Affordable Shed

So I am in need of storage space and not about to pay 200 bucks for one of those plastic tiny tiny houses that you put in your back yard. What a rip off those things are. I have a bunch of wood laying around from another project that needs to be used or will go bad. So I start thinking up a shed I want and where to put it. Well I wanted the shed to go up against the back fence in the back yard. But the dog....ugh...would not be able to stick her head out and bark at people passing by, so, I decide to build it there any way with one change, make it stand three feet off the ground. Rather than buy ply wood which is not cheap and will warp and rot in the rain, I went with a very large tarp that is heavy duty and brown in color. The color is important here because of the Reston Home Owner's Association aka "the neighborhood Nazis". I did have to buy a little extra wood and some more screws, so all together this project ran me about 80 dollars.

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This is the shed from the second floor looking down on it. It's 18 feet wide, 2 1/2 feet deep. So there is some storage there. I used 2x4 s to brace the inside by using wood screws to screw the boards to the fence itself. Making it very sturdy. The tarp I used was 15 feet by 35 feet so I could use one piece to encase the shed, giving it a cleaner look I think. There are three doors to the shed, each door being a little under 6 feet wide. The shelving inside I used from wood that I had made a wheel chair ramp for the girl friend after she broke her ankle in three places. She is walking now and I had this big gray ramp that needed to go away, so I chopped it up and used the ramp for shelving.

Here is a front view of the shed. Notice that it sits three feet off the ground, so the dog...ugh...can get under it and look out the back fence.

A side view of the shed.

Here's a peek inside of the shed. You can see the door lifts up, this will be good as I will be using the middle section for other projects, to keep them out side and not mess up the house.

Here's a side peek inside of the shed.

Here's a look at the door, I wanted a light weight door that would not try to fall off its hinges the first couple of times I opened it. Instead of 2 by 4s I used 2 by 3s and braced them in the corners to give them extra strength. So far.....they are holding.

The braces where important to do right the first time as they hold up the whole shabang. So I painted them, polyurethane them (clear coat sealant) and made the base of the brace separate from the brace leg so if the base rotted it could be replaced easily.

Update! My son (age 5) looked at the back yard this past weekend (I get him on the weekends as he lives with his mother) and said, "Daddy, did you make the backyard bigger?" I told him I did not make the yard bigger, I made a shed and put all the stuff that was on the ground in it. He gave the shed his seal of approval. So it's official, this project was a success!

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