While Bowling usually sticks with his square little footprint and tried-and-true proportions, he is sometimes asked to come up with new shapes and sizes. He built an octagonal building he describes as “Gothic” to fit into a hillside garden in Burien. “The largest shed I ever built was 10 by 12, and we dry-walled and insulated it for a studio,” he says.
The cause of the fire in the chicken coop was not determined, but Holzmueller said the homeowners had “some type of heating system” in the coop to keep the chickens warm. None of the chickens survived.
Is it the peaked roofs, the cupolas and aged windowpanes that lend a sense of history to each tidy little footprint of a building? Perhaps it’s that Bowling has mastered the perfect proportions and garnishes to appeal to our fantasies of a sweet little destination shed. Gardeners seem to share a universal gene for outbuildings, and Bowling has tapped right into that.
Despite windows, doors and siding old enough to make the buildings look weathered in place, new underlying framework assures they’re structurally sound. “Nothing is going to blow them over,” he says.
Because Bowling builds with materials on at least their second lifetimes, each shed is unique. If wood or metal doesn’t look sufficiently vintage, Bowling adds patina with a vinegar wash. Old saws, axes and trowels are put to use as door handles and brackets. He constructs cupolas out of metal chicken feeders, funnels, stove pipes or pot lids — whatever ends up stacking in an eye-pleasing and sturdy way.
“They let the dogs out thinking something was going on outside and the side of the garage was on fire,” Deputy Chief Mike Holzmueller of the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department said in a phone interview.