Shed Stories
Father & Son Backyard Offices
Nearly 10 years ago we received an inquiry from Jay M. He was curious about our products and loved our modern designs. The client was growing his family and business and was ready to move his work space out of the confines of his house as space was becoming limited. He looked into the commercial property landscape, contemplating renting a small office to work from but didn’t want to commit to a long term expensive lease.
Jay's Urban Shed was designed to tie into an existing terraced landscape feature. The client desired to contrast his backyard office's appearance from his house as he wanted the office to remain an independent and unique space.
Although indoor meetings have not taken place since the pandemic, he jokes, “I've conducted meeting with 3 other people in the confines of my backyard office, and this work place has been pandemic proof long before public health guidelines”.
Fast forward about 10 years and the client contacts us again, but this time looking for a space for his university enrolled son to work in and grow his own small business. Knowing the success of his first backyard office it was easy for the dad to see the value of working from home and pass it along to his son.
Jay loves his commute, his work-family balance, and the freedoms his backyard office has given him.
Work Appeal
Our client, JJ lives in a small community just outside Calgary, and works for a US based technology company. This allows him to work from home and could potential live anywhere in the world but chooses to keep his family rooted in southern Alberta. A large portion of his job consisted of daily video meetings and many calls to clients all over the world. He found his house presented a very challenging environment to work from. Pets and family were a continuous distraction and for the well being of everyone, he needed to move his work space out of the house.
We designed his backyard office with a few targets we had to meet.
• Keep within budget
• Generous amounts of natural light
• His office needed to be comfortably heated and cooled (our simple HVAC system easily handled the -40c winters to the +35c summer prairie weather)
JJ is now the envy of his work peers during corporate video meetings and has said he was able to boost his productivity and value at his organization. “From concept to final, every step of the way was clearly laid out with expert communication. Our new structure is not only functional but gorgeous, I could not imagine a more perfect space”.
Garden Crafter
Mr. E and his family live outside of Calgary on a beautiful acreage. He wanted to create a space where his wife could let her gardening and crafting passions flourish. They proposed a few ideas they had seen online for inspiration but needed the three-season room robust enough to withstand the harsh climate and built to follow the Alberta building code.