Thursday, February 27, 2014

Do you work in a 'loffice'?


We've come across many different names for garden offices in the last decade, but here's one that's new to us - the 'loffice'. Coined by Alex Hammond of the Sporting Life earlier this month, it actually makes a lot of sense. Here's what he said:
I mentioned this week on Sky Sports News that you never get really testing ground at the Cheltenham Festival. Well, I'm currently sitting in my 'shoffice' (garden shed/office) and as the rain continues to pour down I hope that rare event doesn't come to be. I think I prefer 'loffice' by the way, (log cabin/office) but I don't make these rules!
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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Tiny house villages


Tiny homes seems to be the flavour of the year in 2014. Here's an interesting article in Yes magazine by Erika Lundahl suggesting that they can help ease the problem of homelessness. Here's a snippet:
On a Saturday in September, more than 125 volunteers showed up with tools in hand and built six new 16-by-20-foot houses for a group of formerly homeless men. It was the beginning of Second Wind Cottages, a tiny-house village for the chronically homeless in the town of Newfield, N.Y., outside of Ithaca. On January 29, the village officially opened, and its first residents settled in. Each house had cost about $10,000 to build, a fraction of what it would have cost to house the men in a new apartment building. The project is part of a national movement of tiny-house villages, an alternative approach to housing the homeless that's beginning to catch the interest of national advocates and government housing officials alike.
 Well worth a read. ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Beach hut fabric

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

Monday, February 24, 2014

Click Collection: shedworkers


A nice piece on the Guardian site showcases London-based online charity clothes shop Click Collection with a particularly rewarding quote from managing director David Alder who says: "Our garden shed operation allows us to give exceptional service. Online shoppers expect a 24 hour a day service and that's what we aim to provide.... flexible working, including help from motivated friends, makes our home base the only practical solution to meet our business and fundraising aims." -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Backing up

Considering how much of my working life I have spent online in the last 15 years, in particular running Shedworking and working for The Independent, I have a terrible admission to make - I'm terrible at backing all my things up.

Rather than have a sensible plan in place, I do it in an extremely haphazard way, putting some stuff up in the cloud, others on CD, and bits and bobs on memory sticks. I rely on the British Library too who are backing up Shedworking for posterity, bless them. Even a nightmare laptop meltdown a decade ago hasn't really jolted me into action.

So I was pleased when the fine folk at Tesco Compare got in touch to ask me if I'd like to give the Seagate 3 TB Hard Drive a test run at the back end of last year. Ok, it's a freebie, but nevertheless I have to say that it has been incredibly easy to use. I do most of my work on a MacBook Pro and set it up pretty swiftly using Time Machine, but it obviously also works for PCs. It took a while for the first back up to load everything up, but the regular updates are inconspicuous and don't get in the way of my work. And when I want to back something up immediately rather than on the schedule I've set up, it's an easy click of a button to do so.

I've not tried any other hard drive options before so I have no other products to compare the Seagate to, but the only way the process could have been any easier would have been for my butler to do it all for me.
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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

'The Daf House' Music Room




A lovely 3.5m garden room in Cornwall from Rotunda Living with 7m2 of floor area which, as they say, is perfect for an office or art studio.
Photos by Brownhill Photography -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, February 17, 2014

Boulton and Paul revolving summer house disaster


Geoff Black has sent some very sad 'before' and 'after' photos and video of his lovely summerhouse which was demolished in the storm of 12 February. "I'm now trying to decide what to do," he says. "If you know of any good shed restorers in or near the Shrewsbury area who would like a challenging project, I would be pleased to hear about them.  It's insured, but I just don't know if it can be restored!" Get in touch with me or leave a comment if you have any advice or suggestions.


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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day shed cards


It's almost certainly too late for this year but why not stock up for 2015? Here are a few examples, above from Stop The Clock Design...


...from Piccadilly Lane...



... and the ubiquitous Paperchase ----------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Quick Base Solutions


Peter Swift, previously of Swift Foundations, has now started up on his own, launching his new business Quick Base Solutions which aims to provide ecofriendly products and services to anybody looking for base and foundation solutions for timber buildings (such as garden offices), as an alternative to traditional concrete slabs.

He has two main products, ProBASE (a shed base system) and EasyPad, a pad foundation system for modular buildings, garden studios, timber framed buildings, and log cabins (pictured above). This latter system is designed to sit inside the floor frame so when the building is fully clad it can’t be seen. The system is very strong and impressive adjustment facility in the brackets for levelling. It is designed to sit directly onto a firm compacted footing of type one hard core, earth or a ground reinforcement grid, whichever is most suitable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Building a home on wheels



Tiny houses are all the rage at the moment and for those of you looking for inspiration, Building a home on wheels is an excellent and very well illustrated blog charting a tiny house build by Kate and her boyfriend. Here's what she says about it:
"Like most couples the idea of buying a house is out of the question. We looked at buying a boat, a static caravan, buying woodland, long term help exchange, buying a house/fire station/dilapidated mill, and renting or care-taking.  None of these options have been viable for various reasons. We were starting to lose hope.  My sister called with a solution and our strange little project began..."
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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, February 10, 2014

Glampworking


Though technically designed for 'glamping', these lovely shedlike atmospheres from Seoul-based archiworkshop would also make ideal garden offices. Each glamping pod has its own lavatory, original work of art, and sofa bed. The tents are waterproof and fireproof. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, February 07, 2014

Stephen Waddington's 7 second commute

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Alastair Humphreys: shedworker


Adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys has also recently added 'shedworker' to his already impressive CV and has been charting the build on Twitter. Here's a snippet from a recent blog about his experience of self-building (with help from a friend).
"Over the last couple of years I’ve begun yearning for a specific workspace of my own. A place where I could think “this is where I work. Today I am going to grind out some creativity and get 2000 words written no matter how little I feel like it.”... I wanted somewhere to play Thunder Road on repeat very loudly. I needed to leave home, to go somewhere to work (‘I’m heading out of here to win!’) and then to come home again when I’d finished and to properly relax, like normal people do. I couldn’t really justify renting an office when all I need is a computer. And, besides, I didn’t choose my direction in life in order to have an office. No. What I really wanted was a shed."
 You can read more and see photos of the build here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Steps 15: deluxe shedworking


This marvellous design from Swedish friggebod specialists Jabo is called Steps 15. Designed by architect Rahel Belatchew Lerdell, it features steps (with compartments for growing plants) up to a rooftop area, a bench, pullout hidden storage, and indeed a pullout outdoor kitchen, plus large sliding glass doors and windows on three sides. Nice.


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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, February 04, 2014

Jonathan Meres: shedworker



Writer and actor Jonathan Meres is probably best known for his World of Norm series of books for children (he's also prolific, and funny, on the Twitter). And he's a shedworker. There's a nice interview with Jonathan - and lots of photos - on the Peters Books and Furniture site. Here's a snippet:
"We moved house a couple of years ago and the only way it was going to work was if we had something purpose built. And after all, I am a children's author and all children's authors must, by law, work in a shed at the bottom of their garden. Or office. Or pod. Whatever. Anyway I found someone to design it. They came up with a few ideas and the rest is history. Well, it's not yet. But it will be one day."
Well worth a browse. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning