Introducing Trudy’s shed aka The Lady Lair!
Trudy and her team (i.e., Geoff, her talented brother) has taken a basic old garden shed with no windows and an ugly makeshift door, and transformed a dead area in her garden by building a magnificent feature structure.
It was dismantled at its original spot into wall and roof sections before being transported by trailer and reassembled on piles in its new location. Musgroves contributed the windows, and the corrugated iron necessary to make roof repairs and cover the new verandah. The framing of the verandah was achieved with second-hand hardwood cross arms from decommissioned power poles (complete with lichen).
Trudy had an old tongue-and-groove door stored in her garage for years that she just knew would come in handy for something (a victory for sensible, strategic hoarding!), and was very pleased to see it finally have its glory day in the sun, after undergoing a fresh orange paint job.
With the work being rounded out by a new deck and a manuka stakes trellis, it’s hard to tell who loves the Lady Lair more, Trudy or her animals! Trudy reports that “it has spoiled me for living anywhere else!” and that she loves “looking out through the old windows at the view of Lyttleton Harbour, especially at night with the lights twinkling on the water”.
Thanks so much for the excellent photos and account of your project Trudy, this is a real inspiration!
