Working in the garden with your husband

Maria Varallo used to work in the house.

And her husband Kris worked in the shed.

Now she’s moved into the shed too.

So how’s it going?

I used to work in the house and Kris my husband worked down the garden in the office, which worked well until the whole downstairs of house needed replastering. The sensible thing to do was for me to move down to the office and set up next to him.

The excitement of having the plasterers in overshadowed any concerns of us working in the garden, together in one small space. We had no time to think – as soon as they gave us a date we packed up my little office and down the garden I went.

That was December, the plasterers have since gone and I haven’t moved back.

These are the benefits I’ve found of working in the garden together:

Home is literally home now. No business in the house.
No one has to keep quiet or check out what’s happening with me in the house e.g. Skype calls or Hangouts.
The kids let themselves into the house and know it’s OK to shout or raid the biscuit tin as we’re down the garden.

I love hearing and seeing next-door’s chickens and the dog trying to chase them, again. I can hear a lot more, for example the birds singing, than when I was in the house. Our office is made of wood and well insulated but it feels so close to the outside.

There have been teething problems working together in a small space:

For example, apparently I’m really loud on the phone especially to girlfriends! So calls I often take outside, not so nice when it’s cold as I have walk back into the house.
I do have to wear headphones sometimes for Skype or Hangouts but technology being so good I can move to the house and use the iPad, still amazes me.
I also used to leave the filing cabinet drawers open and he would walk into them. I would giggle and he got bruised legs … so now the drawers are neatly pushed in.

The really, really good thing being down the garden is I have my IT man sitting in the same room. I have learnt to time my requests for help and accompany them with coffee and home made cake.

I thought we would talk more about the house and practical day to day things but we don’t, we talk about the dog and the kids and the muddiest routes to avoid while out running. So no change really.

I would recommend moving out of the house and working in the garden. The commute back home is the space I find I need to move from Maria Varallo to mum, wife, daughter and sister. And with the ever expanding market of gadgets we are always connected and the Cloud is always above (apparently) so it gets easier and easier.

I will add, I do work away from home at least a couple of days a week training and meeting clients so there is variety, we do get a break from one another.

It’s now seven years that we’ve both been working from home, although we do not work for the same company or work in the same business. For me, working in the garden in the same space creates a very good lifestyle.

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