Our, no ... One of Our 4-letter words ... S-H-E-D

Taking some time away from the kitchen this week to work on the shed, garage, whatever.

Not my favorite project, for sure. But, while we have some extra manual labor available to us (our youngest, Blair, before he goes back to college), and we had a nice break from our standard 90 degree days, the proverbial opportunity was "tapping at my chamber door," to quote Poe.

Garage during construction, March 2013

 

There are a couple great things about our shed; it hold lots of stuff & it has electricity!

 

These are the problems:

• Color. Now that the house is blue-gray, the yellow looks pretty terrible.
• Vines. The vines that you can see above are Carolina Jasmine (with the yellow flowers). They are really pretty but they had become overgrown. Also, on the left and back of the shed the walls were covered with Ivy (so wish I had taken a picture!).
• Water damage. On the foot boards and some of the fascia boards.
• Animal, and I say this with a cringe, activity. Eeeeeeuw.

 

The first order of tasks was to eliminate the vines. You would think it would be fairly simple to pull the Ivy away from the side of the building but when you pull it, it breaks off into pieces. So I pulled as much as I could and I was left with bits and pieces, all over. I scraped those with my 5 in 1 tool that my friend, Geri, gave me (a putty knife works well too). Seems like an unusual gift for a lady friend to give another lady friend but, what can I say, she knows me well.

 

 

But then, I was still left with furry vine remains. What I should have done next is brush with a wire brush but since this is a shed and not the house, I let that go.

 

As for the Carolina Jasmine, when we cut that down, we had some staining from the vines but also some ... animal evidence.

 

 



According to my neighbor and neighborhood handy-man extraordinaire, Ron, those black stains were left by rodents who used the Carolina Jasmine as a ladder to get into the shed through this neatly crafted portico (I say as I squirm). Ugh!

 So, after removing all the vines as best I could, we power washed the whole shed. It didn't take everything off, but the surface was in far better condition to paint. 

Next, I primed the trim - the trim that we don't plan to replace. I purchased exterior paint with primer in it and had it color-matched to the Hardie Plank siding on the house. Blair's job was to roll on the blue-gray and I did the cutting-in.

It's not finished. We haven't painted the trim, the siding needs another partial coat and all the bad wood needs to be replaced but here is where we are for a little over $100 in paint w/primer and tools and supplies we already had:

 

 

 

  

Much better, right?