I highly recommend Ace Garage Storage. We had the exact same issue early this year, and we bought one of their sheds to move the lawn equipment outside, plus an attic lift to easily hide the rest of the mess up above.

Your mention of American buttercream crusting fast hits home, my early cakes looked like they were wearing armor. I once spent so long trying to smooth it out that it set in weird lumps, and I had to pretend it was abstract art. Swiss meringue buttercream really is more forgiving, but I still mess up the temperature sometimes and get a soupy mess. Chilling the cake first is a tip I learned after a crumb catastrophe that made me want to give up baking. Now with a turntable and cold cake, my sides are almost sharp, but I still have moments where it looks like a toddler helped.

My cousin Mark used to waste hours online fighting about small movie details. He just stopped clicking on any fan debates or news articles before seeing a film. Now he goes in fresh and actually has fun watching.

In Slack, we added a channel for off-topic banter.

Okay but is it really that deep though. They're just rocks from a creek, you know. I guess if it makes you happy but man that's a lot of time for something that will probably just sit on a shelf. It's a nice chill hobby but calling it a project feels like a stretch.