Part 3 of 4
Although it is possible to get all the necessary building products for a shed in Prince George it is not easy to get straight wood that is longer than about 10 feet. They are either bent, which is not too bad, or twisted, which is a real pain.
For several days each week I could be found at the hardware store checking if wood was bent or twisted, throwing the bad stuff in the middle of the aisle (I only hit one person) and putting the rest on my trolly for checkout, sweating and swearing like Pamela Wallin before a senate audit hearing.
Eventually, having bought what I thought were all the materials, and having levelled off the ground thanks to the help of one friend and another friend's compacter, I thought it was time to get started on the shed base and floor.
I went to my drawer, took out the plans I had submitted to the city (costing me $300) and stared at them for about three hours trying to make out what the hell I had drawn. The art classes obviously hadn't paid off, and the nagging little man on my shoulder saying, "I told you, you should have had someone else build it for you," was starting to annoy me.
Especially since the little man was the neighbour from down the street.
In between submitting my plans to the city and getting to the stage where I could get started on the shed I watched countless YouTube videos on shed building, wall construction, how to shingle a roof, how to build roof trusses as well as several of those wonderful epic fail compilations. Those epic fail videos are really funny.
The videos made me think I could build anything from scratch while at the same time giving me a major bout of anxiety, and I couldn't figure out why they kept pushing this "everything must be square" idea.
Having purchased my pressure-treated wood and enough screws to put the Titanic back together I was able to get the floor done in that lovely shade of baby-poo green.
Then it rained.
Pressure-treated wood, no problem I thought.
Several days later I skipped dinner at a friend's house to build the long, 16-foot side walls, then it rained again. My friend came over and helped me put the walls on and build the door opening, then it rained... for a week.
Everything up to this point had been relatively painless, but the roof was next and I needed to have trusses with a birdsmouth that had at least a 1.5-inch seat and a ridge plate running the length of the shed. Also as the roof was to have an 8/12 pitch (nothing to do with music as I found out later) I figured I had a lot of work ahead of me.
But first I had to find out what on Earth a birdsmouth was, what the 1.5-inch seat was, (whoever was going to sit on it must be quite small) what a ridge plate was and how the hell was I supposed to make it.
Back to YouTube, and after a coupe of boxes of Kleenex and a whole bunch of tears I thought, "No, I can do this." Then I broke down in tears again.
Then it rained.
Getting a birdsmouth just right is no easy feat. However getting the cut for the 8/12 pitch wasn't too bad. I first had to watch several videos, then I had to purchase a carpenter's steel square ruler as the one I had was way too small, then I had to cut the birsdmouth.
The good thing is when you have one truss done you can just use it as a template to cut the rest of the trusses. Or so I thought. Having made two trusses with all the right cuts in all the right places and all the right cuts at all the right angles I climbed up onto the shed to put them in place to make sure they worked.
Tadaa!
Nope, no tadaa! They were out by a couple of inches and I couldn't figure out why. I measured several more times, checked the cuts, checked the wood, checked YouTube, checked the rain and it was only when I was in bed at 3 in the morning not getting any sleep that I realized I didn't have the ridge plate in place, which accounted for the missing couple of inches.
Finally I could sleep. Nope, the wife was snoring.
Once the ridge plate was in place I tried the trusses again only this time there was a tadaa. A big one. I was so happy I ran around the neighbourhood like a crazed soccer fan screaming and shouting after his team scores the winning goal to win the cup. The little man from down the street who had earlier been standing on my shoulder was not impressed.
So I put my clothes back on and went home.
The next day I realized that getting a 16-foot ridge plate that didn't have a bend in it was pretty near impossible, which made some of the trusses I cut from my template look a tiny bit too small and others look a tiny bit too big.
But I found the answer. Bigger screws.
Ridge plate on and trusses in place I went in for dinner while it rained. Getting the plywood on top of the trusses and on the outside walls was a piece of cake compared to building the trusses, and it actually started to resemble a shed.
"I am a damn genius," I thought.
"I am taking all the credit, screw YouTube."
Then it rained some more.
Next week: Part 4 - The best way to finish a roof, shingles or tarp
