First of all, I am not a builder. I have no experience in building things from plans and while I can hang a picture and even a shelf on a good day, I am not especially precise. Hence my fascination with watercolor and it's loose and unpredictable ways.
I can however, plan and design a building. So last year, in the depths of winter, I grabbed some graph paper and planned out my own perfect home office/studio. And luckily, I have Chris does have building experience and all the tools.
I looked at many (many) roadside shed sale places and even contacted a builder who specialized sheds and got a price. However, none of the roadside shed displays were insulated or wired for electricity. And non of them were built were quite what I wanted. I want a studio/office that is solid and strong. I want a studio/office that is insulated, wired and has a heat source. And I wanted to have wire underneath to block out any rodents who decide living under my floor might be nice. And I wanted to have a LOT of windows. I also wanted a square building and all the prebuilt ones were rectangles.
So it was a no brainer, I had to build it myself to get what I wanted. I bought the windows from an icy pole barn in a small northern Michigan town last winter, ordered all the lumber from a great local hardware place, and I'm buying all the cedar siding from a local mill. It's not an inexpensive project but it's about half the cost of buying a prebuilt shed I'd need to modify extensively. And cost matters - starving artist and all that.
So with the materials on site, we've started the build. The framing is up, the rafters are up and now we start closing it all in. So far, it has been tough to complete. Chris and I are two people and the weight of the lumber alone is staggering at times. But we're continuing on and before we know it, we'll be laying flooring and putting up inside walls.