The Lehrmans: Building the shed

Given that we are scheduled to move to the farm in about 4 weeks, it's high time we got a structure built to start moving stuff into! To that end, we began construction on a 12x16' shed this weekend. We started on Friday evening by setting blocks and leveling them. Then we built the floor structure. We were also able on Friday to construct the first wall.

First wall being sheathed on the platform Friday evening

On Saturday morning after home depot delivered three 16' long 4x6's, we installed the pressure treated 4x6's underneath the platform. Then we installed the decking on the floor so that we could work on an actual surface. While Jeremy and Scott started on the other walls, I cut the roof rafters.

Putting the runners under the platform

Then the sky got really dark. Then it rained. Not a sprinkle, but a full on downpour. We had enough warning to move all the tools under the 10'x10' canopy and tarp over the rest of the wood, but Jeremy, Jacob and I got to spend a very intense few minutes watching buckets of rain come down (Catherine was visiting the neighbors and Scott had gone home to feed his dogs). Thankfully, the rain cleared up about the same time that Scott got back and we were blessed with no sun and cooler temperatures! Well worth sitting out in some rain for.

Rain clouds to the south

Then came the rain!

That afternoon, we finished building the remaining 3 walls and then finished cutting the roof trusses.

At this point, we called it a day (it was 8:30PM and we'd been working since 7:00AM). In the morning, Jeremy and Scott put up the first 3 walls and braced them securely. I cut gussets for the roof rafters and started assembling the roof trusses. Once the rafter's were gusseted together, we moved them into the shed through the wide open hole for the 4th wall. Then up went the fourth wall!

I would just like to mention here that lifting these walls into place was no small task. We pre-sheated them, so each wall was 8' tall, 12 or 16 feet long and had plywood on one side. The two short walls had to be lifted 1-3 feet off the ground and set on the platform. It was an impressive feat of manliness on the part of Jeremy and Scott to get it done. Thank goodness we didn't start this adventure any later in our lives!

At this point, we decided to go ahead and build the 2 lofts (one on each end) so that we could use them as a platform to do some of the roof rafters. That took a good part of the morning between cutting and mounting the structures and cutting the decking, but man was it nice to be able to stand up there!

Now we were ready for the roof! We stood up the rafter's one by one making sure to keep them the right distance apart and straight. We cross braced them from below with 1x2's to hold them together until the decking goes on.

Then we put the first piece of roof decking on. Now we saw a problem. While we braced the rafters with the 1x2's, the bracing didn't go high enough so the rafters were not all the same distance apart at the peak of the roof. Bummer. They have to be lined up or the metal roofing won't be able to go in correctly. Double bummer.

The shed at end of day Sunday

At this point, we decided to punt for the day. We'd worked from 6:30AM until 1:30PM and it's Father's Day. 'Nuff said. Tomorrow, Jeremy and the kids will install a 2x4 down the line of the roof on each side of the peak to hold the tops the correct distance apart. Then we'll be ready to deck the roof and put on the metal roofing.