The day after we acquired our fiberglass steps, our shed was delivered. Getting it onto the site was a bit of an adventure which started with me having second thoughts about the precise location. The proposed location had been approved via a drawing on the site plan, but the problem was that the site plan contained no reference marks. A clear rule, though, was that the 5-foot setback had to be observed at all times. While the setback on the south side was pretty clear – the gap between my pavers and my southern neighbor was precisely 10 feet – the northern setback was not clear at all. The gap between my neighbor’s pavers and the outer edge of my pavers was only about 9 feet. I believe that the developer, when he installed my paver bump-out, cheated a bit on the setback. I had already compensated a bit, but it appeared that the back side of the shed would still be just 9′ 8″ from the neighbor.

The site next to ours is unowned, but I had this vision of a new owner checking his boundaries and finding my shed in violation of the setback rules. I decided to move the shed in 4″. A further complication was that once the shed was moved 4 inches to the south, the corner tie-down point was too close to the curved edge of the paver bump-out. So I also shifted the location 6″ west. Having decided on these alterations to the original plan, I was hastily marking new corner targets while the shed was being unloaded from the trailer.

The next adventure was getting the shed dropped without crushing the water and sewer lines. It was a close shave, but the forklift driver – a woman – maneuvered with the skill of a surgeon.

I was fascinated by the installation of the hurricane tie-downs. These were 6 metal rods, with auger tips, that were drilled into the soil (after removing some pavers on the south edge) using a super-sized version of an electric drill. It obviously had tremendous torque. After the rods were in place, metal straps were screwed into the rods and attached to the underside of the shed. Supposedly these will keep the shed from flying off to Kansas in the next hurricane.

When I had first selected the site for the shed I had eyeballed the RV awning and was convinced that it would be able to fully deploy without touching the shed. But after shifting the shed 4 inches closer to the RV, I was no longer so confident. After getting the shed tied down, I apprehensively put the awning out. Gingerly, inch by inch. It finished deploying with about 3 inches to spare. And was above the top of the shed doors – a factor that I had not considered and feel damn lucky that it worked out.

Now we are awaiting arrival of the county building inspector, to give final approval before we can start using the shed.

We had fiberglass steps last year at Paradise Pointe, but had to sell them at the end of the season. We wanted to get similar steps for use in Cypress Trail and, with the imminent arrival of the shed, would be able to store them for multi-year use. However, we couldn’t find any suitable used ones and the new ones were pretty pricy – at least $400.

But recently, when looking at available sites in the park, we came across a site with the perfect fiberglass steps. A couple was moving back north and needed to sell them. They weren’t available that day as they still needed them, but we gave them our number and were very pleased when they called us and offered to sell us the steps for just $100. We jumped. We paid our landscaping guys a few bucks to haul them to our site and we are now the proud new owners of fiberglass steps.

Jett, as you can see, is very happy with them.

Our shed will be arriving soon – sometime in February, I think.  It will be plopped down on our site with no additional foundation work.  Four of the six hurricane tie-down points will be on pavers and two will be on grass.  I was initially concerned about this, thinking that the corner on grass might be vulnerable to settling.  And I might be right about that, but it seems to not be an issue for everyone else – the majority of the sheds in the park have one corner or more sitting on grass.  Besides, it is just a shed, so if I need to jack it up a bit I can do it myself with the 10-ton hydraulic jack that I carry with me wherever we go.

But some other prep work was needed.  We had to get the electric service run from the pedestal (and meter) on the right side of the site over to the left side, near where the shed will be.  We are going to need electricity in the shed.  More electricity than we need in the RV.  The shed will be wired for 80 amps or more while the RV has only 50.  The power is needed for the washer/dryer, the A/C and the on-demand water heater.

Our GC, Roger, said that a conduit is typically run under the site before the concrete is poured in anticipation of this.  But because our site was modified to have pavers instead of concrete and because the pavers were extended to be as wide as possible – wider than the typical concrete pad – he was concerned that he would have to dig up some pavers to find the end of the conduit.  Dollar signs started running through my head.  Fortunately, that turned out to be unnecessary as the marker for the end of the conduit was found hidden under a bush.

So Roger ran wire through the conduit and extended the conduit to the location where the back left corner of the shed will land.  He also ran the TV cable from the pedestal, through the bushes to the same location.  I was puzzled why he did this as I have no intention of watching TV in the shed.  But he said that residents typically put their cable TV modem and wireless routers in the shed.  Makes sense.  I am glad he took the initiative.

Maybe I can mount my third TV on the outside of the shed…