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How to Throw an Amazing Beatles Theme Party

March 18, 2016 by Eileen 40 Comments

I love planning a good theme party. I’m not quite sure whether it’s the cute things you get to create, the endless possibilities you have, or the way your vision all comes together for one special day.

A really great theme party is like having a living Pinterest board.

We decided to throw a 64th Beatles party for my dad based on the song “When I’m 64.” He loves the Beatles, and my sisters and I thought it would be a pretty cool theme to work with. We loved coming up with all of these DIY Beatles party ideas.

“When I’m 64” Photo Collage

Below is a collage my sister PK made with pictures of my dad through the years, with the song title “Glad All Over” hanging above.

Also, for more Beatles party decorations, we used old records hanging from the ceiling.

Beatles Song Signs

As far as my tasks, I began with the most time-consuming one, which was making the song banners – it was one of the best DIY Beatles party ideas, as it turned out awesome!

We picked out 20 Beatles songs – mostly Dad’s favorites, and cut out the individual letters so we could make these signs.

I used a pack of pre-cut letters from the dollar store, and I traced the letters I needed on yellow and blue paper. I used regular blue construction paper and a thicker yellow paper. Both worked fine.

Then I cut each letter out. I used an exacto knife for the holes in the Os, Ds, As, etc.

Once completed, I flipped the letters over and hot glued fishing wire to the back so that you couldn’t see the string in the trees.

We hung them in the house and outside. They looked especially cool hanging from the trees.

The songs we used were When I’m 64, You Say It’s Your Birthday, All My Loving, All Together Now, Come Together, Eight Days a Week, From Us to You, Glad All Over, Good Day Sunshine, Here Comes the Sun, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Johnny B. Goode, Love Me Do, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Twist and Shout, With a Little Help from My Friends, and You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me.

For another DIY Beatles part idea, I also cut out food banners based on song titles. Above the appetizer table, we hung “Come and Get it” and above the lunch table, we hung “Can’t Buy Me Lunch.”

The dessert table was coined “The Magical Pastry Tour,” and the drinks station was labeled “Fuel on the Hill.”

Food Labels using Beatles Songs

Hands down, my favorite of the DIY Beatles party ideas was creating themed labels for all of the food.

We altered song titles to make a creative label for each food item.

My dad helped us come up with the wording – and both of my parents were getting a kick out of how funny we found some of the names.

I still laugh when I read “I Want to Hold Your Ham.”

Pictured above are most of the food labels.

To make them, I dragged the Beatles picture into Photoshop and then added the name of the dish in a cool font. I love finding awesome fonts.

You could also use a basic program like Paint to create them too.

Listed below is the full menu we served at the Beatles party, along with the song title food labels. I hope it gives you some great Beatles inspiration 🙂

Lunch – Can’t Buy Me Lunch

Meatballs/Rolls – While My Meatball Gently Weeps

Mac and Cheese – Get Back Mac

Grilled Ham – I Want To Hold Your Ham

Pineapple and Hawaiian Rolls – Here Comes the Bun

Fruit Salad – Strawberry Fields Forever

Baked Beans – Let It Bean

Potato Salad – The Salad of John and Yoko

Slice and peel potatoes – All You Need Is Spuds

Green Salad – Lettuce Be

Irish Soda Bread – Hello, Good-bread

Hot Dogs (for kids) – Hot Dogs and Mean Mr. Mustard

Condiments

Hot Sauce – Do You Want To Know a Secret Sauce?

Butter – Help, I Need Some Butter

Appetizers- Come and Get it

Veggies & Onion Dip – Golden Cucumbers & Glass Onion Dip

Mini hot dogs – Piggies (in a Blanket)

Cheese, crackers, pepperoni – I Should Have Known Cheddar

Cream Cheese Pinwheels – Cheese Cheese Me

Dessert – The Magical Pastry Tour

Cake – P.S. I Love Cake

Butterscotch/Cut-Out Cookies – Cook-ie in the House

Blueberry Bundt Cake – Til There Was Blue-berry

Snickerdoodles – Yellow Submar-doodles

Dixie Cups/Chocolate Syrup (for kids) – Here Comes the Sun-Dae

Apple Tarts – Apple Record Tarts

Drinks- The Fuel on the Hill

Beer – Can’t Buy Me Bud

Wine – I Feel Wine

Sodas (Pepsi, Dr. Pepper) – Pepsi Lane & Sergeant Doctor Pepper

Juice – Hey Juice

DIY Beatles Party Hats

In addition to the other Beatles party decor, I also made these Beatles party hats. I figured they were cheaper to make, and I could personalize them.

We used the names of the four Beatles – John, Ringo, George, and Paul. My dad’s name is John, which added to the creativity.

We also had a cousin George coming – and he loved his hat shout-out too.

To make the DIY party hats, I used a free template I found online and purchased scrapbook paper. I did a bunch of test prints (on regular paper) until I got the words lined up right.

Then, I printed on the scrapbook paper. After printing, I hot glued elastic (you can get rolls of this at craft stores) to the insides.

Next, I used our own heads to get a good feel for how long of an elastic to use. Apparently, the hats worked for dogs too.

The Best of our DIY Beatles Party Ideas

The highlight of the Beatles party was this amazing, almost life-size, face cut-out board of the Beatles, created by my sister Bridget.

She collected the different paint colors from around the house and garage, and then drew, painted, and outlined.

As far as the face cut-out board, we bought a 4×8 from Home Depot and had it cut in half at the store – for the convenience of it fitting in the car and also for the convenience of storage later on.

Then, we connected the two pieces with hinges.

It turned out amazing! So amazing that we had to do a dog pic!

Abbey Road Photos

And last but not least, a Beatles party would not be complete without an Abbey Road replication.

We used the patio (and had to use inverse colors –but nonetheless, the point was made) for this fun little scene.

Overall, it was a fantastic party filled with tons of DIY Beatles party ideas!

My dad had a very happy 64th birthday, our guests loved all the little details of our DIY Beatles party decor, and we had a great time putting everything together for the Beatles party.

Sisters and Stripes in the Nursery

February 15, 2016 by Eileen 22 Comments

After finding out we were having a boy, we had to start turning a room into a nursery. The obvious choice was our guestroom. I spent countless hours going through Pinterest boards and googling pictures of DIY nursery ideas, deciding how I wanted to decorate our little one’s room.

The room was currently yellow – a color I had chosen years before. The yellow was bright and sunshiney, but it was ready for a change.

The furniture was ready for a change as well. It was odds and ends from flea markets and leftovers from our college days.

It was certainly time to makeover the guestroom, converting it to a beautiful baby nursery.

Making Plans for the Nursery

The carpet was already turquoise, so the plan needed to revolve around that. I love a pretty carpet, but when they are bold colors, you have to go neutral with the walls.

After much consideration, I decided to paint the walls gray. I know that sounds crazy – who paints their nursery gray?! But, I had a vision.

My DIY nursery ideas included painting the fourth wall, the longest one, striped with a lighter/whitish gray. This wall was opposite the mirrored closet doors, so the reflection of the stripes in the doors would make the small room appear larger.

The furniture would be all white, and I would work in more turquoise in other areas – pillows, blankets, and baskets.

Here’s a side-by-side before (from quite a few years prior) and after:

Two of my sisters offered to paint the room since I was pregnant. And, it gave me time to work on more DIY nursery ideas.

My sisters had made a bet on whether we were having a boy or a girl. PK put her money on a boy, due to the fact that everyone’s first-born in our family had been boys, and Bridget said a girl to go along with the bet. Whoever lost the bet bought the paint 🙂

Ash was thrilled with this hands-off project because he had more time for other things – like putting together all that nursery furniture!

Just to give a little background…

PK, my fact-loving, detail-oriented sister had never painted a room before – let alone done any house project other than some light dusting.

