The completed mini barn - standing at about 11 ft x 11 ft x 15 ft.
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The entire process took about 4 months and about 300 hours. It was mostly done solo, with family and friends stepping in here and there to help.
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In June 2020, the height of the COVID pandemic, I took a walk with my family in the local woods by my house. We had been going crazy at home - many months with little outside contact and interaction. School was letting out soon, and all of my normal summer activities (sports, summer camps, traveling) had been canceled. Our house was feeling too small, and one of my family’s pain points was the garage - always too full with tools and lawnmowers and snowmobiles.
I proposed the idea of building a small shed in our backyard. It would be my passion project: a creative outlet to build something useful and solution-focused for my family. My parents were apprehensive at first: where would it go? What if I started, got stuck or unmotivated, and we were left with an expensive pile of wood and no shed? But being the supportive parents they are (and worried about my mental health with not much to do), they proposed that I build a model and create a project proposal for them first.
I spent about eight hours building a cardboard model. I found a set of free plans online for a small, 4x6 foot sheet, and cut out cardboard pieces from an amazon delivery box. I followed the plans precisely and to scale, building the foundation first, then the frame, and finally the roof and doors. I also developed a list of necessary tools and raw materials, along with a proposed budget.
The original design for the shed - soon changed to be much bigger and more elaborate
It worked 🥳! My parents were impressed, and approved the project.
When visiting a friend’s house and sharing my plans with her family, I learned that I needed to obtain a building permit from the town before I could begin construction. No worries! I downloaded a form from the town government's website, drew a basic design, estimated the cost of materials, and compared it with the drawings when my family bought our house to make sure it met the town's requirements for a certain distance from electrical lines and fences. After filling out the form and writing a check for the application fee, my mom brought the application to our town’s city hall for me, since I was still too young. It seemed to go well - I would just have to wait several weeks for the result of the application.
The estimated location of the shed. Later, this would be moved up a couple of feet to avoid the back tree.
About a month later, in mid-July, I received the building permit in the mail. Unfortunately there was another barrier to the beginning of my barn journey - a pine tree over 70 feet tall in the middle of where I wanted to construct. I discussed this with my parents - my mom thought the only option was to hire a professional, but my dad thought the quoted $600-$1000 was too much to pay for something that we could do ourselves. He ordered a climbing harness and some rope from amazon, strapped me in, and handed me a chainsaw.
The plan was for me to climb about 40 feet up the tree with the chainsaw and cut a wedge out of the tree. I would then tie some rope to the upper section, climb down, and our whole family would pull to hopefully break the trunk. I incrementally cut more and more, but still, the tree wouldn’t budge. Finally, it began to snap - with me still up there, hugging the tree like a koala. Thank God, it fell in the opposite direction from where I was. My mom was pretty shaken - she vowed to never let my dad talk her into something like this again.
You can see the top half of the tree come down at about 0:15!
You can see the top half of the tree come down at about 0:15!
The rest of the process was slow and laborious, but fairly straightforward. I incrementally cut parts of the trunk down, then took a chainsaw to the wood. For the roots, we dug a couple of feet down into the earth to dig out the remnants. Four years later, we still have plenty of firewood.
Posing with my spoils
I investigated a couple of options for a foundation. I could mix and lay down a concrete foundation, use a metal kit, or the most highly suggested option - a gravel base. I called and requested quotes from several gravel companies, and ended up with a quote for about $150 for several cubic meters of crushed stone.
There were a couple of tasks that needed to be completed before we could lay the gravel. First, my dad and I went to home depot to buy the 12 foot, weather-treated posts that would go into the ground. This was not an easy task - our minivan wasn’t quite large enough, so we tied down the wood and kept our trunk open as we slowly drove home.
After nailing the posts together and laying them down, I used a shovel to dig the soil and try to level the land. There were some tree roots on the ground, which made it difficult to dig. When I used force, the handle of the shovel broke, so my mom (bless her soul) quickly went out and bought a new one. My dad and I worked together against a tight deadline - I had friends visiting from NYC the next day, and wanted to use their labor to help move the gravel.
The next morning, the stone was delivered in a pile in the middle of my driveway. By now, my friends had arrived and were eager to help - we spent many hours carting over gravel. To ensure the gravel was packed down properly, I rented a compactor from home depot. After a long day of work, Dad grilled, and Mom cooked corn, mixed salad, and cut watermelon for us to eat.
The wood wouldn’t fit in the car, so we tied it and left the trunk open
The wood wouldn’t fit in the car, so we tied it and left the trunk open
Family and friends helping with gravel relocation
Family and friends helping with gravel relocation
Wonderful friends who helped!
My sister standing on the pile of crushed stone
After finishing the gravel foundation, I got started on the floor. I set up a little workstation in my garage to measure, cut, and practice putting together the frame and flooring. First, I laid down three beams for the base, built the outer frame, and began placing the inner wood slats. Once I’d double-checked the measurements, I carefully moved everything outside to my gravel foundation.
This is where the real challenge started. Each board had to be level, flat, and securely fastened on top of the gravel. Each nail had to be driven precisely—centered over the beams below, not at an angle, and hammered down straight. Sometimes they’d bend, which meant more time prying them out and starting over. I got into a rhythm - I was spending most mornings buried in chemistry SAT prep, and afternoons were for hammering, nailing, and piecing together the floor.
Occasionally, my friend Dilni would bike over, and we’d work together, chatting and laughing. This helped immensely - especially in the continued pandemic where face-to-face time with friends was so rare.