The news is full of doom and gloom about the terrible winter we are having, although we are only in the second week of bad weather.  Swine flu has gone, the Iraq war is over and Afghanistan is now a peaceful place once more, or so it seems.  Instead of the news that has dominated the airwaves for the last couple of years we are being bombarded by reports of a small bit of white stuff falling from the heavens which has, once again, ground Britain to a halt in a matter of hours.

The first wave of bad weather has come and gone for most, but the weather people who failed to predict it in the first place are saying more is to come.   One thing comes to mind, other than the fact we all can’t cope with snow in this country, is that there is a stronger need to be able to work from home for quite a large proportion of the snow bound workforce of the U.K. 

Technology has come a long way when it comes to networking and PC based office work.  Computers are smaller, much cheaper and more powerful.  The ability to connect to the office is only a click away and with file sharing and networking more widespread than ever we could easily continue to do our jobs from the comfort of our own home.  I for one could be writing this anywhere and could post it to the internet from on a plane for all anyone knows.

With the snow falling and blocking us all in and industry losing millions daily isn’t it about time we figured out that we don’t all have to lose a day’s pay because we can’t get to the office, especially if we had thought ahead and invested in a home office.  If we had a designated and ‘hooked-up’ area of our home that can easily allow you to work without going to the office then business would continue to run even in the whitest of winters.

But what are the best solutions for home office working? Working from a room in your house may not be the answer, especially when the kids are home from their closed school. A more convenient and more productive place to work is undoubtedly the garden office.  You will still need to be able to separate your home and working environments to be able to keep productivity high.

By utilising a log cabin or converting your garden shed you will be giving yourself that distance from your home without having to leave your property.  Snow wouldn’t be an issue, loss of pay wouldn’t be a worry and we might not be too bothered about the wet white stuff falling so annoyingly during winter.

To view a range of excellent Log Cabins fit for use as a home office visit: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins

If you want to go down the shed convertion route visit read our popst insulation: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/blog/post/2009/12/02/A-Brief-Introduction-To-Shed-Insulation.aspx

I’ve always struggled with the concept of gyms. Obviously they are there to help you get fit and lose weight, but fundamentally they are there to make money from us unfortunate people who like cake too much.

I’ve been to a gym, i’ve been a member of a gym. I did get fitter and the weight had started to slide away and, dare I say, I might have even started to tone up – even build muscle. And for my brief time at the gym, once I had gotten over my embarrassment of looking like a wimp in a room full of exercise fanatics, I had started to enjoy going.

Then after a year I stopped going and stopped being a member. Mainly because it cost me a lot of money and I had to book my time and drive too far to get to it. My motivation was not strong enough and my ever emptying bank balance was also informing my opinion that it might not be a great idea to keep going.

However, if I had the facility to train at home and knew that once I had paid for my gym equipment then I could go whenever I wanted and train for however long I wanted without being asked to move on to the next piece of machinery by an intimidating beef-cake of a guy, I might be persuaded to take it up again. After all my jeans are getting a bit tight.

Placing a log cabin in my garden would create the perfect environment for my Log Cabin home gym as I have no spare rooms and I don’t think that the floor would hold the equipment anyway. I’d be able to go at least twice a day, if I desired, and use only the gym equipment I needed to use and after the initial payment I would never have to pay gym membership again.

An added bonus would be the day light and fresh air that I would be able to take advantage of, which I never received when I drove ten miles to the gym twice a week, to help me train longer and more efficiently.

I thought about putting in a plasma screen and a surround sound system for music videos to watch whilst training, a fridge and maybe even a shower, if I could work it in, and I’d be right at home.

For further information and to view a range of log cabins click here: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins

Space is of a premium in the modern world, space and time and with the world creaking to breaking point below our feet we have started to change the way that we live our day-to-day working lives.

With the threat of pay as you drive tax looming up on us, getting to and from work will become more of an expensive option and with spiralling fuel prices we may all be soon looking at ways of doing more of our office work from home.

This may not be a bad thing as; ‘...the Home Office Computing Magazine has conducted a study and found out that 96-98% of people who work from home are happier than they were when they worked at an office. And every single one of those business owners said that he/she recommends this lifestyle to others.‘*

The main issue for most of us, if we could work from home, is the distraction of all the things that are there that we keep separate from our working day, such as the TV, games stations, our pets and other things that signify that we can relax and forget about our office life completely when we get home from work.

First of all you have to get over the novelty of working from home and continue to separate your working duties from your home life. This is much easier if you have a designated area to work from. A spare bedroom is normally the first place that people think of when considering working from home.

However, you are still losing a room and when Great Aunt Mildred comes to stay and your office is closed down you once more have to make the hike back to your real office to get on with your day-to-day employed role.

A real solution is to create a space where you can work that takes you a short way from your house and it’s distractions and Great Aunt Mildred, a space that allows you the comfort of your home and its close proximity for amenities and a space that removes the problem of driving to work and all of it’s associated costs and stresses.

By utilising your garden and constructing a Log Cabin home office you will achieve this separation and improve your productivity and improve your health. You’ll even get away from Janice the annoying new girl in HR that keeps bugging you and because the log cabin is situated in the garden you will benefit from the natural daylight and fresh air that often fails to penetrate in to the spare bedroom that you may have previously considered using.

In the end the log cabin home office is the real solution for working from home and you get to decorate it and transfer all of the things in to it to make it an even more friendly and inviting working environment, that you want.

You’ll be able to put more effort in to your work in less time than if you were in a busy office where, generally, there are even more distractions than at home. You may find that you work so well from your log cabin that your boss promotes you for your improved hard work, although we cannot guarantee this.

