Backyard utility shed part 1 (preparation and base)

Since my family and I moved outside of the city one of my dreams was to build the shed. 

I never did that big construction project and this is what I was eager to try. In addition building the shed will create additional space in garage that has to be decluttered. Main idea was to build the shed big enough to put in riding mower and garden cart. Also it creates good place to store bicycles and other summer staff during the winter.  

First I had to decide on the size. In RM (rural municipality) I live, permit is required for objects bigger than 120 sq.ft. Since I wanted to avoid any headaches with permits and inspections my choice was to go below the limit. Next step I had to compare 3 options:

    1.  Ready to go plastic shed

    2.  Wooden shed kit

    3.  DIY wooden shed.

Option 1 did not work for 3 reasons 

    1. Biggest shed I found is 10ft x 8ft (that is 40 sq.ft less than I need) and cost was about $1.5k CAD 

    2. It still require prepare surface concrete or compacted gravel.

    3. Where is the fun of putting together few plastic parts???!!!

Option 2 was better than option 1 from perspective of the size, but wood of all kits I found is lowest possible grade with price of the kit close to $2k CAD. Also it is more fun than in putting together wooden kit than piеces of plastic, but definitely less fun building it from the scratch. 

So my shed has to be 12ft x 10ft (minus couple of inches from outside for possible inspection)

Ground in the location I picked for the shed is uneven, so base of the shed I decided to put on the posts. I live in Canada and in winter it can be below -30 Celsius. Building concrete base is expensive, difficult and and not reliable because of the frost. I dug 9 holes approximately 3 ft. deep using the post digger. For base I used treated 4x4x12 fence posts from Home Depot cut to 4 ft. pieces. 

To the bottom of the hole I added some 1/4 down gravel and compacted it using the post. When posts was paced to the ground, I lined them up using the level and measuring from cornet to corner for the keeping right angles. After all corners were right (or at least I wanted to believe they are) I poured 1/4 down  gravel around each post and compacted it. Since it was my after hours\weekend project I left if for few days. Rain helped to set 1/4 down gravel, so I had to add it couple of times.