Bridget, on the other hand, designs movie sets for a living and can pretty much do everything. She is a hard-worker, a great delegator, and very goal-oriented.

Accordingly, she gave PK the responsibility of planning out the stripes, putting PK’s meticulous nature to good use, while she got started on the rest of the room.

Painting the Stripes – DIY Nursery Ideas

We planned to do nine, thick alternating stripes, aiming for the stripes to start and end in the base color – the darker gray.

PK started with the laser level and masking tape with the plan to do two rounds of masking tape, painting the darker stripes first.

After that dried, she did another round of masking tape for the lighter stripes. It was more time-consuming this way, but paint wasn’t wasted.

The laser level made putting on the masking tape rather simple. It hooked onto the wall very easily, so there was no ruler, pencils, or any other contraptions involved – just a little patience 🙂

Here’s the initial tape job, leaving everything outside the boxes to be painted with the base color.

Painting the Window Trim

After the room was painted with the base color, the wooden window trim stood out like a sore thumb. It screamed to be painted white.

This is a prime example of how one project can turn into another; however, the end result made it worth all the effort they put in!

Below the window trim is now painted white, the second round of masking tape is on the striped wall, and the lighter stripes are now painted.

After looking through so many DIY nursery ideas, the room was coming together nicely.

Sisters & Stripes in the Nursery

I forgot to mention one thing about my sisters – they love Frozen…. and they were painting the nursery right around the time when the soundtrack came out.

Yes, they are in their 20s, but they love that movie – the funny sidekicks, the catchy songs, and of course the fact that it’s about sisters.

As they were painting, they blasted the soundtrack over and over… and over again. This was probably the point where Ash wished he painted the room himself – just kidding…

I, on the other hand, was actually disappointed I couldn’t help. However, I did enjoy the extra time to catch up on the Real Housewives with my buddy Zeus.

Here’s PK and her awesome stripes. Not bad for her first time painting!

Other than cleanup, the room was done. The accent wall looked perfect!

Looks like all that singing, I mean painting, paid off.

My sisters were thrilled to be able to help out with the nursery, PK received some real world lessons, Ash and I got something checked off our growing to do list without lifting a finger, and our little one was about to get a beautiful nursery.

We loved the grays of the nursery. If you are looking at turning a room into a nursery, definitely consider neutral colors. They are easy to work with and can be easily accentuated.

Furnishing the Nursery

For every piece of furniture, we carefully read reviews – especially for the changing table and the crib. The crib and glider chair were from Babies R Us. We used coupons that came in the mail.

The changing table was from Wayfair, and the lamp was a Target find.

I made the pillows with leftover fabric from the curtains. I also made the storage bins for under the changing table. The storage bins were made from contact paper and cardboard boxes.

The nursery was such a sweet little room – perfectly made over. After we moved, the new owners fell in love with the room as well, using it for their nursery too 🙂

If you are looking for DIY nursery ideas, the gray striped accent wall looked gorgeous – and it was an easy DIY.

From Rags to Riches: French Doors on the Pantry

February 12, 2016 by Eileen 57 Comments

Simply stated, our pantry was an eyesore.

It was a little nook of shelves with old curtains pulled to each side.

We were going to put our house on the market soon, and in looking at the competition, we kept seeing very similar houses with beautiful kitchens.

We looked at our old countertops, painted cabinets, and raggedy pantry….and sighed.

Then, I got an idea – installing double French doors on the pantry.

Who doesn’t love French doors? They add a certain style and class – and it should be an easy, relatively cheap upgrade to a tired kitchen.

Planning for the French Door Installation

I tend to be very particular when it comes to what I want. Installing any old French doors wasn’t going to cut it.

I searched and searched and finally came across a set of French doors on Overstock. Overstock has some great options when you aren’t finding what you want at the typical stores. (I also found my oddly-sized bathroom mirror there!)

