Life of Gregory D: Garden Shed - Day 15-18

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Day 15-18 - 53-80 degrees, windy

Phase 8 - Openings (Doors and Windows)

Doors, at one point in the design phase I think we had 4 different styles of doors that we wanted to cram inside of the building. And oddly enough only one of those doors was what I would refer to as a typical door. We ended up reducing the count to 2 doors and for those doors we picked the ones I was most excited for. The first one was for the main entry door, a Dutch door! The second door was a sliding barn door!

I am always excited to check something new off my list of things I've built/installed and this time I get to take care of 2 items!

Dutch Door
The Dutch door was the first one I wanted to tackle since I had strong prevailing winds whipping through that opening and wanted some protection from the elements. The thought of having two door halves that need to pass each other by a fraction of an inch without sagging over time caused me to be careful selecting the materials and design. When it was all said and done I built them like they were being installed on a battle ship. Somehow I just new my nephews would be swinging on them when we were not looking.

Ok, maybe that kid swinging on the doors will be my own daughter. She's lucky she's cute!

The door panel is a more narrow car siding / tongue and groove board that we oriented vertically to contrast with the main siding of the cabin. I put the appropriate door hardware, and cross bracing on the inside of the door to keep the outside face clean.

Still a few months later through snow and rain the two doors pass each other with the same clearance. I just need to finish shaving down the jamb on the latch side, install some good handles (gardening implements?) and a latch system.

Barn Door
For the barn door I decided to build it similar to the dutch door for a consistent look and feel. I priced the track, brackets, trolley rollers and was struggling to find a cheaper alternative. Luckily the magical out-buildings on the property provided me with everything but the main track which is the cheapest part of the system.

I reinforced the jamb side where the door closes against the cabin to 1. help keep air from getting into the building and 2. absorb some of the impact to save the window. I also installed a guide on the floor boards to keep the door from blowing out when a gust of wind blows through the building. For my first Dutch and barn door I think it turned out great! We'll see what a couple years do to them.

Winterize
Since the weather was turning at this point and the holidays were rapidly approaching we did our best to winterize the cabin. With the exception to a small piece at the top of a gable we did just that! Luckily this gap was on a side where wind driven rain/snow would not occur.

I cleaned up the cabin for the winter.

...and staged some furniture!

Plans for Spring!
Miscellaneous trim work will continue throughout next year. I want to install some unique 2x 'crown moulding' on the inside. trim out the windows a little more and other little frou-frou details.

I will also be designing/building the work benches, shelves, party bench, storage, etc. Hopefully most of this will happen early spring so they can be used fully this year!

Then I have quite a few things to finish and a couple small surprises in store.

The cabin is mostly stained now but I have been bad remembering whose camera I used to take the pics. If you have a pic of the cabin with 2 tones please email it to me! Thanks! heh.

I can't wait to see what sort of activities will take place in it this next season!