Inside an InsideOut garden room

Garden room and garden office brochures and websites are full of photos of the outsides of garden rooms, but the inside is just as important.

Our clients often send us photos of the inside of their InsideOut and below are some examples.

Some clients go for a clean efficient look: -

Garden office in Hertfordshire.

or an art deco feel: -

Garden studio in Yorkshire.

Whilst others enjoy a den in the garden: -

Garden room in Surrey

Or lots of open space: -

Garden office in Sussex.

 

And what is in the walls, floor and ceiling, keeing these people warm and condensation free in their offices and rooms at the bottom of the garden? Either 200mm of Rockwool or Sheepswool insulation. Having an eco-friendly garden office isn't complicated and doesn't require high technology. It requires high quality, low energy building materials, locally grown wood and a well thought out design.

No need to have three points on your licence

If, like me, you do occasionally leave home in the car and if like me, you drove slightly too fast past the local speed camera, don't accept the points, do the speed awareness course.
Speed awareness courses are well thought out, not patronising in anyway. see http://www.nopenaltypoints.co.uk/SpeedAwarenessCourse.html

The Horrors Of Travelodge

We often have to stay in Travelodges when touring the UK visiting our garden office clients. We use them because there is one in every town, their website is very easy to use and they allow you to bring your dog.
But we don't stay there through choice.
As soon as the dog is old enough to be trusted in a smaller, more intimate space we will be reverting back to staying in pubs or bed and breakfasts where ever possible.

The whole business in run on the doubtful premis that they are the cheapest hotel. They rarely are, unless you want to stay in the back of beyond on a Saturday night.

Here are seven thing you should never do in a Travelodge.

1. Never move the sofa in the family room. You don't want to know what has been left underneath it.
2. Never expect the plumbing to work correctly. You will find a cynical little notice tied to the towel rail suggesting that you help save the planet [they mean help save their laundry bill] by not having clean towels every day, if you are staying for more than one night. Meanwhile the bath trap will be dripping and will have been dripping for months. We have experienced this in Stowmarket Travelodge. We stayed in the same room on two occasions, months apart and the tap hadn't been repaired.
3. Never stay in the Stevenage Travelodge. The central heating system shakes and vibrates and the staff tell us that this has been going on for a year without the manangement doing anything to fix it. It seems is cheaper/easier for them to refund money to customers that complain than fix the heating.
4. Never expect the floor to have been vacuumed. I've never heard one or seen one in a Travelodge. But do be reassured that we dog owners have paid an extra £20 so that the room can be 'deep cleaned' when we have left. The dog normally does the deep cleaning by eating all the items left under the sofa. See point 1 above.
5. Never expect there to be a picture on the wall or .......
6. In the newly refitted Travelodge rooms never expect enough space to be able to put anything down, hang anything up or store anything.
7. But the biggest NEVER of all. Never expect any response or useful comment from their customer services, who can only be contacted by email or letter.

TO BE FAIR: -
Any finally, in smaller, rural Travelodges you will meet kind, helpful and friendly staff who have to fend off complaints because the Travelodge management are not interested in giving their client a clean, well maintained, basic hotel room. They are only interested in the bottom line.

Do you want an elephant or a goat in your garden?

If you have never bought yourself a peice of original artwork before, the place to start is http://www.ironfairy.co.uk/ and their metal sculpture. We found their workshop near Kenmore in Perhshire, when we were in Scotland last week. I think the rest of the world discovered Heather and her mother, Morag, before we did. But, if you want a goat made from a car radiator, a daschund made from a fire extinguisher or any other bird or creature to brighten up your life and make you smile, this is the place to go.
[We bought a flock of swifts - photo coming soon.]

How to boil an egg

A close friend of mine is 62 years old and doesn’t know how to a boil an egg. I have carefully questioned other friends and egg boiling seems to be a sensitive subject that all adults need to face at some point in their lives.

I think that most people can’t boil eggs because they fear failure and can’t be bothered to read long instructions.

