Lloyd Kahn's latest book--Tiny Homes: Simple Shelters--we're IN it!

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter

I remember Lloyd's earlier books from the Whole Earth Catalog days and beyond...I still OWN a couple of first editions!  When he asked if I'd be interested in sharing the shed in his latest project, "no" wasn't even an option.

Click the link above to see much, much more, or pre-order it...I got my contributor's copies yesterday, and it's WONDERFUL.  1300+ photos of delightful dwellings, sheds, boats, wagons and more...

Here's the shed's spread...

the south wall as it looked when I sent in the photos...

And a year later...it's filled up a tad, with books, art supplies, storage and such...

A lovely new link!

traditional exterior design by san francisco architect awarchitect.com

traditional exterior design by burlington architect Birdseye Design

Check out the post, here: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/916210/list/Small-Wonders

New table...

I'd been doing my videos in front of the big French windows at the shed, which worked great...except I was doing them on a folding TV table.  My sweet Joseph just built me a terrific folding table that's still small enough to fit in well in the 10 x 10' space, will fold completely out of the way if we need to, but is big enough to spread out my art supplies!

Planning and constructing...

The hinge for the legs...

Putting it all together...

Painting the legs...

And here it is at work!

MORE Life at the Shed...

A gorgeous, mosaic-like bug under the edge of an old green planter...

Busy nuthatches with their metallic "beep" sounds...

Wild honeysuckle may be a wicked invasive, but the birds adore it...which, of course, is WHY it's so successful...

I love sunny days when I can sit on the deck and journal and sketch...

The black one is a Stilman& Birn journal that's a delight to write in, the other's one of my hand-bound artists' journals

Soaking up the D-vitamins! 

And then to work, doing videos by the big window.  On sunny days, the light is sufficient, on cloudier ones I used the photo-floods...and Joseph is building me a bigger table to do demos on!  Hooray...

Life at the Shed...

Outdoors, my little majmar provides warmth on chilly mornings--and hot water for tea.  Still haven't tried cooking anything serious on it!

Shooting videos by bouncing photo lights off that white ceiling...hard at work on a new class for Strathmore Papers, and learning to use my video-editing software.

Herbs growing where they're safe from the indoor cats...the morning light comes in the French doors...

The kitchen corner still provides hot tea and a working surface...

Gorgeous crystal lights up the west windowsill

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

And by the way, the big blank south wall of the shed is seriously boring.  It's the inside wall with the bookshelves, desk, and kitchen corner, so I didn't want a window there but from the outside....zzzzzzz.

See what I mean?  Nada.  A LOT of nada.

I've thought about a trellis, a solar collector, a sculpture, a sign, a big bush, or...maybe...just not think about it.  I don't see that side very often anyway!  But if you have any suggestions....

Backyard House project

My friend the wonderful botanical artist Sigrid Frensen sent me this link...great ideas here, too!  Repurposed materials, wonderful lighting...

Check out the slideshow and all the marvelous, quirky ideas HERE:
http://www.riseoverrun.biz/the-backyard-house.html

Sunset Magazine's terrific sheds collection...

One of my favorites from Sunset's site...but who can pick??

http://www.sunset.com/home/outdoor-living/great-backyard-sheds-and-cottages-00400000058405/page22.html

Trust Sunset to have a bunch of great ideas...

Serious Progress Preparing for Winter

AT LAST!  All of the rigid foam insulation had let go and fallen to the ground under the shed...as noted before, the adhesive needs to be pressed into place and then the foam pulled free so it will off-gas, then pushed back into place.  Who knew?  So I watched as each piece let go and gave me a refrigerated floor!  I was GOING to get it fixed before another winter, whatever it took.

So hooray, Mark and Zach were free, and arrived yesterday to get us fixed up!

This is the old stuff, all out from under the shed now...you can see the glue spots that let go.  There wasn't a bit of it still on the floor where it belonged.  Somehow it didn't warm the floor much once it was all lying on the ground...

We decided to replace some of it with the 2" stuff, and double up the old...

They didn't have long enough nails with the plastic washers, so here's Mark replacing the nails with screws...Zach couldn't have swung a hammer under there anyway!

Finishing up along the west edge...Zach crawled under for most of it...

You can see some of the little fasteners here--more dependable than the glue, I hope!  And you can tell how little clearance there was...

Mark's squeezing the last bit into place...Zach's underneath guiding it in.

If I had REMEMBERED I'd owned this book since the late 80's, I could have saved us ALL a bit of trouble.  Or a lot.  It's still out there on Amazon, as you can see at the link!

A Place of Your Own Making: How to Build a One-Room Cabin, Studio, Shack, or Shed

Soooo...let this be a lesson to you if you're wanting to build your own place...nails in the floor joists BEFORE you put down the floor, at the depth of the styrofoam, as you may be able to see above. Rest it ON the nails. THEN cover.

Voila', an insulated floor that stays put! (A vapor barrier between the insulation and the sub-floor--or floor, as it turned out to be for us!--is good, too. Duh...)

So looking forward to a warmer winter and a lower electric bill!

A different view of the shed...

Looking over the fence...I'm still trying to figure out if I want to add an overhang over that door, so I don't have to fumble with locking and unlocking when it rains or snows!  I don't want it to look cheesey, or like an afterthought (even if it is!)...more integral.  So...thinking...

It HAS been a while...

I'm loving the shed as much as ever, and tweaking here and there as we go along...we have MORE birdfeeders, and the little creatures seem to especially love raw peanuts and black oil sunflowers.   These titmice are sharing a dinner...

Lots of little downy woodpeckers, too...

Yep, another one...

Sparrows feed on the ground, on the feeders, at the suet...omnivorous!

The wildflowers are almost gone...these have puffy seed heads now instead of flowers.

Some of the trees have changed, but the soft maples are still mostly green...with lovely red stems!  This was taken with my new Canon camera, with the zoom function, way overhead.  Cool...

The damp wood by the door appears to FINALLY be dry, and I gave it two more coats of spar varnish...hopefully that will protect it over the winter...and we're looking to get the insulation under the floor fixed THIS WEEK.

I've shot a number of videos and painted a lot, in and around the shed...it's quiet, no phones, and a good place to work, still...

This one's down the alley, just beginning to look like fall...

Hang it all!

So what do you do when you want a very workable, hardworking space in a VERY small area?

The Shed of Reality does double and triple duty for me...and then some.  It's a studio, a retreat, a place to entertain, make music, make art, make videos.  It's an escape.  It's a mini-vacation.  It's a place of healing, and a tiny yoga ashram, a room for meditation.  A place for a private chat.  I even put up a friend there overnight once.  As the subtitle of this blog puts it, it's a place called sanity...with a nice cuppa tea and a good book!

With such limited floor space...a bit less than 100 square feet--a whole LOT of stuff climbs the walls.  Book cases, of course, and shelves.  Windowsills hold a lot.  The space between the rafters are used...and here are some of the many ways to hang things up we've pressed into service, some as simple as a nail, some wonderful finds from the thrift store...

Love the antique coat or hat hanger...it works great for cups and small pots in the kitchen corner.

A sturdy hand-forged hook holds a tea towel, a small skillet and the yellow teapot my sis gave me 40 years ago...

Joseph created the broom hanger...and a smaller broom hangs from a nail to the right--along with my Audubon Society bird call! 

This cool double hanger was in an old armoire, hidden from sight.  I've got two more to put up somewhere...

A handy double hook matches those in the closet of my 100 year old house...it was a gift from a friend.

Nails work just fine...this is the dustpan that hangs on the wall, below a window.

Shaker pegs hold music CDs in a basket and my old tambourine... the shelf above holds odds and ends.

This end of the Shaker peg shelf is over my desk, and holds necessary art supplies

Push pins still work, and so do cork boards!

A hand forged nail is strong enough to hold a willow magazine rack full of sketchbooks and watercolor blocks.

A cup hook holds the lightweight Japanese lantern...

Yep, another nail holds the dishpan...

Even the doorknobs are pressed into service, keeping the floor relatively clear for foot traffic!

It all works, and is very flexible...I can always hang something different wherever I decide to, or put up another nail--the fact that we used thin wooden underflooring left over from another project instead of drywall makes putting more nails up a piece of cake!

Oh yeah, and here's the storage between the rafters over the big French door.  I put stuff up there I don't need often, because I have to climb up on a stool to reach it.

I'm still planning more shelves and such, but this is a good start after a year's hard use...