Operation Man Shed

I know I say it every single time… but this before/after house project is my favorite!! You may have seen our recent, painted garage, painted staircase and garage mudroom… next up we have… Ryan’s Man Shed! You know I tried to convince my hubby for a She Shed but there was no budging… I can always transition the look inside down the road, shhhh… HA! Over the last 2-years or so I’ve slowly but surely started taking over the garage space with my office / craft corner… So! Ryan wanted a designated space that was all his. A consolidated and functional place to organize all things tools, car stuff, yard stuff, golf stuff, paint supplies, and more! This Man Cave may or may not be a fun spot for the occasional poker game and backyard pub!

We started this project by doing lots of research!! We measured and marked our outdoor space we had to work with. We have a large area behind our house on our driveway along our backyard fence. It was previously storing our trash cans, some random chairs, a rusted basketball hoop, and a horizontal shed we got at Costco a few years back. The horizontal shed worked for a while but then it quickly got cluttered with tools/equipment and was a pain to navigate getting things out without making a huge mess. We measured the space alongside the back of our driveway and knew we could easily fit an 12 x 8′ shed. We then cleared away and leveled the shed space on a grassy area at the end of our driveway so it faces the backside of our house. Of course, we love our neighbors but this orientation also acts as a great privacy wall too. After many, many hours of researching online and driving to random shed lots to explore. We really liked the options with Virginia Custom Buildings & Play Centers but they were on a 3-month delivery delay plus the shed we really wanted was too pricey (lumber prices have gone up this year!).

It just so happens that Ryan’s Dad, Jesse, works for Backyard Buildings & More — they are suppliers for Lowes, Costco, etc. Jesse knows how to put these sheds together so we debated ordering an uninstalled shed so he and Ryan could work on putting it together… BUT personally, the 80-page installation manual and billion hardware pieces looked a bit intimidating… then we’d have to paint the whole thing. SO! After chatting with Jesse he was going to look into options for us to buy a used floor model shed, already installed, and we would likely just have to paint it. Ryan’s Dad called us last week early one morning with some exciting news! A shed was available and it was a DEAL!! Brand NEW 12 x 8′ wood model (with the specific height specs we wanted), pre-installed and painted (the exact colors we wanted!). It was on a truck en route to their storefront from a Costco in Newport News. We were able to go see an exact replica here in Richmond that morning. We LOVED it!! SOLD!!! Ryan’s Dad hooked us up with an awesome employee discount (& super fast delivery!!) too which was amazing! We lucked out with perfect timing on this one. We had excellent customer service with Backyard Buildings & More from order to quick delivery! We highly recommend them! If you’re looking for this exact shed it’s called the Aberdeen.

Once we had the green light we prepped for shed delivery day and cleared the area. We took down the rusted basketball hoop (put it up for free on Facebook and someone came to haul it away), moved the chairs/trash cans, and emptied out our {messy!} horizontal shed. Delivery day for our new shed came… they put cement blocks and boards down to level the space and put our new shed in its new home sweet home!

It was SO fun to work with a clean, blank canvas of storage space. You know my OCD organizing heart couldn’t wait to get started putting everything in its place!! Even though it was “Ryan’s shed!” he still let me help decorate, HA! We cleaned out a bunch of stuff from the garage + everything that was previously in the horizontal shed. We put the bulky things like our generator and Shop Vac equipment under the workbench, stored labeled paint cans in the loft, wheeled-in and organized Ryan’s tool chest organizer, installed heavy duty shelving for organized bins, and installed utility hanger hooks for hanging extension cords, tools, etc. to keep things off the ground. Ryan snagged a white pegboard at Home Depot to install and organize various go-to tools. I think we really maximized the space! We also anchored everything down for peace of mind… because, toddlers! Eventually adding electricity to the shed is on the to-do list. But for now these battery-operated magnetic lanterns work just fine!

What a difference it makes — quite the statement piece! The garage feels empty now — lots more wiggle room which is great since it’s a high-traffic area for our family on a daily basis. Plus now we can more easily fit the bounce house on rainy/cold days! Win, win! We decided to keep our horizontal shed (after a much needed powerwash!) next to our new shed to organize all KID stuff — bounce house (rolled up and stored in a trash can), wagon, scooters, double stroller, helmets, lifejackets, sports gear, etc. Now all of this is more easily accessible + isn’t cluttered in our garage nor is it exposed to the elements underneath our deck.

PS!! How CUTE is this shed going to be in the SNOW?! I can already picture hosting winter mini-sessions with Christmas wreaths hanging on the shed doors blurred in the background (with maybe a Christmas tree or two?!). Such an adorable backdrop!!

Hope this blog post inspired you to spruce up a functional, work zone space for your family! What’s on your house project wish list?? See below quick iPhone snaps of our project!

Here is our setup BEFORE…

This horizontal shed was a dirty, hot mess!! Yikes!

Annnnnnd… here is the setup AFTER!
Here is a before and after peek inside the 12′ x 8′ shed!

Dark & and rainy day today for iPhone snaps but you get the idea 🙂