From Mice to Masterpiece: the 20-Year Shed Comeback
Tucked into more than 14 pristine acres in Cumberland Center, Maine, the office of the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA) is just a scenic 25-minute drive north of Portland. Established in 1933, the association has called this property home since 1987.
“Our job as an association is to serve as the rules-writing agency for Eastern White Pine, and administer the grade rules for SPFs, and multiple other lumber species grown from the northeast across to the Great Lakes region,” said Jeff Easterling, president of NELMA. “What that means for homeowners: when you purchase wood in the upper NE quadrant of the United States, chances are strong there will be a NELMA stamp on that wood. We ensure that the wood you buy for your projects is on-grade and meets the published strength values to meet the expected performance of the product.”
Somewhere around 2004, a NELMA member gave the association an outdoor storage shed that quickly found a home just past the building entrance and to the right of the flower beds. The association wasn’t in need of storage space at the time; rather, the goal was to install siding on the shed’s exterior and film educational installation videos as marketing tools to share on NELMA’s YouTube channel, @nelmaTV. In fact, several members donated extra pieces of Eastern White Pine siding, in a variety of different patterns, to the association to help facilitate these plans.
But time has a way of deferring the best laid plans, and the shed sat un-sided with the inside full of siding samples. For 20 years.
“We always say Eastern White Pine should go through an acclimation process,” said Easterling with a laugh. “After 20 years in the shed, these siding samples have handled Maine’s summers and winters, so they’ve definitely passed the test.”
Always telling other people’s stories about EWP, here’s ours:
As happens with humans and their garages, over the decades the shed became home to much more than siding samples: lumber that was pulled for grade testing, about 100 folding chairs, huge plastic bags filled with hardhats, large colonies of generations of mice – all of these things added to the shed’s personality, the kind that only comes with time … and a little clutter.
In 2023, Easterling and his marketing team were brainstorming ideas to create original content to spread the word about Eastern White Pine. The opportunity to finally re-side the shed was on the table; coupled with the association’s long-time relationship with the Maine Cabin Masters from Magnolia Network, it seemed as if the shed’s spotlight might have finally arrived.
“First we had to clean out the shed, which took a full weekend,” commented Easterling. “We didn’t want our friends the Maine Cabin Masters to be too horrified by the state of the shed’s interior. Removing the mouse colonies just about did me in – the bag of hard hats had a mouse nest in every single hat – but it was more than worth it in the end.”
Once the pine siding samples were cleaned and stacked, they were ready to be installed on the exterior.
Enter the Maine Cabin Masters. The team showed up early in the morning and completed the project in one day. The result: a beautiful new-looking shed, even more ready to withstand whatever weather Maine decided to throw at it.
Easterling on the process: “We spend our days talking about Eastern White Pine and SPFs and other species, educating multiple audiences about the benefits of choosing real wood. It was fun to be part of the story this time and use our property and our materials to create and share free content for homeowners nationwide.”
How best to share this installation information? Through video, of course. The entire process was documented and can be viewed free on NELMA’s YouTube channel. The offerings: one full-length video of 11 minutes tracking the project from start to finish. For those homeowners looking to dive deeper into the installation process, the project progression is also shared in a series of videos, each covering one element of the install: Trim Removal, New Trim Install, New Siding Install, New Door Install, and Finished Shed.
The videos include and spotlight things like removal of all existing corner pieces, how to use the existing plywood as the siding substrate, and a very cool section where Chase from the Maine Cabin Masters builds a door with just his amazing carpenter brain: no plans, no guidelines. And it’s a beautiful double door.
All siding used is Eastern White Pine . Patterns include prefinished, a choice very popular with homeowners and builders because it eliminates the priming process and the wood is ready to paint, saving time and money on project jobsites.
“We had long wanted to create a siding install series of DIY videos, and our shed situation and partnership with the Maine Cabin Masters combined to create the perfect opportunity,” concluded Easterling. “The shed has been through three Maine winters with its new siding, and it still looks beautiful.”
