Garden office

ben

I am running out of room in my flat and am wondering whether to have an office-outhouse type thin built in my back garden. Does anyone have any experience of this or someone they could recomment to give a quote? I don't need something fancy - just a reasonable sized space in which I can work, get wi-fi, and not freeze in the winter or over-heat in the summer. My garden is quite a good size.

miss annie

You might find this helpful ... <http://www.shedworking.co.uk/>; Roald Dahl, Dylan Thomas and George Bernard Shaw all did their best work in sheds, good luck.

ben

Thanks Miss Annie.

The other thing I have considered is seeing if anyone in the area wants to rent me a room to use during the day, Monday to Friday. I am an academic, and just need a space in which to work from November, once I become a father and life at home becomes chaotic.

Any interest anyone?

rainbow_carnage

Wow. Some of these 'sheds' are bigger than my flat. Most are nicer. Perhaps I should stop worrying about shared ownership and invest in a shed.

A writer friend works from a shed at the bottom of her garden. She lives in California, so she doesn't have to worry about heating it. I imagine it gets very hot in the summer, though.

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krappyrubsnif

i put a shed in the back garden to work in, but now it's full of garden tools. Very effective for a time though.

dorothy

I may have space, Ben. I've just bought a house, there's a small office room at the top, which faces the garden, and it's kind of, in the trees. I've seen bats from up there. I've got all my unfinished craft projects in there, but it's not a great use of the space.

dett

Hi all,

I've been lurking on here for a few weeks, but this thread has finally inspired me to come out of the woodwork and post my first comment:

Ben - a friend of mine is establishing a business building just the kind of office/ outhouse/ garden room you are looking for. Check out his site at http://www.3rdspace.co.uk.

ben

thanks dorothy and dett.
@dett I will check out the websit
@dorothy I will whisper to you in a minute.

@misscara my work is pretty portable: a memory stick and a few books and articles are about as much as I would ever be carrying around. But I find it hard to work in cafes, partly because there are too many distractions, partly because the chairs are never that comfortable, and partly because, despite the fact that I know that most coffee shops are happy for people to linger, I always feel guilty about doing so, and end up consuming far too much caffeine. I also quite like to have a radio on some of the time as background noise (but not on headphones). So I guess I would want somewhere reasonably comfortable, where I could make myself cups of tea and have a radio on.... and use a wi-fi connection. Some weeks I might be there most days; others none.

The advantage for whoever might rent me a room would be that I would be in to receive post etc. I might even be able to feed a cat.

I am very trustworthy and reliable - Colette can vouch for me.

In the meantime, what do people think would be a reasonable amount to pay? I have no idea.

krappyrubsnif

What are you working on? Or is it rude to ask?

ben

Not at all rude - especially since I am a 'penologist', which actually sounds slightly rude, depending on maturity level.

Basically, I do research on prisons - often in prisons. I have written quite a lot about 'the prisoner society', how prisoners adapt to prison life, what everyday social relations are like (hierarchies, friendships, etc), drug culture in prisons, and so on. I am currently writing up a comparative study of public and private sector prisons. My department is in Cambridge, but I get to work from home quite a lot.

ADGS

Does this mean you can put DVDs of <i>Oz</i> down as tax-deductible? If so, result!

ben

I guess I could. I have thought about using it as a teaching aid, as it represents reasonably accurately what some US prisons were like in the 1970s.

ben

Hi Dorothy,

Re the above, would it be possible to come and have a look at the room sometime? Perhaps you could whisper me back to suggest a good time.

Ben