When we bought The Homestead five or six years ago, it came with a somewhat dilapidated old shed. We have used the shed to store firewood, bikes, and gardening supplies. There is, however, a chance that it will collapse someday—each year its splay-footedness becomes slightly more pronounced. So, we asked M. Orton, who helps us with all of our home repairs, if he could rebuild it for us. He thought he could, so he came over to discuss it. We decided that the best plan might be to take it down, pour a small concrete stem wall, and then reconstruct it from the ground up. After a discussion with the city building inspector—who said that taking it down would require us to move it back 25 feet to meet the city set-back requirement—and a cost estimate for materials—which started to make the project look like a five-figure boondoggle—we dropped the plan. Instead, M. Orton is coming tomorrow with a collection of hydraulic jacks and a saw-z-all to see if we can't lift the walls, cut them loose, and push them straight, without moving the building. We may end up with it on our heads, but it will probably be there anyway if we don't do something.
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