Insulate, insulate, insulate. Out of all the insulations available and that we have tried, I sill like the Corning fiberglass batts the best. We have been trying out a European style climate control system called a Ductless mini split system in our barn. It cools and heats like a charm and is about 50% more efficient than a standard common air conditioner/heating system. This is what I will use in my shed, and we are seriously considering these for our house. When we built our barn, we had a nice concrete floor poured, and it was built using standard pole barn construction. We used high quality metal to skin it and the roof. My husband insulated an office area, and rather than use sheetrock, he finished the walls with the same white metal roofing material. The result has impressed me. It is clean, nicely finished, inexpensive, and will never need to be painted. Works great for him. (I, however, want a more "feminine" finish in my space). Moccasin I had a good laugh about being as happy as a pig in mud....until I remembered what the wild hogs have recently done to my pond area. They tore the h....out of it and ate all my frogs! What a mess! I am so mad. They even uprooted some trees I planted. We're putting some nasty barbed wire fencing up around our whole property as we speak, but we'll see if it actually stops them. enigmaquandry, the more we all keep letting the government get away with telling us how to use our property, the more they will take more and more of our freedoms away. Frankly, in my opinion, it is absolutely NONE of their business what someone does on their own property as long as it harms no one. If you build a shed and want to use it for something, tell them it's a tack room. Or a potting shed. And then politely invite them to leave. Legally all they can do is measure the outside dimensions for tax purposes. Sandy

Well, this is not truly "repurposed" but maybe sort of. In 2004 I rented the Riverhouse from a friend for a year. The house was on tall open legs, because located right on the river. The a/c and heat ducts came through the floors in front of the windows. So I could not put much furniture there without blocking air flow. In the bedroom, I also did not have enough wall space for my 66" wide 14 drawer chest. So I put the bed in the middle of the room centered under the ceiling fan. I BACKED THE TALL CHEST UP TO THE HEADBOARD. I also painted the back of the chest lavender. Someone else might want to wall paper it or cover the back with mirror tiles. By doing this, I created a small private dressing area where I could be hidden even if someone was sitting in the living room and my bedroom door was not closed. I really enjoyed this arrangement. Essentially, the tall chest became a room divider. Is that repurposing? I also cut some tall bamboo from the yard of the house we ended up buying, also on the river, and I built a canopy frame from the bamboo. I hung my beloved Mombasa mosquito net curtain from the bamboo frame. That worked fine, but my engineering skills were not up to par, because one night the raffia wrappers holding it all in place just FELL. It was a good idea while it lasted!!

Here's another one playing off the Houzz counter that widens into a circle. Assuming you do use the sliders at the end of the DRM and trying to save your dining space for a standard table when needed since it's already only 10' wide: * Leave the entry door to the kitchen where it is. * Open up as much of your DRM counter as you wish, filling in the DRM doorway with counter and otherwise leaving it basically where it is already. * Put the circular dining portion at the end at the TOP of the diagram, near the doors outside and with views out the big kitchen window as well. Having the conversation area at top would Impact the dining area as little as possible, so it wouldn't be necessary to narrow the DRM so that only a nonstandard narrow table could fit. Although there would be narrowness on the deck end of the DRM, when needed the dining table could--presumably--be pulled down to occupy some of the space opposite the stairs when entertaining, offsetting that narrowness. This should also help this floor live large since the busily used space would be larger than if the dining counter were close to the LRM furniture. BTW, how about considering a drop-leaf table? Our DRM is also our central hall/library, with 4 wide doorways in the corners and stairs running both up and down off it, so leaving a table in the middle was not part of my plan (plot, actually, to deprive DH of his favorite mess accumulator). With the 2 leaves out and sides dropped, our table that seats up to 12 is 4' wide and does duty against one wall as a library table with books and lamp.

I had a cheap secretary office chair. Its back became useless and the back support failed, In preparation to discard it, I took the back off and inspiration hit. The low seat with casters was perfect as a roll around seat on the garage floor when servicing equipment such as lawn mowers, bicycles, and autos. It beats stooping over to get at low places like waxing the lower panels of a car. We recycle dozens of 64 fluid oz plastic bottles, but a few have been put to other uses. Using shears, I cut the bottom off and gave the end a scoop shape. The handle and lid was left in place. It made a good bird seed scoop. There were some scraps of lumber left over from building our house. Some measurements, a few hand saw cuts, and nailing the parts together gave me a nail carrier. I've been using that thing for 40 years. Other scraps were used to make 3 shelves for the back of the garage. Asphalt sealer comes in large plastic buckets. About every 5 to 7 years, my driveway gets a coat of sealer. Not all of the buckets were discarded. I kept about 10 of these and those come in handy for a variety of chores. If I need a ballast weight to hold me lawn mower handle down to tip the mower up for removing the blade, I grab a bucket, go out back and put in a few rocks from the rock pile and now I have a ballast weight to do the job. Other buckets can store sun flower seed after the sack has been opened. Setting the lid on the bucket makes a mouse and insect proof container.