The life of a shed builder is one of cycles.
We are accustomed to the “busy season,” the “it’s too wet to deliver anything season,” and the “hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk season” here in Oklahoma.
Those seasons cycle through each year as faithfully as God’s original four seasons.
Another cycle that is not as rhythmic, but still exists, is the “repairing used buildings season.”
Here at Better Barns, we buy quite a few used buildings to fix and resell. This happens quite frequently during the slower winter months when folks are selling stuff so they can buy Christmas presents.
This cycle is not terribly exciting or interesting. Usually. Most of the time it is a reasonably new building that a customer decided they no longer need, and the shed just needs to be freshened up before setting it out on a lot.
It gets brought to the shop where we clean it out and clean it up. Sometimes a new paint job is required, but often it only needs to be touched up.
Very seldom does it need serious framing work. Almost never does it elicit any kind of memory.
This building was different, though. When I first saw it, I knew it was an old building. The first clue for me was the fact that it had a 6-foot side wall height.
When I first started at Better Barns, all our Barn Style sheds boasted that 6-foot wall. It was a full 2 feet taller than our competition at the local lumberyard!
The faded paint color that was discontinued several years ago was another obvious marker that this shed was an antique.
A trip inside was like walking down memory lane. Our trusses were taller then. They had collar braces.
I remember learning how to build them like that as one of my very first assignments. Each end wall was framed with notched uprights and a solid crosspiece. Oh, how I struggled to hold everything together back in the good ol’ days when I first tried to install those.
There were nails showing on the inside where we had missed the studs. Those are now all clipped flush with the siding. Then, we thought nothing of them at all.
I’m not a very sentimental guy. Nostalgia means little to me. I must admit, though, that I really enjoyed walking down memory lane inside that old shed.
Back to the days when we went fishing in the afternoons or played ping-pong on break.
Before things got so busy and life began to move so fast. Before I had a mortgage, a teenager to raise, or worries about how we would pay for all that fun we were having.
Maybe those days were better, or maybe we just remember the better parts of them. Either way, it was fun to step back in time for a bit.
But reality brought me back to today. And you know what? Today is a pretty good day, too. I’m happy, healthy, and blessed.
Treasure today, my friend. Someday, you may look back fondly on it.
Or maybe it will just be another day in the blessed life of a shed builder.