The wood for the trim around the whole of the shed and gable ends was painted and attached and it's looking good! You'll notice that there is a gap at the peak (and it's the same on all three gable ends). I've left that open so that I can add some kind of ornament when the roof shingles are on. Usually sheds have a diamond or a lozenge (coffin-shaped) piece of wood attached there, but for the front I have my eye on a stone 'Green Man' from a seller on eBay - just to be different. I'm going to wait and see what kind of deal I can get but I'm pretty sure that's what's going to go there.
With all the trim on there is nothing stopping me putting on the asphalt roof shingles. Except...
11-16 October
Wickes were all out of shingles. Completely. Totally. Not a one in stock at all. So instead, and as we were there anyway, I bought loads of packs of wooden battens for making some of my world famous (maybe not) diamond trellis. Working in the shed of course!
The 'heavy duty' trellis you get from garden centres is so easy to make it's hard to believe that anyone would actually buy it. Get 10 battens and lay them vertically. Get 10 battens and lay them horizontally. Nail where everything crosses over. Result: one heavy duty trellis panel which is a LOT better made than the DIY shops have, with thicker and stronger wood, and it also costs less.
Diamond trellis, on the other hand, is a little trickier to make given that each piece is a different length, but I've seen these things costing 45 quid per panel for a 6x6 foot panel, and I just make my own and save a packet. The trellis is to stop Ralf escaping - he used to use the pile of earth to jump over the fence but has now realised that he can jump high enough to do without it and gets over any time he likes. Not when I've fenced him in he won't! It takes me a day per panel to make them and a day per panel to paint them (well I don't do 8 hours per day - 4 is my maximum!), so making 3 panels took 6 days. If you're wondering why the painting takes so long, you try it - there are millions of nooks and crannies and you have to watch that the brush doesn't catch in a corner or it leaves a little pool which drips down.
To make life even more difficult, the garden starts to slope upwards so I've had to build the panels at an angle while still keeping the diamond pattern upright AND I wanted the lines of the diamonds to follow on from panel to panel, so had to be really careful measuring it. My secret: bricks! Each hole is the width of a brick, and that's how I space out the battens - measure the first batten so it's in the middle of the panel, then add bricks on either side and attach more battens, no ruler required! Simple!
The weather is due for 3 days of sun as of Monday 18 October, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay that way and I can shingle the roof. We got the shingles on the 14th (we took the WHOLE of the new stock that Wickes had ordered!), so they're there and I'm ready when the weather is!
|
|
