Monday, June 30, 2014

Green roofs on garden offices

Paul Barton from Roomworks has been in touch with updates on some of the green roofs they've added to shedworkers' garden offices around the country.

"It's a great time for all those living roof systems we installed," he says, " particularly the meadow flower one you can see at the top of this selection of images which has bees and butterflies all over it. Later in the season
of course, the meadow flowers die back and require maintenance which is why
we tend to use sedum varieties, which do flower but still look great later in the year. Sedum also requires very little maintenance.

"More and more people are now aware of the many and varied benefits of a living roof and we are always delighted when our clients ask us to install one.
We even donated one to one of our National Trust projects last year and they were so grateful they made us a cake." ---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Unfathomable Ruination





Unfathomable Ruination, by Portuguese artist João Onofre, will be placed outside The Gherkin on July 2 with a selection of Death Metal music performances taking place throughout the summer. Measuring 183 x 183 x 183cm, this steel cube will come to life with a set from the London based Death Metal band, Unfathomable Ruination. Following the band’s entrance, the sculpture is hermetically sealed and sound proofed, meaning the duration of the performance is entirely variable, determined by and restricted to the length of time that oxygen is expended. "Activated," it says here, "the work offers an invisible show contained in a closed space. Only the residues of the sound vibrations attest to the inner performance".


The event is part of the Sculpture in the City collaboration between the City of London Corporation, local businesses and the art world, providing the opportunity to engage new audiences with established and emerging contemporary artists. Runs 3 July – May 2015. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Paul Hurst's Fibonacci shed


We covered the beginning of this build nearly a year ago and so we're delighted to see Paul's masterpiece is now up and shedworking. You need to read his own account for a full and fascinating look at how it was all put together (and indeed why and also lots more photos) but essentially as Paul says he just wanted "somewhere secluded to write and study in".






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Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, June 23, 2014

Reading pod


A lovely newly finished build by Derek 'Deek' Diedricksen, a reading/study pod on wheels commissioned by a professor in New York and made mostly using recycled materials. ---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Shedworking and motorsport


There's a big gap in my knowledge about motorsport and its connection to shedworking so I was pleased to come across an article by Barry Hope on crankandpiston.com which has helped to fill in some of the gaps. Well worth a short browse. ---------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Tiny House road trip



Mark Burton at Tiny House UK is on a road trip to spread the good word about living small. Here he is top filling up his tiny home at a petrol station, and then parked at Harris CofE school, Rugby, before giving a talk to students about small home living and eco homes in general. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Are you watching the World Cup in your shed?


Well Colin Salt is. The Manchester Evening News spoke to him after his partner told him he couldn't watch all the games in their living room, so instead he built a shed specifically to see the lot. It features various loungers, a decent-sized television (naturally), a beer fridge and indeed has a bar.

“I was planning on building a shed anyway," he told the paper, "but I thought now was the perfect time and I rushed like mad to get it finished. It’s like having your own personal pub in the garden, though you have to bring your own beer obviously."

After the World Cup they will turn it into a gym.
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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Michelle Collins: shedworker


As reported in the Daily Mail, the ex-EastEnders actress Michelle 'Cindy Beale' Collins is very keen on her garden office at her north London home. "Five years ago I had this shed installed as somewhere I could shut myself away to learn my lines but it's become my little haven of peace and quiet," she told the paper. "I keep my favourite things here like this glass slipper, which was a gift from the make-up ladies at Coronation Street when I left in April." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Thursday, June 12, 2014

How to buy a house with a garden office



If you're moving, what's the best way to find a home with a garden office already in situ? One way is to use Zoopla's search function to narrow down which properties have shedworking atmosopheres by typing in 'garden office' in the keyword section.

So for example, this throws up the 1850s-built, four bedroom detached house above in Sandhurst Road, Tunbridge Wells on for £600,000 which comes with a timber office built by the The Garden Office Company.
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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Mirrored shed

 


A fabulous mirrored shedworking atmosphere (ok, it's a lookout point), the work of Strathclyde University architecture students Angus Ritchie and Daniel Tyler in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. More details and photos at Dezeen. Photos by Ross Campbell. ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Thursday, June 05, 2014

A Year at Otter Farm: shepherd's hutworking

The tip top and indeed awardwinning Mark Diacono has a new book out today, A Year at Otter Farm (recipes, stories, drinks, gardening, all with an emphasis on fun and flavour) published by Bloomsbury. Mark writes in his shepherd's hut which is featured heavily in the video above so it's well worth a quick look. As well as his book, he's well worth a follow on that Twitter too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Record number of homeworkers in Britain




Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveals that there were 4.2 million homeworkers in the first three months of this year or 13.9% of those in work. This is the highest rate of homeworking since comparable records began in 1998. 
Of these homeworkers, around 1.5 million worked within their home or its grounds, while the remaining 2.7 million people used their home as a base but worked in different places.

The number of homeworkers has grown by 1.3 million since 1998. However over the same period the number of people in work has also been rising. The percentage of those in work who work from home (also known as the home working rate) increased from 11.1% in 1998 to stand at a rate of 13.9% at the end of March which is the highest than at any point in the past 15 years
 
ONS's report says that the jobs that homeworkers carry out tend to be concentrated in higher skilled roles than those of people who do not work from home. Of the 4.2 million homeworkers in 2014, 14.8% were working as managers or senior officials, 35.2% were professionals or associate professionals and a further 23.5% were working within skilled trades.

Earnings for homeworkers reflect this concentration in high-skill roles, the median being £13.23 an hour compared with £10.50 an hour for other workers. The most common roles for male homeworkers were among construction occupations, while for women the top roles included childminding and care work.

People working from home are more likely to be self-employed than non-homeworkers. In January to March 2014, around 7% of non-homeworkers were self-employed compared with 63% of homeworkers. Around 34% of home workers were employees of an organisation, with the small remainder being people who worked unpaid in the family business.

Working from home is more prevalent among people who are older. For those aged 16 to 24 the homeworking rate stood at 5.1%, compared with 13.9% for all workers, while for those aged 65 and over, it was 38.3%.

Across 2013 as a whole, the South West was the region of Great Britain with the highest home working rate at 17.1%, while the lowest rate was in Scotland at 10.7%. As at the 2011 Census, the local area with the highest home working rate across England and Wales was West Somerset, at 25.7%, while the lowest was Kingston upon Hull, at 5.2%. 
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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Thatched garden offices

If you've a yen for a thatched garden office then it's definitely well worth taking a look at The Little Thatched Company. While their portfolio of buildings and bespoke work covers a wide range, they are definitely targeting the shedworking market with several garden office possibilities in three main sizes. All have an oak frame structure and come with exposed beams, decent insulation and Fired Earth paint colours of your choice. They also offer non-thatch roof options like cedar shingle and handmade clay tiles. Happily, they are also entered in Shed of the Year so please do go and vote for them via the link - it would be great to see a thatched shed on the podium this year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning