S.H.E.D your life

"It seems we need to S.H.E.D. That’s Julie’s acronym for Separate the treasures (What is truly worth hanging on to?), Heave the trash (What’s weighing you down?), Embrace your identity (Who are you without all your stuff?), and Drive yourself forward (Which direction connects to your genuine self?). Julie’s taken the whole “clean and declutter” out of organizing and placed it in the self-help arena (I see a speaking tour on deck). “When you’re eager to make a change in your life, but you are unsure of your new destination, you need to SHED,” she writes. It’s about purging “the physical and behavioral clutter holding you back so you can finally create real change in your life.” The words “defunct,” “obsolete” and “obligations” were bantied about, juxtoposed with “richer” and “more meaningful.”"

Chief Home Officer.

Snowy shedworking

While most of us are content to work from garden offices in our back garden or yard, the more adventurous shedworker will want to have plenty of tricks up his or her sleeve. What, for example, should we do in case of snow and ice? Worry no more. How to Build an Igloo And Other Snow Shelters by NE Yankielun promises to explain how to look for the best snow, explains all about slab shelters and drift caves, and includes tips on proper winter hydration and fuelling tips. And it's keenly priced.

Almost Green - story of an eco-shed

Jame's Glave's book Almost Green which tells the story of how he built an eco-friendly garden office is due out in September but you can read some excerpts free at his web site. Here's a taster:

"This is a book about the construction of a sustainably designed 280-square-foot writing studio—the building I have come to call my Eco-Shed. But it is also about the making of an evolution. It is about my own ecological awakening and my personal struggle to reconcile an increasing awareness of a sick planet with a sprawling economic and political framework more or less engineered to preserve the status quo. It is about the end of the world as we know it and the promise of a better one to replace it just in time. It is about the small trade-offs we make in our heads every day between convenience and cost, entitlement and personal responsibility. It is about our natural instinct to flatten the protruding nail of personal sacrifice with the always-handy hammers of convenience and denial. It is about genuinely wanting to leave a lighter footprint on the planet but running smack up against a series of obstacles—some practical and objective, others less so—and muddling through with as much humor and grace as possible."

The future of The Shed magazine: your thoughts please

A couple of years ago we contemplated turning The Shed magazine from a simple pdf title that weighs down your inbox into an all-dancing, all-singing, all-shedworking e-magazine which you can read online (or download if you still prefer). There was a mixed reaction to the demo we put together then with the help of the nice folk at Zmags but things have moved on now (not least the price is lower as well as higher readership figures) and we've put together another demo for you all to have a browse around. So please do click here and take a look - navigation is hopefully fairly selfevident and the key thing is to click once on a page to zoom in and make it readable. And once you've had a good nose, do let me know what you think.

The Shed - issue 14 now out

The latest issue of the biggest selling and most eco-friendly magazine about garden office shedworkers is now out. This one has a strong literary flavour - read the first part of our new shed story serial by acclaimed author Sarah Salway, savour the shedlike poetry of Jeremy Over, and marvel at the garden office of Canterbury Laureate Patricia Debney. Elsewhere, Nick Inman investigates a distinctively French approach to shedworking and we welcome back cartoonist Felix Bennett. If you haven't received your free copy yet, please email me and I'll email you one straight-ish back.

Spare Room Start Up

Spare Room Start Up is the new book from Enterprise Nation supremo Emma Jones published by Harriman House. The book covers pretty much everything you need to know to start up a business from home and includes plenty of examples of shedworkers (including me and this site). It's nicely designed which is always a good start, with plenty of photos and attractive imagery, a 'How to' book which doesn't look like the usual drab 'How to' books. But it's also a cracking read, broken down into three main sections, business, lifestyle and technology, and most importantly with a huge number of case studies so you can see how other people have done it. I suspect this will become the first book anybody thinking of working from home will buy and it deserves to be really rather successful.

Cabin fever

A great article in ReadyMade magazine about shedworking structures including name checks for Modern Shed, hive modular, Sustain, Modern Cabana, and Mfinity plus some great examples of Edgar Blazona's designs in situ (his bestselling MD100 is pictured above).

WHY magazine

WHY (work.home.you) is a marvellously slick online magazine which makes The Shed look like the product of a John Bull printing set. It covers a wide range of topics for homeworkers/shedworkers from business topics and technology tips to recipes and lifestyle issues like shedworking in the nude. It is published bimonthly (and there's also a blog) but there's an excellent library of back issues to explore online to keep you busy. This really is well worth a long browse.

Heavenly hideaways

Country Living magazine has a great nine-page spread in its April issue out now devoted to what it calls Heavenly Hideaways. It covers treehouses, 'rustic retro residences' such as Airstream trailers, summerhouses - including the shedworking soft furnishings specialist Jeanne Lainé - and follies. Lots of familiar namechecks but one or two new ones too. Excellent photos and well worth a browse.
Thanks to Garden Monkey and the other person whose name I've rudely forgotten for the alert

Leap

At this rate by the end of the year the number of books which mention shedworking will be in double figures. The latest is entrepreneur Ian Sanders' guide Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free. Here's an excerpt from the book which he says is for aspiring shedworkers everywhere:

"There is a new trend for garden offices. In fact ‘Shedworking’ is not new; writers and artists have worked in sheds and summerhouses for generations. The bonus of a garden workspace is that there is a separation between where you live and where you work and with wifi you don’t even need an extra broadband connection. Salim is a radio producer who has built an office space and edit suite at the end of his garden away from his noisy kids; Sam is another Shedworker who runs a small record label from an outbuilding at the back of her garden."

