One of the things I kept dreaming about before we found this house was an extra space, not attached to the house, for a studio. A shed? An old barn? A chicken coop?

I couldn’t even really tell you why other than my entire being yearned for external space to create. Write, paint, hang out and drink tea, listen to loud music, meet with friends, read poetry, write poetry etc etc etc. A space, just something small, to call my own – but not my own at all. Ours, because I believe that small voices with big hope are more powerful than loud voices who just make a lot of noise.

From the upstairs bedrooms of this house – I could see this in the backyard:

The neighbors tell me they used to keep pigeons. This shed was a pigeon loft.

I was enchanted immediately. It smelled and was incredibly gross on the inside. It was a heap of forgotten wood with cages and clapboard cottage shingles. Mice were living in it, as well as an entire colony of honey bees. For all intents and purposes, this shed was a place to keep the lawn mower to the untrained eye.

But I have dreams and I was stuck in them for a while, wanting to learn but afraid I’d fail … until I couldn’t take it any more and I just started.

I tore one of the fly cages out … and one weekend while I was away Aaron and the kids completely gutted the insides of the shed – getting rid of all the gross paneling …

Then we started work on our pea gravel patio.

And I planted the beginnings of my mini orchard, apple trees!

Which left us with this as our shed last summer:

I hope this summer we can finally finish it and make it that space I’ve been dreaming of, but I’m stuck again.

We tore the roof with the help of my brother and dad last summer but then it got cold and stayed cold for way.too.long and now my shed looks like this:

We took the roof off to add height and windows to the entire perimeter of the building. I got inspiration from this pin.

I want to create a welcoming, cozy space to work, but also relax. I love the look of this pin – an industrial/primitive work space. I like the plywood (or planking wood) on the top half of the walls and I’d do tile on the bottom. I imagine I’ll be doing some painting in this space, so white that can get painted and messy appeals to me.

What do you think about a tin roof?? Currently obsessed.

I love this and this too.

Some wild light fixture, a few new outlets and some weather proofing. Ideally I’d like to leave my supplies out there year round, so a small electric furnace might be in order as well.

So there you have it, our outdoor space is forever changing and growing. I love our house but I don’t think I could move because of our yard. We have all kinds of plans for it.

What are you guys currently working on? Now that the snow is finally melted and the weather is trying to warm up, I feel like I want to live outside for June, July, and August and I’m trying to plan every weekend as a back yard party of sorts. I got my starter plants for the garden this weekend and some perennials to plant in my “pick garden” and we’re planning a tree house for the kids this year or next.

But first … FIRST, I have to finish my studio. Resourcefulness over resources, how am I going to get this done?

Pssssst: Also! Two years ago today we bought the house; Happy Birthday, House!