Category Archives: Garden and Landscaping

The Shed On The Hill (part 1)

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This shed has a little deck across the front.  It looks like maybe it needs to be replaced?  Not only was it listing at 20 degrees from normal, not only was it rotten so badly you could fall through it at any moment, not only was it ugly and full of bugs… all that aside, I just didn’t like it.

For starters, it was too small.

Now *that’s* a deck!  15′ x 15′, pressure treated lumber, joist spacing of 12″, and set into enough pillars I could park my truck on it.

There’s even a little path to get around back behind the shed.  There’s nothing back there.  Not yet, anyway.

A lot of heavy metal went into this deck. 1,200 decking screws alone, not counting the fasteners and bolts holding the frame together.

It took two days to screw all those boards down.

Now we’re cooking with grease!

No help at all.

She likes the stairs, though.

Now the safety rail is installed.

It’s the detail work that make it nice.

A little fun with driftwood on those tall posts.  We’ll hang lanterns from them.

No help at all.

Let’s catch up

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Hi.  Been a while, and I’ve been busy.  The house itself is (mostly)* done (sort of) and so my attention has been turning to outside.  Lots of gardening and landscaping, and a fun project or two thrown in for good measure.  Let’s take a look.

Sword making and restoration is not easy, but it’s fun.  I made all new fittings for an old katana.  Used curly maple for the handle and saya.

Came out great.  The restored sword is light, quick, and very sharp.  Good grip.   Good balance.  Very much ready for the zombie apocalypse.

We have frogs in our garden.

And birds.

And cats.

And bees.

And plants.

And more plants.

The pergola has kind of turned into a little shrine for relaxation and watching the world go by.  I should spend more time there, I know.  I put a wisteria in that planter bed behind the chairs, it should grow into the pergola nicely.

Made an outdoor table.

It’s such a nice place to sit and stare at the water.

Front planting beds are doing great.

Up the hill is where the shed is, and it’s like the Final Frontier.  The last untouched remnant of the old house is up there, because except for the green paint that shed is just about how we found it.  I made those stairs going up the rocks, and soon I’ll be putting a new deck up there and making the shed look nice.

The shop is looking great.  Cabinets are all finished.  I did the math:  it’s 102 cubic feet of cabinet space that I added to the shop.

I added a TV to the shop.  It’s great during hockey season.  It also swings around so you can watch it while on the elliptical.

And I found some cool cabinet knobs.

Inky likes the beach.  It has the biggest scratching posts.