Raul Ascunce
The cute little shed in the backyard.
Shed is a term that has many meanings. It can be to cast off (as in dog hair). It can be to release (as in tears when you see dog hair everywhere). It can even be to slither out of one’s own skin (like a snake).
Or, it can be the most important kind of shed for any homeowner…a small outbuilding that houses everything from garden tools, to mowers, to dog toys, to cats. (My mother-in-law lost her cat, OJ, for a week. Turns out, he was locked in her shed and was completely fine…sounds like a juicy mouse problem to me.)
About twenty years ago I said to the wife, “I need a shed. I just bought a riding mower and there’s no room for it in the garage.”
“Well, if you would get rid of every scrap of wood you’ve saved for the past twenty odd years, ‘because you might need it,’ we might have room for the lawn mower,” she said sarcastically.
“Okay, but I really want a shed.”
“Fine! But just a small one. I don’t want to lose my whole backyard to some big red barn with a hayloft and hex signs.”
Now, a bit of advice for you shed shoppers out there. When you’re looking to purchase a shed, figure out what you want to store in and it and how much floor space you will need. Then multiply that times twenty and you might have a shed big enough.
I did not have that sage advice when we were shed shopping and consequently, we picked out a cute little 8’x8’ shed with a decorative cupola on top. For some reason It was very important to the wife that the shed had a major cute factor if it was going to sit in our backyard next to her perennial garden. God forbid we have a functional, utilitarian storage building in our backyard.
So, on a hot day in June some twenty years ago, an Amish crew came and assembled our cute little shed on the north side of our backyard.
“It’s adorable!” the wife tittered. “I love it! I can’t wait to fill it up with my garden tools, plants, sprays, and fertilizers. I’ll also need space for my plethora of decorative pots and garden tchotchkes.”
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, there missy! This is MY shed for MY stuff! Only mowers, pruners, edgers, shovels and rakes will occupy this space!”
“That stuff too,” the wife allowed. “But first, the shed needs to be painted with an attractive color and contrasting trim. And it must have a theme and window boxes.”
“What are you talking about? It’s just a shed,” I said. “You are not going to girly up my shed with window boxes!”
Fast forward twenty-some years. The wife and I share the shed, and over the years, my shed has evolved into the cute little outbuilding the wife always wanted…with window boxes.
Last month I painted the shed for the third time. And as we stood back and looked at the finished product the wife said, “The shed looks adorable, Honey, brand new even. Just think of the many years it has helped us maintain our yard by storing all of our stuff.”
“That it has, Dear,” I said. “So many wonderful memories of working in our yard together out of this little shed…just wish it was twenty times larger…”
Raul Ascunce is a freelance columnist for the Sentinel-Tribune. He may be contacted at [email protected].