Ian is more of a summerhouseworker than a shedworker but also something of a thirdplaceworker. He says:

"When it comes to workspaces I am a bit promiscuous but typically work includes the office at home in my loft (if my young kids are quiet); the summerhouse when it is sunny; a local office where I hot-desk a couple of days a week; a member’s club in Covent Garden; numerous trains, tubes and coffee shops in between."

You can read his blog here, find out more about him from his rather nice web site here and buy the book here.

James Glave: Almost Green

Writer James Glave has built himself a lovely eco-shed studio (pictured above) at his home on Bowen Island and also written what sounds like an intriguing book chronicling the build which used, among other things, FSC timber, heat-recovery ventilation, rainwater harvesting, edible landscaping (a nice touch) and passive solar technology. Douglas Coupland has already given the book the thumbs up ("a smart and contemplative read"). Here's some more information from the author:

"Part obsession, part labor of love, part money pit, the project has served as a crash course in the techniques, conundrums, and trade-offs of sustainable design. It’s been a public exercise in learning by doing, assuaging nervous neighbors, alienating the in-laws, pushing my marriage to the limit, and mustering reserves of time, money, and life force that I didn’t know I possessed. Ultimately I hope the studio will educate and inspire others to demand something better from their own homes, which may in turn one day point the way toward a healthier and better tomorrow for us all.

Yet ALMOST GREEN is more than just the story of a construction project. It chronicles how a driven, cash-strapped, bleary-eyed stay-at-home-dad learns when to dig in his heels, when to make sacrifices, and when to make bitter compromises along the path to the carbon-reduced life. It is an adventure of challenge and change, a fumbling one-man quest to reinvent suburbia, one cul-de-sac at a time."

Almost Green is out in autumn with Greystone Books. More photos of James' shed at his flickr site and indeed at readersheds.co.uk where he has shared his shed and added more details and so is in the running for Shed of the Year 2008. He's also giving a talk on May 10 about his shed at Light House. You can hear him on a vangogreen podcast too which is well worth a listen.

James Westwater - Plywood Chateaux book

It's a bonanza year for books by Shedworking's readers. Latest in the line-up is James Westwater who made the marvellous Plywood Chateaux we profiled last year. You can buy his book - cunningly titled James Westwater: Plywood Chateaux - at Amazon.

Stylish Sheds

Shed champion Debra Prinzing is giving a sneak preview of her much-awaited new book Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways...Nip along now for more photos and details.

Home Workspace Idea Book

Connecticut-based architect Neal Zimmerman is a big believer in shedworking and also working from home in general (as well as being a nice chap). If you're thinking of setting up a home office or already have one but want to make some changes, Neal's book Home Workspace Idea Book (published by The Taunton Press) is an absolute must-read. It's nicely written - and indeed includes an entire chapter on shedworking - but it also has an incredibly wide range of home office setups from the basic to the rather plush, from tiny spaces and odd spaces to vast spaces. I hesitate to call this a coffee table book because it's much, much more than that, but on the other hand it does look very tasty indeed. Well worth the investment.

In Cold Daylight - the power of the Shedworking vote

Thanks in no small part to Shedworking readers, Pauline Rowson's marvellous book In Cold Daylight featuring shed lit hero Adam Green has made it into the top 10 list for World Book Day. "Yippee!" says Pauline, who continues:

"I am so pleased and would like to say a HUGE thank you to all Shedworking's readers for their efforts. However, we cannot rest on our laurels because in their wisdom the World Book Day people have decided to wipe off all the votes to date and voting on the top ten books starts all over again. So you know what I’m going to ask! I will need everyone to vote again and more votes. So please vote again and get e mailing again to all your wonderful friends. The new link to vote is here. As you have already registered, you only need to log in and click on vote. For those who haven’t already registered, they will need to do so first then vote."

Pauline is up against some big names so every vote really does count.

Spare Room Start Up

Emma Jones at Enterprise Nation is the UK's leading expert on working from home and so I'm looking forward with some excitement to reading her new book, Spare Room Start Up (which also features the Shedworking site and me). It's all about how to start a business from home and has been rather stylishly put together. You can preorder the book now by clicking here. Here's how Emma describes it:

"The book offers helpful advice on the business, lifestyle and technology aspects of starting up at home. You also get a good peep behind the doors at Redbrick House as all the photos were taken here in my home. Through the stylish pages, you’ll meet my family, work colleagues and homeworking friends as there’s a good number of Enterprise Nation members profiled in there too!"

If you only buy two books this year, make this the other one...

