6'x12' Historic Shed garden shed set adjacent to the house, making use of the side yard for storage. This house is set on a wide lot allowing for a larger shed.

The shed roof design of this board and batten garden shed allows it to be placed next to the house.

The bead board doors provide an attractive detail on the shed, enhancing the yard. It is visible from the street.

Narrower yards may not be able to accommodate a shed quite this large, but you still can usually add some significant storage space. The Historic Shed Thin Storage Shed and Thin Gable Shed fit nicely in tight side yards while still allowing a walkable path. Historic Shed outbuildings and storage units can be customized for nearly any size space.

This narrow storage shed by Historic Shed can add much needed space along the side of a house, even on narrow lots.

This thin gable roof shed by Historic Shed can be placed in a side yard as well.

For more tight space storage ideas, see the small storage page on our website.

Historic Shed

On Sunday, April 15th, Historic Shed will be a featured speaker during day 2 of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop in Miami. We will discuss Florida Building Codes in relation to small homes and cottages. These events are very informative and popular, so register soon if you are interested. We are looking forward to being a part of the event and meeting other tiny building aficionados, including author and workshop leader Derek “Deek” Diedricksen and Tiny House blogger Alex Pino. For more information  and to register see: http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blog/3-guest-speakers-confirmed-for-the-miami-workshop.

Tiny House Workshop press: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/fl-tiny-houses-040812-20120406,0,2438495.story?page=1

Some thoughts on value added, or what extras you get from Historic Shed:

• We are sticklers for authentic historic detail. Even if you are not an old building specialist, you can tell when windows have been replaced or an addition has been built onto a historic house incorrectly. Our outbuildings make architectural historians do a double take (and no, it’s not faking history or going against the Secretary of the Interior’s Standard for Historic Preservation, but that’s for another post) and we take great pride in this. Our buildings look right at home in any historic district.
• We offer design services for all our products at no charge, even for customization. Construction drawings even for small outbuildings can cost from $500 to $3000, and are needed whenever a permit is required. Sometimes we forget to emphasize this service. And the quality and experience of our designer.
• We choose to build with quality materials that will last. We could built a shed with lesser quality wood for framing and roof sheathing, which reduce our costs (and be much lighter for delivery) but we wouldn’t feel good about the longevity of our product.
• We received a call not too long ago from a woman who bought a manufactured shed from another company. The doors were rotting in less than 2 years and she hoped to install a pair of our doors as a replacement. I told her we’d gladly sell her new doors, but we’d have to look at her existing shed to see if it was built sturdy enough for our much heavier-duty shed doors. Less than 2 years of service from her shed seems like a poor return on her investment.
• A few months ago we added an “economy” shed to our product line. The shed looks like a historically accurate board and batten shed, and is as durable as our regular sheds, but we use exterior grade plywood sheathing instead of true boards for the exterior. We have slightly lower material costs, but much quicker assembly so we can offer it for substantially less than our regular shed line. The trade-off is that the shed may not have the same exterior materials as the main house on the lot.
• We choose to build our sheds in a warehouse instead of on site. This gives us much better quality control during construction, allows us to service a larger area from our central location, and reduces set-up time on site. This gives us an advantage over site built contractors who would show up at your house every day for weeks, or even months to build structures like ours. We typically take 2-3 days to set up a shed, 1-2 weeks for a garage , and 2-3 weeks for a finished cottage.
• We are very amenable to customization. We know every old house is unique and our sheds, cottages and garages reflect this.
• We paint our outbuildings to your color choice at our shop. Not only does this give you a completed shed, ready to use as soon as we finish set-up, but it helps the longevity of our product by applying a proper protective coating on your building under a controlled setting.

Our business model from day one has been to create attractive, historically appropriate outbuildings that will last as long as the historic buildings they complement. We hope to be in business for many years with many happy customers who feel like they got a good return on their investment.

Bungalow with integral carport built in the 1920s.

Mission style residence designed with an integral carport built in the 1920s.

Other Florida homes have a detached carport design that is easy to add to any historic home property. These designs date from the 1880s through today, with elements from Craftsman Bungalows, Colonial Revival, and Mid-Century Modern all used to make unique and useful structures.

Semi-detached carport for a Tudor Revival residence that incorporates false half-timbering.

Detached simple gable car port for a bungalow.

Detached car port with triple columns for a Minimal Traditional home.

Detached carport for a 1920s bungalow with storage built in on the sides

Historic Shed can custom design a detached car port to complement your historic home to protect your car and enhance your yard. Each design can incorporate details from the main house, using traditional materials and design elements that will look right at home at your historic property. These structures can double as entertainment pavilions as well for special occasions.

(Click on the four arrows in the lower right corner to see the slides at full size.)