I have written before in this blog about my shed. The retreat I have been building myself in the backyard, not to put the lawnmower in, but for me. All I have left is to find a comfy chair to put in it and hang up a picture or two. Since this project was a labour of love, and because I really do over think things, I would often muse about the process of building this shed and the truth about many the clichés and life lessons we are presented with.
Strength comes from a solid foundation
When we come from a good home with loving people, we thrive and we are strong. A good solid education is the key to anything we want to pursue in our careers. Wearing a good pair of shoes, we can walk for miles.
When I first started my shed, I used some old palates laid directly down on the soil. A dear friend, who is also a carpenter by trade, told me that if I wanted this shed to last that I had to start again, buy good materials and build a solid foundation first. As I stand in my shed with this solid floor underneath me that is holding up four solid walls and a roof over my head, I am thankful for this advice.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
This one almost goes without saying. But in life it means to take a second glance and make sure that you are making the right choices. We’ve all made decisions without thinking. Everything from bad haircuts to bad relationships, to bad investments. It’s important to stop, and do a second check, you just might save yourself a second or third trip to the lumber yard.
Life’s not fair
This may seem negative, but it is so very true. No matter how hard we plan, how much effort we put into something, and how carefully we try to execute the job, something may go wrong. I remember sitting on the roof, nailing down the shingles. My thumb was a good half a foot away from the nail I was pounding, but for some unbelievable reason, the hammer came down on it. I remember yelling at the hammer “Why?? Why would this happen?” My thumbnail turned a lovely purple and hurt like a son-of-a-gun for days, but my thumb soon healed and I even finished the shingles. I just had to embrace the fact that I’m clumsy sometimes and life’s not fair.
Accept that you’re enough
I applaud anyone who can do mudding and taping. Despite the several YouTube videos about this process as well as starting over a few times, I was never really successful at this. I eventually decided that it would never look great unless I hired someone. Sticking to my plan to do this all on my own, I came to the conclusion that I had done the best I could and it was time to cover it up with paint (pictures, furniture, clocks, whatever could hide the mistakes). In the end, after the paint, it still doesn’t look great, but it’s not bad, and I did it and I’m proud of that.
Sometimes the best choice is to make no choice at all
When it finally came down to selecting the right colour of paint, I panicked. I had Googled what colours of paint would be the most inspirational, calming and comforting. That narrowed it down to only a few hundred shades. I picked through paint samples that I still have a few scattered on the floor of my van. I was worried that this would be the next obstacle that I would not be able to overcome and my shed would sit unfinished for another winter. I was at the hardware store buying paint for my daughter’s room (which she had very easily picked out a shade for her dresser makeover) and while I was at the counter, I saw the mistints pile of paint. I decided I would go through the lot and pick out my favourite shade. This narrowed it down significantly as there were only four cans of mistints. I took a chance on a blue shade and it which ended up looking fabulous. I let the choice be made for me when I felt like the choices were drowning me and it turned out great. Plus, I saved about $30 on a can of paint!
A splash of colour makes it all better
I don’t think this is a clichĂ© or a well-known lesson, but it has become one for me. Once I got that first lick of blue on the wall, my project started to come to life. It became a real thing, personal and complete.
Get busy living or get busy dying (from “The Shawshank Redemption”)
I started my shed project not last summer, but the summer before. It was looking like it was going to sit through another winter without being completed. My father passed away a few weeks ago. He was the one who taught me how to use a drill and a saw and how to build things (in fact, most of the tools I borrowed from him). I helped him on many projects, the last project we did together was building a big wooden play structure for my kids in the back yard. I came to know how proud he was of this shed I was building as quite a few people who came in for the funeral asked to come and see this shed that he had told them about. I’m sure it drove him crazy that I hadn’t completed it yet. He was a man who kept busy living right up until the day he died, time for me to get busy too.
Building this shed was a wonderfully selfish thing I did for myself. That is probably why I kept putting off finishing it because there is always so much else that needs to be done. The shed was just for me and I could wait. But wait for what? Time is precious and capturing our wants and needs is vital. OK, so we ate frozen pizza and macaroni a few too many times over the last couple of weeks. Laundry is piled up in the laundry room and the dust bunnies are now big enough to scare the dog. But I got busy living life, finished my shed and now, after a day of snow and being a bit housebound, everything is back to normal, clean underwear in the drawer.
So now is the real challenge. What shall I write, what shall I create in this new little shed of mine?
