Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Merry Christmas to all our readers


“Yo ho, my boys,” said Fezziwig. “No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer. Let’s have the shutters up,” cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, “before a man can say Jack Robinson.”
Shutters open again on January 4.

Monday, December 21, 2020

Barrington Pheloung: shedworker

 

The theme music to the Inspector Morse television series was written by Australian composer Barrington Pheloung (1954 – 2019) who lived and worked in the UK for many years. Pheloung not only wrote the theme tune but all the incidental music too, as he did for the prequel to Morse, Endeavour, and the sequel Lewis. 

And he was also a shedworker. He's pictured above in his garden office and below at work as he talks to Andy Brown, music director of the London Metropolitan Orchestra, in his music studio about how he put together the Morse music.

---------------------------------------

Monday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

Friday, December 18, 2020

Living in a log cabin



As well as working in a shedlike environment, you can also live in one. Graham Ely lives in a Norwegian Log cabin holiday home near his family and friends in Dorset. Three years ago he decided to downsize and saw a lodge holiday home at Merley House Holiday Park near Wimborne.  “This is what I wanted, something solid that would really last”, he says. “I got in touch with Norwegian Log and waited three to four months for ordering and then it took six weeks to erect. The process was as smooth as silk.”

Norwegian Log homes comply with the Caravan Act so can be sited in leisure developments like Merley House Holiday Park, as well as in residential areas for family annexes. 

"The place is just fantastic, it’s really warm and it has everything you want. I’m just really surprised the government doesn’t buy loads to house families, or more younger people don’t buy them, as they are just brilliant!” His traditional-style log home features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, galley kitchen, utility space, hallway and a large outdoor decking area. The building has double thickness walls and insulation,  

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Garden office + family space

Here is the latest build from Garden Affairs's contemporary Linea range, a 5m x 3m fully insulated garden room. "It nicely sums up what this year has been all about," says co-owner Poppy Squires. "This customer not only desperately needed an office to work from home, but also wanted to incorporate a break out space for the whole family, hence the sofa bed and chill out zone.

"So many of our customers have not only found themselves working from home in any available space, during this strange year - one customer was working from a child’s size playhouse! - but they have now been told by their employers that they will be working from home for the foreseeable future. When both adults in a house are working at home, the kids are off school and they live in open plan housing, the options are severely limited for a quiet work place."

Like all Linea garden rooms, it's clad in durable horizontal larch wood cladding, and designed with no roof overhang so that you can site your building tight to a boundary, to make the most of the available space. They can be fully customised and also include a shed section or even a kitchen and bathroom (see  bottom image of a Linea Duo).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Garden office tax planning: personal ownership

This great little series looking at tax and shedworking by Helen Thornley, Technical Officer at The Association of Taxation Technicians, continues on accountingWEB with Helen's looking at running costs, rental charges, expense recharge, and private residence relief (among other issues). Here's a snippet about capital gains tax:

Where the pod has any private use, that should avoid a restriction on private residence relief (PRR) for capital gains tax, when the individual comes to sell their home with or without the pod.

This CGT relief is denied on any part of a dwelling house which is used exclusively for the purposes of a trade or business (s224(1) TCGA 1992). Where there is such exclusive use, then the gain relating to that room or area needs to be apportioned out and tax charged. The same principle applies to any free-standing structure like a pod in the garden of the dwelling and the land on which it stands.

Provided that the new home office is not used exclusively for work purposes PRR should not be restricted. While the test of ‘exclusive’ business use is quite high, the HMRC manuals do suggest that occasional or minor private use is insufficient to avoid the PRR restriction and it expects to see regular residential use.

There is unlikely to be an issue where the pod doubles as a play room, or has a sofa and television in the office to watch TV with (or away from) the family, or contains gym or craft equipment – pods can be put to lots of other purposes outside working hours.

Image courtesy eDEN Garden Rooms

--------------------------------------

Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

Monday, December 14, 2020

Christmas garden offices

Some Christmassy garden offices to start your week. Above, the Arctic Cabin owned by Philip, and below a Smart model with a kitchen fitted inside.

And here's Lee Denham's Christmas tree in his new garden office in York.

---------------------------------------

Monday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

Friday, December 11, 2020

Flinstones kitchen cabin

 

A remarkable kitchen from Tiny House Cabins constructed in their latest build. Inspired by The Flinstones cartoons, the idea for the rustic kitchen look came from the client. It features two inch thick elm slabs as worktops, complete with original bark, and oak doors with 'live edges'. Below, you can see a shedworking set up using another large elm slabs turned into a desk.

More details and pictures of the Flinstone kitchen here.

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

Thursday, December 10, 2020

First look at Bellway garden office

 

Interesting times as another homes developer is adding garden offices to its new build offering (see here for our look at what Thakeham are doing too). Bellway has launched its garden office feature at its Heatherley Wood development at Alderley Park, close to Alderley Edge in Cheshire. It is an optional extra for buyers of the bespoke four, five or six bedroom homes - the prototype garden studio can be viewed in the garden of plot 13 at the development where prices range from £750,000 to £1,125,000.

 “With more of us working from home, a trend that looks set to continue well into 2021, a home office is a must," said Hollie Reynolds, sales director at Bellway. "The garden studio is a fantastic option and fits perfectly in a corner garden plot. It is a thoroughly modern home office and we are one of the first housebuilders in the region to introduce the pod as an optional extra."

As you'd expect it's fully insulated, and includes a desk, leather high back desk chair, additional feature chair, potted plant, artwork and shelving.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

 

 

Wednesday, December 09, 2020

Liverpool garden office hair salon



A rather nice Swift Garden Rooms build in Aintree, Liverpool, now operating as the Vivid hair salon. It's a 4m x 5.5m space, with composite cladding, plus aluminium doors and windows in anthracite grey.

--------------------------------------

Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

The Large Ovalhouse

One of the biggest changes in how we work in the last 10 years has been co-working. Shedworking is all in favour of this where it works for the individual, but if you want to combine co-working with shedworking, then this garden office from a range offered by Prestige Pods is well worth investigating.  

As you can see above, there's plenty of glass in the Large Ovalhouse model - and therefore light- in the attractively rounded construction and it in fact seats 14 (they claim). It has a stainless steel frame and multiple laminsted spruct timber arcs, plus a lockable French doore entrance. Inside there are two separate tables and LED lighting.

Alternatively, there's a small version below along similar lines which measure 2.6m high x 3.8m wide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday, December 07, 2020

Garden offices top househunters' 2021 wishlists


It's the time of year when property experts gaze into their crystal balls and announce what's ahead of us for the following 12 months. Jackson-Stops is first off the blocks with reports that all their branches are predicting that garden offices and other types of home office will be at the top of househunters’ wishlists next year.  It says specifically that clients will want their working from home facilities to sit outside their main residence i.e. a garden office.

Nick Ferrier, Director of Jackson-Stops’ Midhurst branch, said that there was a particularly noticeable increase in demand from London-based buyers wanting to move out of the capital. "This surge in demand is expected to continue into next year," he said. "Even when offices begin to re-open many of our clients plan to work remotely at least once a week.

“While homes with annexes have always proved popular with buyers for use as an office, we’re expecting a surge in demand for this type of property next year. Annexes will be highly sought after and valued throughout 2021 as people continue to work from home and crave a space which sits outside their current residence to do so, essentially allowing them to ‘leave work at the office’, despite that office now is just a couple of metres away.

“Over lockdown annexes have been a saving grace for many who wanted to be close to elderly parents to offer support and company during a difficult year. In addition to flexible living, an annexe can also provide a second source of income to those who wish to rent them out as a holiday home or even as office space to nearby residents.”

Photo courtesy OECO Garden Rooms 

---------------------------------------

Monday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

 

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Garden office tax planning: new series

Here's one to bookmark if you are looking to find out more about the tax implications of a garden office. Helen Thornley, Technical Officer at The Association of Taxation Technicians, has just started a series on accountingWEB about just those issues (though you can also search Shedworking for plenty of other advice on these subjects). This first one is fairly general but we'll be keeping an eye out for the follow-up pieces on tax matters and other practical legal issues.

Photo courtesy Cabin Master

-----------------------------------------------------

Sunday posts are sponsored by woowoo waterless toilets, the best toilet for your garden office

Friday, December 04, 2020

Glass wall shedworking: The Ood garden office


 
The ÖÖD Office Room is a microarchitectural spinoff by Estonian brothers Andreas and Jaak Tiik who already have the ÖÖD House in their building portfolio which is along similarly intriguing lines. Designed so that three offices can fit in one 40ft container and thus be shipped worldwide, the office version is either all floor-to-ceiling glass or can contain a couple of wooden walls, all around a steel structure.
 

 
There is also a version which replaces the walls with mirrors.

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

Thursday, December 03, 2020

Rooftop garden office in Bali

 

In an excellent piece for Forbes about where people are choosing to work from now that they're working from home ('My Space: Where Do You Work?'), longtime friend of Shedworking Dave Howell talks to various shedworkers including Ben Derbyshire and Caroline Kenyon (an anti-food poverty campaigner who says productivity trebled when she turned her roomy shed into a garden office, pictured below). He also chats to Ryan Jackson, pictured above, who moved to Bali a couple of months ago when he realised he could work from anywhere. Well worth a read.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Lovely painting of Dylan Thomas's writing shed

A lovely piece of work by artist Liam O'Farrell. Click the link for more details about his trip to the famous writing hut in Wales and for other examples of his art. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday, November 30, 2020

Round windows in garden office

Your garden office windows do not need to be square. Here's a fine example from London-based Rise Design Studio of a major project they worked on in Harlesden which included a garden office for a new fashion company.

---------------------------------------

Monday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Beach hut staycation boom


One of the side effects of the lockdowns has been a massive rise in interest in beach huts. For example, The Little Beach Hut Company (which recently changed ownership and is now run by friends Karina Duke and Louise Foo) which runs huts in West Mersea, has just launched special Christmas At The Huts bookings from November 28 to December 31 - they will be decorated with all the trimmings and each booking comes with a complimentary Christmas hamper.

Meanwhile,  Canterbury City Council is looking to build more than 100 new beach huts along the Herne Bay and Whitstable coast in order to raise somewhere in the region of £2 million. Council spokesman Rob Davies told Kent Online that the goal was to capitalise on the booming staycation market and said he thought the new huts would "sell like hot cakes". He added: “One of our key approaches has been to look for income-raising opportunities, which will reduce the level of savings we need to find and help us retain vital front-line services such as rough sleeper work and reducing homelessness."
 
Once given the green light by planners, the huts should be ready by summer 2021.

-----------------------------------------------------

Sunday posts are sponsored by woowoo waterless toilets, the best toilet for your garden office

 


 


 

Friday, November 27, 2020

The attractions of wintry shedworking


 
It's that time of the year now when we start to bring you lovely shots of garden offices in appetisingly wintry surroundings. To kick off the 2020 series, here is the tremendous garden office (and view from it) of solicitor Paul Bennett of Bennett Briegal, a specialist firm for other lawyers and their clients in the professions. Here's what he says about it:
"The commute is not as bad as it used to be #WFH I’ve gone from 3 hours each way once or twice a week to maybe 40 seconds... what a lovely winter's morning."
The firm also has an interesting blog which includes a useful post about Covid-19: Confidentiality and Working From Home.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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