We've thought a long time about putting up another structure. Would it be a simple shed? A workshop? A guest house? The purpose and design changed dozens of times over the past couple years, since we built a platform for the building. We even started construction one time, and had a wall framed—then took it apart because it was too close to the deck to be as high as we'd built it.
We went back to the graph paper and came up with a new design this year, and a clarified sense of why we wanted to build. We do want a spot for friends and family to be able to stay over. I do want a space where I can spread out papers when working on a writing project. We do want to store some things closer to the house that have a home now up in our friend's garage.
We also realized we'd like to have another refrigerator with a freezer. The under-the-counter fridge we've used these past four years is great, but we sometimes have overflow that has to go into a cooler. We'd like to be able to stock up more by having freezer space available, too. And we're looking forward to having a second toilet (also composting).
The first decision was to build a sturdier subfloor over the existing platform. We added posts, framed out the floor joists and insulated. We added a back deck to our design because we learned with our house that building on a slope can make construction a challenge on the low side. Eventually we'll turn the deck into a screen porch.
In the first week, we got the subfloor in and insulated. This week, we framed up all the walls and got the roof rafters in place. Stay tuned for walls and a roof! It's great to be back in the building game again.
We went back to the graph paper and came up with a new design this year, and a clarified sense of why we wanted to build. We do want a spot for friends and family to be able to stay over. I do want a space where I can spread out papers when working on a writing project. We do want to store some things closer to the house that have a home now up in our friend's garage.
We also realized we'd like to have another refrigerator with a freezer. The under-the-counter fridge we've used these past four years is great, but we sometimes have overflow that has to go into a cooler. We'd like to be able to stock up more by having freezer space available, too. And we're looking forward to having a second toilet (also composting).
The first decision was to build a sturdier subfloor over the existing platform. We added posts, framed out the floor joists and insulated. We added a back deck to our design because we learned with our house that building on a slope can make construction a challenge on the low side. Eventually we'll turn the deck into a screen porch.
In the first week, we got the subfloor in and insulated. This week, we framed up all the walls and got the roof rafters in place. Stay tuned for walls and a roof! It's great to be back in the building game again.