Veg intentions
It's the good life - or maybe not. No chickens and pigs in this garden -at least not yet. We do however intend to grow some fruit and veg. In order to do that you need somewhere to grow them. Having done some background reading it seems that using raised beds is a bit more straightforward than having a plot. So beds it is, which calls for some more wood construction - always welcome 
First job is to drive some stakes into the ground, get them level and then screw some boards to the sides. All the wood is pressure treated.
Once that's done on all four sides it's time for more digging 
to fill each bed with earth:
Next is to lay some membrane around all the edges and to cover with woodchips:
I've covered a couple of the beds with more membrane as we won't get the chance to plant this year and want to keep the weeds out. Here's also some more views back to the shed:
Compost
The plan is to have vegetable beds by the shed. Therefore we'll also need somewhere for all the garden waste/cuttings etc to go. Fortunately :0 I left a space for this behind/next to the shed.
Apologies for quality of the pics but you get the idea. Made from some old roof beams, wire mesh and left over log lap cladding;
Finished Shed
Now that it's finally stopped raining I've managed to get outside and finish the shed.
I had to stain all of this log lap - I don't recommend it, a very tedious job 
With roof finished, log lap nailed on and sealant applied the shed is finished:
Retained by the wet weather
It's been raining - a lot!! So not much progress on the shed. It's been sitting like this for much of the last couple of weeks:
I have managed to do a small bit of work on the opposite side of the same level as the shed. Whilst I've levelled out the majority of the space there is still a step between our garden and next door. I've left a gap of a couple of feet which will be planted with hedging in due course. For the moment I've fixed some retaining wood which keeps everything nice and tidy. Can be seen on the right hand side of pic 2:
Roof ‘n joints
The more observant out there will have wondered how the shed walls I built were going to stay up. 4inch screws into the base might hold the bottom but would soon fail if nothing was done at the top. To overcome this I installed M10 nuts, washers and thread in 3 locations at each corner and tightened. No chance of these walls coming apart now!
I'm afraid the pics kinda skip some of the next steps I cut the rafters, ridge etc for the roof and screwed on top of my walls. End result is this, you can also see that I've installed some of the noggins in the walls and made a start on boarding the inside with marine ply:
With base structure finished I screwed more exterior play to the roof and then covered with roofing paper:
The final roofing cover is going to be asphalt shingles from Wickes. In this pic I've made a start on installing the edging:
Shed walls
I'm continuing the same principles for the walls as for the shed base. Namely using thicker materials than usual to ensure good structure. All of the frames and joints were pre-drilled and screwed.
I started each wall by building the frame on the shed base which I know is flat and level - makes checking for square etc much easier.
Once the basic wall frame is made it's stacked out of the way:
I then put a couple of walls in place and used some clamps to hold them together at the corner. You'll notice in the right hand side wall I've made an opening for a window - a double glazed unit recycled from the conservatory we took down a while back:
The frames for the front wall were much narrower to make room for door frame to be fitted. You'll see them in progress on the floor here:
Here's all the basic frames constructed and clamped together:
Final part here is to secure them to the base frame - achieved with lots of 4inch screws 
Shed base
Finally onto something constructive and interesting after lots and lots of demolition!
Having looked around at the sheds available from the large DIY stores I decided to make my own. It will probably cost about the same money and won't blow away with the first gust of wind. I can also make it the exact size that I want.
First stage in making the shed was to lays some foundations - pics posted of the pads I made previously.
Next was a solid base for the shed to sit on. I made this out of 6x2 - much thicker than the balsa wood you get if you buy a shed.
This was filled with cross members and noggins to create a strong floor structure.
To finish the base it was covered by marine ply. The whole thing being glued and screwed together. Next time some walls.
Preparing the way . .
for the shed!
With the pads and electrics complete I could finally gravel the area under the shed (more wheelbarrows up the slope )
It was a windy day, hence the stones holding the membrane down:
Gravel down:
Each pad gets some DPC in preparation for the base of the shed:
Shed electrics
If you read the earlier post on Summer House electrics then you'll already have the jist of this. Before this level could be finished and covered in gravel electrics need to be run in. I'll let the pics explain:
New pad
No, not a new house but a series of concrete pads onto which a new shed will be built.
First get the ground roughly level:
I then dug 4 holes about 3 feet deep and filled with hardcore. On top of this I set some square formers:
Having got the formers level (which took some doing!!) I then filled each with concrete to create the finished pads:
