I never really know what I'm going to do until I sketch it out... Amazing how close to the finished shed the sketch was. Mark Boone, our friend who did most of the actual building, is a real artist. As you can tell, we decided to make it a couple of feet larger--once we'd laid out the sill boards on the ground, it looked SMALL at 8 x 10! We haven't done the little shed roof over the door--it would block my view of the sky when I look out the door. So far that's more important to me than being out of the rain while I unlock the door. I can always take an umbrella! These are some of the rejected designs. Funny, I just found an old, old sketchbook with some of the rejects from my FIRST building project, 20 years ago--the cabin I wrote about in the book at left, A Naturalist's Cabin. Some of the sketches above look sort of like the rejects then, too! I'm glad I did these drawings as we went along...fun to see them, now. And amazing how much you forget... People ask me where it is in relation to our house...the site plan shows that clearly! I can walk over for fresh coffee or a bathroom break. 20 years ago when the house next door burned, I bought the lot. It was our garden till the trees grew up too much; now it's our urban wilderness, complete with hideaway! Here's how it ended up on the journal page, with more ideas and noodling, above...we ended up NOT doing the little roof over the door, so far, because it would block my view of the sky. We'll see... Roof details showing insulation and metal roof, above... This was the original floor plan, when it was 8 x 10 in my mind...pretty much everything has changed since then! TOO CROWDED. And I'd drawn the chairs smaller than chairs actually are. The deck ended up smaller, though...just room for a couple of chairs, no bench on the side. Maybe a planter! I was playing around with roof and window placement on this journal page...the lamp sketch was added later. Not how it ended up looking, but it was a thought. :-P (The green stickers were on the French doors, which Mark found at a garage sale...gotta wonder if he paid $40 or "made offer!") Well, the windows are the same...it's evolving! It's less Victorian than my original idea, and a lot more serene. The desk hasn't ended up where it's shown here, and I don't have chairs like that. The bookcases won't be like that either...other than that, it's JUST like the sketch... So...here are some of the bookshelf plans: Thinking about how to fit the bookshelves in the shed, and what configuration we want...I did the original sketch at top right in my journal, then made a couple of flaps I could flip down with different designs. J says the water crock, just to the left of the bookshelves here, can go up on the table at left. That makes more room for bookshelves and art supplies... Still haven't decided...but here's plan two, wider with closed storage at the bottom. (J. doesn't like this one as well...) Plan 3 offers the most storage room, I think...but we didn't end up doing the extensions at the top, and it's closer to the desk. Plus the table in the kitchen area at left is oriented in the other direction, like the desk. More floor space! This is the broom holder that J. made for the utility corner, with a couple of old wooden spools we'd been saving (I KNEW we'd find a use for those!) and a leftover board. Works great, and keeps the bristles from getting ruined! Solving the water supply question...the spigot above just didn't work well with arthritic fingers... So we brought in our old copper cistern with a big, brass, easy-to-use spigot. Of course when it freezes, I'll be back to carrying water each day... My half-a-century old teapot found a home... The shed's a great place for music! The gazing ball got stolen, though...and then I found it in the weeds up the alley, when winter made it easier to see. Guess someone was GOING to steal it and got cold feet... A timer tells the little heater when to come on...but eventually I just used a different heater with a thermostat, so it can be low at night up on all the time. TOO cold in the mornings! But I still need to warm my toes in the morning, in cold weather... This is a LOT more comfortable than the bare camp chairs...but eventually replaced them with real chairs. More crowded in there, but much more comfortable! Noodling about landscaping to improve the view DOWN the alley, which is metal garages, houses, and cars...and where to put the platform feeder!