Shed Office – Office, Shed or Sh’office;

Having noticed that quite a few people out there have more than one hobby, i thought about my one and only hobby, as i stick to just one, that’s Treasure Hunting…

Now in my opinion Treasure Hunting has more than enough off shoots to keep me going for ever, but i do have a particular penchant for Metal Detecting, my long suffering family allows me that privilege, although i have questioned there loyalty, especially when they kicked me out of the landing office, & into my new home outside… In particular an old brick shed, as old brick sheds go this was watertight with one tiny window, and needed a few minor bits doing to it to bring it up to scratch, so my new home for everything was going to be renovated before i moved into the new space, i am told that apparently this brick shed was far more suited to the dust and the dirt i constantly brought into the house, or so i am told… the girls set about repairing my new home with the help of my son in-law who refloored the pitted and scarred old concrete floor with a dark grey tile, which has made the task of keeping it clean and tidy very easy indeed [- not good enough in the winter though, when the cold creeps through the flooring and gives you freezing feet, so i rest them on a tiny wooden stool -] once the floor was completed the next part of the renovation work was going to be the re-pointing of both the outside & internal walls, which was completed by my wife, that sorted the rest was up to me, i then added a few key point fixings internally, which allowed for the shelving and weight bearing counters to be installed later, the next task involved me installing 3″ polystyrene insulation all around the internal walls and ceiling, this was then boarded over with the key points marked out, then a new kitchen worktop was put in, with the shelving being put above & below the counter, and to complete the cosiness a five-foot-wall-mounted heater was placed near the floor to keep my new abode warm and damp free, happily both have been achieved as i have an expensive array of equipment & some very costly and sentimental books, not to mention the other bits and pieces gathered over the years, which all now co-exist in my own space…

Once the internals were workable, and most of everything were in place, the external got a small patio outside the door, which is just big enough for a bench & a table and two, a few years back i managed to secure a couple of bits to finish off the overlapping threshold, which consisted of a customised paving, depicting Fossils… ah who said shed life was difficult..

Before moving in about eight years ago, my collecting of wot-nots had far outgrown my personal living space, with space at a premium even before i moved in, any remaining space has been rapidly swallowed up, and to make matters worse if i lose anything that i am working on indoors, it invariably has migrated into the “shoffice”; nine times out of ten it has just been put on the chair, ready for me to put away, as you can see even after all these years it is still crowded with books, magazines, detectors, hobby related items, half finished projects, scribblings etc-etc… even the door has to bear the weight of my hobby by holding detectors, backpacks and various pieces of equipment…

after a massive cull three years ago, this is really a project on its own, i suppose it is my other hobby, trying to keep on top of the contents as it spills out & over from one place to another… lots of finds to sort out, bottles to clean, things to do, busy-busy, but the space is coming on nicely… my motto is “i am getting there”