On a dark & stormy night...

I realized we haven't updated folks on the shed. Friends are starting to email (How is the shed going? Any progress on the shed? etc., etc.). So here you go.

We have been kicking ass on the shed, EXCEPT that it won't freakin' stop raining. Hello, we're wet enough already.

The good news: I can HEAR the broccoli plants growing - they're so enjoying the soaking.

The bad news: crappy weather for cedar shake siding (what's the verb for that? Cedar shaking? Cedar shake siding? I guess "applying cedar shake" but it sounds so snooty).

But, progress has occurred. Ken shingled the whole roof (shingles courtesy of the ReStore, $15!), did a lovely job with drip edge, flashed all the corners where the posts stick out, and tarpapered the sheeting.

While Mr. Roof did his thang, I cut and put on sheeting all over the sides of the shed (before the tarpaper), painted, cut, and installed all the trim, and otherwise got in the way of the shingling process. Oh, and I built an entire window jamb from scratch, using scrap wood in the garage. I had to first go to the Big Box and sketch out window jamb construction - they have a cutaway display window that was perfect. Though I got lots of odd looks with my pencil & sketchpad in the middle of the store. Joke's on them - our window was a $6 salvage jobby and the jamb was free!

Then we hunted down and watched several videos of people cedar shaking (there it is again! grr!) houses. We particularly liked this one with Tom Silva (my personal hero). What a date night activity. :)

Then Ken bravely charged ahead with a whole lotta shakin'. Neither one of us has ever worked with cedar shake so the shed was a great, small project to start with. It took all day to do one side - but we feel like the rest will be much quicker. Also, I found out that broken bundles of shake can be considered cull lumber at the Big Box, and therefore half off. The shakes aren't broken - it's just that the cable that's supposed to tie them neatly together is broken, so they look messy and there's no guarantee you have a full bundle. Sweet, though!

And finally, I looked more closely at the free door we found on the side of the road - jamb completely intact! - last year, and realized that it's totally awesome fir. So instead of quick & dirty painting, I'm in the throes of paint stripping - again - but it's turning out to be gorgeous. So Susie - maybe you feel better knowing that someone else is elbow-deep in the goo this week.

Anyways, here's where she stands, sopping wet in the dark and with only one side clad. (I'm not even going to try it - shaken? Shaked? Ugh. I give up.)