If you had been chillin' on a grocery-store air mattress in Poolio this week, carefully keeping all exposed flesh out of the Buttwater Squirrel Carcass Gumbo that is the water... you might have heard the pitter-patter of a nail gun as Hick was in labor, birthing his newest themed shed.
He hasn't really stated the theme of this one. He says he's going to put "school stuff" in it. Like some old school desks, and books. I said books would be eaten by squirrels, and Hick haughtily declared that squirrels better NOT be getting inside his shack!
Anyhoo... Hick went to get some lumber, but returned with only nails. He said the price of lumber is OUTRAGEOUS, and he won't be buying any for a while. Instead, he took apart some wooden pallets that he's had since he bid on them at work. He's used many of the pallets over the years, building his Creekside Cabin, and an outhouse down there, and a mini-barn.
Work started on Tuesday:
Not looking very shed-like at this juncture.
Hick never draws up plans. He might roughly sketch the general shape on a napkin or paper plate, but he's not an architect, nor a draftsman.
Wednesday saw 2-and-a-fraction walls in place. Yes, those walls were already complete. They are two GARAGE DOORS given to Hick by my best old ex-teaching buddy Mabel, when she got new garage doors. The side you can't see is not white. The garage doors are a wood-grain pattern.
The window is one Hick had laying around. Not sure where he got it. Maybe an auction, maybe somebody traded it to him. He says it's 6 feet by 3 feet, and kind of big, but it's free, and he's not using it for anything else.
Thursday saw the project coming along nicely. Not sure how Hick drove both SilverRedO and the Gator over there. I guess he came back with materials in SilverRedO, then walked to the house for something, and took the Gator back.
At this rate, we might have to change the address of our hillbilly mansion, because Shackytown Boulevard is creeping ever-closer...
About 40 years ago I built a dog house without any plans. Probably cost me more than if I purchased one from Home Depot, except there was no Home Depot 40 years ago. Anyway, the dog would sleep in the rain before entering that embarrassing house. I am neither architect or a carpenter.
ReplyDelete...nor dog's best friend!
DeleteHick started on a dog house. Well, that's not true. Hick started on a little tool shed, that he hauled to town on a tilting tow truck to park in the back yard of my $17,000 house.
THEN when we bought this land, he built an outhouse and a BARn. THEN the dog house. Which has insulation and a shingled roof. No complaints from Juno. She not-so-sweetly defends it from all would-be usurpers.
You might have to start calling it Shack-Town Mansion. I once briefly thought I coulda, woulda, shoulda been an architect, since I enjoy playing around with house plans and redesigning them to suit myself, but I was already long out of school with three young ones running around.
ReplyDeleteThe new shed looks off to a good start. My ex built himself a cubby-house sized shed once out of scraps he found on roadside dumps, some where he could sit and smoke out of the rain. Then one day he got it into his head it might be a fire hazard and ripped it apart while I was at work.
I liked playing around with those stick-on board thingies. The ones with plastic peel-off walls and windows and doors and furniture that you can stick on a board marked with a grid. We found it at a cut-rate Lowe's-like store when buying cabinets for my $17,000 house.
DeleteToo bad that he tore down his shed, after going to the trouble to build it. Hick loves to put scraps to use. He's a junkillionaire.
Hick might be trying to surprise you with a she-shed, hence the word "school." Tell him to build a mini casino instead.
ReplyDeleteIf Hick was building me a she-shed, it would have a sink and a washtub and one of those old washboard thingies and a butter churn...
DeleteI'm envious of the thickness of the planks hick is using. Are they 2x4s? One thing I've always wanted is a plank dining table, where the top is foot wide planks at least two inches thick, on an industrial steel base. Of course these days I don't even have a dining room :(
ReplyDeleteI think those are 4x6s. The boards framing the window opening, in pictures 1 and 2, are 2x4s. I THOUGHT the boards looked exceptionally sturdy. I guess that is not from pallets, but left over from another project.
DeleteWhen Hick used to bid on lumber at work, there were also the boards used to lay a giant roll of steel on, shipped on a flat bed semi.
That sounds like it would be a beautiful table. Those would be 2x12s. Hick just quoted me a price on ONE the other day, after his failed shopping trip. I think he said it was $60, but I might be confused, and that was for a sheet of plywood. He says lumber prices are out of control right now!