For further information and to view a range of log cabins click here: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins

*Taken from: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/increase-personal-productivity-by-working-from-home-office...

Garden Buildings Direct is proud to introduce the BillyOh Pathfinder ‘Woodman’ Log Cabin. Our growing range of log cabins has been complemented by this wonderful new arrival and adds to Garden Buildings Direct’s standing as one of the leading log cabin manufactures in the country.

The Woodman has stunning features, beautifully crafted windows and doors, as well as verandah rails and floor. The two top opening windows filter light into the ample space of the interior adding a heightened sense of space and the roof overhangs adding protection the interior from damaging UV rays and rain.

This building is a perfect single home office space set in a the natural environment of a back garden that can be used to get away from the distractions of a busy household when trying to work from home.

Making the BillyOh Pathfinder ‘Woodman’ Log Cabin a unique building is the craftsmanship that is highlighted by the use of 19mm interlocking boards maximising the structural integrity of this garden building.

Take a look at the product description here: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins/BillyOh-Pathfinder-Woodman-Log-Cabin

Your garden is looking great, the flowers are growing, the vegetables will taste amazing, the lawn is the best it has been in years and the barbecue has been used several time already and it’s only the middle of May. However, when you put the barbecue away there’s no place in your shed, because of all of your gardening tools filling it, and for some reason you’ve started storing the barbecue in your log cabin, which is fine, but you’re getting a bit fed up of your cabin furniture smelling of burger fat and there is a faint veil of ash floating around the air, which has started to settle on... well... everything.

It’s the same story with the kid’s bikes and now ‘the wife’s’ using the log cabin as a gym there seems to be lady’s dumbbells and aerobic steppers everywhere. Your retreat has become more like a storeroom and all that money you spent on building that little bit of luxury in your garden seems to be going to waste. To top it all you can’t, or rather your wife won’t, get another shed, ‘I’m not having another shed in my garden’, she says.

So you are left with a dilemma, you can’t get rid of the things you are secreting in to your log cabin, but you don’t have anywhere to put them otherwise. What you really need is something that will complement your garden and it’s existing buildings without look out of place or cluttering up the place. If you could extend your log cabin then you would have an answer to the problem.

Garden Buildings Direct is proud to introduce the BillyOh Pathfinder ‘Lean To’ Log Cabin. This handy and aesthetically pleasing addition to your log cabin gives you the elegant storage space you have been looking for without taking anything away from the beauty of your cabin and therefore your garden. It is 5’ x 7’ and is a compact, but stylish building. It has three sides to allow it to be fixed to the outer wall of an existing building or brick wall, it has solid roof and floor and the 19mm thick boards make it strong and secure.

Return your log cabin to what it was supposed to be, a relaxing place to allow you to make the most of your garden without cluttering it up with junk, garden tools or gym equipment.

Take a look at the product description here: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins/BillyOh-Pathfinder-Lean-To-Log-Cabin

If, like many, you have found that you need to extend your living space and an extension on your house is not an option or you require a home office, but cannot afford to sacrifice a bedroom, a Log Cabin is the ideal solution.

Log cabins fulfil a whole range of spatially orientated problems, such as a need for that home office, a hobby room, play room or summerhouse, and are a safe, secure and highly stable building to take on these needs when expanding your living space. There are, however, considerations to consider when choosing a building like this:

Why Buy From Garden Buildings Direct?

QUALITY THROUGH EXPERIENCE

With decades of experience our skilled craftsmen have utilised their knowledge to develop a range of high quality log cabins to fit any budget, but without lowering the standard of production or finish.

Quality and price are two contributing factors that most customers would agree form their choice when purchasing any product and when it comes to a substantial buy, such as a log cabin, these two factors are paramount.

Garden Buildings Direct are proud to have some of the most aesthetically pleasing and best designed, log cabins on the market and the price isn’t bad either. We strive to lead the market in these matters, but want to make it clear that there are other factors that you need to consider when finally deciding on which company, and therefore which product, to go for to fulfil your garden building needs.

THE PRICE IS THE PRICE

There are no hidden extra charges when purchasing a Garden Buildings Direct log cabin. We include the V.A.T. and there is no delivery charge to pay in the UK*. You get everything you need to build your cabin so you won’t have to head to the shops for nails and screws.

With Garden Buildings Direct’s log cabins you get a whole lot more than you might think as we strive to make the whole purchasing, delivery and construction experience as simple and straight forward as possible and make Garden Buildings Direct second to none in the industry for log cabins.

Our Log Cabins come with high quality roofing felt and the fixings required to make your building water tight with a highly professional finish and we manufacture and send out high quality pre-assembled windows and doors for you to use in the construction of your log cabin, which make your purchases look and style stand out from any other building.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

We are always listening to our clients with regards to how we get the very best information to our customers when it comes to how the log cabins are constructed and how best to explain, through our instruction manuals, how simple, straight forward and quick they are to build.

Garden Buildings Direct’s instruction manuals are designed in a simple and easy to follow step by step format to help the customer build their log cabin as quickly, efficiently and as safely as possible. We give you as much product protection information as necessary to allow you to get the most out of your building and to extend it’s life span. We set out in an easily readable format of what you get in your building’s construction pack and what fixtures and fittings you will receive for easy identification when construction begins.

In short Garden Buildings Direct set out to make your purchasing and construction of our special buildings as easy and straight forward as possible. We know that our log cabins stand out from our competitors because of these factors and the service we provide.

Why not visit our web pages to view our range of Log Cabins: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Log-Cabins"

A handy log cabin buying guide is also available here: http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/Article/log-cabin-buying-guide