Cob in Cornwall's new book

Friends of Shedworking Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce from Cob in Cornwall have a smashing new book out, 'Using Natural Finishes: Lime and Earth based plasters, renders and paints. A Step by Step Guide'. The book covers all aspects of the preparation and application of wall finishes made from lime and earth and the couple say they wanted it to be both informative and practical. "Our desire," they say, "is that this book can further encourage and make accessible the use of these traditional and ecological materials in both new and historic buildings." It's already got the thumbs up from various luminaries (“This highly informative and sumptuous book shows how the threat of climate change is also an opportunity to make buildings more beautiful.” Sunand Prasad, President of RIBA; “Adam and Katy are rethinking how we build and coming up with something beautiful.” John Vidal, Environement editor of The Guardain) and it definitely gets the Shedworking seal of approval. More information, sample chapters, and a link to ordering it attheir site here. I'm delighted to say that Cob in Cornwall will feature in the Shedworking book due out later this year.

Planet Germany

Shedworking reader Cathy Dobson from Red Door consulting in Germany is not only a shedworker, she's written a book about her experiences (not just of shedworking, but also of living and working in Germany). Planet Germany was written from her own shedlike atmosphere, a former pig-sty near Düsseldorf, now a lovely home office. Here's the Amazon blurb:

"After a decade of living in Germany, a chaotic British family makes a New Year's resolution to throw themselves wholeheartedly into the local culture. The process is complicated as the mother is founding a business with a German partner who is convinced that all Brits are both dysfunctional and poorly nourished. The year sees them bumbling through local festivals, getting into scrapes with authorities, and falling foul of the law, all aided and abetted by their eccentric neighbours and posse of cats. This book exposes the crazier side of both British and German culture, examines profound mysteries such as German fortune telling and sauna etiquette, and explains why dachshund owners are the most dangerous people on the planet."

And here's an exclusive extract:

"While we adults eat and the children pick at the stuffing sullenly, the conversation turns to the new business Birgit and I are setting up. We are launching a management consultancy, based in the disused pigsty behind our house which we’ve converted into an office.

We’ve spent the last month preparing everything. The pigsty has had its leaking roof mended, a smart wooden floor has been laid, we’ve re-wired, re-plastered, painted and I’ve even attached a shiny brass door knocker to the gleaming red door. In the run-up to Christmas, we’ve set up our website, installed desks, a server, lap-tops, fax machine, printer. We’re ready to launch.

“It’ll be great fun working from home,” I hazard. “I never used to see much of the children when we were in an office in central Düsseldorf and I always got home so late.”

Birgit looks at me quizzically. I can tell that seeing lots of someone else’s offspring isn’t her idea of a great working environment.

“When we’re at work, you kids will have to avoid playing directly outside the office,” Birgit tells them. “We can’t have our phone calls interrupted by the noise of a dysfunctional English family in the background.”

“Dysfunctional? What do you mean, dysfunctional?” My jaw has dropped open.

“I don’t mean there’s something wrong with your family,” Birgit reassures me. “The English nation per se is dysfunctional. Don’t take it so personally.”

You can buy it here.

Shed Style

Shed Style (architecture, interiors and ornamentation in the garden) is the work of Debra Prinzing whose goal is "to capture the spirit of our separate places" at the bottom of the garden and provide "a central repository of ideas, notes, drafts, blurbs, journaling, interviews and observations about architecture, interiors, and ornamentation in the garden. The designed and inhabited backyard space, as it were". Her focus is, as the title suggests, more on the elements of style involved in the interior and exterior decoration of sheds and garden offices. Debra is also writing a book 'Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways' (with photos by William Wright) due to come out in the US in April with Random House, exploring the delights of more than 30 nice shedworking and shedrelaxing atmospheres. Here's a bit more background from Debra:

"The idea for a book about the architecture, design and interiors of Garden Sheds began in 2002 when Bill Wright and I produced and wrote an article about Sheds (called “Garden Getaways” for Seattle Homes & Lifestyles magazine. We started with a simple premise: that garden owners were dusting out the cobwebs and sprucing up the interiors of their humble potting sheds for a greater purpose.

"We interviewed and photographed the diva of backyard fantasy, Sunni Rudd [pictured above by Bill Wright]. Sunni is the kind of person who still dots her “I’s” with a little star or flower (kind of like the ones I used in 7th grade when I was called Debbi). She created a fantasy escape in a South Seattle urban lot. Built from recycled barn wood, the structure featured cottage windows (with lace curtains), a porch with seating for 2, where Sunni and her neighbor shared lemonade or cocktails after gardening all weekend, and inside, a daybed with side table and lamp – lots of quiet space to escape, read seed catalogues and nap in the cool shelter away from the sun."

One to look out for.

The Shed issue 12 now out (2nd birthday issue)

Issue 12 of The Shed, our second birthday issue, is now out. All subscribers should have received their copy by now and if you'd like to join them, or to get in touch with me on any shedworking subject click here. It's free (although I won't be too embarrassed if you'd like to make a donation), it's a pdf and there are back copies if you'd like them. Happy reading!