Starting Jake's Potting Shed

My husband has always wanted a potting shed in the backyard.  So what else could I do but get one for him?   I got this kit through The Quarter Connection from Karen Benson's Quarter Source.

Since Jake is visiting his father in San Antonio this week, I thought I would work on the kit.

The first step is to get out the directions and make sure all the pieces are there.  In the photo below, the directions are under the paints and emery board.

According to the directions, staining is the first order of business.  While Karen suggests using Minwax, I absolutely love Dick Blick's markers, so I used the Sienna one on the wooden pieces of the shed to simulate redwood.

Since the pieces that need to be stained are small, I use a medical hemostat to hold them while I stain.  As you can see by the stain on the artist pad I use as my work surface, I usually just stabilize the pieces with the hemostat and then color them on the paper surface.  I definitely don't hold them in the air with the hemostat and touch them with the marker.  They're prone to flipping into the air and then difficult to find if I do that!

The lattice sides of the shed are interesting.  Karen has cut two very thin sheets of wood which are stained and then glued on top of each other to make the lattice effect.  The two pieces at the right are separated a little so you can see what each looks like before completely overlapping.

After staining the lattice, the potting shed structure and the work bench, I move on to the next direction: to round the edges of the base.  I begin with my emery board, but this takes too much time with too little result.  I switch to my sanding block with the same result: too much time for too little result.  What to do?

Jake gave me a cordless Dremel a couple of Christmases ago, so this seems like the perfect solution!  Only I have to get some safety glasses and some sanding bits before I can begin.

So today after I get the glasses and bits (available at the nearby Home Depot), I'll round the edges and get the base stained.

In the meantime, I'll start coloring the shed's flooring.  The patterned plastic flooring is the red near square to the right of the acrylic paint tubes.  Karen gives a number of paint colors, but I think I'm going to use the three Blick colors in the tubes.

And that's my day: go to Home Depot while the Dremel battery charges, get safety glasses and sanding bits, and paint the flooring.  Great fun!