The Garden

I’ve told you that Biceps and I have been building a Big Girl Playhouse for some close friends.
What I haven’t told you is that they have a drop dead gorgeous garden-worthy of being featured in Home and Garden magazine.

This little beauty soothed my aching spirit during the awful-four-foot-hole digging process.

Each time that I hit myself with a hammer or accidentally drill through my flesh (which is often), I sit here and regroup and think of quieter times.

I bring my mind to a peaceful place, listening to the trickle of water and the swaying of branches. I obtain inner harmony…..
That is until I hit myself with a hammer again.

And when that happens, I come back again and sit a moment longer, watching the Koi and tiny frogs doing their thing.
They have no idea a gigantic shed is being built just a few feet away. I try to tell them all about it and how many bruises I’ve encountered. I am pretty sure they sympathize with me.

As a ‘job-site’ goes, this one is pretty top notch. With each new flesh wound, I remind myself that this view is a lot better than a gray cubicle lit by fluorescent bulbs. Although sometimes I do daydream about a cubicle far, far away from saws and sledgehammers and splinters.
Until Biceps snaps me back to attention, requesting help with hoisting up the next rafter. I force myself to leave my zen in the garden, grab my tool belt and head back.
A Big Girl Playhouse doesn’t build itself, you know.

The Big Girl Playhouse

There’s this crazy couple that we know that wanted a bigger storage shed.
Husband of said couple requested something large enough so that he wouldn’t hit his head on it.
He also had a budget.
Wife of said couple wanted a dreamy, glass-encased, whimsical, outdoor, greenhouse-inspired ‘space’.
She had no budget.

The planning process was an interesting one.
I was just excited after many meetings and dinners with said couple, to finally put our design into action.

After clearing the land, we used a torture device called an ‘Auger’ to dig (8) four foot deep holes for our support posts.
I hated the Auger by the end of the day. I even kicked it once. Then I drug it behind my van to teach it a lesson all the way back to the rental place. Alright, so really I towed it back to the rental place. But don’t think I didn’t dream about dragging it back. ‘Cuz I did.
We leveled, and measured and leveled some more, before setting the gigantic 12’ posts into the earth and backfilling them with earth.
I was very bruised and tired by this point.

We attached pressure treated stringers around the top and bottom of the structure, cinching in all the free-flowing posts. I kept telling the posts to ‘Get in line!’, but they didn’t listen for the most part. Stubborn posts. We added 8’ header/beams across the top. These were also 4×6 pressure treated posts.

Attaching the last beam to the top stringer was our goal today for quittin’ time.

I was thinking about last night’s leftovers waiting for me in the fridge as soon as I got home.
And a nice shower.
And maybe a glass of wine.
And Cowboy.

And although I felt victorious about meeting our goal today, I think I was more excited about going home to my leftovers and a glass of wine.
Leftovers…yum.
Next step: rafters and raisin’ the roof. Woot woot.