Hallowe'en in a shepherd's hut

A nice piece by Richard Lee from Plankbridge about returning to visit the owner of a local Dorset shepherd's hut bought some time ago and now used as a work-from-home garden office for a keen fly fisherman. Here's a snippet:

It was interesting to hear about the little things, of how he likes to not have a kettle inside the hut which makes him get up from time to time to walk back to the house, breaking up his day when working from home. The small electric heater is more than enough in such a well-insulated space, ticking away on a thermostat without the hassle of making up a wood burning stove. The added expenditure on a really good quality office chair which makes sitting at the desk a pleasure, and the ergonomics of having things to hand, all add up to make this his perfect place to retreat to.

Well worth a quick look - link at top of the post. 

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Roomy

One of the most interesting items on display this past week at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven was 'Roomy' from Rotterdam-based FIX. Not many details available at the moment but it's wooden modular prefab which they describe as 'plug & play', the smallest design in their housing system catalogue.

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Artist's garden studio hits major planning problems

The necessity of getting all your paperwork right when building a garden office is highlighted in an article at Homebuilding & Renovating. As they report, although the owner - who lives in Scotland - received approval from his housing association to build the garden studio, he didn't apply for similar permission from his local authority. And now that retroactive permission has been denied which means he is taking his case to a higher court. If you're in Scotland and in a similar situation, it's well worth clicking the link above to read the full details of the case.

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Welcome to your new teak garden room from Moonalabs. Unparalleled quality at an affordable price.

Dylan Thomas's writing hut postcard

Not easy to find, but worth hunting through postcards in secondhard shops just in case. A rather fine example of the garden office genre.

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Cathy MacLennan's garden office photography

We've featured Cathy MacLennan's marvellous garden office photography previously on Shedworking and here's another fine example. Here's what she says about it: "Autumnal footpath to my garden studio. The leaves are fluttering down in large numbers on this very blustery day - looks cosy!"

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

 

Environmentally-friendly garden office

A beautiful, simple, and ethical garden office designed and built by Tunbridge Wells-based AOMD. As well as a marvellous place to work, it's a design statement aiming to use recycled and natural materials as much as possible and leaving out as much plastic, concrete, etc, as possible. The 14m2 weatherboarded Douglas fir build blends in extraordinarily well to its surroundings and features include a large picture window, interior wood panelling, hemp insulation, and recycled plastic matting foundations. 

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Irish Amish garden office for sale in Dublin

An intriguing garden office in Dublin is on the market, built in the back garden of a three bedroom townhouse which is on with DNG for €675,000.

The home office was built during the first covid outbreak as a lockdown project, initially as a third bedroom but developing into an office space. All the timber cladding was provided by Ideal Woodcrafts in Waterford which is operated by a group of Amish-Mennonite families - the Amish-Mennonite community there was founded by an Irish American in 1992. They have one of the more unusual About Us pages:

At Ideal Woodcrafts, our primary goal is to bring glory to our Creator, God, in all aspects of life. We do this by crafting high quality products from natural materials, delivering those products on time, and by meeting your expectations with our customer service.

The garden office features southern yellow pine, standing seam clad roof, fully wired and insulated.

Acoustic garden studio with store

 

 

Another example of a garden office construction with additional storage room space, this one designed and built by Garden Spaces. It's 6.5m x 4.45m on the outside, and 2.5m high. The client was after an acoustic studio with acoustic porch and and special design features include:

• store room
• surface mounted fittings
• thermowood cladding treated with natural oil woodstain (colour Ebony)
  
• sedum roof
• acoustic porch - single aluminium doors with acoustic glazing and wooden FD30 acoustic door with acoustic drop down seal, threshold seal and perimeter seal 
• air conditioning 
• acoustic vent 
• laminate wood floor (colour Harvest oak)
  

The acoustic treament was obviously a key factor with this one. So the walls have fasteners with incorporated rubber decouplers and metal furring strips, acoustic mineral wool, acoustic plasterboard and acoustic rubber membrane, then acoustic plasterboard again.

 

In terms of the floor, there's 3-layer acoustic underlay mat and then laminate flooring, and perimeter flanking band. And then up on the ceiling you have acoustic rubber membrane, resilient bars, and acoustic plasterboard.

Garden office holiday

If you like your garden office so much you can't bear to be parted from it when you go on holiday, consider this possibility in Somerset spotted on airbnb. Here's the listing detail:

The garden studio is self-contained with all facilities away from the main house; and well insulated with double glazed windows. It has a cozy bathroom (large shower, toilet and wash basin), open plan kitchenette (kettle, toaster,coffee machine & fridge), king sized bed with memory foam mattress and sitting area. Through large French doors is a semi private courtyard with seating.

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Bloomsbury writing retreat

We've featured Viriginia Woolf's original room her own regularly on Shedworking before, but while you can't have the real thing at Monk's House, you can have the next best thing which is the Bloomsbury writing retreat from Malvern Garden Buildings. Designed as a 14ft wide x 8ft deep garden room in Dove Grey, you can actually bespoke size and colour depending on your requirements. 

Design features include:

• Barnstyle cladding
• 19mm pressure treated floor
• 4 pair opening windows, 1 pair in each gable and 1 pair either side of doors
• Double doors centre front
• Single glazed throughout
• Painted external finish
• Tongue and groove matchboard lining and insulation to walls and ceiling
• Whitewashed lining and floor
• Cedar shingle roof
• Black ironmongery
• Installation

Of course Woolf's original also features in my recent book Rooms of Their Own, illustrated by James Oses.

