The Shed That Neal Built

When we bought our property in Westcliffe, it was raw...no water, septic or buildings. The first thing we decided to do was drill a well and the next thing we decided to do was put some sort of structure on the land that could be used for storage. When Neal priced ready-made buildings online and in home improvement stores, they all seemed to be in the thousands-of-dollars range. Knowing he could build something himself for much less cost, that became the plan.

Neal found a building design and plan online and built the majority of the shed at our house first, to make sure everything would fit together just right before transporting it to our property.

He bought the lumber new, but he found a used window and door with frame at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore . The opening on the left side of the shed will be a double door wide enough for heavy equipment.

Once he had the basic shell put together, he disassembled everything and loaded it up to transport to Westcliffe.

I know this looks like headstones at first glance, but it's actually cinder blocks Neal used to level the ground before placing the shed.

We decided it would be best to insulate the floor, so that went down before the floor boards were nailed into place.

Three walls are up, framing for door and window done and flooring down.

This past weekend, Neal completed the project by installing the door, finishing the shingled roof and painting the exterior (with paint he bought at the Restore). He worked until past dark, using the headlights of his Jeep, to put on the last few touches.

The new shed residents are Buford (the garden tractor) and attachments, and a few tools. It took Neal several weekends and lots of sweat equity to get this done, but the whole thing cost less than $1,000 and is much better quality than anything we found already made.

And there you have it...our first official building, built entirely by My Man. Doesn't it look great?