French doors can be expensive but a 10% coupon code, which is pretty easy to find with Overstock, helped with the price.

The before picture (below) is so zoomed that I thought I would include the below pictures too. These are unfortunately the best pictures I could find.

The first is a picture of two of my sisters and me, standing in front of the pantry. You can see the old curtains and the tiebacks. It was pretty awkward having the curtained pantry in the middle of our kitchen.

The second is my sister PK, acting like Vanna White, and it shows the curtain rod and the pantry shelves. It needed an upgrade, didn’t it?!

The doors I found were sold as bi-fold doors, but the conversion to French doors was simple, especially because we had an existing opening. This made for a much easier door installation.

Also, the doors were cheaper to buy unfinished – which wasn’t a problem because I don’t mind painting. Amazon also has a lot of French Doors too if you are looking for more options.

How to Install Interior Double French Doors

To install the double French doors in an existing opening, Ash removed the six small hinges that connected the door panels together. These hinges were light duty and were meant to be used in a bi-fold setup with little load.

He purchased six heavy duty door hinges, figuring that due to the glass, 3 hinges per door would be needed to handle the weight. (Aside from that, no additional extra hardware was needed.

If we wanted to keep the doors as bi-folds, we would have needed to purchase a bi-fold track to mount in the door frame.)

The actual door came in several different sizes, so we bought the one that most closely fit the pantry opening. It wasn’t perfect because the door height was just a little short.

So Ash filled the gap at the top with a piece of 2 x 4 wood painted white (as you can see in the picture).

He also had to trim the baseboard at the bottom so that he could have a flush edge for the French doors.

To mount the French doors, he installed the hinges on the doors first. Then he took one door panel and placed it in the ‘open’ position in the pantry, with the hinges open 90 degrees. He used some scrap wood (about ¼” thick) to elevate the door off of the floor.

With the door in position, he used heavy duty screws to secure the hinges to the wall. He then removed the scrap wood supports on the floor and verified that the door swung open and closed easily.

Then, he repeated this procedure with the other door panel. Installing French doors was pretty simple, and although unpainted, the double French doors already looked so much better than before 🙂

How to Paint French Doors

With the double French doors mounted, the next step was painting. I chose a white semi-gloss paint to match the baseboard and chair rails that I just refreshed.

It went on pretty easily with just one coat needed. There was no need to use any masking tape for the glass panels.

This particular door came with a protective plastic film on each glass panel, so it was easy to paint the double doors without prep work.

Unfortunately, as easy as this made the painting process, removing the film was actually very time-consuming. However, we knew this going into the project because we always thoroughly read the online reviews 🙂

How to Attach the Door Installation Hardware

After screwing on the door handles, the last step of the door installation was to attach some magnetic catches at the top to keep the doors closed and to also serve as a stop to prevent the doors from swinging inwards.

A simple task, but the first try was a no go.

The magnets Ash used were way too strong, as they were making a loud, clanging noise as they connected. Also, when we opened the doors, the panels shuddered from the magnetic tension release, which wasn’t good for the glass.

Ash simply replaced them with less powerful magnets that were just as effective.

As you can see, this weekend project of installing French doors turned out great.

Our raggedy old curtains were now beautiful double French doors. A simple swap made a drastic difference.

Here’s another look at the before and after of installing the double French doors. It really updated our kitchen without touching the countertops or cabinets.

Now that we are in a new house, I miss those interior French doors; however, I have a plan to work them into our new house too!

Maybe in my office – they would go with our new built-in bookshelf with a window seat. I’m sure Ash won’t mind installing French doors again. Stay tuned 🙂

How to Build a Storage Shed from Scratch (Phase 1)

February 4, 2016 by Ash 46 Comments

Learn how to build a storage shed from the ground up with this easy tutorial. These steps will show you how to create your shed design, prepare for construction, and build the floors and walls – along with some money-saving tips!

With a larger house comes a bigger yard. I knew my little push lawn mower could only do so much with half an acre.

This was proven true after nearly 3 hours mowing the grass, and stopping to empty the bag every 2 minutes. I couldn’t believe how much time it would take me to maintain the lawn each week.

Because of this, I bought a used riding mower that sped things up significantly, as I can now finish cutting the lawn in just over half an hour.

However, the behemoth was taking up half our garage. The riding lawn mower was huge, and we couldn’t get the car into the garage along with it.

I had big plans for our new garage (tons of workbenches and storage ideas).

As much as I loved my new riding mower, its home was not going to be the garage.

This was an excellent opportunity to work on my dream shed project – teaching myself how to build a storage shed.

How to Build a Shed Series

This post is part of a three-part series that I wrote on how I built my shed from the ground up.

I’m including so many details of how I built it, tips and tricks I did, mistakes I made, and all the how-tos.

I’m breaking it into three posts because of the amount of details.

In this post, I will show you the shed design process, how to prepare for construction, how to build the floor and walls, and how to install the doors and window headers.

My next article will show you phase two of the shed building process, which is how to install shed siding and roofing. This is when you really see the shed take shape.

And, my third article will show you phase three of how to build a shed, which covers how to build steps for the shed, a ramp for the shed, and custom shed doors. The doors involve an easy custom design that my wife swooned over.

Storage Shed Plans and Designs

I worked on building the DIY storage shed single-handedly over the summer.

I wasn’t sure that building a shed was in my skill set, especially building it by myself. Never had I done anything like this before.

However, I did a lot of research, watched a lot of videos, and asked some contractor gurus for advice.

The result?

An amazing DIY storage shed that my wife still can’t believe I built.

Did I make mistakes? Of course, but I learned from them and am sharing it all with you – so you can learn too.

If you are wondering how to build a storage shed or if building a shed from scratch is within your skill set, keep reading this DIY shed tutorial.

Choosing a Storage Shed Design

In learning how to build a storage shed, the first thing I had to do was decide on a shed design and plans.

Now if I was going to build a shed, I wanted it to be multi-functional and not just mower storage.

I went over several ideas in my head about how I could use the new storage in the shed.

I initially thought it would be nice to have an area of the DIY shed to store bagged lawn clippings and keep it dry from the rain.

It was annoying trying to handle soaking wet yard waste bags once exposed to the elements all week.

I also wanted to remove some of the bulkier items from the garage (like the wheelbarrow and fertilizer spreader), so the storage shed needed to be large enough to accommodate these things.

After taking measurements of the riding mower, I padded the size to include additional storage. I settled on a 10 x 16 shed plan.

This would give me ample space to park the mower and store gardening equipment and large tools.

Picturing the End Product

When planning things out, I usually like picturing the end product and doing a walk-through in my head to make sure everything makes practical sense.

I envisioned myself driving the mower into the storage shed, stepping off to the left (bagging chute was on the right), and walking out the shed door.

I knew I wanted the mower entrance to be on the far end, and shed storage directly adjacent.

Now if I stepped off to the left of the mower, I didn’t want to be walking into a wall.

I thought it would be a tight squeeze to fit between the mower and the wall, so I wanted to place the mower entrance on the right size of the shed.

Deciding on Storage Shed Plans

With the basic requirements of how to build a storage shed in mind, I started shopping online for storage shed plans.

There are lots of sites online selling plans for custom built storage sheds.

I ended up going with www.icreatables.com.

They had designs more to my personal liking, and they also had a ton of resources (video walk-throughs of storage shed constructions) which I found very helpful.

I found a “Cape Cod” shed design that I liked a lot. It came with a large overhang that would be perfect for keeping rain out of my bagged yard waste.

I just needed to add a deck to make a little porch on the storage shed to elevate my bags off the ground.

First Shed Sketch

Here’s my first sketch of the DIY shed. It’s a rough sketch, but this is how all my projects start, with putting a vision to paper.

