Oh Hail, the Mighty Summerhouse

I’ve got my crowbar, I’ve got my compost heap, I’ve got my wheelbarrow. Next on the shopping list for any self-respecting man is a shed, or failing that, a summerhouse in which he can loll, keep his tools, and generally mooch about.

We (I?) have set our heart(s) on the summerhouse with the verandah, so we can sit on the porch in the last light of a summer’s day reading books to the sound of the passing trains. Or we can hide behind glass looking out at wetness so thorough we daren’t even dash back to the house for fear of being washed away. Both options will be there for us. We have plans to put in electric and the wifi should reach from the house, so we could always work out there if the mood so took us.

We plan to paint it like a wood-sided out-house from New England. According to the guy in Premier Sheds on the end of the road, (and I love the fact that we have a shed shop at the end of the road), we can pretty much choose how big we want the summerhouse to be. 7’x5′ is my size of choice at present, though an extra foot deep might mean its two functions, storage and comfortable sitting, play better together. We’d have to pay a bit more for a bespoke size, but in the long run it might be worth it. One restriction on the size is we need to ensure we can get the component parts through the house. The back door is at the end of a short corridor accessed by a hard right from the thin passage that runs along the side of the stairs, and we’re limited in what will get around the bend. I think a section 6 feet long should pass, but I need to make some measurements before I can be sure.

We might well open up our summerhouse to visitors from the capital when London Open House Weekend comes around. After all, this will be a building of architectural wonderment.