Ernie Fodor’s trade-off project

Before building his FFR, Ernie built a gardening shed for his wife

 

In the process of purchasing a Factory Five, many guys have to go through a few hurdles, one of which is what we like to call the “trade-off” project.  The theory is, that in order for you to have a fun toy in the garage, your wife will allow it only if she gets something in return.
 

We’ve heard many stories of customers building new kitchens, home additions, rear decks and landscaping projects prior to taking delivery of their Factory Fives.   So it wasn’t unusual when we heard that Ernie Fodor of West Lorne, Ontario built a gardening shed for his wife prior to turning a wrench on his new Factory Five (F5R1005988RD).  We were blown away, however, when we saw the images and heard that he built the shed using the wood from the crate in which we shipped him his new project.
 
From the photos he has sent of his wife’s Gardening Cabin, as well as of those of his FFR build, we expect his car to be a winner in every aspect.
 

Ernie (L) and his son Rob
Ernie and his friend Tom muscle the crate into his garage
 
 

With the cabin images, Ernie included a guideline on how he built this killer cabin:

The cabin was started with the bottom pallet of the crate, as my floor. I then built a stud wall around it, built the trusses, and covered the walls with pine boards. I used the top main beam 4x4x14 under the porch roof supported by 4 posts. The rest of the plywood I used in the body buck and all of the crate’s 2x4's were used throughout the construction of both projects.

 

Ernie has made it even easier for the rest of us by creating a build schematic to allow us all to replicate the cabin for our wives.
 
 
An image of the build schematic (created by Ernie’s friend John Miller) is shown here:
 

 
Ernie welcomes any questions pertaining to his gardening shed, or other “trade-off” ideas.  You can reach him at efodor@royallepage.ca.