As you can see in the picture, I have the mower entrance on the far right, and a porch on the rear for storing bags of lawn clippings.

I also added a smaller door on the side of the shed to easily access the storage area of the shed.

Two windows were sufficient to let in enough lighting. I also factored in a ramp for the mower.

Don’t let the 12 x 16 dimensions fool you. The extra two feet was accounting for the overhang, so the storage shed plan was still 10 x 16.

The shed foundation was going to rest on some 4 x 4 skids, sitting on 18 concrete blocks.

I did look into concrete anchors, but opted for the skid design due to simplicity.

Also a majority of comparable storage sheds in my area were resting on skids, so that gave me confidence that I was making the right decision.

I knew I was not in a flood zone either. If this were the case, I would have had to anchor the DIY shed permanently.

I purchased the storage shed plans for $15 and started going over the material list and putting together a cost estimate.

Preparing for Construction

Moving on to the construction part of how to build a shed!

This part of the storage shed construction took quite some time as I had no experience in construction of this magnitude.

Research

I had to google lots of techniques and terminology while going through the storage shed plans.

Also, I can’t tell you how much of a resource youtube was for me.

With each part of the shed construction process in the plans, I had to picture myself actually doing the work.

This helped me know if it was within my skill set and if I had the correct equipment.

I did have to purchase a number of tools to complete the shed project, but I’ll get to those in a bit.

After mulling over the storage shed plans and materials, I hit a snag.

To accomplish the two feet roof overhang, I needed a 16ft LVL (laminated veneer lumber) beam.

This is essentially a really strong, hard, and heavy piece of wood running across the underside of the overhang.

It needed to be strong enough to handle the weight of the shed’s roof.

Unfortunately, the storage shed plans called for a certain size LVL beam that was really expensive for me and was not available at the local Home Depot.

I considered making my own beam, but abandoned this idea out of lack of experience. The last thing I wanted to do was make something unsafe.

Second Shed Sketch

At this point, I was also getting a little overwhelmed at the construction design of the overhang.

This was a turning point in my shed project.

So teaching myself how to build a storage shed, I ended up abandoning the overhang design and opting for a more traditional shed.

This meant ditching the storage of the yard waste bags.

It wasn’t such a terrible loss. If I really wanted to, I could construct a box with a flap at the top to store the bags in.

So, I browsed through more shed designs and bought a simpler one for another $15.

After some tweaks to the purchased plans, here was the final design I ended up going with:

That sketch needed a bit of explanation as it does look a lot different than my original idea and went against my initial plan of the mower entrance being on the far right.

How to Build a Storage Shed

At this point in the shed project, I had already started doing some of the prep work outside that was not going to change, regardless of the shed design.

Laying Concrete Blocks for the Skids

Specifically, I laid out the 18 concrete blocks for the skids and worked on getting them leveled properly for the storage shed (see pictures below).

Tip for Leveling Skids

Here’s a small tip about leveling the skids for a storage shed.

Even though I tried my best to get the concrete blocks perfectly level, there were a few that were off by a little. This is pretty typical.

This left a gap when the skids were rested on them.

So to fill the gaps, I used scraps of roofing shingles. I read this shed tip online, and it helped me out a lot.
After leveling off the concrete blocks and placing the 4 x 4 skids on them, it became very apparent that as flat as the yard looked, there was a subtle slope.

This made the right side of the shed about a foot higher off the ground than the left side.

This made it very inconvenient to have the shed ramp on the right side.

It meant I would need a much bigger ramp (more materials and expense).

Also, that extra foot of height was making me nervous about driving the mower up it.

How simple it would be to just have the ramp on the left side of the storage shed, where the ground height was minimal.

Adjusting the Shed Design

So, in my DIY shed design, I relocated the mower entrance.

I did some more measurements and decided that the squeeze between the mower and the wall (when exiting the mower on the left) would not be so bad.

Nonetheless, I still kept my fingers crossed it would work out. Also, I had to relocate the storage shed entrance door since that was where the mower was going to park.

