Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Hermits House

Hermits House is a small and beatiful teahouse near the river Ijsel designed by Daniël Venneman and Mark van der Net of the Cloud Collective.
Photos: Marcel de Graaf

Via designboom
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IT staff would take pay cut to become shedworkers

Nearly half of Australia’s IT workers would be happy to accept a pay cut if they could become shedworkers or simply work from home, according to a new survey by Robert Half Technology. As reported on IT Wire roughly two in five would also take lower pay in return for flexible working hours, extra holidays or a better office location. Here's a snippet:
"Technology recruitment company Robert Half Technology which conducted an IT staff survey earlier in the year, found that while most IT workers felt they were currently underpaid 48 per cent would be prepared to accept even less for the right conditions."
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Do you REALLY need insulation in your garden office?

One of the issues we constantly bang on about here on Shedworking is the importance of insulation to ensure your garden office is suitable for working all year round. But following yesterday's annual first post about snowy shedworking, Paula from Keops Interlock Log Cabins got in touch about the thermal properties of their cabins which makes very interesting reading.

Keops's own garden office in Evesham (pictured above) is a two bedroom lodge made from 56mm logs with their comfort grade roof & floor insulation and double glazing. "I can tell you today it’s a chilly minus 4 outside but in here it’s very warm and cosy," says Paula. "We have a 3kw electric heater (that looks like a wood burner) and a couple of oil filled radiators that are on low in case of frost and that’s it. The cabin heats up quickly to a comfortable temperature and because of the natural thermal properties of the wood, retains the heat all day."

So why haven’t they got wall insulation?
"It's because we only use Northern Scandinavian pine which is a very slow growing timber and very dense, with excellent thermal properties. Yes, we can, and do, provide an excellent wall insulation system that meets building regulations approval, and we could have fitted it retrospectively at anytime during the last six years we’ve been using the cabin, but we’ve never felt the need."
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Monday, November 29, 2010

Bletchley Park huts proposals open to public


A special community consultation event at Bletchley Park will give everybody the chance to comment on regeneration proposals at the historic site, including the world famous huts (seen in recent poor repair above) where vital wartime shedworking took place.

The event on December 8 at 5.30pm will reveal the plans for the regeneration of part of the site into an attractive, world-class museum and education resource, using graphic and 3D design as well as modern audio-visual aids to provide interpretation of the groundbreaking work at Bletchley Park during World War II. Plans include restoration of buildings in several areas including some of the legendary huts in which the codebreaking took place and which are now derelict and in danger of collapse. Intended in 1940 to be temporary buildings they will be carefully restored, preserving their 1940s appearance.

Members of the public attending the event will be consulted on the plans, the design approach for the museum and ways of increasing the education opportunities. Attendees will be split into discussion groups to explore the proposals. The groups will then share their findings at an open discussion towards the end of the evening. The consultation event will finish at 8pm.

Simon Greenish, Chief Executive Officer of Bletchley Park Trust hopes that the plans will attract considerable community support: "Bletchley Park is a huge local asset and we want the whole community, including those involved with the site to local residents in and around Milton Keynes to regard it as their asset. We already have an enormously dedicated team of staff and volunteers who help deliver our story and have provided valuable input into our future plans, and now we want to hear from other members of our community."

Anyone wishing to attend the consultation event should reserve a place with Bletchley Park Trust on 01908 640404 or email suemay@bletchleypark.org.uk by December 3.
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Mobile MiniCasas

Portugal-based João Neves runs the marvellous Mobile MiniCasas, bespoke timber gypsy caravans with insulation and electric radiator, ideal for any garden office worker. They're fully moveable. More information and photos at their site.
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Snowy shedworking: your pictures please (updated)

Is the snow adding literally seconds to your garden office commute? Is Santa sending some super Yuletide sparkle to decorate your shed? If so, we'd love to showcase your photos on the site (see last year's collection here): either drop us an email  or stick it up on your site and we'll just take it from there. Pictured top is Chris Lindley's garden office, snuggled up warm in its log blanket and just below is Craig Jardine's brand spanking new garden office which is being built in this inclement weather and which he has been chronicling on Twitter.
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Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Halfway House

Garden office suppliers are starting to realise that their shedworkingesque structures can be perfect for a range of uses. Last week we looked at The Garden Escape 4 Schools and the Halfway House by Room4-you (pictured above) adds another dimension, a good value but comfortable garden building for golf clubs at around the nine hole mark. Built along similar lines to their timber garden office ranges, as well as designing and building them, Room4-you also offer a business package and can either run the refreshment business for each club or as a franchise to members.
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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Tom Uglow: shedworker

Tom Uglow is a creative director for Google and YouTube in Europe, running a 30-person creative studio. And those of you who watched the BBC's Culture Show this week will also have noticed he is a shedworker as he talked about interesting sites on the interwebs from the comfort of his own shed. Indeed, on his Google profile he lists the things he can do in an emergency as:
 // draw a picture // bake a veggie lasagne // cycle somewhere // build a php model // draw vague parallels // concoct similies // disapear to the shed 
Thanks to The Garden Monkey for the alert
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Bridlington Advent Beach Huts

As well as the Brighton & Hove beach hut Advent calendar, Bridlington will also a similar event as it did last year. Organised by Rev Ben Norton, minister at Emmanuel Church, every night during Advent from 6pm to 7pm there will be a different event connected with a key point in the nativity story and based around Ben's beach hut on the south side.

Highlights include Roman games and soldiers, a giant mosaic of Mary and a live interactive puppet show. Here's what Ben says:
"We want to allow people to celebrate Advent and to hear and interact with the story in a way that they have never done before, during last year's events was amazing to see a real community spirit emerge and evolve during the darkest coldest nights of the year."

More details at their web site and a full list of their events. You can also follow them on Twitter and there is also a Facebook page.
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For all your home and garden needs visit B&Q.
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Friday, November 26, 2010

Photographer's studio



This is a live/work shedworking structure in Canada by gh3 (click for more photos), a cube with plenty of glass wallage which contains a photographer's studio as well as kitchen, bedbroom and bathroom. More details at their blog here.
Via materialicious
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Cocklestorm: sheds and more

If you're keen to put your own garden office together on a budget, then you want to start off with a basic shed structure which is decent quality and at a good price. As well as the more famous names offering sheds, there are other possibilities such as Cocklestorm. Though they are based in the North West of England, they deliver and fit adaptable sheds and workshops, log cabins, and summerhouses throughout the country and also offer a variety of fencing, decking, children's play equipment and garden furniture products.

So for example, the Lusanne Single Door log cabin workshop above starts from £850, is 28mm tongue and groove, comes with felt, fully glazed doors (with mortice locks) and windows, while their Warwick model comes in at £325.
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The ideal Christmas present

If you're starting to think about Christmas presents for the shedworker (or potential shedworker) in your life, or want to add to your own list for Santa, then perhaps the book of this blog would fit the bill? Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution can be ordered on Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com or from your local independent bookseller.

If you'd like me to send you a special autographed bookmark with shed doodle to make the present extra special, just email me and I'd be happy to send you one for free.

Here's what the press have been saying about it:

* A book to inspire all proto-cabin dwellers - Lady

* Promotes the future purpose of the shed, as a utopian work-space or office
The Scotsman 


* The complete guide to relocating a business to the end of the garden

* Even if you've never dreamed of having your own little idyll at the bottom of the garden, the gorgeous pictures in this book will change your mind

* It reveals a vivid cornucopia of architecturally innovative sheds and sets out everything a shedworker manqué might want to know about building regulations and planning permission, tax implications, garden office suppliers and how to build one - The Independent

* Packed with historical anecdotes and handy tips, as well as great case studies - with imagery - of people who’ve adopted this route to privacy - Lynda Relph-Knight, Editor, Design Week
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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Cuprinol sponsors Shed Week 2011

Cuprinol's Wood Preservation Society will be sponsoring Shed Week 2011, according to organiser Uncle Wilco at Shedblog. Here are the key elements of next year's competition:
* The overall winner takes home £1,000 prize and there is a selection of Cuprinol products for all category winners
* The public vote takes place in May 2011
* The judges include property guru Sarah Beeny, Radio 2 presenter Simon Mayo, shed author Gordon Thorburn, Uncle Wilco himself, last year's winner Reg, and myself
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Wendy Holden: shedworker (video)


Novelist Wendy Holden (described on her site as a "modern day Jilly Cooper") shows us around her garden office and her marvellous views. A lovely video which really sells the shedworking ideal. Here's what she says about it:
"I gave up the struggle to commute from London to the country every weekend and moved full-time to Derbyshire where we live in a former Victorian gardener’s lodge built in the shape of a tiny castle. Just the place for a spinner of romantic yarns! My favourite place to write is in the hut in my garden. It's a small, green-painted wooden summer house with a pink phone and no heating apart from an ancient plug-in radiator. There's no internet connection either. But I love it, even if, in winter, I arrive to find the water in my Evian bottle has frozen! It has a chaise longue, a sofa, a bead-fringed lampshade and fairy lights all round the walls. There's a turntable and lots of LPs and the wooden walls are crammed with prints and paintings. I've even managed to squeeze a desk and computer in there as well. The French windows open on to a deck, where I drink cocktails with my husband in the summer (after work, obviously). We stand on the deck looking out across the valley below, or back at the summer house with its pretty lights. It's the perfect place to write, not to mention drink."
Wendy also writes a blog at her site which is well worth a browse.
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The Arc


Room4-you have recently finished designing and building one of their Arc range models for a client in Cornwall. It's a bespoke 6.8m x 4m with standard casement windows and a single glazed door, finished with Siberian Larch cladding, slate grey UPVC windows, an engineered oak floor and fully decorated plasterboard interior. There's also an en-suite shower room making it a selfcontained unit.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Bitsy: a place for shedworkers to do business

Bitsy is part of the substantial overhaul of Enterprise Nation, the leading UK site for anybody who works from home. We've long been a fan of EN at Shedworking and welcome the way it has expanded sensibly and without losing sight of its roots and its goals. Bitsy is a key part of this change, what EN founder Emma Jones calls "the friendliest B2B marketplace on the web".

It's all in beta and at the very early stages but essentially it's a place where you can network/chitchat with other homeworkers (both individually and within user-constructed groups including one specially for shedworkers) while advertising your skills and services for a small monthly fee (between £5 and £8). There's a blog and overall the usual chattiness we've come to expect from the folk who run the extremely genial (but also useful) #watercoolermoment, #techtuesday #webcamwednesday and most recently #bitsybreak on Twitter.

It's well worth investigating.
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Building a log cabin garden office (video)


A nice video of stills of a log cabin garden office build put together by Smiffo46 to the sound of Mumford and Sons' The Cave.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Joey and The Squatter



The Joey and The Squatter are two designs for garden offices from Sydney-based Quick Housing Solutions, a family business run by Nick and Kara Loan which aims to provide affordable housing, especially for older people. Pictured above is the Joey which would be ideal as a garden office and right at the top is the Squatter model, particularly useful if you want a large openplan area. Both are made with prefab lightweight steel panels.
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Marlene Ashby: shedworker (slideshow)


Marlene Ashby has posted a really smashing slideshow of her new craft studio at her blog and here's what she says:
"Finally, after months of preperation, hard work and re-organising am I able to show you my new Studio. It still is not finished by a long shot.. The downstairs is getting there and the slide show shows a ‘virtual’ tour of that. It’s my own little piece of heaven where I can create to my heart's content."
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Garden office green roofs: a pictorial guide

There's a lovely guide to green roofs, especially on sheds and garden offices, on the Photographer's Garden blog. As well as general posts (full of really attractive shots), there are special pages, an introduction to green roofs, and a guide to green roofs. There are some really inspiring photos of sunflowers and daffodils on sheds and plenty of links to other useful sites if you like gardening, shedworking or just browsing. Below is the owner's own brick shed just before it was greened.
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Tuesday posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Garden Escape 4 Schools



We regularly argue on Shedworking that children need sheds too and one of the companies which wholeheartedly agrees is The Garden Escape 4 Schools. A sister brand to The Garden Escape which specialises in garden offices, the 4 Schools arm of the company builds bespoke mobile school buildings out of wood and glass for a range of uses such as outdoor classrooms, IT suites, kitchens, staff rooms, and so on. There are also various eco-friendly elements too such as the PV Solar power option whereby one small panel on the new school building can generate its own electricity. Matt Gill from Garden Escape says:
An ever-growing number of schools and educational establishments are now discovering the real advantages of the 'outside' mobile classroom. It has been proven that attractive, accessible and inclusive design of school buildings is beneficial for students of all ages and academic skill. This is especially true for children and young people with SEN and other disabilities where the school environment can have a decisive impact on their learning ability.
The web site is excellently put together with a mass of information on everything from the basics of the build to funding possibilities.

Pictured top is The Garden Escape 4 Schools's woodland cabin for Spinnens Acre Junior School in Kent, officially unveiled by Chris Packham, and situated right at the foot of their local woods. It certainly doesn't look like most people's idea of a portable classroom building and also features a kitchen, disable lavatories and AV facility. Also pictured is an attractive design for a school in Whitchurch.
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