A storage shed can be put to many uses - from backyard barn, to pool cabana, greenhouse, or office. But how many sheds are versatile enough to be used for three out of four purposes? That’s what I’m setting out to with my little saltbox shed. I’m looking to carve out a little home office space in the shed, outside of the home. I started on my quest this past weekend …

I made two essential purchases on Sunday: a new Linksys wireless router and a new copy of Thoreau’s Walden in paperback.

Now I’ve been using my shed to store the lawn tractor and miscellaneous tools for a decade or so. And I’ve used the potting bench and south facing sloped windows to start the garden vegetables for a number of those years. But I’ve never really seriously considered using the shed as an office until now. (Alas, we can forget using it as a cabana, as we don’t have a pool … or a pond … cement or otherwise.)

Our old Airport had just enough range to bring the Internet 100 feet from the house out the shed, but the signal was never strong and it was only 802.11b. When it conked out a couple of weeks ago, there was no alternative other than going faster (g for now, we’ll worry about n later). The new unit blasts the signal throughout Ranchero Indebto with gusto. Now there are plenty of bars out in the shed. (But a cooler might be nice once it gets warmer, come to think of it.)

Winter’s been ridiculously mild until this point, but we finally landed a cold snap this week. I walked out to the shed today to see how habitable it would be in 30 degree weather with a considerable wind blowing from the northwest. While the south-facing windows provide lots of free solar heat, our little barn has its share of drafts. Not wanting to freeze for my art, and with no source of heat, I’ll save my backyard office excursions to the more temperate days.

My home office shed needs are rather modest. The next task at hand is to clear enough space in the shed to drop in a lawn chair and table. I’ll live with what I can scrounge up from the garage, for the foreseeable future. This is strictly a low-budget home-office annex. The only purchase I’ve planned is a new battery for the laptop.

There’s something to be said for reading Walden while ensconced in a shed.

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[tags]sheds, storage sheds, walden[/tags]