Free extract from the Haynes Shed Manual

The fine folk at Haynes who published the Shed Manual I co-wrote with John Coupe last year are doing all kinds of lockdown activities on social media including #TheDailyHaynes on Twitter. Today's episode is as follows:

#TheDailyHaynes: Take your first steps in designing a dream #shed, with the help of this #free extract from the Shed Manual by John Coupe & @shedworking Alex Johnson…

📚👉 https://t.co/maZxGHOnNN
(You can save 40% off the full book, too!)#dailyinspiration #lockdownlife pic.twitter.com/PCAF0b067Y

— Haynes Manuals (@HaynesManuals) April 11, 2020

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

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

Save 25% on the new Haynes Shed Manual

You can currently save 25% off the rrp of the Haynes' Practical Lifestyle Manuals which includes my Haynes Shed Manual (as well as fitness, space, etc) co-written with John Coupe. Let me remind you that it was described as "A thing of beauty" (and by implication, a joy forever) by none other than The Sunday Sport. For details, click here.  -------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Haynes Shed Manual

We've saved the best until last for the final post of 2017 and so I'm very excited to let you know that plans are well underway for a Haynes Shed Manual which I shall be co-authoring with the hugely knowledgeable John Coupe who runs the hugely popular Secrets of Shed Building site. Haynes came to us in the autumn to discuss the possibilities and now John and I will be working on the manual throughout 2018. We're both delighted to be collaborating with such an iconic publisher which has an impressive worldwide reputation for its manuals covering everything from cars and coding to the Millennium Falcon.

And we will also be coming to you as readers of our two sites for help and advice about what builds YOU would like to see featured - we'll be doing several to cover various shed-based needs - and what kind of information would be particularly useful so please do look out for regular shout-outs here on Shedworking and on Secrets of Shed Building. We'll also be updating our progress during the year so you can get an idea of how it's all moving on. I hope you will be pleased with the shed manual which should be published in time for spring 2019.

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

Saturday posts are sponsored by Eurodita, the leader in serving smart dealers

Money off Haynes Shed Manual

You can currently save £6 off the price of the Haynes Shed Manual which I co-wrote with secrets-of-shedbuilding guru John Coupe. Described in the Centre for Alternative Technology's Christmas catalogue as "for the enthusiastic DIY-er and those considering taking on a project" and by, er, The Sunday Sport as "A thing of beauty". For details, click here. ---------------------------------------

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

Haynes Shed Manual - the cover

So it's all done and dusted and at the printers now. Here's what the cover for our Haynes Shed Manual will look like and we'll be posting some sample spreads nearer the date. Publication day is April 13. -------------------------------------------------------

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

Haynes Shed Manual update

Readers have been asking about the progress of the Haynes Shed Manual which I am co-authoring with John Coupe from www.secrets-of-shed-building.com. I'm pleased to say that it's now gone through the copyediting stage and we will be looking at the proofs over Christmas and New Year (as will another proofreader). The cover has not been fully confirmed but we're pretty close to it and will look tremendous. It all goes back to the publishers the second week of January and then we're looking at a spring publication date. Many thanks to everybody who's enquired (and of course to those who have helped us get this far). -------------------------------------------------------

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

Feature about Haynes Shed Manual in The Herts Advertiser

A jolly piece in which the paper's property editor Jane Howdle looks at my new Haynes Shed Manual and includes some of my shed back history. As she says: "The 8'x6' is still up for grabs, so if anyone would like to own a little piece of shed history the opportunity is there to “buy the shed of the book of the shed”, laughs Alex." I also threaten to write the first great shed novel. You can buy the book here and I also have a couple at home which I can sign and drop round to you if you live in the St Albans area or post if you live further afield. -------------------------------------------------------

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

Haynes Shed Manual: How to create roof tiles (video)

 Back in December I mentioned that John Coupe and I were working on a Shed Manual for manual specialists Haynes. It's coming along nicely and John has put together a short video all about splitting 25 Sweet Chestnut logs to create the 'Shakes' (roof tiles) for one of the sheds we are building and documenting for the book.

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

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

Goodbye to the Shed Manual shed

As part of producing the Shed Manual for Haynes earlier this year, we naturally had to produce several sheds. The one that was closest to my heart was the garden office and it has now finally gone to a good home where it is currently waiting for a new deck to be built for it overlooking its new owner's garden pond in an apple orchard.

If you'd like more information about how it was moved and transported (by road at 20-30mph), read John's account of it here - it's an excellent detailed post with plenty of images showing each step of the way. I rather like this one which makes it look like it is magically floating...

And of course the book in which it is featured is still very much for sale.

 

 

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

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

Haynes Shed Manual: Update

Several readers have been asking how the Shed Manual John Coupe and I are working on for Haynes is coming along (see here for the story so far). Here are some recent shots from the latest photoshoot taken by Dave Hodgkinson at the various sites in the south-east where the sheds are being built.

Top is Hodge snapping John as he prepares to make additional shingles for the garden room building pictured centre (all the shingle are entirely hand-made), while the bottom image is the largest structure we're planning to include, partly built with the help of one of the country's most famous eco-builders and woodsmen, Ben Law.

The builds are all close to completion and we are wrapping up the words too. The book should be available in all good bookshops in spring 2019.
-------------------------------------------------------

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

Christmas present idea: Haynes Shed Manual

You can currently save £6 off the rrp off the Haynes Shed Manual which I co-wrote with secrets-of-shedbuilding guru John Coupe. Described in the Centre for Alternative Technology's Christmas catalogue as "for the enthusiastic DIY-er and those considering taking on a project" and by, er, The Sunday Sport as "A thing of beauty". For details, click here. --------------------------------------

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.

Haynes Shed Manual and 10 best garden sheds in the 'i' newspaper

The i newspaper asked me (and fellow shed folk John Coupe - my Haynes Shed Manual co-author - and Uncle Wilco from readersheds) for some thoughts about sheds and garden offices. You can read the whole piece online here but here's a snippet (no idea why they've used the word "vast"!):

If you’ve ever considered a shed as accommodation then Alex Johnson has picked out a few top recommendations. Folk with pots of cash might turn to the ethical approach of Rotunda Roundhouses or the vast, bespoke designs of Tiny House Cabins. Those with an eye for tradition might be tempted by Plankbridge’s shepherds' huts which has Alex purring: “I defy anybody to browse their website and not come away wanting one”.

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

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

Some people need more room to be quiet

We pointed to this story about the importance of shedowning to a happy marriage earlier in the week, but The Independent's marvellous gardening blogger Emma Townsend notes that the Metro newspaper took it a step further and asked a relationship expert, Nick Haynes, what he thought of the situation.

"Relationship counsellor Nick Haynes agrees that a shed could be an important part of marital success. He said: 'The basic thing about relationships is that we are struggling with the paradox of how comfortable we are being intimate with another human being while at the same time wanting our own space and independence. Some people need more room to be quiet while others are happier sharing their emotions with someone else."

Shedworking and the Haynes Shed Manual on BBC Three Counties radio

Andy Collins was kind enough to invite me onto his BBC Three Counties radio breakfast show yesterday morning to chat about sheds, shedworking, and my new Haynes Shed Manual. If you'd like to listen to me discussing the world of sheds (including beach huts and cider-making) then you have 28 days until it gets wiped from the BBC's Sounds thingy via this link - I'm on from the 1.36.23 mark (if you start up a little earlier, you'll hear a remarkable story about what one non-league football goalkeeper does every time his team concedes a penalty). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Shed Manual reviewed in KentLive

A nice interview with John Coupe (pictured above making the shingles for a shed roof) on KentLive by Mary Harris about our new Shed Manual for Haynes. Here's a snippet:

“Sheds are for everyone," he said. "There is a section in the book on ‘she-sheds’ - so that’s a thing. And there’s a Men’s Shed Movement and there is one in Tunbridge Wells. They’re all around the world. They are a place for people to do their stuff. That means it might be tinkering with car engines or woodwork or escaping from the family or gardening.”

Well worth a quick read. And you can buy the Haynes Shed Manual here.
------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by Eurodita, the leader in serving smart dealers

Haynes Shed Manual: early Christmas shopping

I know it's a bit early to be pushing books for Christmas, but if there's a loved one or family member you know who would like a copy of my shed manual co-authored with John Coupe, you can  buy it direct from the publishers Haynes or your local bookshop, or even more direct from me if you'd like a copy signed by me and John. Email me if you'd like a copy. Sample spreads below:

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

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

Buy the garden office featured in the Haynes Shed Manual

If you've already bought a copy of my new book, Haynes Shed Manual, many thanks. If so, you'll have enjoyed reading about the garden office build with a homemade shakes roof inside. And if not, well, there's a marvellous garden office build with a homemade shakes roof inside. Well, here's your chance to own that shed, pictured above and looking slightly different from the images in the book as it's weathered delightfully since it was built.

It's a really lovely piece of work. My co-author John Coupe worked exceptionally hard on it and it goes without saying that this is a unique build that you simply cannot find for sale anywhere else. And as an added bonus, is front and centre in the book - you can see exactly how it was made. We're looking to sell it for £2,500 as a base price with extras and delivery to be priced (sensibly, of course) according to the buyer's requirements as it needs extra resources put into it to turn it into a real comfortable workspace e.g. extra insulation. Naturally, we're happy to talk through all that's required. If you're interested, please drop me a line and we'll take it from there.

-------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Haynes Shed Manual: How to create roof tiles part 2 (video)

The second part of the video which we mentioned here on Thursday, part of the work going into our Haynes Shed Manual (out about this time next year). Here's what John says about it:

An 'all action' video. No talking but have added sub-titles. This is the first part of the process for creating the 'raw' shakes. The next step is similar as each sixteenth is split into two shakes, that have parallel edges and a small triangular piece of waste wood. So, in theory, I should get 32 shakes per log. However, with knots and spiral grain, I get anywhere between 10 and 30 in practice. Once I get the 'rough' shakes I then need to shape them. That is a subject for a follow-on video.

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

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

Haynes Shed Manual: Buy the garden office of the book

Just a reminder that the garden office made for and featured in the Haynes Shed Manual is available to buy. More details at John's site secrets-of-shed-building here. Pictured top is the exterior, now nicely weathered from its original appearance in the book, a close-up of the roof's handmade shakes/shingles, and the current interior. Contact either John via his site link above or me by email for more details. -------------------------------------------------------

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