Burnham-on-Sea

Since returning from travelling we have lived here in Burnham-on-Sea  (technically we are in Highbridge, but Burnham-on-Sea is the larger town and the two tend to blend into each other) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham-on-Sea. Burnham-on-sea sits facing west at the most Eastern end of the Bristol Channel, south of Weston-Super-Mare. To the north across Brigdwater Bay lies Wales, and to the Southwest extending west is the north Somerset coast 51°14'19.03"N, 2°59'52.08"W. We have been here since May the 1^st 2014.

Burnham-on-Sea is an odd place in the 21^st Century. It hasn’t been commercialised even though it is a seaside town and attracts hordes of tourists in the summer. As a Londoner I am often saddened by the indigenous populations attitude to the place, however, I guess if you have never lived elsewhere it can seem a little dull. But if you come from a vast conurbation like London or Birmingham, then a place like Burnham really can feel like heaven on Earth.

Let’s concentrate on geography for a moment. Looking south past the worlds shortest pier, we see the Quantocks, the gateway to Exmoor and the highest point on Exmoor: Dunkery Beacon. Looking out to sea we have Hinckley’s A and B, and the emerging Hinckley C nuclear power stations, then looking north along the vast stretch of sand past the lighthouse we see Wales. Out of view behind me are the Somerset Levels and the Mendip hills.

Now maybe the reason I say it is a little piece of heaven becomes more apparent. From this tiny spec of a town you can drop onto the M5 motorway or the A38, and reach some of the UK’s great natural destinations in a matter of minutes (or at the least in under an hour). As for the town itself, you couldn’t want for more in terms of facilities and utility. It has its own privately owned Sports and Swim Academy, a cinema, its own High street and access to seven miles of uninterrupted sands. Two of the largest supermarket brands are represented (Tesco and Asda), as are the two main discounters (Aldi and Lidl). These seem like mundanity in the grand scheme of things but they are worth a mention just to give a sense of the completeness of the package that is Burnham-on-Sea.

Of all the places I have lived, Burnham-on-Sea is where I feel most at home. I have only been back to London once since we arrived in Somerset and that was on the day that my dad and all the other people whose family member had donated their bodies to medical research were commemorated at Southwark cathedral. I said a couple of weeks ago that when Covid has passed and we can travel again, I’d like to spend a few days in London to see what has changed around the City of London,  to visit Tate Modern and a couple of the big museums... and maybe spend some time on the Thames waterfront. But my heart now belongs to the West Country, I think it has, ever since I dived along the South Coast of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall in my early twenties… it just took a couple of decades to get myself in a position whereby I could make the move. And I guess that somehow, if destiny is a thing, then it was my destiny to meet Amanda and eventually move here to her place of birth (Somerset).

Lockdown project.

Once there was a green shed... it was too small... and very green... way too green even for a greenspace such as a garden.

It was in a garden that had been neglected for close to seven years.

A new shed was purchased.

Fortunately, my son arrived in Somerset and he helped me created a sub-frame for the new shed.

The new shed was bigger but it wasn't particularly tall.

The shed was painted white... the fence was still green... too green. We'll also note that the green fence appears to have some random bits of wood tacked to it... that's because storm Kate: 2015 (previously Hurricane Kate knocked it over, and it took from March until August to find a fencing company that wasn't too busy, to come and fix it... it was a nuisance).

After three winters of trying to coax the lawn back to life, we decided it was not worth the effort.

We gravelled the garden and the white shed and the gravel made the green fence look less crap (well in this picture anyway).

Later the fence was repaired and painted a nice pale grey. Bits of the old shed were upcycled and became a log store, The log store is green and white... so `not' too green.

Jumping forward to 2020, and moho (as seen below), was being filled with stuff from the shed. 

This stuff,

And this stuff

Then I found all these pallets where I used to work.

I disassembled the pallets and put them in my car.

Then I put the disassembleb pallets in the empty shed to dry off.

Then I went and disassembled the rest of the pallets and bought them home. This was the deal. All the pallets had to come home with me... I have quite a bit of spare pallet wood.

I bought a 4.5mtr length of twin-wall opal finish polycarbonate and put it in the passage of our house. This went down like a lead balloon... BUT... it wasn''t just for decoration or to be wacky and weird.

The pallet wood (this isn't all of it) had to be re-stacked because it was soaking wet having been dumped in the yard where I used to work.

The shed as you can see had sprung a leak. It wasn't the best shed money could buy, but we had to buy it when we can back from travelling because we needed somewhere to store stuff as we renovated home.

I bought this pile of materials from a builders merchants. You are looking at £429. You have to be clever when your budget is about £600 in total. Shall we see what I did with my £429 of materials?

