Shedworking

Francis Pryor: shedworker

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Francis Pryor is best known for his work as an archaeologist and his extremely readable books on prehistoric books (Britain BC is on the shelves at Shedworking HQ). He also has a novel in the pipeline called The Lifer's Club with the fine shed-friendly folk at Unbound which is well worth your crowdfunding pounds. And now he has tidied up his shed so that he can become a shedworker. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Sunny artist's studio

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:04:00 +0000

A nice shedworking build (with plenty of pictures and more details at their site) by Historic Shed of a new art studio for a client who had been sketching ideas for the build for several years. It's a 12′ x 12′ shed with paired French doors on three sides and a 4′ roof extension on the front supported by large brackets with a seating area. The shed has a metal roof and cypress siding. -----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Kevin McCloud charity talk - 'Voyages in my Shed'

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:19:00 +0000

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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

Gill Lewis: shedworker

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:06:00 +0000

A nice piece in the Daily Telegraph by writer Gill Lewis about the delights of working in her garden treehouse in Somerset and the company of squirrels (click the link to her site which shows how keen she is on it from the first page). Here's a snippet:

"When they [her children] go to school I clamber up here with my coffee and a couple of biscuits and write for hours, away from the phone and the doorbell. My books are about animals and their relationship to humans, and being up in the tree, with the squirrels, connects me to nature. The area is full of deer, foxes, buzzards, starlings and badgers. You don't have to go on safari to see amazing wildlife. My ultimate tree house would be one of those capsules you see in glossy magazines, somewhere really high and remote – with a butler."

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National Work From Home Day

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:40:00 +0000

The number of people working from garden offices and their home in general has increased by 13 per cent in the last five years, according to a new TUC analysis of official figures published today to mark National Work From Home Day, organised by WorkWise UK.

The TUC analysis of unpublished data from the Labour Force Survey shows that just over four million employees usually worked at home in 2012, a rise of 470,000 since 2007. The South East, Scotland and Wales have seen the sharpest rise in homeworking over the last five years.

While nearly two-thirds of people who work from home are male, an increasing number of women are also making this career move. According to the research, the majority of homeworking jobs created in the last five years have gone to women. The rise in female homeworking is partly due to the fact that almost nine in ten of these new jobs are part-time, says the TUC.

In addition to the four million people who usually work from home, many millions more occasionally work from home, says the TUC.

The sharp rise in homeworking in spite of the recession confirms that this new way of working has become an essential part of the UK labour market. Technological progress and the rise of the services sector, where many jobs do not require specialised machinery or face-to-face contact with colleagues or customers, have helped fuel this growth, says the TUC.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The recession may have fuelled rising unemployment and put pressure on flexible working practices, but homeworking has continued to thrive and grow. Over four million people usually work from home, while many millions more occasionally do so. The sheer scale of homeworking proves how easily it can be done but there are still too many employers who are reluctant to allow staff to work away from the office or the shop floor.

“Of course there are challenges with homeworking. It requires employers to trust staff and people can feel isolated if the relationship is not managed properly. But these issues are easily dealt with through smart employment relations, which unions can help with. With government figures showing a further 4.5 million people would like to work from home more often there is still much more that employers can do to meet this unmet demand for more flexible working.”

WorkWise UK’s chief executive Phil Flaxton said: “The best way to manage employees working from home or remotely is by encouraging independence of thought and action, and developing continuous communication, supported by regular face-to-face meetings. This can be by video/conference calls or other online tools so that experiences, ideas, and success and performance issues can still be shared. The whole management ethos has to become much more open, less hierarchical and more trusting.

“The key issues for success still surround management styles and the acceptance of change. Building a culture of information sharing and creating trust takes time and careful planning. By carefully choosing and training the virtual workforce and by structuring the organisation to make best use of its virtual employees, most organisations should be able to see an improvement in productivity of between 8 and 15 per cent.”

