We love our shed, just love it. We live in a large house, but as a family enjoy nothing more than congregating in the summerhouse, come rain or shine. The weather doesn't matter a jot, nor does the time of year. We even had a barbeque in there one freezing January day this year! Yes, the shed is definitely the place to be, and we have had some wonderful times in there. My sister's fiancee (who now also loves the shed) found it quite bemusing when he first met us. As he said, you live in the most amazing house, with loads of space, yet you like nothing more than huddling together in a little wooden hut! I think he thought us a little eccentric at the time - now he doesn't think it, he knows it!
The summerhouse started life as a small farm shop, then became a campsite hut in Devon. My father and I brought it home to Yorkshire in 2009, and erected it in our walled garden. We had a clear idea of how we wanted it all to evolve, and set about our creation using re- cycled materials already to hand. We re-roofed it using very old tin sheets saved from a demolished farm building (my mother loves to hear the rain on the tin roof during summer storms). The roof joists and uprights of the attached bar and covered dining area were made from a long-dead oak tree; the side, front and shelves of the bar were made from old Yorkshire boarding (saved from the aforementioned farm building); the bar top is made from planks from a demolished warehouse; the rail at the back of the covered dining area is an old telegraph pole. Inside the summerhouse, the shelves were made from wood saved from the bottom of an old pig hut (the wavy edges were a result of the pigs chewing at the wood). The sink is a huge old catering sink, with a cupboard made from old floorboards built around it. The furnishings are all other people's cast-offs, and are remarkably comfortable!