It turns out I’m trendy. A decade ago I bought an octagonal table at a garage sale. It had an oak top and turquoise metal pedestal and was so beat up it only cost twenty dollars. Somehow I got it home. Shortly after that I scored eight windows — beautiful mullioned white double-paned 6 X 2 ½ foot windows — still in their wrappers for a couple of hundred dollars. If you see a pattern here, you’re right: to me nothing is more fun than finding other people’s rejects and repurposing them.

I presented my finds to my husband and suggested he should build something to go around the table that would use eight windows. Clever man that he is, he built a greenhouse overlooking my garden. He did the math and worked out a greenhouse that was one square foot under the size limit for needing a permit. OK, don’t tell the County that we broke the height rules — it’s quite tall at the center of its pointed rooftop — but we live in the country surrounded by redwood trees so it’s hardly imposing.

We took out chairs and blankets, a bottle of champagne and crystal glasses, and christened it in a rainstorm when it was just green slate tile flooring, framing, and a roof. That was when I realized the roof structure was too beautiful to cover with sheetrock…and that the greenhouse needed a crystal chandelier, candle lit of course because there’s no electricity.

That’s how my she-shed started before she-sheds became a craze mentioned in everything from Houzz, to decorating magazines, to Time Magazine, so yes, I started the trend. My she-shed does have garden tools hanging from its upright framing and does function for starting spring seeds and overwintering tender plants, but it also sports blue cushioned rattan chairs, needlepoint pillows and wall hangings, a beautiful bookcase rather than shelves to hold potting materials, lots of wrought iron, and a copper duck from France. It’s the perfect place to have tea. How hip is that?