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

The Freedom Room

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Not sure that a shedlike atmosphere inspired by the size of a prison cell is going to appeal to that many people but it's an intriguing idea, a 116-square-foot 'tiny home' designed by Aldo Cibic, Tommaso Corà and Marco Tortoioli Ricci of Cibic Workshop who also asked inmates from a high security prison in Italy for design advice. Via Huffington Post with more information and photos at Architizer.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Artist's studio in Aberdeenshire

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:05:00 +0000

Dab Den have just completed an artist studio in Stathdon, Aberdeenshire, with a stunning view of the river below, definitely a room with a view. "The customer was looking for somewhere to do her artwork," explains Kat Byers from Dab Den. "There is a fantastic view down the river so the position of the Dab Den takes advantage of this. There is a Belfast sink in the built-in cupboard to allow her to do her paintings. No planning was required but building warrant was, due to the sink connecting into the existing drainage system, which means it is built to the standard of a new build house. There is also a lot of decking stretching out the front of the den, so when the bi-folding doors are fully open there is a very spacious floor area stretching out to the view beyond. The materials used are Siberian larch cladding and the doors are powder coated aluminium, with a thermal break in the frame to assist in obtaining a 1.3w/m2K u-value."

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

How will Permitted Development changes affect shedworkers? (updated)

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:03:00 +0000

Another great post by Shedworking's 'go to' person for details on the planning technicalities of shedworking, Lynn Fotheringham from Inside Out Buildings in which she poses (and then answers) the question, will the permitted development changes that come into force on May 30 affect people who work at home either in their house or in a garden office? Well worth a read if you're considering going down the garden office route.

And it's also worth reading Richard Grace from Garden Structures Ltd (formerly Aarco) on the subject of planning permission.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Shed Sunday: shed card

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:22:00 +0000

With Kraft brown fleck recycled envelope in cellophane sleeve. Available from Have a Gander on etsy. They also have some cracking tea towels.

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Sunday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Crowdfunding a beach hut

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:08:00 +0000

"To build a center piece for the first Teignmouth beach hut raising. The structure has been designed by a young multicultural London design practice with a history in initiating social/community projects. The installation will be manufactured while the design team are in residence in the town of Teignmouth and then will be constructed on site by the design team. It will remain for 6 months then be taken down for the winter season and stored to be reassembled for future summer seasons."

More details of this great Kickstarter project here. ----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Get voting for Shed of the Year 2013

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:27:00 +0000

It's time to start voting. As always there are a number of categories so make every vote count - and naturally we would encourage you to vote in particular in the Garden Office category. Overall, there are nearly 2,000 sheds up for the awards so do take your time and have a good browse. Voting shuts at midnight on May 31 but don't leave it until the last minute to vote - then the category winners voted for by the public will be discussed by the judges, Sarah Beeny, Kevin McCloud, me, the organiser of the event Uncle Wilco and last year's winner John. The winner will be announced in National Shed Week which starts July 1. Click here to vote.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Garden offices at Grand Designs Live

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:28:00 +0000

There are numerous garden office suppliers at the Grand Designs Live show this week at ExCel Docklands. Among them is Roger Hedges from Garden Spaces.

"Many people are very interested in our concept of the indoor/outdoor space connection to make a garden room really work in our climate," he says. "People are also surprised by the amount of internal headroom we can create without compromising thermal performance due to our clever floor and ceiling structure that enables us to achieve up to 2.2m of internal headroom and still meet the 2.5m height requirement to avoid planning on most occasions."

Among others who are there this week and have blogged about the experience are Charlie Dalton from Smart Garden Offices and Mark Burton from Tiny House UK. -----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

The Politician's Husband: shedworking drama

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:44:00 +0000

The garden office is coming of age in BBC drama and no mistake. While David Tennant and Emily Watson are the supposed stars of the corporation's latest politico drama The Politician's Husband, what's increasingly taking centre stage is the couple's garden office. In episode one, Emily Watson's character Freya (a rising star at Westminster) is shown to be a shedworker, but in episode two the couple swap offices and her husband Aiden (a falling star at Westminster) takes over at the bottom of the garden. There are some harsh words said about shedworking and being "banished to the shed" but we'll gloss over that and simply revel in prime time television garden office coverage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Mark Owen: shedworker

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:43:00 +0000

The popular Take That singer has taken the BBC on a tour of his garden office - called The Rabbit Hutch - as he launches his new album The Art of Doing Nothing.

