Why did we go to all this trouble?

Main reason is space – we don’t really have room in the house for me, my keyboards, my office, and the rest of the family. We thought about ways that we could extend the space and came up with several options

• extending the house
• upgrading the garage
• hiring somewhere
• converting a mobile home or a 20 foot container (the ones that they load onto ships)

All these options had major down sides – we can’t extend the house by much, the garage is not suitable and too close to the neighbours, hiring somewhere would be incovenient and expensive.

I liked the idea of converting a mobile home or a shipping container – or even a long wheelbase van – but I though that there would be too many problems – not to mention the fact that a couple of 20′ steel containers in the back garden would probably not go down too well with the neighbours.

Then, wandering around a local DIY store, noticed that there was a range of garden cabins – much more substantial than your average shed or garage – and I got thinking …

… maybe a cabin or wooden building would do the trick.

At this point we realised that the garden was quite large – much larger than where we used to live, or where our parents live – and for the past few years, the kids have had a climbing frame/swing/slide (garden gym I think is the current term) which they had grown out of.

We had space …

Well that led me onto a lot of research – what was available, how thick were the walls – how big could we go … what sort of building should it be – what were the requirements.