It looked great in the first picture a few months back, but it's over 20 years old and in a darker corner of the garden under the trees.

The grim reality was that it was rotten from the base up and had been invaded by things you don't want living in your shed.

Time to look around . . . what shall we buy ?

We could go low maintenance . . .	. . . and full insulation is supposed to be good nowadays.

Time to think . . .

- - - o o o - - -

First to strip everything out of the old.

I had been given a price to demolish and remove, but I would still have had to empty it first.

Two car-full trips to the tip with bags of sorted rubbish.

Things I had kept for 20 years thinking they would come in useful . . . but they never did !

Knocking the walls out meant the roof was lowered to the ground and thankfully remained in one piece.

The first job was to split it in two and fit one half onto the wood store behind.

With the new wood store roof fitted a second time (it blew off overnight in a storm the first night)

it freed up the space to burn off the timber that I really couldn't save for the future.

The second half of the roof was destined for the log store.

The new base was going to be larger than the old

and a couple of dead stumps of larch were taken down and sawn to log lengths to warm me a second time in the future.

The smaller branches were starting to re-fill the log store

and that other half roof was going to fix the weather proofing problems I had had with the shallow angled, slate roof.

- - - o o o - - -

The hard clearance work was done, all the things I thought I might keep were in boxes, tucked out of sight in the camping pod.

I had commissioned a new shed and paid the extra for the company to be fully responsible for the build, from the ground up.

First their contractor came along and made a great, rat-proof base . . . no under-the-shed spaces for unwanted visitors.

The unit had been partially pre-fabricated in the workshop in Carlisle and so the first day of the build saw real progress.

All the pieces were cut to size . . . just had to fit them in the right places.

Day three and the roof felt . . . or should I say the new rubber roof was fitted, along with the windows.

The building is water tight but the only moisture we had seen in recent days was a little morning dew on the grass.

The skilled fitter was Ben, who turned his had from walls to roof, internal cladding to fitting the maintenance free boarding.

Day five and the job was nearly complete . . . just the final adjustments to go.

The lighting and power was virtually in and it was time to clear up.

Pre-delivery inspection complete and the shed was handed over.

From now on the name of "The Shed" was not good enough . . . it had become "The Garden Room".

The electricians still had to return for half a day's work, but otherwise it was perfectly timed for our planned few days away in Scotland.

Look, it's all clean and no rubbish in it !

It needs painting and a bench needs to be fitted along the end wall but soon it will be up and running.

[ Just have to think where to put the comfy chairs and cocktail cabinet.]

Best laid plans have had to be put to one side . . . but I will get it tidy soon and hopefully throw out more old "stuff" that I really don't need to keep.

The pressure is too great . . . must go and have a lie down !