It takes Delia Smith 856 words to tell us how to boil an egg, but it is her job to be exact. http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/eggs/how-to-boil-an-egg.html

So, here is egg boiling in as few words as possible.
Take a risk and dare to get it wrong the first couple of times.

1. Put eggs in your smallest pan and cover with water.
2. Bring to boil and boil for two minutes for a soft egg. Slightly longer for a very large egg or a firmer medium sized egg.
3. If the egg cracks – it doesn’t matter, unless you are running a B and B.
4. If the egg is too soft - boil it for longer next time.

The best eggs are bought from someone who sticks a sign outside their house saying ‘free range eggs for sale’…..

Don't move, build an office in the garden

There comes a time when suddenly your home is too small. The walls close in and the stress levels creep up: -
1. Working from home seems like a good idea, but the reality is different. You either hog the spare bedroom or spend the first and last hour of the day setting up your office on the kitchen table.
2. Your children are growing up and need more space.
3. Your mum would love to come and live with you but the idea of trying to squeeze someone else into your home is alarming.
4. You want a room of your own where you can listen relax and listento music without being disturbed.

What are your options? -
You can sell your house and move on, a depressing thought in a slow moving housing market. How much time and effort will it cost to trade up?
Or
What about an extension/loft conversion?
Or
A room in the garden?

Expanding your home into your garden is a realistic option. You can build a fantastic garden office, granny annex or den for your growing family. InsideOut Buildings based in Lancashire have a solution for each situation and we are not talking about a pre-packed box or shed to plonk in your garden. We are talking about individually designed and built detached extensions for your garden.

Imagine working from home in a purpose built, highly insulated office, and think how much more productive you are going to be. Or having your parents to stay in a detached guest suite. You can even have a loo and shower installed, or how about a woodburning stove? This is the way to improve your life.

“But I haven’t got time to organise this” you say. No problem. Everything is taken care of from day one. InsideOut Buildings project-manage and oversee the whole process. If you need planning permission, they make the application for you. They have the experience and knowledge to design garden rooms that blend into your existing lifestyle and they make the whole process as easy as possible.

InsideOut buildings are designed with the environment in mind. Their buildings keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter through careful use of breathable, eco-friendly insulation, not sweaty plastic insulation. Lighting is energy efficient. Building materials and wood is sourced within the UK. Nothing needs preserving or treating with chemicals. The running costs of your new building will be low. Your new building will make you look at your existing house to see how you can make energy saving changes.

Doors and windows are hand made by a small specialist UK window Company and painted to the colour of your choice. Double-glazing means you can work, sleep and live without the irritating noise of the local dog or lawnmower disturbing you. Even better, at the end of the day you can just walk out, leave everything as it is, ready for the next day.

Do you buy your stationery online?

Euroffice is offering a 15% discount to blog readers if you visit http://www.euroffice.co.uk/Ecoupon_Landing.aspx?code=GOW15

Euroffice is the UK’s largest online home office supplies company has an extensive greener office range including recycled envelopes, stationery, paper and pens. You will also find extensive range of office furniture, cheap printer ink cartridges, & lots more!

The garden office and the Climate Change Committee

25% of Britain's CO2 is created by badly insulated homes and 25% is caused by car journeys. The Climate Change Committee suggests that as part of a series of measures, more people should work at home to reduce car journeys. This is very sensible as long as it doesn't just push the problem sideways.

Large companies can 'improve' their carbon footprint by sending their workers home, but what if their employee is working in a either: -

A badly insulated 'shed' office - "lets by a log cabin and line it with some metal backed plasterboard"
or
An office in the garden made from SIPS [structurally insulated panels] which are a sandwich of OSB board insulated with polyurethane?

SIPS were designed for building houses with and have to be combined with sophisticated air circulation systems to make them comfortable to occupy. So, make a small garden office with a SIP and you have a man-made, sweaty box with no natural air movement that then needs an air-conditioning unit. No electricity saved.

There are companies, such as ours that are thinking about this and making a difference. An InsideOut garden office uses breathing technology and is built from low impact materials.