I like designing things

          I like designing things.  The desk in my bedroom has a fold-out typing table (it is 22 years old, after all), and a built-in book case across the back.  I keep teh back of the desktop mostly clear and one shelf mostly empty so I can see out the window behind.  Most of it is painted white, but the desktop is a stained a rich cherry and varnished.  Although the design is still (I think) pretty nice, the construction is vintage early-Jeff: plywood and 2X4s along with a few pieces of other dimensional lumber.  But until the Beatrice Ann came along, my desk was the bit of construction I was proudest of.
          I would love to design a boat, but that is where my courage fails.  I've done a little reading, perused many designs, and followed many boat-design conversations on the Web, made a tentative drawing or two, but I simply don't know enough yet.  Boat building is costly in time and materials--even my three-month hardware-store ply Surprise has at least 2 kilobucks sunk in it--and I built it about as cheaply as I could, and sail it with borrowed rigs.  I'm far from willing to invest so much in my own design--or even in someone else's design before it has been put to adequate test.  Even in building the cabin I added to the Beatrice Ann two years ago (which, unlike the boat, I did design), I was sufficiently unsure of myself that the whole thing can be removed with little serious damage if I decide to.
          This week I have the kind of design challenge that I relish.  All three boys just bought new bicycles, courtesy of Beatrice's parents.  The reason they did not have bicycles already is because someone in the neighborhood has sticky fingers--we have had three bicycles stolen at two different times over the years.  Of course, none of the bicycles taken was locked or put away at the time, so we were in no hurry to replace them, even if we had the cash lying around.
          Now we have bicycles again and need a secure and weather-proof place to store them.  Boats have foreclosed the garage option.  The previous storage was under the corner of the house, but even the smaller bikes of a few years ago did not fit there comfortably.  So here is my design brief:

• each bicycle must be locked and accessible individually, so taking out one doesn't leave others exposed or unsecured.
• access must be easy and quick enough not to prevent bikes from being used frequently and on the spur of the moment
• precipitation must be kept out
• the bikes must be difficult to steal
• the shed should be no larger than needed to do these things.

          Having lined up the three bikes (and leaving room for my own, just in case I rehab it), I think I can accomplish all this with a shed 6 feet long and 5 feet wide in which the bikes alternate orientation and can be pulled out either end--that way the bikes handlebars don't interfere with each other and can be stored in a smaller space. A pitched roof will shed rain and snow.  Doors will close both ends, both to keep out weather and to make it harder for a passerby to see how the bicycles are secured inside.  I will build this out of exterior plywood and 2X4s (with maybe some 1X2s to save weight), and I will design it in such a way that it can be assembled or disassembled of two or three sections on-site (since it will be a heavy son-of -a-gun).  I figure to keep it raised a few inches off the ground to allow air to move.  Exterior latex paint will help it last.  It will probably sit behind the garage, where it will not kill any grass or shade other parts of the yard. 
          I may look to see how retail bike sheds deal with some of these problems before I commit too far.  I plan to do a quick preliminary drawing and buy most of the lumber today or tomorrow.  This will be a satisfying build!