BruceC, you were wondering about a durable gloss white paint that could be used on treated lumber. I would like to suggest you try my trick. Buy a five gallon bucket of oil based white gloss barn and fence paint (available at most farm stores) and add a gallon of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil will thin down the paint, and give you a good primer coat. Put on a couple of them if you have time, and then finish with a coat of Latex. The Latex will last a lot longer and will not peel off of the lumber. Too often folks put latex directly onto unprimed lumber and it fails. (I've even had it fail on "pre-primed" materials that I bought as "pre-primed".) Just remember the rule that Latex can go over Latex or oil base, but oil base can never go over Latex, and oil base must always coat raw wood before the Latex. There was also a question about lumber cupping and warping. The best suggestions I can give you on that are air circulation and moisture prevention. Birdwidow recommended setting your stack up off the floor on spacers (4x4's, or concrete blocks with 2x's across them) which will help you cut down on the lumber wicking moisture up from the bottom, also when you stack your lumber place "splinters" or "stickers" in between each layer of lumber. (Splinters or stickers are just one bys layed across each layer to help aid in air circulation). If you do this your lumber, stacked inside a weather tight building, will dry out a lot quicker. In fact down in Florida you ought to be able to dry out green (fresh cut) lumber within a year or two using this method, and have it test almost as dry as kiln dried. I am sure my advice might have those who disagree with me, but it comes from having a Father, a Grandfather, Uncles and god knows how many other relatives in the carpentry and lumbering industries. Plus the other good old fashioned way, try and fail on my own.

I don't think the wall sheathing is designed to only be attached around the edges either and will probably warp pretty badly. That's why you'll need studs spaced at least 24"oc in the walls as well. Using pressure treated for the base plates is necessary (as you knew) but the rest is totally unnecessary. Make sure you use galvanized nails when using PT lumber. I'm thinking 4x4s because it will make stronger joints especially at the corners--toe-nailing 2xs together to make a sill seems too flimsy if there should be strong winds. Flimsy? Most houses are built using 2x4s, so it will be plenty strong enough for a little shed. Plus, if you want to make something stronger, it is much more beneficial to use 2x6s than 4x4s. And, if you don't like to toenail (even though there is nothing wrong with that) then build the walls laying on their sides so that you can nail up through the base plates and down through the top plate, and then tip the wall up into it's proper position and attach it to it's neighbours.

Les, I don't think my husband would like it very much if I stained the stone. It would be beautiful, but I think for now it willl have to remain as it is...plus, I used a flash, so that made it look whiter. I also like the idea of panels all the way to the top, but I really want to cover the white blinds somehow. I really love the look of the roman shades but they are $$$. Do you think I could achieve the same look with sheers underneath the panel? I'm on the lookout for wood hardware, too. First I need to finish painting my bedroom olive branch. Only one project at a time or I get frusturated. ;) pmartin- I'll try and post more later. I have some, but I need to get my girls down for a nap!

Still not any closer to deciding what to do. Been busy trying to get the building plans approved. It was suppose to be close to approval back in March. We are still waiting. We were told by our architect that we could not keep the existing redwood exterior siding as we are in a Wildlands Urban Interface area. He suggested stucco. We saw there is a WUI approved product list for California and talked to some of the vendors. We currently have 1x8" tongue and groove vertical redwood siding and the vendors told us that is WUI compliant. Who should I believe? We would prefer to keep the wood siding. Because the existing exterior is somewhat neglected, we are wondering how we can get the wood restored and how it will look with new 1x8" redwood siding that we will need to put in for the addition. Will this be the same kind of professionals we need to get a hold of as the ones suggested for the interior paneling? Thanks in advance! Here are a few pics of the exterior siding: