Square peg in a round hole

My shed is filled with doors and trim. A few weeks back a neighbour down the street was doing some renos and I acquired three inside doors and two closet bifold doors. I suspect that I will not use them all, but I really want to try and use one of the bifold doors for a closet. The neighbours behind me offered up a door for my shed. It was a good solid wood door with a window.

I measured the door and the opening. The neighbour measured the door and the opening. My landlord was by and he measured the door and the opening. It was going to work, so off to the lumber yard for the door to be hung. Then the fun really began.

I now understand that there was a reason there was no door on my shed. It was not a rectangle opening, it was a trapezoid. After two days at it and help from three neighbours... The square peg was forced into the round hole.....

Never mind shims.. We used 2x4s...

Then it was back to the greenhouse project. I continued clearing out all the weeds and roots.

It appears my door and roof repairs are holding nice. 

It's really the east wall/roof area that leaks.... 

So I decided to plant some stuff to see if it will grow through the winter. I might as well use the self watering side.  Yes I know it is even better to plant little seedlings, rather than seeds... But we will see..... Into the ground went two types of kale, spinach, swiss chard, and collards.

Quickly following the rains came some cold weather, heavy frost and small spatterings of snow.

Good luck seeds...

The really exciting news is that I have my permit plans... Finally! 

I liked all those tiny houses about 120 sq ft, but I had too many toys so I thought I might build 400 sq ft. But the City wants 600 sq ft.... Then I thought I might build 350 sq ft on top of 350 sq ft.

 

I thought that was a great idea for awhile... But my property was on a slope, so if things were ground level at the front, they would be underground at the back. Then I discovered that if a level is partly under ground it's a basement and the sq footage does not count. I would need 600 sq ft on that upper level. 

More thinking....

Then I found an App and I set about designing my house. I ended up enlarging the upstairs a bit to accommodate what I wanted. In the cute little house I had stairs, but now with a 720 sq ft I did not want to make the house seem even bigger with stairs down to another 720 sq ft. 

The basement was for a cold room and storage for the toys.. the bike, kayak, dive gear, and garage stuff, tires but not the car. It would have outside access only. And then I figured if I was going to build that much I might as well rough in a washroom and ensure I have windows for egress so the space could be a suite at some point.

Off I went to a designer/drawer of permit plans... And ya know, it's really not that different from before..

So yes .... I finally have plans!!!

And I decided who will actually build most of my house. 

Hopefully in the next week or so the permit application will go in.

Now about the door... 

Back to the lumber yard for some cedar for trim.

I tried to make it look square...

Over time it will weather and look fine.

Another neighbour was doing some burning... There is so much I could drag over and burn.

I think I will wait until next April to burn ... (Backyard burning is permitted in November and April).

The sun has almost set and I am cold.

No duct tape required.

The other day I was walking around my property with a building contractor and ... well I guess it was meal time for the local deer family. They took a look at us, realized that we were in the way of my hostas and then crossed over to the neighbour's yard for some nibbling...

They did not bother my Italian plum trees...

So to recap, I was back to the house design and find a contractor stage. 

It looks like I will build a box. It will be cheaper if it's just a simple box.  I will go with just a front porch rather than a wrap around deck.  I will have a cold room in a basement. Yes, a basement or a storage area with outside access. Inside stairs take room and make it a bigger house.  It will still be a compact house on top of a storage basement that could be a suite someday. This does mean I will be building a much bigger house than I had originally planned. I will still live in a compact home.

So to help with the new design I searched the web for existing floor plans and then I found an App for my iPad and I modified what I saw on the web and I designed my house myself. Then it went through many revisions and finally I sat down with a designer who will make me permit plan drawings from my plans. These plans I can use to get more accurate quotes from builders as well. I hope to apply for my building permit this month...

Then I got out my lot survey and some tape measures and I decided where the house will go.

I staked it out.

This should be the view (below) from the bedroom window.

And this should be the view from the guest/ storage room

The weather is so nice right now that it was time to hike to the top of the local hill. 

Below you can see the neighbourhood where my small house will be.

...I don't think I will have an ocean view, but that is okay it's still close by... And so is this view.

Another nice day and so I finally decided to get back at it in the greenhouse again. 

I had previously dug out the old door, but it was in pieces that needed some work.

A few new screws and presto ... It's a door again!

The plastic hinges are in fine shape!

A golf ball has been sitting on the ground outside the greenhouse for some weeks and 

I decided to use it as a door knob. And then I improvised a swivel latch.

Next up .... Put the new piece of plastic found in the shed into place over the hole in the roof.

This was harder than it looked because I could not climb on the outside of the frame, for it would surely collapse and I would fall through. (This from someone who fell off a 2 ft stool in my rented cottage two weeks ago!) Finally I figured out how to make it work and duct tape was not involved

Next I climbed through my fig tree and put in a few screws on the end. Hopefully it will withstand the winters wind storms.

Now I can get back to clearing out the weeds again without getting really wet. I say really wet because it does leak in a few places. I suspect in a few years I will replace or redesign the walls and roof.

Now I can plan out next years garden.....