placed (after a number of wounds - slow learner) pieces from an old Styrofoam noodle around the most lethal of the threats.
Despite my rocky relationship with this killer shed, it actually survived for almost ten years. It's only redeeming virtue - that it was there - turned out to be a powerful force. That and the fact that it was going to cost more to replace it than the cash I was laying out for first aid supplies.
The shed even had a rebirth of sorts in 2010. During one of my reorganizing fits (see The Purge) I cleaned a lot of old stuff out of the shed and reinforced the floor a bit. Nancy even gave it a fresh coat of paint. Here's a shot of her handiwork.
This is as good as the old eyesore ever looked, but this minor restoration only postponed the inevitable. The shed was just too small, too flimsy and too full of hazards to accommodate our needs and health care budget as I was still bumping my head on a regular basis during ingress and egress (there was even a rumor that the odd wrinkles and dents in the doors were remnants from an incident involving a large hammer after a particularly painful head banging episode; after binge-watching Forensic Files a few times, I'm pretty sure no one could ever really prove anything).
So last year Nancy and I finally concluded that we needed a new shed. That brings us back to The Barn. We started out by surfing the Web for replacement sheds. Wood. Metal. Plastic. We checked them all out. Nothing really grabbed us. So we expanded our thinking. Perhaps our gazebo builder (a local contractor named Dave) would put up a shed for us. It would be more expensive, probably. But it would be nicer.
We then moved a little toward the edge of the box. We entertain a lot at the cottage. Maybe we could have Dave add a small room at the back of the shed that could accommodate the occasional overnight guest? Sort of a bunkhouse. Yeah. That sounds cool.
Soon we had one foot over the edge. How about a garage? We could make it big enough to house the car and all of the items we were keeping in the shed. Wow. Yeah. Cool. Now you're talkin'.
Then - it was cocktail hour, and we stumbled totally out of the box. After filtering our thoughts through a couple of pre-mixed Wiser's Manhattans, it all became clear. We NEED the garage, the storage space AND a room for overflow company. Sure. What could be better? We should have seen this right from the start. Dave - here we come!
Before you could say "holy building permit", this beauty showed up in our back yard.
Okay. It wasn't quite that fast. First there was the builder's contract, plans, and (oh yeah) a check. Then a couple of two-steps with "Miss Dig" (turns out there are gas lines all over my backyard). The formal courting of the Greenbush Township Zoning Commission followed, and then the best part - removal of the old shed. I asked Dave to be gentle. He was. At the proper time, he and his backhoe took the shed down and relocated it to some secret used shed burial ground out in the great North American forest.
So over the winter we watched the birthing and development of what we now call The Barn. We were able catch most of the work on our roadside security camera which overlooks the work site. Here are some (of the hundreds of) shots of the "rising", just to give you the complete picture.
First, the newly poured slab and footings - 16' by 22'.
The initial framing.
The Barn is pretty tall, owing to above ground footings raising the garage ceiling to 9' and a full 8' ceiling in the bonus room. Considering the second floor joists and the attic space, the whole structure is over 20' high. A nice benefit of this height is a great view from the bonus room windows of the lake.
Next came the exterior walls and roughing in of the bonus room (which is fully insulated on all sides).
Then the roof and the siding and the 3' wide stairway to the bonus room on the north side of the building.
Once the stairway was done, we had the builder finish off the bonus room, which we now refer to as The Loft. Here are some final shots of the completed loft, garage space and surrounding area as they look today.
So last year Nancy and I finally concluded that we needed a new shed. That brings us back to The Barn. We started out by surfing the Web for replacement sheds. Wood. Metal. Plastic. We checked them all out. Nothing really grabbed us. So we expanded our thinking. Perhaps our gazebo builder (a local contractor named Dave) would put up a shed for us. It would be more expensive, probably. But it would be nicer.
We then moved a little toward the edge of the box. We entertain a lot at the cottage. Maybe we could have Dave add a small room at the back of the shed that could accommodate the occasional overnight guest? Sort of a bunkhouse. Yeah. That sounds cool.
Soon we had one foot over the edge. How about a garage? We could make it big enough to house the car and all of the items we were keeping in the shed. Wow. Yeah. Cool. Now you're talkin'.
Then - it was cocktail hour, and we stumbled totally out of the box. After filtering our thoughts through a couple of pre-mixed Wiser's Manhattans, it all became clear. We NEED the garage, the storage space AND a room for overflow company. Sure. What could be better? We should have seen this right from the start. Dave - here we come!
Before you could say "holy building permit", this beauty showed up in our back yard.
Okay. It wasn't quite that fast. First there was the builder's contract, plans, and (oh yeah) a check. Then a couple of two-steps with "Miss Dig" (turns out there are gas lines all over my backyard). The formal courting of the Greenbush Township Zoning Commission followed, and then the best part - removal of the old shed. I asked Dave to be gentle. He was. At the proper time, he and his backhoe took the shed down and relocated it to some secret used shed burial ground out in the great North American forest.
So over the winter we watched the birthing and development of what we now call The Barn. We were able catch most of the work on our roadside security camera which overlooks the work site. Here are some (of the hundreds of) shots of the "rising", just to give you the complete picture.
First, the newly poured slab and footings - 16' by 22'.
The initial framing.
The Barn is pretty tall, owing to above ground footings raising the garage ceiling to 9' and a full 8' ceiling in the bonus room. Considering the second floor joists and the attic space, the whole structure is over 20' high. A nice benefit of this height is a great view from the bonus room windows of the lake.
Next came the exterior walls and roughing in of the bonus room (which is fully insulated on all sides).
Then the roof and the siding and the 3' wide stairway to the bonus room on the north side of the building.
Once the stairway was done, we had the builder finish off the bonus room, which we now refer to as The Loft. Here are some final shots of the completed loft, garage space and surrounding area as they look today.
So there you have it. From the top, on our transition from rundown shed to a brand spanking new
barn. In 98 simple steps.
It's good to be back. Talk to you again soon.
Grosse Pointe Charles
