This is running the risk of being off topic, but since it may involve some woodworking and the shop, I figure it's fair game.
I have not one, not two, but ten bicycles in my garage/shop. In addition, I have a lawn mower, weed wacker, gas cans, propane tanks, snow-related doo-dads, and a lot of other crud I'd like to get out of there to free up more shop space and keep the little ones from habitually parking their bicycles in exactly the worst locations every time.
The obvious solution is a back yard storage shed. The ideal arrangement would be something extremely large, but there are a number of caveats.
We're renting our house at the moment. For a variety of reasons, we really like the current arrangement of not owning the house and would like to stay there for years to come. We have zero faith in our landlord's ability to continue to make mortgage payments though. And we know he wants us to buy the house a year from now at a ridiculous price. So there's a good chance that we'll have to move in a year.
Money isn't really a problem. If we knew we would be staying there for the next five years or more, I would have no problem investing $5k in an out building. We don't really need a huge building that $5k would get, but would use the space if we had it. For now, a small 4x8 shed would probably be adequate.
So I need to be able to take it with me when/if we move. This means that I would need to be able to get the shed onto, say, a 6x12 open air uhaul trailer without too much trouble. Or, I would need to be able to disassemble it into pieces I can throw on a trailer.
The really easy arrangement would be to use an actual trailer and just park it out there. But that's way too trailer-park for the neighborhood. And the association says that the out building needs to be painted to match the house.
So can anyone suggest a house-looking trailer with removable tongue and wheels that can be set up in the back yard to be a storage shed, painted to match the house...
or
Can anyone suggest a disassemble-able metal/vinyl shed that I can paint to match the house...
or
Can anyone suggest a wood building, or maybe plans for a building, with walls that bolt together with lag bolts so I can knock it down and throw the walls on a uhaul trailer...
or
I know some of those playground set companies will move your playground set when you move. Maybe someone offers the same thing for a larger storage shed?
or
some other creative solution.
I thought about buying a flat bed trailer, then building a building on it to look like a small house, then removing the wheels and installing some sort of skirt around it. That's a big project though. And since I currently have more money than time, I'd rather just buy something. oh, I'm in the chicago area if that matters.
brian