As a reminder, here’s what I began with:

And here’s what it looks like now, after a year and a half of (very) part-time work:

From a different angle, including where the side door used to be:

And a closeup of the new front door, with the trimwork installed:

And finally, a view from inside, showing the new door install with the framing:

The new siding on the outside is much lighter in color than the rest of the siding, but once it ages for a year or so it will be a much closer match. You can already see the shed, which was installed last year, looks very close to the garage.

This is very exciting, lots of visible progress.

Next steps: real electricity into the garage. Need to get the trench dug before the ground freezes. Also, I have to “beef up” the outer shell, especially on the side that faces the house. This step will be the first step that does not follow conventional construction techniques and instead uses techniques specifically designed for stopping sound. I’ll be sure to document this carefully!

Once the beefup is done, it will be time to insulate the garage.

I made a mistake somewhere in the framing, visible in the above pic. Can you spot it? Just have to fix that mistake (quick), then lock down the framing, do the trim work, remove the garage door, install the front door, then I’m done with this step.

Next step was to remove the side door. Did that today. I still need to put the trim work up, but here is what it looks like from the outside:

On the left is the trash bin I had to build a while back (can’t store trash in the studio). In the middle you can see the now-plugged doorway, and on the right is the door I removed. I will most likely re-use this door for the outside of the studio (outer leaf). It will be beefed up a bit for security.

From the inside, the old doorway now looks like this:

That’s the doorway, with new framing and a new cut piece of siding, toward the right where the side door used to be. You can still see the open garage door; that’s next.

Next step: remove the garage door, frame up the opening, install the side door in its place, and then finally put more siding in place to cover it up. Once this is done, it will be time to beef up and insulate the outer shell. Also, need to get electricity into the garage before winter hits. Not much time left!

Managed to finish up just in time for a beautiful sunset through my woods:

I’ll have more tabula rasa pictures of the garage soon….

I also installed a trimboard between the existing garage and the new shed. Eventually these 2 wood tones will get closer as the new wood ages:

Here’s more of the trim work, getting all the angles right from the two pitched slopes is tricky:

Here’s the trim board I put at the corner:

And, here’s a full view of the shed as it is now:

Next step is to add that last piece of siding, do the trim at the rear of the shed. Then I can build the doors, and install the shelves.

Here are pics:

^^ Front view. Only half of the door is cut out, I still have to trim away much of the wood siding to expose the other half of the door.

^^ Corner view, with the longest dimension of siding visible.

An overall view. The shed is 8×16, the garage is 12×20. Yep. This will be a cozy studio, barely big enough to get a full band inside.

^^ Here’s the seam where the new siding meets the aged siding of the garage. As the shed ages, this should get closer to a match.

^^ Still plenty of trim work to do, including the soffits to cover the joists.

I have all the necessary materials to build the roof, and a friend coming over Monday to help me do it. With luck, all I’ll have left after Monday is to skin the shed, build the door, and build shelves inside. Then I can move in.

After that, next is to get electricity inside the garage, and start on the studio build proper. Ever closer!

Anyway, I used the abrupt and dramatic change in weather today to begin the wall framing. I’m about 3/4 done with the wall framing:

The studs are 24″OC, since it’s a shed. Not gonna worry too much about it.

The wall frames are 6’6″ tall (don’t wanna bump me head….), which allows for a very small slope on the roof. I may have to keep an eye on the snowfall during the winter, and roofrake the snow off it.

All the frames you see there are attached together, but not yet attached to the deck.

I have to pick up another 10 2x4s early this week, and build the last remaining wall. This wall will be more complex because it will have a doorway.

Progress is good….

But it finally stopped raining long enough for me to get more done today. I finished installing all the floorboards.

One thing I forgot to account for. All the subflooring, joists, and the beams are made of rough cut hemlock. Since they are rough cut, they are larger than the listed weight. The beams, and the front joist beam are both 16’3″ long. But, when I ordered the finished floorboards, I ordered 8′ boards. 2 together means the floorboards are 3″ short. No problem, I also have some 12′ floorboards for the treehouse, so I used one on the edge:

I thought about just waiting for the framing and putting the 2×4 right on the joists, but decided against it simply for consistency.

Also, you’ll notice in the first photo above that the floorboard closest to the garage door is at an angle. I had meant to leave it until I had the doorway cut in, but decided at the last minute to hammer it into place (tight fit between the garage) and fastened it down with screws. Exactly 800 screws later, they’re all in.

Next up: wall framing.

EDIT: I now have photos relevant to this entry: