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 I
began the shelter construction by collecting 18 5 year-old 2x4s from
my scrap pile in the woods. The remains of a previous temporary
shelter, I had found myriad uses for the old wood over the years,
but my pile was rapidly diminishing as the land began reclaiming the
wood. Still, I managed to find enough pieces to allow for a
significant savings in new material.
From the old wood, which was riddled with old screws and nails at the ends, I cut 18, 6' studs for my new shelter's kneewall. |
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 Next,
I built two 16-foot long sections of the wall flat on the ground,
laying out the studs 24" on center and nailing them to top and
bottom plates. I didn't bother with any pressure-treated lumber
since the shelter is temporary and will be gone long before any
rot-related problems occur on the bottom plate. With one section
built, I constructed an identical section on top of it.
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Then, I stood up the two sections and heaved them into position outside the boat. The pad on which the boat sat was a fairly consistent width, so it was easy enough to line up the walls parallel to the barn wall. I braced the walls in position with some scrap 2x4s and lines secured to the conveniently located boat, and to some tent stakes that I drove into the earth. I secured the wall straight, parallel to the barn wall, and plumbed and leveled it as needed. Because I wanted the boat (and shelter) to end up as far back as possible, the back end of the wall ended up requiring some support beneath where the ground began to fall away down a slope. |
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 My
next step was to secure a 2x4 header to the barn wall, just below the
window trim. Fortunately, the space between the window trim and
the sliding door trim beneath was just over 3-1/2", so a 2x4 fit in
perfectly. I secured the two 16-foot boards to the wall with long
screws turned into the wall studs. The header extended a few feet
past the end of the barn to reflect the boat's desired
positioning. Before installing the headers, I had marked the
locations for the rafters 24" on center. If I'd thought of it
at the time (and if I'd had them on hand at the time), I would have
pre-installed some joist hangers before hanging the headers, but I
didn't yet have them and so had to install them later.
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 By
now, it was late in the day, but before quitting I cut and installed
the first rafter as a test. Holding an uncut board as a mockup,
I determined the angle at which to cut the top end, and also marked
the lower end at the kneewall for a bird's mouth cut that would lock
the rafters into the wall. After making the cuts, I nailed the
rafter into position.
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