Okey-dokey. So, our Lifetime shed arrived and we read through the assembling directions.  Now that we had the general idea of what we were about to undertake,  we were ready to start building our shed!   Well, sort of.  Before we could actually start assembling our Lifetime shed, we had to prepare the shed site.

As you may recall, we plan to put our 8’x5’ Lifetime shed right up against our back fence.  But, our yard has a pretty significant slope and we can only dig about 6” before we hit solid rock…practically boulders in some spots!  And, lucky us, we also had a tree stump and roots we had to take into consideration.  Fun times.  So, our first step was to level the ground to be flush with the tree stump by removing weeds, rocks, mulch, adding dirt, etc.  Ground ready?  Check.

The Lifetime shed directions recommend building the shed on a concrete slab.  However, if that is not an option, they recommend building the shed on a wood platform covered with plywood or on a wood frame filled with pea gravel.  Great, more work.  Arrgh.  However, in reality, that would be the case for any type of shed (whether it was metal, wood, or plastic), especially with our sloped yard.  BUT, here’s the best part…Lifetime actually provides step-by-step directions on how to build the wood platform or wood frame!  They show awesome pictures, list the exact materials you will need, and provide the precise dimensions including where to place all of the support beams.  They’ve seriously done all of the work for you except the manual labor!  Even someone who isn’t very good at woodworking can figure out how to build the shed platform with the directions Lifetime provides. 

One piece of advice the instructions didn’t mention that might be handy…if you’re building the wood platform or frame, if possible, build it on a flat surface (like a driveway or in your garage) first and then carry it to your final destination to make it easier to ensure you have it level and squared.  That’s exactly what we did.  My husband and I constructed the wood frame on our concrete driveway…it only took about 30 minutes.  Super simple.

Then, thanks to my massive muscles (ha!), we carried the wood frame back to the future shed site. We placed it on the ground to see how much more leveling of the ground we would need to do.  We had to ensure the platform would be above the tree stump and roots that we couldn’t remove.  (Plus, Lifetime also reminds you that any platform or similar structure should be built above ground in order to avoid water pooling inside the shed. ) So, we placed our platform on cinder blocks - three under each of the four shed sides.  I’m going to be honest with you…this part took forever!!  If you’ve ever tried to lay pavers, flagstone, etc., you know what I mean.  Leveling a cinder block foundation is tiring and tedious work.  Add a little dirt, add a little sand, too much sand, need to pack it down more, oops packed too much etc.  Ugh.  Finally (about 4 hours later) it was level and we were able to place the wood frame on top of the cinder blocks and quickly nail the plywood on top.  Ta-da!

Building the wood platform was a piece of cake.  Unfortunately, preparing our yard was not.  But, we knew it was going to be challenging before we even started thanks to our rocks, tree stumps, and slope.  If you already have a concrete slab ready to go (or at least a flat yard), lucky you!  We spent almost an entire day preparing our site.  Geez, I bet you hope building the actual shed was a lot easier, huh?  Stay tuned to find out!

Oh...one other great piece of preparation advice that Lifetime reminds you of several times in the directions...be sure to check all of your city and county building codes to learn if you need a building permit.  Fortunately, for us, we did not need one.  Since a Lifetime shed does not have real shingles, our city does not consider it a permanent structure and, therefore, a permit is not required.