Around November 2004 we hired a company to put the roof up. Being 7 metres tall made it a bit more of a headache than I wanted. This resulted in complications and dissapointments as well because, like many other stories, we had trouble with the company that built it. Not to plan basically.

It's 13m on the short side (east and west ends) and 16m on the north and south faces. The rear wall was only sheeted down to 1m from ground so that I could add hoppers, or louvres - pick your name, to allow the air in during the summer. The common failing of shed life is that it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

By interspersing a row of polycarbonate on two levels I allow light in as well as a view for the future floors to be built inside. The future building inside will be the warm core of the house during the winter, all layers closed, whilst the 3m perimeter between house and shed wall is for outdoor style living. An larger kitchen area will be built out here for summer cooking and larger gatherings. More bodies making more heat will make this usable in the winter.

This paved area around the house will also be for an indoor garden, another help for keeping the area warm and the air fresh. Kitchen herbs and the like to be grown inside the shed all year round, with a larger garden on the north slope before the house/shed.

In the surrounding shots you can see the cladding going on. I will try to update these pics as soon as possible so that the page is as up to date as possible. After purchasing a 7m ladder life was considerable easier. So too was the workload when mate Nigel came onboard and kept me motivated. Arriving briskly every morning meant I had to shake the sleep out of my eyes and get to it.

There are only really three things to do with the adding of cladding to this shed. Measure it. Cut it. Tek screw it. With some coffee or beer filled breaks spent over a piece of paper to be sure it would fit together. The plethora of different types of screw needed for the different applications of metal on metal, roofing iron or polycarbonate on horizontal or vertical services was a bit mind boggling but with that sorted we were drilling with both hands at a great rate.

Making the cuts so that bits n pieces slot together is where the pen n paper can come in handy. But once you've done a half dozen the other 100 go a little quicker.

Of course the nice thing about no walls is that you can see the sky. But alas the wind and the wet get in so easy <sigh>.