View from ... the shed roof

Wide Wednesday: view from the shed roof

Last night I popped the wide angles lens on the Nikon and thought through where I would go to get a decent shot of some Autumnal colour for this week's Wide Wednesday challenge.  But ....

The shed roof is in some disrepair and I had bought all the stuff I needed to re-felt it, I just needed a dry day or two.  Fortunately for the shed, today qualified - so my Autumnal shoot got put on hold.  

I set to on the shed first thing after breakfast.  Unfortunately the people that had last felted the shed had used wide headed screws rather than galvanised clout nails.  In the intervening period they had become rusted nubbins on the roof and took some time to remove.  But by lunchtime I had the roof stripped and was ready to refelt.  By 5:30pm the job was finally done, bar the replacement of the barge boards which I will deal with tomorrow.

This shot (taken with the iPhone in pano mode) is our garden to the left and the then various neighbour's gardens moving to the right.  (You can't see the shed, I'm standing on)

I had thought that the shed had (unusually) a plastic underlay but when I stripped the roof it was clear that the underlay was 10cm worth on the sides.  There's a story to the shed and why I had thought that the roofing underlay might extend to the whole rood, and I'm going to digress and tell that tale.

We bought the house 8+ years ago and agreed the price with the former owner - lets call him Len, its not his real name. When we came to exchange contracts Len wanted us to increase the price to "include the shed, which is nearly new and a top of the rage model".  I have no doubt that Len had paid for a top of the range shed, although I suspect I now know rather more about its construction than he did, and I think they saw him coming.  As we had previously agreed the price, to include the shed and various other bits and pieces, we didn't feel like re-negotiating and suggested that if he really wanted it, he should take the shed with him.

In the end after a grumble or two from Len the price stayed the same and the shed stayed with us.  To be fair to Len, when we came to complete the house was left just as it should have been, with keys labelled and instructions and guarantees etc provided.

But as s a result of that conversation over the quality of the shed I have assumed that the shed was indeed a properly constructed "top of the range" job (for its type).

So I was a bit surprised when Cathy mentioned last week that the roof was leaking.  We had just experienced a lot of rain in 48 hours, but sure enough the roof was indeed leaking and a quick check with step ladders revealed the felt was in a parlous state.  Ideally we would have replaced the felt several years ago.

As it is, I have cut out the rotten timbers and the roof now has some nice new 15 year roofing felt.  In 15 years time I will be in my mid '70's so this is not a job I am expecting to have to ever do again - all being well :-)

Of course the big test will be this Winter's gales ......