The foundation

Day one goes very quickly and smoothly. After ordering wood, the delivery arrives and it is all unloaded. Next Michel and JJ start putting the frame of the base of the shed together. Measuring well has paid off and also having an assistant is a huge boost.

Meanwhile I have discovered that I need to form an opinion on windows. And really, up until now, I didn't have one. At the same time, I need to learn the limitations of the local renovation stores. I surf around, I measure, I consider, I scratch my head. Finally, in desperation, I make a Pinterest board. My problem becomes clear. I need windows from 3 different stores because none of them sells the same stuff.

Finally, in order to simplify my thinking, I decide that windows should have one purpose, either to give light or for ventilation. All these big windows opening up in odd ways are just watering down their true purpose. All these windows with screens for airing the house or shed are just pretending to provide light as they'll provide shadows and patterns instead.

So now I have narrowed our options down to a skylight and picture window, neither of which opens up, for good light for photography. And two cheap shed windows that can be opened that can vent the place. Phew. Not sure if that will work but it allows me to move away from the cute awming window I was considering for several hours. As we are carless city dwellers, I also need to keep track of which shops will deliver and how much etc. etc. We are starting to narrow down our design options to the cheapest best walkable materials.

While oldest child measures with the precision of a diamond cutter, youngest child is asked to interrupt his self-directed course in graphic design to try out some paint colours. He adds textures and places it in the proper context so we can visualize it all better. As a family project, it is engaging.

Planning some more

Now we are into the stage of thinking hard and designing. I guess we could have done that before but it is very hot and it is summer. So we consult friends and family and gather tips and ideas. We install Sketchup and look at a friend's shed plans. I even attempt a Sketchup plan of my own but I'm still clicking on beginner tutorials while Michel has mapped out a lovely and precise pencil sketch that is more accurate. Why reinvent the wheel?

I insist on a model or maquette so he obliges with a quick cardboard model. I spend a long time studying windows on other people's studios and on various websites, then we fiddle with bits of paper and decide on the window layout. Well, I also suggested Michel dream on it and I did the same. And in the morning we compared our dreams and they contained the same window/door layout so it seemed like we might as well just go with that. Sometimes it is helpful to use a few psi tools in the creative process.

Making space

So we've demolished most of a fence and apparently some of it will be coming back. And now we have a big pile of concrete blocks all over the yard. Why not use them to create a surface under the shed, instead of the usual kinds of blocks people buy?

Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself. First the old shed needs to get out of the way so that takes Michel a day or so, emptying the shed, dismantling and bringing it to the Eco-Centre for recycling.

Now the yard is pretty much clear and he can begin mapping out the shed-to-be. There is some confusion about how large it can be based on unclear rules on the city by-law site but eventually he settles on the correct size, 8'x12'.

The planning is next, lots of debate about old vs. new materials, different ways of buying materials (Kijiji? Home Depot? Rona? Craigslist?), delivery options, prices, sizes ... google google shed shed and we eventually agree on some kind of design.

In the beginning

When we moved into our home our backyard was a big open gravel driveway shared with the neighbour on the right whose tenants regularly parked under our living room window. So we built a fence and put in some raised beds, some plants, a wading pool for the kids and went on with their young lives. Later we added some flagstone for cars that might occasionally want to park in the back and a small shed from Home Depot for storing some tools and flower pots. I managed to hang a big hammock or two from our balcony railing and the yard became for lounging.

But now as our kids outgrow everything, including our house, we all find ourselves competing for desks and tables. As two artists who work at home, either taking photos, writing music, making things, setting up drum sets, recording studios, we agreed. We should make a bigger shed and create a backyard studio.

Several other studios have inspired us. Both our mothers turned garages into their art spaces, a music room for his mom, a visual art studio for mine so with these role models, we have decided to proceed. My brother converted his shed into a music studio. So it kind of runs in the family.

Our neighbours have told us they'd like to build a fence but our crumbling cement block fence was concerning them. What if our fence just tumbled onto theirs one fine winter day in the snow? It's probably unlikely but after moving the clematis and Virgina creepers aside, it did seem they had a point. This fence really was cracking up and tilting.

Tell them you'll repair it, I said, hopefully. So Michel went out one fine summer day and decided to repair it. About an hour later it was clear he was going to have to demolish it.

A similar wall took 3 days, a bull dozer and a few large bins to remove next door to us so we decided to be more ecological about the whole thing and to reuse the old blocks as a layer under the shed to be. Our backyard has a poured concrete foundation under a later of bricks and soil so clearing all of this to get to the shifting slate of this neighbourhood underneath doesn't seem worth it.

The irony in all this is that the wall was helping to keep water from our eavestrough down spout on our side of the yard. A big torrential downpour soon showed that our neighbours on the left were now being flooded by water from our roof. So their fence guy proposes a solution ... he's going to make a small wall of concrete blocks along the dividing line, essentially rebuilding a small portion of our old fence. Well, whatever, we don't want to flood anyone and we'll run our down spout to the alleyway anyway. None of this is the glamorous part, that's for sure.