It was the best of times, it was the worst of times........

steveTu

A bittersweet thread - pain and pleasure, reason to be cheerful and curmudgeonly.

The shed had to go. It had been up since 2008 and was hardly used - my wife used it in the last years for her arty-crafty stuff, but apart from that it stood empty. But, it's going to a good home. My niece is taking it, and its her husband in the shots. Started on Saturday - the shingles posed an unexpected issue and then  a couple of the top logs were 'invisibly' nailed which was a pain. Hoped to do it in a day, but the roof took too long - so reconvened on Sunday praying the rain would hold off. Literally started spitting as we started, then turned into full blown rain - then as we finished (about midday) and my niece's husband went home, the rain stopped. Sod's law.

Sad to see it go, as it held so many memories of my wife, but glad as it would have just deteriorated and fallen apart anyway - and at least someone will be using it.

WonkyWomble

Everyone over 40 should have a shed @steveTu, I think your nieces husband will make very good use of it,  it's nice that you have passed it on for someone else to be creative in.  😀  

Lyn

That’s a lovely little summer house, I’d live in that.
heres what they’re using for housing in Cornwall!

steveTu

@WonkyWomble

My niece is a 'crafty' lass as well, so she'll be in her element in there. I bet it's a Christmas grotto this year! Chris (my wife) would be pleased that they're going to get some use out of it.

Should be interesting putting it back up again - next weekend is getting it onto a trailer and then lifting the floor and decking (we left that down intentionally to give a dry stacking area). Then it's over to Brighton and dumped in their back garden until the base is in place.

But for me it goes from a shed to a space...The shed was a good divider, as it kept the 'wilderness' out of sight. I had thought about putting a 6ft+ fence in with a raised seating area in front and a pergola type thing, but again I'm not sure it will be used. But I have a mix of plant in pots (from acers, hydrangeas, camellias, rhododendron, peach and cob nut trees....) - so I may just fence it off and use the space in from to plant some of those out. Decisions, decisions...

Loxley

That has certainly opened up a lot of space.

steveTu

@Lyn

While it was still a novelty, me and the wife used to go down there on a Friday night - a (? maybe one and a half) bottle of wine and some old music. It was grand down there - but then the novelty wore off a bit (especially in winter - why go to a cold shed that only had an electric heater, when the central heating's on indoors?).  When we got it, the kids both said '...great, we'll use it for sleep overs and get our friends together down there..' - yeah right. The sight of the first spider put paid to that. I used it a bit for work, and my son for his uni stuff, but it was a folly more than anything else. The best laid plans of the Spice Girls and all that...

steveTu

@Loxley

Yep - it was a 3m square shed, but the verandah was an extra 1.5m so 4.5m x 3m. I'm definitely putting in a fence as a divider anyway - but I think it will go across about mid way through where the shed was - so I'll gain 3m on the 'good' side and 1.5m on the wilderness side (and the apple tree that's there will be a lot happier - as it was constantly struggling for light).

BenCotto

A good job done well. 

In photo 2 is he saying, “Hello. Is that the Acme Demolition Company?”

It is satisfying when something can be given a new lease of life. My wife did a lot of caring for our elderly neighbour and, when she died, the nephew who inherited the property gave us the garden summer house as a thank you.

We scarcely use it - it’s too far up the garden - but, re-painted it sits well in its setting and masks the builders’ yard behind.

steveTu

@BenCotto

Yours looks so inviting eh? But as my son said, with ours, he used to go down there to do uni work, then wanted a drink, so came back up to the house to get it , then  he needed the loo...so... and it seems silly, 'cause the garden isn't huge anyway (it's probably 60-70ft away), but that became a pain, so he decided in the end just to work out of his bedroom instead. It was gorgeous down there at one point as the shed had a willow in front and was cool and shaded in the summer - this is just after it went in with the kids and Chris and old man Willow.

As for the phone bit ...he was on his phone to my niece who was doing a 'donkee'...'..is it nearly ready yet?..' every few minutes and to his son who is after a new surf board and was trying his best to get his dad to pay for it!

Nanny Beach

Steve that's not a shed it's a posh summer house,I remember you paid a lot of money for it. The way the price of electricity and now gas problems are going we will probably end up living in one

Ergates

What lovely summerhouses! We inherited one with our garden, and I had great plans for that too. However, I rather stupidly planted three acers in front of it. This was before I knew anything about gardening, and I thought I would replicate some of the other planting, including several lovely groups of acers. Didn’t realise that the others were all on dwarf rootstock and that was why they were small and pretty. We now have three gigantic trees, and can’t see the summerhouse at all. It’s mainly used for dumping garden furniture in, which is such a shame.
its just behind the tall paler green acer!