The One Show: Shed of the Year and Tiny Houses

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:47:00 +0000

The BBC's The One Show featured fellow Shed of the Year judge Kevin McCloud yesterday discussing the annual shedlike extravaganza. It also had a really good piece on Mark Burton from Tiny House UK and his Tiny House. You can catch up with it on the iPlayer thingy for the next week (link) and the shed talk starts around the 2 minute 45 second mark briefly, then picks up again at 55 minutes 20 seconds when the presenters, Mark, Kevin and Lenny Henry explore the inside of the Tiny House extremely enthusiastically.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Rosy Cheeks: gardens for children's hospices

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:51:00 +0000

Rosy Cheeks, a fundraising appeal to create children’s hospice gardens around the UK, is launched today by the Greenfingers charity whose chairman is friend of Shedworking, Matthew Wilson of Clifton Nurseries and TV fame.

The Rosy Cheeks Appeal aims to raise £750,000 over the next 24 months to build at least 10 new gardens in children’s hospices around the country. Greenfingers has already designed and delivered 39 hospice gardens and is dedicated to creating further beautiful and inspiring outdoors spaces for children with life-limiting conditions to enjoy with family, friends and siblings.

More details at their website. There's nothing specifically mentioned about sheds, but I'm sure that any donations of sheds by UK suppliers would be extremely welcome. -----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

John Shuttleworth's Out of Our Sheds review

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:53:00 +0000

We sent our theatre editor Lisa Thompson to review John Shuttleworth's latest touring theatrical extravaganza Out of Our Sheds and here are her thoughts:

I have disturbing news for shedworkers. John Shuttleworth is not happy in his shed.

He and his organ are in exile, dislodged from the lounge first to the garage where John, perched on an incrementally lowering 28-pack of Sprite from Netto, plays his organ on the deep freeze. Alas wife Mary’s repeated trips to the freezer for chicken nuggets drive him to seek sanctuary in the shed. He can find just two things to admire here: a picture of two hares boxing – ‘Naturally mind, no gloves’ – and the smell of white spirit, caused by daughter Karen’s failure to clean paintbrushes properly. Smells Like White Spirit follows. It is not quite grunge as we knew it.

At this point it also becomes abundant that as an audience we are a disappointment. Mr Shuttleworth claims to be happy playing anywhere with a trestle table, a nice tea urn and his petrol money paid but, while the faint gleam of teeth reveals lines of beaming faces in the dark, on stage, supported only by a bottle of Buttercup syrup, medicated sweets and a banana, Mr Shuttleworth’s attempts to get us singing along falls flat. In the prissy south we are far too self-conscious. It takes nearly two hours, before Austin Ambassador Y Reg finally stirs the audience to song. Behind me I can hear a man quietly whispering along, then with a roar it happens. Shuttleworth achieves critical audience mass, breaking through the Home Counties sound barrier.

But the sacrifices he makes to get to this point. He has shared with us his first bid on eBay, ‘watching a toaster with crumb tray, valuable extra bread width and a mid-cycle cancel button, and dreaming that we may soon be the owners’. It is followed by disappointment in the buyer ‘review’, with the seller falsely claiming willingness to be the Shuttleworths’ friends. A stakeout culminates with the Shuttleworths turning the full glare of the car lights on the house of the toaster sellers. The hand of friendship is not forthcoming. Just a twitch of the curtains.

He shares with us the fine art of acting: how to show distress while talking on a mobile. ‘My wife Mary’s been knocked over by a bus? What number?’. He sings of the trauma of everyday life in suburban Sheffield – a child wasting a perfectly good serving of cottage pie but John has started on his sweet. ‘I can’t go back to savoury,’ he chokes. Two tubs of spread inadvertently on the go. But all his singing and the anecdotes are mere distraction - this is a man hellbent on getting out of his shed.

‘I’m fed up with the shed,’ he says. ‘Why can’t I be in the lounge with Mary? It’s my lounge as much as hers.’ He brightens. ‘Of course, I can go in as a member of the public.’

Pop Up Teashed

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:35:00 +0000

The *TeaShed, a "design led tea, teaware and homeware company" has joined in the with the latest trendiness in retail by opening their first pop up TeaShed in Fenwick Food Hall, Newcastle, to serve breakfasts, lunches, afternoon tea, cakes and naturally a vast quantity of leaf teas. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Shed Sunday: Business Jazz podcast

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:34:00 +0000

Business Jazz is a podcast about "how to be genuinely attractive in business today" featuring shedworker Jane Boyd in Canada and other shedworkers such as Christian 'Documentally' Payne which also has kind things to say about the Shedworking site. The whole podcast is worth a listen but the garden office section starts around the nine minute mark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Transformation of an un-used garden patch into a garden office

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:38:00 +0000

This latest garden studio from eDEN Garden Rooms is located at the bottom of a terraced garden, which has a steep decline. eDEN were commissioned to dig out the area, retain the earth and create a level position for the bespoke garden room. Working together, eDEN and their customer designed an ideal space which fitted perfectly into the awkward garden shape.

