Since I own this place I had the plan to renovate the garden house to free up space for all the stuff and tools I own. Coming with this project I also wanted to convert the place into a workshop in order to be able to build things for the garden and other side projects.
This year I finally took the time to finish some of my ideas and let me tell you: A lot of time, work and many drives to the recycling center were involved to accomplish them.
1. Freeing up the Entry
First but very important addition to the house is a little roof/canopy to place my gardening tools underneath. These tools usually have been in the second part of the garden house and/or in front of the entrance to the main room of the house. It was a mess and I am so happy that I built the roof to have a rain protected organized place for all the tools. The canopy is located at the backside of the house so it's a bit more safe from thieves (sometimes there are weird people actually scouting gardens and stealing shovels and stuff here..)
The construction was quite simple and took around 4 hours to finish. The material cost me around 50 Euro so it was also pretty cheap for the resulting huge freedom and organization. I am still a beginner to construction and wood working but this time I did a good job. Other than the task to take pictures of the process but I lacked this skill for the in this post described changes. Sorry for this.
2. Main House Renovation
The biggest thing I have changed is the renovation of my main house/room. The building consists of a main part and (because of regulations) a dismountable second big room with a lot of windows. Garden houses (in those community gardens) are only allowed to be 24 square meters big. You can add a terrace with a roof but the roof has to be dismountable just in case (I don't know what case... but yeah it's law lol)
The main house has been used as a sleeping and cooking room by the previous owners while the second room was the living room. Since I bought the garden I have never used these places like they have been intended to. I stored all my small tools and other crap in the secondary room while keeping the sleeping room as it was "for the time when I want to sleep there"... And of course I never slept there nor did I have used the kitchen for more than cooking coffee.
To finally use the secondary room as a space to chill when it rains or at night, I had to find a way to store my stuff elsewhere so I decided to renovate the main room and convert it into a workshop.
The original furniture of the main house (2 separate beds, a whole kitchen including a fridge and oven, shelves and a big table) took so much space that almost everything had to be removed. Unfortunately I missed taking a photo from the before-state (I have searched multiple devices and did not find any picture).
While removing the kitchen and beds I also had the idea to remove the intermediate roof which contained a lot of wool for isolation. It is not necessary that this room is protected from the cold/heat so why keep that? Also it was at least 30 years old - you can imagine how much moisture built up there and other potential things. (continue reading to know...)
And guess what? That has been the worst part of the renovation.
Between the intermediate and main roofs many small animals like rats, squirrels and probably others have lived over the past years. It is not hard to come to the conclusion that I found kilograms of excrements and stored food I had to deal with.. After taking care of all this I filled the holes in the walls and roof I have spotted to prevent future invasions. I hope that helps ;)
One of the few good things I know about Germany: I am very glad that recycling centers are almost completely free. Only unsorted waste and special toxics cost you money. If you separate wood from metal from electronic devices from paper and so on you are driving there only paying the fuel. This way I was able to get rid of around 10 car fillings of wood, mattresses, decoration stuff, isolation material, kitchen tools and all that with less harm for the environment, for free and in a pretty short time. My garden is located 10 minutes from the next recycling center.
After the removal of everything I built a little additional window. You guessed it: to let in some more light. I have no electricity supply in my garden (I use a 2000 watt generator for my gardening and woodworking tools) and I will need as much light as possible to not need batteries that often. I painted the walls with a light blue color to further reflect more of the few sun rays around the room and have a brighter feeling when I'm in that room. Before it was cozy in there but also pretty depressing with the gray wallpaper of the previous owners.
This is the current state of the inside:
Next step is to install a tool wall storage, shelves and a workbench to fully convert it into a workshop. More updates will follow soon.
Regarding further work on my house: When summer is hitting I will paint the rest of the outer shell by continuing the white blue / white scheme I started with last year.
Over the next weeks I am also going to bring all the other waste behind the house to the recycling center. The previous owner was a psychotic material collector and he also welded a lot for friends, people have told me. I have no experience in (or need of) welding and I absolutely do not need this much metal. There have also been collected wood and other garbage over the years but compared to what I have achieved these recycling center rides are just a side quest. The main storyline is finished and from now on I will enjoy the open world of my garden house so to say ;)
Now that we have spring and soon summer I am going to post more about my garden and future upgrades in more detail. I am sad that I missed taking photos of the process and individual sub states of the transition because I was so focused on finishing this huge project. Next time I will do better.
Thanks for reading and your support which is highly appreciated!
P.S. Please check out the two communities I am heavily invested in:
