Building a garden office: parts 9 and 10

We've been following the garden office build by web designer and developer Jack McConnell for a year now as he chronicles it via a really excellent video diary. Here are parts 9 (adding the electrics and networking cables, fitting the insulation, and putting up a vapour barrier on the walls) and 10 (adding plywood walls, making holes for the electrical and networking boxes, and getting everything ready for painting). Both are absolute must-watches if you're going down the DIY garden office route.



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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

Irish housebuilder adds dozens of garden offices to its offering

Here's an indication of how garden offices are starting to become increasingly popular - Irish homes builder Cairn Homes is, according to the Sunday Times, planning to add in garden offices at some of its new sites. The paper says it is now putting out to tender for up to 200 garden offices a year. Here's a snippet:

“The pandemic has emphasised the importance of our homes and the environment we live in,” Cairn said. “As we embrace what we believe will be a transition to remote/home working and how we as a business address this, we are looking at the range of possibilities the home, its environment and leisure facilities can play in designing future developments. In this, we are considering external spaces and garden/office rooms and how we can showcase them as we reopen to viewings.”

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Herald garden studio

An all-singing, all-dancing,183 sq ft garden studio from Parsonson Architects in New Zealand for a family in Wellington, built as a garden office space, play space, and additional accommodation with a mezzanine area, deck, and bathroom. It's all wood, while the interior linings are zero formaldehyde ‘Strandboard’ finished in natural WOCA oil. 

Photographs: Paul McCredie (and more at the link above).

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

More than half of people say working from home has improved their quality of life

There's a glut of surveys around about how working from home has changed our working lifestyles and I'm not goint to point to every single one, but this is a good, wideranging one from Uswitch showing:

* A quarter of home-workers are doing their job from bed or in their nightwear, and 40% from the sofa

* Two thirds of workers say they are just as productive or even more so

* More than half say working from home has improved their quality of life, with two fifths exercising more and a third eating more healthily

* Nearly two thirds (61%) have had issues with their broadband or mobile signal - 16% have missed a deadline and 13% lost a client as a result of bad connections. A further 9% have been on a conference call to a colleague or client that has cut out.

More recommended reading in The Economist ('Death of the office As the pandemic leaves offices around the world empty, Catherine Nixey asks what was the point of them anyway) and The Guardian ('Working from home has a long history').

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

New survey shows garden offices and working from home will be new 'normal'

A new survey from Cushman & Wakefield of more than 40,000 respondents worldwide in 30 companies across 20 industries shows that:

- 75% of people say they are collaborating effectively with colleagues in the current environment – up 10% from the pre-COVID-19 period
- 90% feel they are trusted to work remotely
- Almost three quarters of people would like their companies to embrace long-term or permanent flexible working policies
- Sub-par broadband connectivity is the biggest issue for respondents WFH

Overall, the findings reveal that work will shift from office-based to a total workplace ecosystem, balancing home, office and other locations. “It’s imperative to recognize that the workplace will no longer be a single location, but an ecosystem of a variety of locations and experiences to support flexibility, functionality and employee wellbeing,” said Brett White, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield.

You can download The Future of Workplace report at the link.

Image courtesy Modern Garden Rooms ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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New Mayor of Bexley appointed in his garden office

Another fine example of what you can do in a garden office during lockdown.

Last Wednesday, I became the 57th @MayorOfBexley @LBofBexley - in our first ever Virtual #AnnualCouncil. There were no robes, no chains (sorry Paul), no vol-au-vonts and I took the oath of office from my garden office - #NewNormal? #Covid_19 #lockdown #bookshelf #DoItForBexley pic.twitter.com/eWQMZelbRh

— Cllr James Hunt (@cllrjameshunt) May 27, 2020

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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.

Lockdown shedworking in Ireland

It's been interesting how many people have started doing some kind of shedworking during the lockdown, but it has also thrown up how many people already work from garden offices. The Irish Times highlights four - a Wines Direct franchisee, an artist, a video editor, and a writer - and gives us a little tour. Here's a snippet:

"Una Sealy built her shed at the end of the garden 16 years ago, having worked in studios in Temple Bar and Henrietta Street [Dublin] over the years. “After I had children and moved out of the city centre, I started working from home. My studio is lovely,” she says. “It’s warm and bright, has running water and has room for my collection of art books. It’s separate from the house, so I can’t hear the doorbell or home phone and it has no internet, so the temptation isn’t there to zone out online.”

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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