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Welcome to your new teak garden room from Moonalabs. Unparalleled quality at an affordable price.

Bat Wing Studio

 

Regular readers of Shedworking will know that the staff are very partial to an underground garden office. This build from architect Tom Parsons not only fulfils that delight but also offers a wonderful roofline. Here's how he describes it:

Completed garden office with a lightweight birch plywood ‘gull wing’ / ‘bat wing’ roof. Exposed concrete walls and floor dug into the hillside. Charred cladding and steel doors. A delight to flex some creativity, design and deliver with a brilliant team and visionary client.

Lots more photos at the link above.

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Dylan Thomas's writing shed on Bargain Hunt

The venerable BBC daytime treat Bargain Hunt has headed to Carmarthenshire for its latest episode where presenter Christina Trevanion nipped off to Laugharne to vist the writing shed/garage of Dylan Thomas. You can watch the whole thing on the BBC's iplayer thingy here but the garden office action kicks off in earnest at the 26:50 mark or see the clip below.

Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Such an interesting segment on Dylan Thomas’ writing shed in Carmarthenshire. Beautifully, eloquently and professionally presented by Christina Trevanion as usual.

— RDykes (@taffytopaz) October 19, 2022

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

 

The rise and rise of beach hut prices

 

Although £440,000 is a lot for a beach hut, at least this one is really nice. As so often nowadays, it's at Mudeford beach in Dorset and on with Denisons (which has several others at similar eyewatering prices). The price tag though hasn't put people off and the estate agent reported dozens of people on the waiting list to get a chance to snap it up. Features include solar panels, double glazing, wooden panelling, a fully fitted kitchen, room to sleep eight people, and views across to the Isle of Wight, but there's no lavatory.

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Unusual garden office squirrel problem

Does anyone else have the same problem?

I am FED UP with squirrels breaking into my garden office, pooing all over my desk and then drowning themselves in my loo. THIRD time it's happened - and this time there's two of the b*ggers. Well I s'pose this is what they call country living...

— The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone) October 16, 2022

Why you should buy a garden office now

It's never a bad time to buy a garden office, all things being equal, and so I'm passing on details of a recent email exchange I had with a leading garden office supplier which focused on the question of when is the right time to buy.

Unsurprisingly, they said right now is the right time to buy. But then they pointed to a comparison of prices for a model seven years ago and the same model today. Back then it was around the £7,500 mark, and the same size is now nearly twice as much, £14,500. As they said, if you'd bought one back then, you could now sell it for more than you paid for it (unless you've done something terrible to it in the intervening period).

"Potential customers will watch inflation inevitably raise the prices of timber, steel, fuel and energy and with it, the price of our buildings as we don't have a choice," they said. It's the same thing I've heard from other suppliers over the last 12 months.

So if you're thinking about taking the shedworking plunge, don't put it off too long.

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UK Men's Shed vacancies

The UK Men's Shed Association is advertising various job possibilities including:

Trusts and Foundations Manager (paid)

This opportunity is 21 hours per week and is home based; anywhere in the UK. The initial contract is for 12 months, with the view to extend. As the new Trusts and Foundations Manager, you will be responsible for working with the Chief Officer to develop and implement the Trusts and Foundations strategy, building on and supporting the existing portfolio as well as developing new funding relationships. You will also champion fundraising best practice and use your knowledge to strengthen internal fundraising processes and contribute towards fundraising policies. 

Artists and photographers (voluntary)

UK Men’s Sheds Association potentially has the opportunity to work with two leading brands on the production of jigsaws and calendars for a major retail outlet. Market leader Ravensburg and are looking for paintings that could be used for jigsaws and Gibsons are looking for photography that reflects life in and around a Shed.

Chair of Trustees (voluntary)

UKMSA is looking for a new Chair to lead the organisation and Board of Trustees (‘the Board’) through an exciting period of strategic development and change. As an increasingly influential voice in the arena of men’s health and wellbeing, UKMSA is championing the growth of ‘Shedding’ across the UK and partnering with a range of organisations to promote and support its aims. We reported on this post earlier this year but the application process has been extended to November 30. 

Click the link at the top of the post for more details of all of these positions.

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Welcome to your new teak garden room from Moonalabs. Unparalleled quality at an affordable price.

Garden office with Lightwave

Here's a recent podium-like garden office from Garden Spaces. It comes in at 4m x 3m, and 2.5m high. Design features include French doors and full length window, aluminium Venetian blinds, and on the outside our old friend Western Red Cedar cladding. Special mention to the Lightwave installation for lots of clever smart home compatibility stuff e.g. controlling lights, smart hub, and Devolo Magic box for internet use.

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

Are we still calling them She-sheds?

Names of garden offices go through trends like everything else. 'Shoffice' goes through occasional rises and falls, although some like 'man cave' seem fairly perennial. The name 'she-shed' suddenly went through the roof half a dozen years ago though I've seen it less frequently recently. On Twitter, JayTheDeepMinded has come up with a couple more ideas for hers (pictured above and below) as she explains:

"Hubby likes to refer to my garden office as the 'She Shed'. I prefer 'Ma'am Cave' or 'Lady Lair'. Part craft studio, part business office, it kept me sane during lockdown. I work odd hours for clients in many timezones. So this space also prevents waking the sleeping man-bear."

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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.