What adds more value: Outdoor storage or small home office?

[DanisEndo]

Hi everyone

We have a first floor, 1bed, maisonette, with large private garden.
Long story short our sale has fallen through so we've decided to stay put for a while and try again to sell and buy a house next year.

We are both working from home, currently in the living room putting up a temporary desk every monday morn which takes up a lot of space and putting it down again every Friday.

I've got this idea to convert our outside storage area on the ground floor into a small home office by blocking the outside door and knocking through a new internal door, it already has lighting and electric access. Currently as you walk in the front door you're straight onto the stair case and the outside storage, as it is, is abit of a dumping ground. We could put a shed down the end of the garden to store the garden things which are current in the storage cupboard.

The big question is: as we'll be selling again next year, what would be more valuable to a potential buyer? An outside brick storage? Or a small office/boot room?

And any idea of how much something like this could cost?

picture of floorplan attached

In a 1 bed maisonette - definitely storage.

If you are going to put another shed up for storing outside stuff I would convert into utility plus office space

The office could easily be used as storage again for a buyer. In your position I'd make it into a nice office, get a decent shed, and make life more comfortable for myself in the meantime. It will sell with an office.

Thanks everyone!

@UnGoogled and @mayblossominapril if it were you would you go with the 'full conversion' and block the existing door and add the new one, or would you just plaster it up nice and access it via the existing external door?

I think it'd be a lot more convenient via an internal door (and would save the slippers on a rainy day!) but not sure if it'd be worth the cost? I'm assuming it'd cost a grand or two

Do you own the freehold? If not, you'd need the freeholder's consent to do the work. You couldn’t sell without it and without ensuring whatever is needed to meet building regs is done - ventilation might be an issue.

@SnowdaySewday thanks for the heads up! It's ex-council so their the leasholders. Would 100% check with them + their requirements before doing anything :)

I'm mainly trying to think of ways to make us more comfortable and it feel a little more spacious here for the next few months/year since this time last week we were a good way into buying a 3 bed house until our buyer pulled out at the last min . It just feels like such an under utilised space down there!

@UnGoogled

The office could easily be used as storage again for a buyer. In your position I'd make it into a nice office, get a decent shed, and make life more comfortable for myself in the meantime. It will sell with an office.

I agree with this: anyone can see that an office can be storage, but it takes more imagination to see that a cupboard could be a nice office

if you go for a desk with drawers & have shelves etc you could also keep a fair amount of storage in the area (doesn't have to be for officey things)

Is the shed double bricked? Or single skin?

@DespairingHomeowner thanks for this - I was thinking to keep it reasonably bare and easy to change around... just nicer than the current state as certainly wouldnt want to sit in there for any stretch of time at the moment, even to change shoes!

@MauveMagnolia Ooo I THINK single? but I could be wrong.... would single skinned be the deal breaker?

In the future I suspect many people will work from
home a lot more. I think a home office with an internal door will sell very well then storage space.
I like the idea of a lockable storage space in the garden.

Internal door is easier, external door gives a bit more of a mental break away from work, which I always strive for.

I think it's a great idea and a huge plus point for the flat, especially if you can easily add storage elsewhere in the garden.

IMHO, internal door is preferable so it's certainly worth investigating costs and permissions.

I'm curious that you get a desk out and pack it away though (I'm facing this scenario myself soon!). Could you not fit a desk under the window in the hallway?

Agree with PP about a desk under window in hallway.

But if you do convert the store and add an internal door, the issue of ventilation could be solved by having a window in the space where the external door is at present. You could also add an airbrick/vent on one of the external walls, as well.
There are various modern proper insulation panels that people sometimes use when converting timber shed into offices. Might be worth investigating?
Re fire regulations, you'd have to be careful that internal door met the required standards, also that it did not obstruct the stairway.

It looks very small? Is there actually room to put desk, chair etc?

As a maisonnette, you would require planning permission for a new shed in the garden.

@UnGoogled

The office could easily be used as storage again for a buyer. In your position I'd make it into a nice office, get a decent shed, and make life more comfortable for myself in the meantime. It will sell with an office.

I agree with this. A buyer could use it as a boot-room, office or storage and I think an internal door is the better option as it is then more versatile.

Thank you for the feedback everyone! I think I'll defo look into it a bit more and see what all the rules and regs say and if its possible :)

@Seeline it is actually deceptively big!! About 2.5m by 2.5m so not a big office/storage by any stretch but defo big enough for a desk set up. We currently have a fridge freezer, big set of shelves, x2 lawn mowers, bike, camping equipment, hedge trimmer, etc etc and still room to walk in.

@MaggieFS Annoyingly in the space by the hallway window there is a big box with the electric meter. It makes the space just SLIGHTLY too small. I do currently have a very small desk there which i occasionally perch on with my laptop if i need to but with two of us working at home (at the OH with a whole proper desk top set up) the big hide-away desk is currently our best option!

Ah right. I did think it was too obvious for you not to have tried it.

I don't know what I'm going to do. DH has been wfh on quite a small desk but I'm due back from mat leave and there's no way I can work on something that small. Might need to start my own thread for ideas!