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Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

imkylelambert.com

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Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#141

Post by ungreased0675 »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #56
titanomachy wrote: post #44

Thanks for taking the time to make this detailed write-up! You got a beautiful result, and I appreciate the spirit of sharing what you learned and helping people who are considering similar projects. I'm glad you measured CO2. I've recently noticed I tend to get headaches when working or sleeping in small poorly-ventilated spaces, and I'm surprised how often I encounter new structures without ventilation. I guess tig…

There isn't really any clinical evidence for CO2 levels impacting stuff beyond so called "sleep efficiency," where the effect is small (above 1000 ppm is 5% reduction in sleep efficiency) and it has the counterintuitive effect that less efficient sleep is sleeping longer, which is usually what people want. That said, placebo effects are still real.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2012/10/17/elevated-indoor-carbon...

You are wrong about the impact of moderately high CO2 levels.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#142

Post by JoeBOFH »

blackguardx wrote: post #119
0xffff2 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone has different opinions about this stuff, but I for one found _working_ in the office to absolutely be the worst part. And since Covid, my workplace has torn down old buildings and reduced square footage per employee, so if I went back to the office it would be even worse.

Do you work at Microsoft or is this a broader trend?

It’s been a broader trend of businesses downsizing the square footage when they can and when they can’t they start to mandate in office to justify the cost.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#143

Post by fultonn »

kslambert wrote: post #128

Author here. Thanks for the comments everyone! There are many comments on the price point. I would like to comment on one thing. "$20k is too much" I agree $20k is an investment. Could I have done it for cheaper? Absolutely. Would a DIY shell been cheaper? Would doing more of the work myself have been cheaper? Could I have saved by putting in the smaller stock windows and not having a skylight? Of course! But I am a…

> I am almost 4 years in

Also worth mentioning 2026 - 4 = 2022. Not a great year to be stick building from a cost perspective.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#144

Post by Borealid »

taylorfinley wrote: post #86
veverkap wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you use on the house and on the shed side to convert to CAT6?

You're looking for a "media converter", often sold in pairs for ~$50. Match it to the fiber connectors you buy.

Media converters are effectively a switch, but less flexible. I would buy a switch with an sfp+ port instead and use it with an appropriate sfp module.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#146

Post by bluefirebrand »

marssaxman wrote: post #101
ryandrake wrote: post #3

For work-from-home, I can't emphasize enough how much of a game changer it is to have a physically separate building for your work, especially if you have a family with kids and noise and pets and things. Working from a spare bedroom, even one without a bed / outfitted as an office, is just not my thing. Even if your family "knows the rules" and let you work in peace. It subjectively still "feels like you're home". W…

If what you want is an office you can go to which is not in your home, it seems like it would be ever so much simpler to go live near your actual office, which your employer already pays for, than to move far enough away from everything that you can afford to buy a piece of property, build an office on it, and then have to deal with all the extra driving a remote lifestyle implies. In my opinion it's commuting to the…

> In my opinion it's commuting to the office which sucks, and not working in the office

I'm not a fan of commuting either but for me it's definitely the working in an office that sucks

Maybe if it wasn't an open office bullpen style place but I've only worked in places without private or semi private offices, or even cubes

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#147

Post by jawilson2 »

JamesSwift wrote: post #41
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're relatively handy, a lot of what OP paid for can be DIY'ed. I would have never paid a contractor to do all of that. Probably just the electrical. Especially the Tuff Shed structure. Those things are dead simple, marketed at DIYers, and can be finished in a weekend. Insulation, drywall, trim, and flooring is also child's play. OP could have easily cut the project's cost in half if he wanted to.

Yeah I had the same thoughts about what they chose to DIY vs hire out. Insulation is so simple, and trim can be done at your leisure. But thats also not likely to save much overall since the contractors also know how simple those are.

You're missing the important part: doing all of this WITH A ONE YEAR OLD CRAWLING AROUND AT HOME. You can get things done, it is just an order of magnitude longer that it would take without kid(s).

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#148

Post by doctorpangloss »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #141
doctorpangloss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't really any clinical evidence for CO2 levels impacting stuff beyond so called "sleep efficiency," where the effect is small (above 1000 ppm is 5% reduction in sleep efficiency) and it has the counterintuitive effect that less efficient sleep is sleeping longer, which is usually what people want. That said, placebo effects are still real.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2012/10/17/elevated-indoor-carbon... You are wrong about the impact of moderately high CO2 levels.

i'm aware of this one. clinical evidence - do moderately high CO2 levels CAUSE a disease? afaik no. the test in this study: they measure something real, but it is not used to diagnose someone routinely (despite what they say). they had a surprising result where performance on one of the subtests increased, and some were not affected (see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23008272/#&gid=article-figur...). i am basically saying that, CO2 levels - do they cause headaches like the user is saying? I don't know, nobody has investigated that. 2500 ppm is very high concentration. it merits more study but not a panic.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#150

Post by mindslight »

kslambert wrote: post #128

Author here. Thanks for the comments everyone! There are many comments on the price point. I would like to comment on one thing. "$20k is too much" I agree $20k is an investment. Could I have done it for cheaper? Absolutely. Would a DIY shell been cheaper? Would doing more of the work myself have been cheaper? Could I have saved by putting in the smaller stock windows and not having a skylight? Of course! But I am a…

I'm in the middle of finishing out my own (significantly larger) shed I just had built, basically all DIY except for the structure itself. The number that popped into my head at the start of your post was $30k - each step adds up when you're paying small job overheads. That you did it for $20k is pretty great.
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