The garden studio is broken into two rooms, one small room with a window, to be used for sewing and other creative pastimes and the other room is equipped with a sofa and TV for relaxing while viewing the beautifully-planted garden. Features include aluminium bi-fold doors (which are zero maintenance), underfloor heating, oak flooring, and brushed stainless steel electrical fittings with Red Cedar Wood and aluminium fascias
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Saturday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Why a shed is an ideal place to start any kind of business

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:48:00 +0000

A great piece in the Guardian by Mark Williams who some of you will know from Startup Donut. We had a long chat with Mark and he has put together a brief but telling look at why "sheds are not just for your dad's gardening equipment" and talks to the shedworking entrepreneurs who are setting up their SMEs in back gardens. Well worth a browse. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Curved roof garden office

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:50:00 +0000

A new model from Warwick Buildings, now available for viewing on their show site. It is clad in cedar,and is fully insulated and lined along the same spec as their other garden offices. It comes in at £10,000 and is available in any size as long as you want it 3.8m wide x 3m deep. It's 2.5m to the top of the roof. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Suffolk Barn (video)

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Short but pleasant video of Smart Garden Office's new Suffolk Barn range.

Shepherds' hut safety - a cautionary tale

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:55:00 +0000

"As a keen follower of all things shed I would like to give your readers this cautionary tale," writes Kim Burdon. "My wife, an artist, has used her shepherd's hut as a studio creating lino prints, oil paintings and watercolours. The hut also became a focus for all her influences and likes. Collections of old china, wallpaper samples, treasures from the garden and books. Emily is a professional artist and had spent the last two years building up a body of work ready to exhibit. Imagine her despair and horror when, on the morning of April 16, she turned up at our plot to find the the whole studio had gone.

"Thieves had stolen a trailer from up the road then come down and broken into our plot and hauled the whole thing away, Taking Emily's work, equipment and personal possessions with it. We called the police and they are doing due diligence, but in all honesty it could be anywhere. The hut was in the garden of our new build plot in Medstead near Alton Hampshire and although there were fears that it may possibly fall victim to petty crime or vandalism, we had not anticipated the taking of the whole hut.

"We have a second larger shepherd's hut we have been building ourselves and have taken immediate action to secure it, We have removed one of the wheels and placed a trench and fence across our drive. You can never underestimate what thieves are capable of doing.

"As a consequence of this theft we are keen for any information or sightings anywhere in Britain. Not only the shepherds hut, which has green corrugated iron walls with dove grey roof. A small window to the rear and a larger window in the right hand wall. There is a fitted bed frame across the back wall and the walls and ceiling are painted off white with a mustard coloured painted floor. It also has polystyrene insulation pushed up between the floor joists from below.

"Emily is desperate to retrieve the contents. They may have been dumped, or burned, or there may be a chance that someone tries to sell them on. Any work will have the monogram 'EF' within it. To see the sort of work that was present you can look at Emily's web site at www.emilyfeaver.com."

We asked Richard Lee from Plankbridge for his thoughts. "I would be very interested to know if the wheels were under the sides or set outside. If the wheels are outside the body of the hut it wouldn't fit on a normal trailer - we have adapted a trailer to take the extra width, which is one of the features of a genuine shepherds hut. It would take some doing to take a hut, they are very difficult to load and move usually.

"We often suggest, when people are worried, to put some kind of ground anchor in, and chain the axles or wheels to that. Overall though they are difficult to load on a normal trailer and it would certainly need a winch and a fair amount of time, unless the thieves had experience of moving shepherds' huts... One idea we have been given by a customer is to paint the postcode on the top of roof, which may help I suppose. It's a very sad tale, and I hope Emily gets it all back." -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Shed Sunday - turning a shed into an audio recording studio

noreply@blogger.com (alex johnson) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:33:00 +0000

listen to ‘The garden shed transformation to audio recording studio’ on Audioboo

An interesting audioboo by Jane Boyd. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning