Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Jul 8, 2009
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Have You Ever?
Have you ever started a job around the house, then when you are half way through it wished you had never started? Well I recently did just that. It all started when I went out to check the battery on my wife's electric scooter, which we keep in a tin shed we had to get when she was first given the scooter. It was a bargain at the time, as we got it at half price when Argos were having a sale, and the cost of a timber one was way above the price we paid. Of course, the problem at the time was building a base for it to stand on, and we had to make it quick as the shed was due to be delivered: it came in a lot of flat boxes which were extremely heavy, and we had nowhere to store it for long. So I went round to a nearby timber yard, where they gave me two of their old pallets for free, and all I had to do was get them home. Just as well we had a big car at that time!
So we selected a spot where we would build the shed, and I set about joining the two pallets together, and cut them to the size given in the catalogue. When the shed arrived, we got our lads and my wife's daughter's partner to help build it. That was a full story of its own really, but after the book of instructions had been handed around between us for about an hour, we all had our own ideas as to how to build it. During the course of this building that instruction book was thrown around a few times, trampled on and well thumbed through, I just hoped that the shed would be as durable as that instruction book was! At the end of the day, and after many tantrums, it was finished—just as well it was summer time and the days were longer. All I had left to do was to build a ramp so that the scooter could be driven in. I managed to build that myself, and it only took an hour or so.
So anyway, I went out to check the battery and I felt a dip in the floor near the middle of the shed, so I placed a piece of board over it, and plugged in the battery charger. But when I went back later to switch the charger off, I accidentally kicked that board away, and as I placed my foot on the spot where it had lain, in order to replace the board with my walking stick, my foot went right through the floor!
So I reversed the scooter out along with all the other stuff we had in there, and ripped up what was left of the floor. The rot had seeped through just over half of the floor. On checking I discovered that it was rain water running from the sides and the door off from the metal siding and under the wooden base. What was left of the timber supports felt like a wet sponge!
Of course our lads offered to help, but there is not much room inside a six by five foot shed, for three folk to work at the same time. I did however give them the size of the planks that I would need, which they cut for me after I had reclaimed them from the left over fence sections. I managed to do that by sitting on my old four-wheeled gardening trolley which I bought a few years ago, and which has turned out to be a really useful thing for me, as it allows me to do things that I would usually be unable to do.
The hardest part of the job was building the new timber base for the floor to be fitted to, and to make it level this time: the previous base had a slight slope which was the reason why the water ran back and rotted half of it. The whole job was completed in a couple of days, and the lads were well chuffed that all the boards fitted exactly.
Now, they say these things come in threes: we had built the new back fence, and then re-floored the shed... yes, you've got it, Mk2 now wants the front fence painted. I made a deal with our lads, they paint the front rail fence and gates, and I will paint the one that runs up the footpath. Of course I get the best deal, as I can sit on my wee trolley and paint away, and to tell the truth, I am quite enjoying it. It's definitely a lot easier than fitting a new shed floor. So that will be the third and hopefully the last job, but then again, you never know.
