The construction of my office shed has generated some buzz from my friends and family. It seems that many people I know have contemplated the construction of their own shed. The questions are pretty much the same: How much did it cost? Did you need permits? And, can you send some pictures. I will be as detailed as I can with the my experience and include the information that you all want the most. I hope that you all find this information helpful.

With the pending arrival of our second child it was becoming quite apparent that my home office would soon be a nursery. My wife and I did discuss the option of purchasing a larger home to accommodate our growing family but then, through debate, decided that we really did like our neighborhood, the proximity to the park, and more importantly our comfortable monthly mortgage payment.

So, to plan B.... Would we create more square footage or would I no longer work from home? This debate lasted about 5 minutes. My wife likes me homes to help with our daughter and I like being outside of the office setting. The nature of my business, selling Orange County, CA Real Estate, affords certain luxuries one of which is a flexible work environment........which I intend on capitalising upon.

With that question answered we then had to decided whether to build up, build out, or build away. Again this was an easy question. The cost, time, and hassle of a room addition was something that we did not want to endure. So now the plan was set. I would work out of a shed in the back yard, yippee...

After about 2 weeks of research and discussion we decided that we would build into our slope in the back yard. This decision was definitely more costly than simply building the shed on the flat area of grass but we were able to save our usable space and utilize and area of dead space for the project.

Here's a picture of the area before the shed was built.

With the shed location now defined the next step was to determine the need for permits from the city. It turned out that my city in particular did not require that I obtain a permit for my "shed" so long as it is 120 square feet or less and respected the rear yard set back of 15 feet and my neighbor's fence of 5 feet. So, I opted for the 10'x12' "Tall Peak" shed from a company called Quality Sheds.

After a bit of haggling we agreed upon the out the door price of $3000. This was to include one 6'x4' window with grids on one side, two 2'x3' windows with grids in the front, an aluminum door with a 9 grid window plus knob and deadbolt lock, and finally two more 3'x2' windows opposite the large window.

Now that the shed was picked out and a build date was set the next important step was to be sure that they had a foundation to build on. This step was much more labor intensive and much more expensive than I had originally estimated. The job entailed the removal of 20 yards of dirt, the removal of a peach and apricot tree, the building of 41 lineal feet of 3 foot tall retaining wall, and the pouring of a 4 inch thick concrete slab for my office to rest on. After a bunch of bids with prices ranging from $9600 to $3200 I decided to go with the contractor that bid the project at $4000 but I had to arrange and pay for the "low boy" dumpsters myself. The amount of dirt being removed called for the order of two 10 yard capacity dumpsters at the cost of $875 total.

The dirt removal, block wall, and the concrete slab took about 2 weeks to complete. It would have been done much sooner but the work crew had about 5 days of scattered showers to contend with. I must admit, the crew and contractor that did the work were great. They (3-4 men) arrived at 7am every morning and worked until 5pm each night. They worked clean and were very courtesy and respectful of my home. Check them out here, http://www.25dollarhomerepair.com/

Sergio was the contractor (714-618-2697) who did all the dirt and concrete work and eventually did all the electrical and interior finish work . He had done a complete "down to the stud" rehab at a property I sold and from what I saw at that property I pretty much knew that I would hire him for my project. All I was hoping for was that his bids were competitive.

Here are the pictures of the foundation and block wall:

The shed itself was constructed in about 6 hours by the 2 man team. The finished product from the shed company was an exterior siding that was primed and an interior of 2x4's.

My contractor, Sergio, did all the electrical work. This consisted of 10 outlets, 6 recessed lights, 1 exterior light, 2 switches, 2 cable lines, and 3 phone lines all powered by 3 new 20 amp breakers in my electrical panel. We decided to run 3 lines to the shed so that I wouldn't overload any one line. My office equipment uses one line, the A/C another, and the last line powers all the light and remaining outlets. They ran 2 conduits from the shed and through the retaining wall 24 inches deep. One conduit was for the 3 new power lines and the other for my cable and phone lines. The conduit was run up the patio post and into the eaves of the house. From here I had a junction box installed in case I wanted to add lights or fans to my patio cover in the future. The conduit then ran from the junction box to the panel and into the 3 new breakers. The cost of the exterior electrical was $950. I paid my contractor $450 for his labor and I paid about $500 for all the materials. Permits for the electrical cost me $243. Since this was my first time ever pulling a permit I was surprised by the fact that they charged per outlet, switch, and light.

With the structure built and the wiring ready it was now time to complete the interior finish work. My contractor and I worked out the arrangement that I would pay him $2200 for all the labor and that I would pay for all the materials separate. The materials consisted of the following: Romex for the interior wiring, boxes for all the outlets, the outlets, the switches, the phone jacks, the cable jacks, the face plates, the 6 recessed lights (the airtite variety that can be places against ceiling insulation), the R-13 insulation, the dry wall, the orange peel texture coat, the door and window casings, the window trim, the baseboards, the bamboo flooring and felt pad, primer for the interior and for the exterior trim, a few gallons of paint for the interior and exterior, an air conditioner, and most importantly a plasma TV for the wall. The cost of all my "finishing" materials was roughly $2200.

Since the crew was here already I had them lay slate pavers in the landing to the above right of the shed. I've been meaning to do this for a while but haven't had the time for the energy to complete it. The cost of the pavers was 33 cents per pound at about 1000lbs. The cost for this was about $350 which included a few bags of sand to level it all out.

The total cost of the project including the TV and other accessories has reached a total of roughly $13,818. A couple more hundred has gone into the installation of the water feature and a few new palm trees and other assorted plants. When it's all said and done the set back is about $14,000. I had originally tried to stay within a ten thousand dollar budget but that was before I realized the expense of larbor and materials to construct the foundation and block walls. I could have cut corners in other areas (i.e. the tv, carpet instead of wood, a lamp instead of recessed lights, ecetera) but, I figured with the amount of time I spend in my office it made more sence to make it comfortable.

Here are more pictures of the finished interior:

And, more of the finished exterior:

And, finally..... Move in day:

On a final note, I received the question of how I plan to keep the office shed secure. The solution I found to be the most economical was a battery operated alarm system that I found at Home Depot. The alarm comes with a key pad and a motion sensor that will alarm (quite loudly) if the code is not imputed once motion is detected.

I hope I answered your questions and I welcome any comments or additional questions you have.