Building the Backyard Shed

When we tore down our garage, we knew we’d need to get some sort of shed to store tools and garden accessories.  However, since building the fence was the first priority, we were stuck with an ugly storage container for the summer.

 

We found an 8x12’ pre-fab shed at Lowes that would work perfectly in the back corner of our yard.  Unfortunately, it came in a million pieces (you can see the pile of shed pieces hiding under the blue tarp in the photo above!)

After seeing how much water pools in our backyard during heavy summer rains, we decided to pour a concrete pad as a base for the shed.

Last weekend, we finally got started building it.  Dave built all the walls and then got some help from our neighbours to put it all together (thanks Jim and Jose!)

  
Finally, we put on the roof and added shingles.

 
Next, we’ll paint the trim and install the window and doors.  Then, we’ll build the shelving inside the shed.  Soon, we’ll be able to finally get rid of our storage container!

Porch Railing

When we last showed you our new front porch, all that was left to do was get a new railing.  After wandering through the neighbourhood and checking out the different styles of railings that people have, we decided to go with an aluminum railing.

While we had some issues with the quality of the installation, we were happy with the look of our new railing once things were corrected.

 

It’s definitely an improvement over the rusty old railing.  Here are the before and after:

The Backyard Fence

Our new backyard fence is complete!  The fence runs down one side of the backyard, where the garage used to be. 

As mentioned in a previous post, our official parking spot (which we will use as a patio) is located in our backyard.  Eventually, our deck will connect to the driveway end of the fence.  The patio is still a bit of a mess of supplies for future projects, including the shed that we plan to build in the back corner of the property.

 

We built the fence out of cedar which was a mutual decision with our neighbour. At each step of assembly, to protect the wood, we finished it using Behr Cedar Natural Tone weatherproofing wood finish.  It was a very time consuming project, but we’re really happy with the result.