So I finally completed the first set of building plans, and I’m pretty excited about it. Seeing as though it’s the wintery months right now, I have plenty of time to contemplate how we’re going to situate our homestead, and the outbuildings that we’ll construct. After the cabin is up and we put in a big fenced yard for the dogs to play in, the first order of business will be to construct a shed for storing firewood. Our principal heat will be propane, but we’re also going to have a wood stove in the cabin.
Normally I’m a bit against burning good wood, but in this case I’m fine with it. First, it will help us offset the cost of the propane when we’re home and secondly, we need to do a bit of lumber management on our property. There are portions of our property so thick with spruce that they’ve killed themselves off from sunlight starvation. That and the spruce bud is killing off the rest. So, in order to maintain the health of our timber, we need to thin it out some and let the healthy ones grow. That should provide us with sufficient amounts of lumber both for the construction of our outbuildings and for firewood. Now, spruce certainly isn’t the best choice for burning, but with sufficient quantity we should be alright.
So here is a link to the plan that I created for our wood shed. It is 6’3.5″x16′. The reason for the size is that our local municipality allows accessory structures up to 100 square feet without a permit. I’ve constructed it on a base of skids as I anticipate that I’ll want to move the structure once our house is constructed. It’s really a good introductory lesson on timber framing as it utilizes smaller timbers than are traditionally used, which makes it easier for one person to handle. That, and the timbers are much more financially attainable. This is only accomplished due to the small spans of the structure. Again, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to build this from lumber we attain from our timber stand, but even if you were to buy all of the lumber it shouldn’t hurt the wallet too much.
As this is my first set of plans, I anticipate them getting better. I ran into a few issues, and it took me quite a bit longer than I had hoped, but I am still satisfied. Included are elevation views and shop drawings of individual components as well as a materials list.