One Man's journey toward building his 'castle'

My name is Tim and I'll be your host for this wondrous journey...

After having my interest peaked from seeing 'shackitecture' on http://http//www.dinosaursandrobots.com/search/label/shackitecture, I had discovered a whole new realm of 'backyard offices' on http://www.shedworking.co.uk/. It was at this point I decided that I must have one of my own.

I did my homework and discovered that in my town (Kettering, Ohio - near Dayton), I can have a 'shed' in my back yard and if it is under 200 sq. ft., that I don't need to submit plans for review ($75 just for that alone). That means I only need to pay for the $35 permit and then a final inspection.

The first problem I have with the whole thing is being short on disposable income for the project. This means that I must come up with the cash or materials on my own. I thought, "I'm a smart guy. I can figure this out...". So... My thought was that I could use recycled materials or scraps from construction sites around town (and I plan on asking before taking and blogging how that goes), hitting up craigslist for free items to help and asking for Lowe's/Home Depot gift cards for Christmas.

In not having any idea on how to build a structure ("I'm a network engineer. How hard can this be?"), somehow I thought that blogging the whole thing would help myself and perhaps others in building their own backyard office. I will try and detail as much as I can in what I do and how I do it to help out others. Conversely, if someone has an idea or suggestion for something, by all means, please share so others may benefit from it. I don't want to skimp on the details as I have seen so many other places/blogs.

I also thought that blogging the whole project would help encourage me in seeing this thru beginning to end (with the threat of 'someone else watching my progress' helping me along) as I have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them.

So, welcome and I hope you find this journey as informative and entertaining as I hope to...