I did have to add some steps into my shed design to accommodate the big drop from the door to the ground now.

Additionally, I moved the windows around in my shed plans. The windows are on the front right corner now.

It all worked out for the best as this was the optimal setup to allow the most sunlight in.

My yard has lots of big trees, and most of the storage shed is usually under tree shade.

As you can tell in the picture with the 4 x 4 skids, I get the most sunlight from the right side of the shed so relocating the windows to the right made the most sense.

Happy with the new design, I was excited to my DIY shed project – as I was making some good progress constructing the storage shed.

Ordering the Shed Materials

One of the most exciting and anticipated moments in the project was getting the Home Depot delivery of materials.

For $75 delivery fee, Home Depot dropped off a gigantic pile of lumber for the storage shed on my driveway. It was definitely worth the delivery because it was a ton of materials.

With my wife’s help, it only took a couple of hours to relocate the lumber into my garage to keep it save from the weather.

It was also very fitting that it happened to be our 5th year wedding anniversary, and wood is the appointed gift for 5 years!

So happy anniversary my dear – wood!

Anyway, prior to ordering, I made a saved list called “Storage Shed” on Home Depot’s website, and added all the materials I needed.

Money-Saving Tips for Building Sheds

The total came to around $2000.

I was able to knock off an extra $250 though, and here’s how. Ebay has lots of 10% off coupons for Home Depot (up to $200 off).

I’ve come to realize that these coupons are hard to get a hold of for free. They typically sell for around $35 on ebay.

This was a bargain for me because that $35 that I would spend on the coupon would save me $200 off my storage shed cost.

Incidentally, the day I was going to purchase the coupon on ebay, I checked my mailbox and saw a bright yellow letter from Home Depot.

I knew instantly what it was – a 10% off coupon!

What were the odds? We just moved into our new home a few months prior, and Home Depot sent us a coupon congratulating us on our move.

Well, we saved another $35.

If you aren’t as lucky as me, buy the coupon on ebay for your project, if it makes sense for your budget.

For the other $50 I saved – I used ebay.

I was able to purchase 2 gift cards on ebay worth $500 each, but selling for $475 each.

I hope some of these money-saving tips can help you save with your shed.

How to Build a Shed Foundation

The next step in learning how to build a shed is to work on the shed foundation. I made the skids out of 6 pieces of 4 x 4 x 8 pressure-treated wood.

Safety First

Just a little note about working safely. Pretty much all wood used in the storage shed was pressure treated, by the way.

The wood was treated with a special chemical to keep bugs (and moisture to some degree) out.

When building outdoor structures, you really need pressure-treated wood.

A word of caution though, be careful about splinters and sawdust from cutting.

Splinters on the skin might sting or give a rash because of the chemicals.

Also, wear a dust mask when cutting the wood. You don’t want to be inhaling chemically treated sawdust.

Framing the Floor Joists

For the storage shed skids, I needed each of the 3 rows to be 16 ft long, so I joined 2 of the 8 ft pieces with a mending plate.

With the 4 x 4 skids now in place, I finally had a platform to start erecting the storage shed. I followed the directions in the plans to frame the floor joists (see picture).
Looks awesome, right? After framing the floor joists, I secured it to the 4 x 4 skids with some L brackets.

Why You Need a Framing Nail Gun

Also, do you see my framing nail gun on the right hand side? I could not have built the shed without it.

I highly recommend this framing nail gun for building large structures like this shed.

The specific gun I have is a Paslode gas framing gun. I bought a used one on ebay for $100.

They normally retail for several hundred dollars, so it was a great deal.

I did have to buy a cleaning kit for the framing nail gun though because the nails were starting to jam after repeated use.

Gas framing nail guns are the way to go if you don’t have a pneumatic compressor.

They use a special butane fuel cell (a small cylindrical cartridge you insert into the back) and a rechargeable battery.

