Monday 24 May 2010

A VERY LOCAL SHED COMPETITION

Last year one of my Troy Stalwart's, "Debs", entered her shed in the Shed Of The Year 2009 competition and was a catagory winner! I'd forgotten all about the competition until on her blog today I saw a reference to the Shed Of The Year 2010 competition. These sheds, including Deb's very own shed, are rather splendid edifices - glories to behold. Now Troy is rather proud of his own shed although is realistic enough to realise that his shed would never win a prize. Not in a national competition, not in a County competition. In fact, I'd probably struggle to win in a village competition. So instead I thought I'd enter it into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition.

When I blogged about our garden makeover, way back in 2008, I actually ignored my shed although it does feature in the very corner of one of the photos. That's a shame bacause as I said above, I'm rather proud of the Troy Family Shed. We built it ourselves (well I suppose strictly speaking that should be "erected" rather than "built"). We levelled the ground and then the shed's components were delivered:-


Then Mrs Troy and I set about erecting it. Here we are part way through. I'll just leave this photo on here for a few days as I don't generally include photos of ourselves on the blog. However I'll give regular readers a sight of the delightful Mrs Troy as well as myself until the end of the week. Notice the dexterity with which I'm handling the specialist equipment. It's a bit like Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver although the actual technical term for it is "hammer".
[SORRY PHOTO SINCE DELETED]

When it was finished it looked like this - just a pretty ordinary shed you are thinking. Well that's what I thought. It looked very wooden (not surprisingly!) and didn't particularly blend into its surroundings.


I contrasted the white render and exposed lower bricks of the garage and hatched a plan to help the shed blend into its location. Two pots of paint later (large pots and several coats to be exact) it was transformed to this...


See how the garage roof corners, the white render and exposed brickwork are mirrored in the colour scheme of the shed? Mrs Troy also got some film to go over the windows to obscure the contents of the shed. Click on the photo above for a better view of Mrs Troy's contribution.


So this is my entry into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition. Entries are now closed. I'm confident of winning because I'm also the judge of the competition. It's also the only entry which should help it somewhat. However do feel free to leave any complimentary comments you wish as the judge is happy to be helped in reaching his verdict.

13 comments:

Ladybird World Mother said...

OMG I am so impressed with that shed. You and Mrs Troy most definitely need to go into business of the Troy Garden Shed Design. I'll have one!! Utterly SWEET. So want one. And love the white. You are winners in my book. Cannot believe that am so enthused by shed. Think may have to purchase one for our garden, even though we have three already. But they are hideous, and yours is not. Decisions, decisions. xxx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Definitely a winner! Sheds can never be underestimated. I'm most impressed my Mrs Troy's help in erecting the shed, I have to admit to not helping at all when mine was built.

Troy said...

LWM - the government might decide to reduce the deficit by introducing a Council Tax band K for people with three or more garden sheds! Rather than add to your collection perhaps you need to first shed (!) some of your existing ones? Am really chuffed though that you like our shed and am overwhelmed by your enthusiasm.

Debs - there was always the worry when Mrs Troy assisted by holding up the various side walls during the build process that she might inadvertently become an integral part of the structure. In which case she would have to remain forever in place to avoid the structure collapsing. Fortunately my build quality prevented that happening, thus ensuring she remained available to cook my dinner (phew!). The endorsement of my shed by such an esteemed former catagory winner as yourself is much appreciated.

Lane Mathias said...

What a worthy winner! I am so impressed at your hammer wielding skills, not to mention the superb paint job. You and the lovely Mrs Troy certainly make a fine construction team.

Seriously, it looks beautiful. In fact your whole garden looks jolly nice indeed.

DJ Kirkby said...

Very impressive! I think it would ahve stood a chance of winning in a competiton of more than one too!

Troy said...

Lane - of course the next photo showing my sore thumb and a dropped hammer was not uploaded!

DJ - well at worse it could at least come a credible second if there had been two entries.

Cheryl said...

My first visit and I have to chime in with the "what a gorgeous shed" comments. Just beautiful. Having looked at a couple of the shed blogs I think I might keep my own shed, (well I actually have 4) under wraps for a while. Australian sheds are much more, well, knocked about affairs.

Wide Span Sheds said...

Hay nice

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

It's a lovely shed. You and Mrs Troy did well.

X

Troy said...

Cheryl - welcome! You have 4 sheds? I'm beginning to feel quite inadequate at not providing my family with sufficient sheds.

WSS - welcome too! You have some great commercial sheds on your website.

Suzanne - thanks! I did intend to do a shed blog earlier but never got around to it until now.

Wide Span Sheds said...

hay nice

This will help a person to build them nice shed.

So, please keep updates in it

Yourshed Pty Ltd said...

Wow! Congratulations to all the winners of this shed competition! Is the contest up for this year? Please provide readers with more information.

Auzbilt said...

What a lovely shed! It enhances the curb appeal of the home. :-)