I had mine made to measure! (Garden Sheds in General)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Garden Sheds in General
Date:	21/05/01 (4083 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Storage, Privacy

Disadvantages: Gets in a mess

Well, I had my garden shed made to measure! If you’d like to know why – read on, it is a cautionary tale.

The house in which I now live, is an end terraced house with a drive to the side. When I moved in there was a large somewhat unsightly garage at the end of the drive with a gap between it and the house for access to the rear of the property. Oh dear, I’m beginning to sound like an estate agent!

There was a little shed in the garden, which was OK for storing my garden tools. I used the garage for the larger stuff as I don’t drive and naturally enough didn’t have a car!

This arrangement was fine until one day I returned home from visiting my mom and dad to find that my house had been broken into and my video and jewellery had been taken.

The burglar had walked round the house into the back garden, helped himself to the garden spade from the shed and used it to smash the glass in both the door of the sun lounge and the door leading from the sun lounge into the main body of the house.

My dad then made me a strong gate to put in the gap between the house and the garage and I got a padlock for the shed.

Some months later my neighbour told me that a friend of his would buy the garage from me, so I said that, if he would come and take it away, he could have it! This subsequently happened leaving a gaping hole to the side of the house again. The neighbour helped me carry my small shed and put it in the gap as a temporary measure.

I then ordered my made to measure shed! I had it made to fit exactly in the gap between the house and the fence separating my garden form my neighbour’s. There’s a door opening into the garden and another opening on to the drive so that, if I have anything delivered like the bricks for the patio wall, they can be carried through the shed rather than through the house. Mind you the theory is good, but in practice I have to move a lot of junk f
irst!!

When I had my burglary I put the money paid out on my insurance towards a new kitchen. I replaced the video but the jewellery was irreplaceable so I decided to use the money for something constructive, which in turn helped me deal with the fact that I had been burgled.

The reason I’m telling you this is because I then used the old kitchen units as storage units in my new shed. They are ideal, the drawers contain all the little stuff like plugs, paintbrushes, seeds for the garden etc and the cupboards below contain the big stuff like the Vax, carpet offcuts, spare tiles etc.

I have also moved my two old bookcases into the shed and they stand on top of the units to contain tins of paint, weedkiller, slug pellets, ant powder, etc. My partner, Dave, has now tidied the shed, thus making a lot more space, and can now use one of the bookcases to house all his art stuff.

I had hammered long nails into the ridge of wood where the walls met the roof of the shed so that I could hang up my garden tools and the lawnmower. Dave has now put shelves up at each end of the shed above head height for me to store my empty tree pots for use in the garden, and has put more hooks about the place so things can be hung up out of the way.

I realise that this description makes our shed sound ever so tidy – not at all! It doesn’t matter how hard I try it still seems to get untidy all by itself! I’m sure it’s not me – tries to look innocent at this point!

The shed, of course, has a padlock to prevent burglars either stealing form the shed or using any of the garden implements to break into the house.

Unfortunately this didn’t actually stop the burglars, they climbed over the shed, threw my stone rabbit garden ornament through the double glazed kitchen window and climbed in that way – but that’s another story!

Summary: