Shed Move

The original arrangement--shed on right, doors facing up the driveway

A similar view showing the shed turned and cars parked next to it. The shed still had a little ways to go before being turned all the way

View near the porch looking up the drive

Last week I took a day off from the house proper to move the small shed we inherited with the property. We have used it primarily as storage for the riding mower, but also for skis, bee equipment, tools and various other stuff.

In an attempt to tuck the cars a little out of the main view, we decided to rotate the shed 90 degrees and move it slightly closer to the house, allowing the cars to slide in where the shed used to sit. The ground where the cars will be parked is still rough, but so far the plan is working quite nicely. We can drive down the driveway and then back into the new space without having to use our neighbor's turnaround.

The move itself was a study in crude physics. I jacked the building up enough to get rollers underneath and then I either pulled the building around with a chain attached to the car or with a winch attached to a tree. It was a bunch of work but in time I was able to manoeuvre it to where I wanted it.

Site Plan

(Click on the image to embiggen it)

Today (and yesterday) I worked on our site plans. The big bugaboo all along has been what to do with the cars. We hoped that removing the garage would make it a little clearer, but its still a question.

I've been spending time playing with different configurations and today, with Nancy making some key suggestions we think we landed on a reasonable solution. We'll have to shift the little shed a bit, but we should be able to fit the cars next to it and keep them from being the center feature when you either come down the driveway or look out of the house.

We also thought about where we'll store our firewood such that it is accesable and near where a delivery truck can dump it. What is not really solved is where to store bikes so that they are handy, sheltered and otherwise secure. Hmm....

Orientation

Our Aunt Mary wanted to get a little more clarity about where the house sits on the property. I did up a Sketch-Up drawing that hopefully will clarify things a bit more; the relationship of the buildings can be a bit hard to discern from photos since everything is so close together.

The garage/breezeway will be coming down as soon as is feasible, so when looking at this site sketch, imagine the long blue structure in front of the house gone. Also picture the circles (current and former locations of the yurt) gone and things start to look a little calmer and less crowded.

The challenge we haven't really solved is what to do with the driveway. We don't really want to look at our car(s) right out in our front yard, so we'll need to play with our options once the space is opened up.

(For a large scale version of the drawing, click on the image and you'll get the big view.)