Structures, leveling and roofing.

What do you do if someone asks you to choose between a 10x16 ft wooden structure that needs a bit of work on the roof or a garden shed. You dream about a glazing shed and choose the garden shed because that is what you really need and Steph really wants.

What do you do if a week later you are allowed to take both? You think: how on earth is this going to work, can we afford it, do we need it (YES). And then you have to deal with the result of your excitement. Steep driveway, not much space, leveling, trucking companies, $200 per hour rates and most important: landlords. The last was easier than expected. They thought it was a great idea as long as we could still make a turn around. The trucking company was fine too, he seemed to have time to do it and when I told him I was a bit worried about the roofing, he laughed, pet me on the head and told me he could fix it in a few hours work with the right materials. Of course we did not say no.

We cancelled our trip to Vancouver and started leveling. Now here is a whole new thing that we had never done, nor heard of. Leveling. What you do is you put earth and rocks from one side to the other until it is level. If you keep doing it and it still isn’t quite level, you think oh well, it will be ok because everyone around you told you it didn’t come down to the centimeter. Well, it does come down to the centimeter and it will not be ok. After you put the building down and it is not level, a whole new can of worms opens. But that was beside the point. The buildings came. We spend 2 full days out there getting it ready and when he showed up with this humongous truck and the building on the back, I was so happy.

I already was happy: studio at home, kiln outside in a beautiful kiln-house and no more commuting when I have time to throw. But this is different. It is really cool. A whole shed to do my stuff. It is really quite exciting.

He came back the next day to prepare for the roofing. Delay with the roofing rolls, not the right weight and they missed the ferry. But he hammered away and at the end of the day it was ready. Could I phone some friends to help, because these rolls were way heavier than expected. Sure. I went inside and looked at my phone list. I hate asking people for help. Love to do it all by myself, but I wasn’t climbing any roofs. Or nailing them. So, not much choice, either the roof was going up with help, or it wasn’t going up at all.

All the people I phoned showed up. We were there with eight of us and 3 hour later the new roofing was on both sheds. With a lot of laughing, sliding and missing nails it came together and at noon they all left and picked up the day as if nothing happened. Except for me. I am sitting here at home, being really happy, impressed and thankful. For Ruth and Oliver for being always so supportive even if our ideas are pushing it a bit. For Steve Ringwood to talking me into it not being such a big project as I thought it would be and pulling us through till the end. And to Peter, Norberto, Gary, Chris and Bernie for showing up after such short notice and happily climbing the roof, tarring it and nailing the roofing on. The feeling to be so supported is immense. And invaluable. We are so lucky to be where we are.