Today we have a guest post from James Taylor who wrote in to Shedworking with his experiences of looking for, buying, and having a garden office installed.
After far too long I have finally joined the world of shedworking! It's been in an extended planning phase after being diagnosed with a chronic disease in 2019. You might think a pandemic would have focused the mind but a combination of lockdowns and shortages meant a much longer stay on a makeshift shelf-desk than expected. Admittedly there was lots of indecisiveness as well and I definitely recognise some of the same deliberations as Paul.
There were also a few false starts along the way, including one notable runner up, Aspen Garden Rooms, the only quote
which included electrical connection and foundations, which would have
saved so much hassle.
After much deliberation we finally decided on the Workaway Plectrum and because we needed to organise foundations ourselves, a long overdue
new patio at the same time. Although being small enough to fit in the corner of the garden was a
big consideration, I was still slightly unsure about the size of the
workspace inside, so it was great to be able to visit Bolton Buildings
and have a look at the prototype.
The space actually works really well. The desk is a huge
improvement over what I had been squashed on indoors, and there's plenty
of room to be comfortable while not having too much room for the office
to be taken over for other purposes!
After a long wait for delivery, which is understandable in the
circumstances, installation took a surprisingly long time. I had assumed
that it would be mostly assembled from pre-finished panels but there
was actually a fair bit of carpentry on site. For
example creating the curves for the cladding to go over.
Talking of the cladding, the corrugated board is bitumen based,
which unfortunately left marks on the new patio. Obviously accidents
happen but apart from a cursory apology, they were fairly dismissive
which was a little disappointing given the upset it
caused. (A patio has been on the to do list a lot longer the an
office!). Fortunately GBI Construction who laid the patio and
foundations (would definitely recommend), were able to get most of the
bitumen off.
I finally moved in to the new office in October, when the sun was
still warm enough to show up an unexpected issue. There is a black board
which runs around the base of the office which expands and warps when
it gets warm. Obviously that's not something
building the prototype inside a warehouse would have shown up, but they
are going to add a few more fixings to see if that will help keep it in
place. It's been snowing today though so it might be a while before I
find out whether that solves the problem!
As for temperature, it has been keeping nicely warm on the few cold
days so far. I suspect keeping cool might be more of an issue in the
hot weather. Time will tell but I'm expecting to have the door open a
lot next year...
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