A tour inside the Taj-ma-Shed...

The inside of the 'Taj-ma-Shed" is complete! I built the shed - pounded every single nail, laid every single shingle, cut every board. My wife and daughter did help with extreior painting, as well as held the ladder for me plenty of times, but other than that, I did it all myself. Well, okay, my friend Roger helped me put the counter top on the potting bench - that was HEAVY!

It's complete just in time too – a magazine is sending a photographer tomorrow to photograph it! And another local magazine is coming later in the week to shoot it. Both are for issues to be published next year.

Can't mention names, because I know that sometimes these things don't happen. Once, Martha Stewart Living magazine photographed my garden and the photos were never published. There's some great shots of my garden taken by a Toronto photographer, I've never seen, sitting on a hard drive somewhere in New York City. But I'm not bitter.

It's also good timing because I'm on Gardens Buffalo Niagara's Tours of Open Gardens starting this coming Thursday - 75+ exceptional gardens open throughout Erie and Niagara Counties for select hours on Thursdays and Fridays in July.

The interior walls are the pickets from the fence we had replaced this spring. I took all the old cans of paint from the basement from other projects around the house and either painted, wiped, dry-brushed, or stained the pickets – then cut and placed them randomly as the walls.

The counter top is Ceasarstone, a man-made material. I had a $500 gift certificate to Italian Marble & Granite I won from their Garden Walk Buffalo contest a couple years ago where they gave away marble & granite scraps from their dumpster to the gardeners of the Walk for garden projects. I won for the marble and granite "carpet" I made as an inlay in my patio.

The fabric panels under the counter are left over scraps from our previous outdoor curtains.

All the windows were our previous attic windows, saved from when we had them replaced with modern efficient windows. They are original to the 1897 house.

My daughter's toy bins get re-used for tool and other storage. The bar stool has seen better days, but it's followed us around for more than 20 years. Shelves are made from scraps left over from making the deck, and from an old waterbed frame.

The free-standing shelf came with the garage when we moved in – fits perfect under the window. The door also came from the house originally. It was in the garage when we bought the house 15 years ago.

Three-quarters of the ceiling on the west side is plastic curragated panels to let in light.

Not sure what I'll do with the ceiling yet. I may take all the extra sheathing and paneling left over from this and other projects - and layer them. Then just paint them a solid color. Of course the "Hearts in the Gardens" poster I designed is featured prominently.

I wanted shelves above the tools. I took two boxes I had on hand, one a wok came in, another a wine box, and then made two more. The ones I made were made from a wooden shipping pallet and the remains of an old waterbed. I've moved many of my gardening books out here where I will actually use them for reference.

There's plenty of "nostalgic" tchotchkes salvaged from my parents' (who have both passed now) cottage. The plate is a photo of the cottage my father built, the framed picture is a map I made when I was about 14 of the lake I grew up on. Finally have a place for twine  and wire. I won't have to search for it every time I need some - and the scissors are even near it! This is a huge organizational leap for us! This is also a good place to keep some of my daughter's "pottery" pieces. You know those pieces that require display, but you never know where to put them? This is the place.

I took the porcelain hand-shaped bathroom accessories from our previous house and finally made use of them. The board hanging on the wall I made in 1976 - its a saying my father use to say, "It may be today, it may be tomorrow, it may be next week, it may be next year, it may be never." Words to live by.

The tiki heads came from the lake cottage too, as did the whiskey barrel, and row boat oar. The bow I had as a kid is up there too. I have arrows around someplace – I kept them separate as you should with weaponry and its ammunition. But I can't remember where I put them. It has no electricity, nor plumbing – but it does have wifi! (because my office wifi is just the other side of the driveway.)

The outside.