The nail gun ignites some of the butane to fire a piston forward and drive the nail in.

The framing nail gun is really powerful (and dangerous if you’re not careful) and makes framing wooden structures a breeze.

This is the one tool that I couldn’t have built my shed without.

Here’s my framing nail gun and me:

How to Build a Shed Floor

In learning how to build a storage shed, the next step was the actual shed floor. I was making progress!

I used several 4 x 8 sheets of ¾” T&G orient strand board, following the sheeting patterns in the plans.

The T&G stands for tongue and groove.

One end of the board has a protruding strip called the tongue, while the other end of the board has a groove.

The tongue of one sheet is meant to be inserted into the groove of the next sheet, interlocking them together.

Once nailed down to the floor joists, the T&G system made a very sturdy floor for my shed.

I also applied a deck finish to the floor to protect it from water.

I knew it was going to be a while before the shed roof was installed, so waterproofing the shed floor was a high-priority (see below picture).

How to Build Shed Walls

After securing the shed floor to the foundation, the next step was to frame and erect the walls.

I followed the plans carefully and cut all the 2 x 4s to proper lengths in preparation for building the shed walls.

First Two Panels

The large shed floor was a perfect platform to build the wall panels on. (You can see I started assembling a wall in the last picture.)

After finishing a wall section, I stood it up, carefully aligned it with the edge of the floor, and nailed it into the floor joists.

The 10 ft side panel went up first and was easy to raise and nail by myself. However, I needed some help raising the long 16 ft panel.

It was very heavy and wobbly to work with by myself.

Once in position, I secured it to the floor and then to the 10 ft panel already standing up.

At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to use L brackets to more securely join the two wall panels.

So I installed 5 brackets.

This held the panels very tightly in place. I repeated this technique for the rest of the panel installation.

However, this idea backfired a little later in the project (I’ll get to that when I tell you about installing the exterior siding).

The L brackets were a good idea, but unfortunately not this early in the project.

I finished the panel installation.

I installed some temporary supports to the open end of the panels to give some rigidity until more panels were installed (see picture).

Last Two Panels

The two remaining wall panels took me more time to build, as they were more complicated in design.

They had openings for windows and doors, which meant building and installing headers.

Remember how I had purchased 2 separate plans in the beginning of the project? It actually worked well for me.

The second plan (which I was basing my shed off) did not include any windows or a small door frame.

However, the first plan (with the overhanging roof) had both of those things.

So I merged the plans to create what I had in mind for my shed.

How to Install Door and Window Headers

Next up in my building a storage shed project was installing the door and window headers.

During the construction of the wall panels, I had to install headers above each door and window opening.

Building Headers

When you have a large opening in your wall frame, there is no vertical support.

So there’s nothing to help bear to load of the roof.

You have to install a strong beam above the opening.

This will transfer the roof load horizontally and then down the sides of your opening. This beam is called a header.

I built my own headers by nailing 3 layers of wood together.

I sandwiched a strip of plywood between two pieces of 2 x 6 and it made a very strong beam.

Here is the shed with all four wall panels up.

Not bad for someone teaching himself how to build a storage shed.
Ignore the windows that are mounted in the frame.

I will install the windows later, but I was eager to see what they would look like mounted.

I removed them shortly afterwards to continue shed construction.

Phase One – Finished!

My shed project was really starting to take shape at this point.

Even though my original design changed a few times and I originally questioned my skills, it was coming along great!

It looked like a professionally-constructed building and I was thrilled with my ability to do this. It took a lot of planning, preparation, and time to get this far, but I was pleased.

If you are wondering how to build a storage shed or if it is within your skill set, this tutorial will definitely set you on your way.

The second part of How to Build a Storage Shed is continued here – Shed Project Part 2. In that post, I’ll show you how I did the shed siding and roofing!

And, the last part of the series will show you how to do the steps, ramps, and custom doors.

Keep following along, so I can show you the end result – a professional-looking shed for a fraction of the cost.