That's a Makita battery drill I've had since 2005. Makita Battery Drills are good. The Makita battery drill is on the shed roof. The shed roof has been stripped of roofing felt... some may say that is sub-optimal for a shed roof.

Oh good golly... that's even more sub-optimal. But look how the sun shines on the lovely Bosch compound mitre saw. The Bosch compound mitre saw makes me happy. It also transforms me into someone who is half decent at woodwork.

Look more tool porn, and some casually placed bits of 50x50mm prepared timber.

I wonder what it's for? That's you asking the question. I already know what it's for.

Oh... I see (that's you again). Yes, indeed I am creating a new roof at 7° inverse and opposite to the original and about 460mm higher.

Look, it's all clamped and bird-mouth cut and everything. Cor that saws really cool... I wish I had one (that's you again... I already own one).

The original roof slabs are now being put back up. Remember budget £600, recycling is important.

A little bit of fettling, and some new screws (Reisser Cutter Screws) and the original roof will be back to square.

The next day the roof was felted. I have to admit that even though I'd hung off the roof beams, I still felt quite nervous felting the roof, mainly because it's been my experience that when an unsupported human suddenly and unexpectedly experiences gravity from a height above maybe six or seven inches that the result is usually `ouch'.

Remember that bit of ornamental Opal finish twin-wall polycarbonate?

I wonder what's under the orange plastic that the polycarbonate used to be in?

It looks like some long flat bits of wood. And look at the trimmed felt and dart windows filling the ends of the shed.

There are those long bits of wood that were under the orange plastic. Guess what they are for?

And there are some more of them.

Yeah alright get on with it.

Crivens, recladding the front of the shed with full-length boards.

What kind of witchcraft is this?

Oooo Shiney... but why only the front? Crickey you ask lot's of questions.

However, to answer. Because that's the west face. And that's where Storm Kate came from, and where storm Kate comes from, is where almost all the weather comes from, and a single layer of shiplap isn't enough to keep water from getting under the boards. So using a few lengths of tongue and groove 19mm shiplap, offset to overlap the existing shiplap protects the weather face of the shed... it looks smarter as well.

Amanda painted it white. Doesn't that look sexy.

Blimey that orange plastic gets everywhere.

No point throwing it away, when it can act like insulation. Bit loud mind (down here in Somerset they don't say `Mind you' they say `Mind' but they say so it sounds like `Moind').

I re-framed the front window, using bits of tongue and groove cladding I stripped to width from the odds and ends of offcuts.

Remember all that pallet wood?

This is almost like stop motion. Phwoooar look at that compound mitre saw, all erect on its sawhorse bench with sliding rails.

The bench below is part of the original `too green' sheds floor. Recycling and upcycling are important and save you real money, but sometimes they cost you time. However, you can't save time, you can only spend it wisely.

Internal pallet cladding primed all over once.

External barge board pieces primed and painted.

Internal pallet cladding top-coated using Cuprinol Shades `Daisy White'... I reckon I out to get Adsense ... afterall I've mentioned, Makita, Bosch, Cuprinol and Reisser Cutter. 

Outside bargeboard to the weather face and Polypipe guttering... I definitely need to sign up to Adsense and sell my soul to Google. Note the mix of black and with fittings. That because I had the white brackets already to fix the house guttering after Storm Kate, and installing 700ltrs of water butts.

Black guttering white brackets, sort of Starwars Stormtrooper guttering... Yup Adsense... definitely need that.

Oh no what's happened, the shed was all empty and looking cool and you filled it up with crap again (that's you talking again... I wish you wouldn't jump to conclusions). The project has had to go on semi hold, it's deepest darkest coldest wetest winter. I've partially made the benches up, but there is a lot of spare pallet material and it needs some projects and some decent weather.

Note, one very high bench on the right. I may have mentioned on my/our other blog that I have a bad back, I can't stoop even a little bit, so the closer my work is to my eyes the easier it is on the spine.

The lower left-hand bench is for potting and the like. And yes that is bog-standard worktop. We have a place up the road called the Woodpile he sells seconds so it's relatively cheap. It's also easy to sweep. What you can't see is the scruffy old bit I reclaimed from our next-door neighbour's kitchen refurb that we can use as a cutting surface.

Spring is a few weeks away. And as soon as it's here I'll be out here building our next lot of solutions.

Anyway, I'll leave it there. 

£500, some upcycled pallet wood, some Reisser Cutter screws (seriously I need to get Adsense). So if you have lot of locked down weekends and evenings you can upcycle your shed into a contemporary Mancave.