Making do

The one thing our new house doesn't have, that we really wanted, is a garage. Our lot is more than big enough to add one, though, so we're hoping to be able to build a garage next summer. In the meantime, we have to come up with ways to work around its absence.

The woodshop/workspace is in the basement bedroom that will eventually become the guest room/exercise room (complete with a murphy bed to save space!). It's actually quite convenient to the rest of my work space (sewing/crafts/etc), but once I start painting furniture I don't think it will be as nice. Though it's definitely better than being out on the screened in back porch at our last house- I was always sweltering or freezing.

The lawnmower is under the deck. Not optimal since it still gets rained on, but there is no way it's coming in the house. The gasoline fumes would be horrible.

The bikes, bike trailer and jogger are back in the waterproof portable tent shed (we had it on the covered back porch at our last house). I didn't want to put it directly on the ground (especially with how much rain we've been getting), so I built a simple platform to set the tent on.

I bought seven or eight 2"x10"x8' treated boards, four 4"x4"x8' treated posts, some decking screws, and some eye hooks. Total cost: under $100. Much cheaper than buying a whole new shed for $800+.

I laid out the 4 posts

Then laid out the 2x10s on top

I tried to keep everything as straight and square as possible, but I didn't stress about it too much. I leveled the ground a little, but left a little bit of a backwards slope because I didn't want water pooling on the platform.The deck screws were self drilling, so I didn't even need to pre-drill the holes (yay!). I used a couple deck screws in between each board as super-high-tech spacers. Once all the boards were screwed down, I screwed in the eye hooks and attached the loops on the tent to the hooks to keep it anchored.

(yes, those are parts to LMS' climbing toy and playhouse. we're finally getting the rest of the pieces from my parents' house this summer!)

I could have had this completely done, from picking up the wood, to unloading it, to building the platform, to putting our bikes in the tent in about two hours. The only reason I didn't? The batteries on my drill hadn't been charged in a couple months and I had to wait for them to charge.

Quick, easy, and cheaper than any of the alternatives, yet works well. Can't go wrong there!