Garden library or potting shed? Help me choose!

[Vernatts123]

DW and I (both 26) are about to have a boost to our finances that leaves us with disposable income to invest in our home. We have 1 DD (9 months) and my wife’s sister is staying with us till July 2023. We are also thinking of having DC 2 in around 3 years time. I hybrid work and my wife is out the house 9-5 , 95% of the week. My current office is also our dinning room and ideally I need more space. We are generally frugal and our outgoings are fixed for a number of years (we’ve factored in childcare), both have secure jobs.

Our plot is a 3 bed semi with 100ft long mature back garden, front part is a pergola veranda dining area and rear is currently occupied by a small greenhouse and a dilapidated workshop that’s been on the plot around 50 years. The garden backs onto a greenway about 13ft wide by 500m that separates neighbours at the back but serves as an access lane.

My two hobbies, that give me space and keep me sane are gardening and collecting/ reading old books. Gardening I can work out of the greenhouse but it’s small and my wife would like a summerhouse where it’s situated. All my books are currently boxed away due to SIL moving in and her room will become DDs when she moves out so that nursery is ready for DC2.

We are considering a loft conversion but prices are far outside of current budget and this would only free up the nursery which is a box room.

My two options I think are as follows:

1. Spend around £500 fixing up the workshop into a potting shed (16ft by 10ft). This would boost the gardening no end and allow me space to work on the greenway with neighbours. However wouldn’t be a space I could work in for my job.

2. Finance around £250 a month for 8-10 years, a garden room from Green escapes or similar to use as a library and reading room, could also function as an office

Would appreciate thoughts/ advice!

thanks :)

if you can afford the £250 a month without over stretching yourselves, I would opt for the garden room. Having a separate office space would be an essential for me working from home a lot every week.

Can you keep the workshop as well, as I couldn’t manage without my shed for gardening, unless you have a garage for storing things. i would still choose the garden room over a shed though in your position.

The garden room will cost about £30k. Will it add value to your home? Will it still look good in ten years?

I would renovate the workshop so that is usable.

I would endure working in the dining room until sil moves out and then make the box room your study.

I'd bin books and buy a kindle - and I love books, have bookcases in almost every room, but I wouldn't be spending £30k to display them.

And I'd save the cash to move when/if dc2 comes along.

I wouldn’t finance a garden room- will be massively expensive for what you get once all is paid. Having a garden office could be really useful, but I would save for it in advance before committing- in the meantime do up your potting shed and enjoy!

If you collect books, have you looked into the preservation conditions eg heat, humidity etc? Because most garden rooms I’ve seen wouldn’t be suitable for storing a collection.

I’ve seen books left in summer houses literally go mouldy due to damp. You are unlikely to heat it consistently all year around and this takes a toll on paper due to the way water vapour in the air behaves at different temperatures. For that reason, I wouldn’t buy the garden room with a view to turning it into a library.

A potting shed would be cheaper and if you don’t buy one, you will still need somewhere to put the gardening stuff, start seedlings etc so it seems like the logical first thing to buy.

If your books are currently in boxes, have you considered ceilimg shelves around the living room, hall, landing and/or bedroom? We have put our own up in every house we have owned, about 1-2 feet below the ceiling safe from pets and kids.