The Magical Potting Shed, Part 4

While we ladies managed to get Maggie's roof on, albeit askew, Maggie had a bit of a mullet going on. The roofing tin that we found was much too long, but none of us had the expertise to cut it, so we left it for Chief to do the next time he came to visit.

The roofing panels were about 5' too long.

I did the tiniest bit of research and found that I needed to buy a different saw blade to cut the metal safely. Holy cow, that was expensive, but I wanted Chief to be as safe as possible while cutting these back. Ashinator laughed at me when I insisted on keeping my trauma kit within reach while Chief was doing the cutting. I don't know what it is about cutting metal with a circular saw that terrifies me, but I didn't breathe easy until he was done.

She looks much better without a mullet.

After the Chief finished with the roof, he framed in and hung the last non-negotiable from my list: the door. I learned a lesson from Whimsy, and made sure that the door was hung with the hinges on the right so I wouldn't have to work the hose around the open door to get it into the shed.

With the door, Chief had completed the project I laid out for him. Jay and I spent one evening replacing the broken window panes, and once that was done, Maggie was as ready as she could be for winter.

My plan for Maggie, besides acting as a potting shed, is for her to double as a "guest room" for those times when the kids want to crash at our place. Our house is far too small for any overnight guests, so it'll be Maggie to the rescue. 

Trying out Maggie's camping cot.

It's tight, but Maggie will fit an oversized camping cot and a twin air mattress. She'll function as a place to sleep and that's about it, but it's better than nothing. Nebalee and a dear friend of mine tried it out after a movie night in October. It was cold, but they did manage to sleep in there with a space heater.

Every magical place needs a dragon night light.

My to-do list, which I need to complete before April, includes cutting in another window along the back wall for more light, adding insulation, and putting OSB up on the inside to finish the walls. I still need to sand and seal the potting bench, but that shouldn't take more than half a day.

And, of course, both Whimsy and Maggie need painted to finish complete them. That, I hope to have done no later than the end of June. I'd love for it to be earlier, but Colorado spring weather can be complicated.

The Magical Potting Shed, Part 3

After working for just food for a couple of weekends, Chief had to spend some time with his family, and I grudgingly allowed it.

Unfortunately, we were quickly approaching October, and storms were on the horizon. I needed to get the roof on. LE generously let me pilfer the barn for bits and pieces, and I found some tin roofing material. It didn't quite fit the whole roof, so I hit Home Depot and bought a couple of clear greenhouse roofing panels to work in with the scavenged ones.

A couple of friends from work volunteered to come play Rosie the Roofer with me. We meticulously measured, laid out the panels, and had a plan. It wasn't going to take us but a couple of hours.

Measuring and marking, getting ready to put up the rafters.

Turns out, Lizzy the old truck, was just the perfect helper.

Despite all of the careful planning, measuring, laying out that we did, once we started putting up the panels things went sideways. Suddenly, things were not going so well. We forged ahead, making adjustments here and there, until we got a roof on Maggie. Her roof sits a bit askew, and it made us crazy until we realized that we'd assumed she was square.

She was not. An inch here or there makes a difference, and her north (back) side is a touch shorter than her south (front) side, so even though we laid the rafters square, the building itself is not. I, frankly, love it and I smile big every time I look at her crooked little "hat". It reminds me of Minerva McGonagall's jaunty hat.

Credit: Harry Potter FanZone

See? The roof is sitting at a jaunty angle. It's perfect.

Our "just a couple of hours" project turned into all day, but it was a ton of fun. My friend's son even joined us and made a gnome home out of 2x4 scraps.

My little gnome, cozy in his new home.

The Potting Shed, Part 2

It took me a while to get my poop in a group and get started, but I managed to hire movers to move the potting bench out of LE's basement and coordinate with Ashinator's best Marine friend, Chief. In September, 2023 we broke ground.

My non-negotiables for the potting shed included:

1. The stained glass window from the lodge,
2. "Vintage" windows from Mom's cabin,
3. The "potting bench" from LE's basement,
4. An old door that had been living in one of the barns that I fell in love with.

We literally built the shed around the potting bench.

I 'rescued' some pallets from work to use.

Chief worked fast. This was all the first day.

I was astounded by how much someone who knows what they're doing can do in just one day. It would have taken Mom and I at least two days to get this far. Building a frame instead of just putting it together like a puzzle is genius, not to mention the correct way to do it.

Ashinator mentioned that the potting shed was looking "quirky", which became its working name. It fit.

Bright and early the next Saturday, Chief was back at it, putting the windows in. Some of the windows were missing panes, broken from being removed from the cabin, but I wasn't worried about it, considering Mom and I had become glass cutting "experts" with Whimsy.

Non-negotiables numbers 1 - 3 complete.

She looks like a real building with walls.

The requisite "I helped" picture.

I might not know a thing about framing walls,
but I can use a square and saw.

Again, I was amazed at how much Chief could accomplish in just a day, and I'm so thankful he volunteered to do this. All I had to do was feed him! I definitely got the better end of the deal.

By the end of the day, "Quirky" fit as a name. 

However, the minute we started putting the OSB up, she no longer looked quirky. I was floundering for a name, until LE walked out and said, "oh, she looks magical". Ashinator and I agreed that she did, indeed, look magical and immediately "The Magical Potting Shed" stuck. I love how LE just casually comes up with the perfect names. Ash immediately shortened "Magical" to "Maggie", which I embraced. Maggie was named within a day or so of Dame Maggie Smith's death, so it seemed even more fitting.

Welcome to the family, Maggie.

The Potting Shed, Part 1

 Following my failure with getting seeds to start in Whimsy, I decided we needed a potting shed. And, it just so happened that the Bionic Cowgirl was getting the windows replaced in her cabin, which meant more free windows! I seriously can't let an old window go to waste.

Plus, there was this amazing stained glass window that she'd brought down for Whimsy that we never got incorporated, so I had to build something to hold the window, right?

This window stood sentry outside of Whimsy,
just waiting for me to figure out what to do with it.

Plus, LE had offered me a cabinet a few years ago. The catch was that I'd have to get it up from her basement without ruining her beautiful floors. It was a heavy piece of furniture, with bins for flour and sugar, but, more importantly for me, a pull-out bread board for rolling dough. That piece of furniture was never far from my mind, and last spring I had a eureka moment in which I realized that would be the perfect potting bench. There were drawers for supplies, and two tilt-out bins that we could put potting soil in. It needs some love, but not a lot. I'll strip the paint from the top, sand it and the pull-out board, and seal the surfaces with polyurethane, then she'll be ready to go.

It needs some love, but not a lot.

Old windows from Mom's cabin, a stained glass window that she and Beel found in the lodge attic, and a potting bench from LE. All signs pointed to being required to build a potting shed. My mind made up, I hired movers to get the potting bench up from LE's basement and chose a spot near Whimsy that would be easy-ish to reach with a hose.

I gathered some pallets from work and contacted a friend of Ashinator's to help with the build. I knew that I had to make it less air-flow-y than Whimsy, so I had to call in someone who know what the heck he was doing.