Shacks By The Shore

If you are based in the Brighton area, look out for the opening on Saturday of Rockwater Hove's Shacks by the Shore, a new shedlike restaurant, takeaway and community hub on the Western Esplanade of the seafront. There will be six beach-hut style "shacks" (installation photo top, artist's impressions above) in the former Venue pub location included the Fish Shack with seafood from local fishmongers Fish Galore. As well as locally-sourced food and drink (e.g. West Sussex-based Craft House Coffee and Rockwater Lager), there will be various fitness/wellness facilities supplied by local operators including Underground Gym and Uber Mummies. --------------------------------------

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Anthropod's new Go! garden office

We mentioned Harrogate-based Anthropods some time ago on Shedworking when they first launched into the glamping market and we're delighted to report that they've now entered the garden office market with their new Go! design (pictured above is the Bleriot 72 model) for one or two shedworkers at a time.

All Go! garden offices come with ergonomically designed built-in work stations, filing systems, fitted cupboards, wardrobe, and heating system, with a coffee station and food preparation surfaces as well as Bluetooth speakers.

As we reported before, the garden offices are made from sustainable and maintenance-free timber with insulation made from recycled plastic bottles for insulation. They are delivered fully-built and then craned in. They do not require any kind of base, other than four small pads on which the legs stand. Technically, it's a caravan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Boom time for garden offices

That's what the Yorkshire Post says in a new article by the country's best property journalist, the excellent Sharon Dale, 'How to buy or build a home office in the garden' (which also very kindly mentions Shedworking and the book of the site too). Here's a snippet:

“Clearly, we must have had a premonition about home working, as the shed has been a tremendous asset over the past three months in lockdown. It is three paces from the back door and has meant that I can still go to work and at the end of a long day, shut the door and return home. My journey time is less than five seconds,” says Ric, who adds: “I’ve been intrigued by those Zoom meetings that show people across the country making ad hoc office spaces in dining rooms and bedrooms. “I must say that an office in the garden is definitely the way forward. Sure, you miss the social interaction with office colleagues but the productivity in shed isolation is great and it’s only four steps away from the kettle. Shoffice working is the future.”

Image courtesy Cedar Garden Rooms  -------------------------------------------------
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Young creatives move into shedworking

A marvellous article in The Guardian, My dad's shed is my dark room, looks at how final year arts and fashion graduates have been expressing themselves. Among those included is Rachel Pendered, pictured above, from Falmouth School of Art. Here's what she says:

I have been silkscreen-printing patterns with hand-cut stencils in my parents’ living room in Suffolk. I built a DIY exposure unit with my dad in the shed – my makeshift darkroom. My work involves playful images that campaign for environmental issues: encouraging people to buy secondhand clothes, plant trees, eat seasonally and cut down on plastics.

And here's painter and printmaker Robert McCormack from the Glasgow School of Art:

I’ve retreated to my parents’ house in Inverness, where I set up a studio in the garage. I feel lucky to have the space, even if it is a bit cold. I have continued to draw and make my own paper-pulp sculptures. My work, which incorporates performance, drawing, sculpture and installation, explores normative behaviour and status; I’m fascinated by the role of the pet. I work as a life model to help pay for materials, and I’ve kept that up online.

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How many people are working from garden offices during lockdown?

Research from Moneypenny indicates that over half of people in Britain are happy to work from home and happy to carry on doing so, but what it focuses on is where people are doing it. Here are the interesting results.

That 4% is a significant number of shedworkers. 

Here are some more interesting statistics:

* When asked what time they usually get up when working from home, 42%, said it’s about one hour before they start work, 17% get up about 30 minutes before work, 15% about 45 minutes (and 6% have a lie-in and get up about 15 minutes before work with 5% getting up less than 10 minutes before work). Remarkably, 15% get up more than one hour before work.

* Around 46% of those surveyed said they made sure to keep their normal lunch hours, but nearly a third said they take shorter lunch breaks then they usually would when in the office.

* Over three-quarters said they answer calls and emails after normal working hours, blurring the line between the restful atmosphere of home life and the stress of work.

* 12% say they spend more time on work as they don’t commute.

* Three-quarters have experienced a day where they did not speak to anyone from work.

Image courtesy Plankbridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Can you claim a garden office as a business expense?

This is certainly in the top 10 questions we are regularly asked at Shedworking. Sadly, there's no simple answer and we always recommend that you talk to your financial adviser and follow their suggestions about what you can and cannot claim. There's a new Q&A from A Room in the Garden with co-owner Ivana Cavallo talking to Adam Thompson, a Corporate Tax Manager at Cardens Accountants. Here's a snippet:

What are the pros and cons of having a garden office as a company asset?
I guess, there are no real cons. If someone needs the space, they need the space. It gets the business out of the house and gives them some segregation. From a tax point of view, there are some reliefs. If you are VAT registered, you can claim the VAT back from the cost of the property. Which for a purchase of that size it is not small.

You can read the rest of the Q&A on their site here. Well worth a look.

Image courtesy Arctic Cabins

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Elizabeth Fraser: shedworker

We mentioned the St Bride Library virtual wayzgoose earlier in the week on Shedworking. Here's another video from that excellent event, a look around printer Elizabeth Fraser's garden office (you can see more of her marvellous work on her instagram page).

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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.