The Shed, Part I

This is our shed. We call it a shed because it's approximately the size of a shed, and it's outdoors. But it's not a stand-alone shed. It's attached to our house. We can't access it from the house (that outdoor door is the only entrance). It's approximately 6x4.

And this, I'm extremely ashamed to say, was the status of the shed as of Sunday morning.
I know. Extremely and utterly PITIFUL. DISGUSTINGLY pitiful.

In our defense, we did move into the house in December. In a cold snap where it was approximately 10 degrees. Cold. Things were pretty much thrown in here, and that prompted additional things later on to just be thrown in too.

But really, the shed was not that impressive. Cobweb-y. Dusty.

It had this dilapidated, nasty rusty old shelving unit in it and unfinished, dusty walls.


See, pressboard walls, and believe me, they were FILTHY.


And a closeup shot of the nasty shelving unit. This is also the only corner of the shed that had any sign of any water damage. Nothing major, but I suspect this corner gets a little moisture. So, I noted it to myself that nothing that couldn't get wet would go there.


Nasty shelving unit. It's gross, trust me.

I had a gallon of exterior white paint, semi-gloss, which I slapped onto the walls. I wanted to make sure a) the walls looked cleaner, and b) the walls were a bit more protected. Also, this way, we can easily notice if there are any water leaks or new bugs. The pressboard took a few coats. This is after coat #1.

Then, I took our two garage shelving units my folks gave us when we lived in Salem. Each of them should be 6' tall and have five shelves. I decided to make one 6' tall and give it seven shelves, and then put one in the laundry room with three shelves, but only make it half height (which will fit better in the laundry room).

The result? I have a pantry! We're going to be putting all our non-perishable, canned goods down here.


And, that nasty shelving unit? I painted it with some salmon-colored paint I had, and put it in the corner. The hope is that the top part will be for gardening things, but that we will be able to buy a number of plastic boxes and organizational implements and put all our TOOL things on here too.

B's crash pad for bouldering fits well in the corner. The unit is far far far from being finished yet, but you get the idea.

Blurry photo of my new "pantry."

So, the project is still in the continuing on phase, but it's FAR better than what we had before. The shelves are perfect height for storing things. Eventually, I'd like to put some post-its on the outside so I can easily spot what is stored where... but we'll see about that. I also want to get some tap-it battery lights so I can have light down there when needed. There is no power out here, so battery it has to be.

I also need to better store our Christmas decorations. I want to put them in a two plastic tubs and then put them out here, stacked in the one (non moist) corner. There is easily enough space.

It's pretty nifty what a little bit of time, some paint, and some patience will create!