In an unrelenting year, these five families used DIY plans to create room for silence, storage and solace
The cozy, sturdy structure in our backyard that my husband built last year has cycled through several names, some of them even before the walls were up. At first, we called it the “learnin’ shed,” planned for our kids’ distance learning. Then it was the “instead shed,” built with money for a trip to France that the pandemic canceled. For a time, he jokingly referred to it as his mistress because of the amount of time he devoted to it, and one day I called it the “medished,” when he Zoom-taught a medical class in it. When the pandemic is over, it will be my writer’s studio (I’ve been promised).
My husband was not alone in turning to shed building in the middle of the pandemic. Some people needed to extend their living space to gain privacy and avoid cabin fever. Others finally had time to devote to a previously planned shed, or were creating a workspace. Still others needed a project to take their minds off a relentless news cycle.
