Author: modernshed

Room to think

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OLYMPIA — Two years ago, every single room of Olivia’s three-bedroom, ranch-style home in western Washington was occupied.

The mom of two worked from home and she needed a solution. Enter Modern-Shed.

“I have a house that is basically perfect in terms of the location,” Olivia says. “It’s near the school district, it’s near the city, but not in the city. But it’s really small. I needed an office because I was tired of working on the dining room table.”

The single mom worked from home as a psychologist and creative writer, and she dreamed of some day building a tiny house.

“I was looking for local and affordable options,” she recalls. “I had been toying with building a tiny house for a long time and even taken workshops from Jay Shafer and from Dee Williams with my dad. But it would take all year for me to build one. Since I didn’t have a handyman in the house who wanted to do that with me, I decided that prefab made a whole lot of sense.” Continue reading →

The ideal commute

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PORTLAND — Within the first year that Steve started his consulting business, he knew he needed to find a space to work outside of his house.

Steve and his wife, Michelle, and two daughters live in a three-bedroom Portland home built in 1912.

Steve works in accessory and product design, with his hands on everything from watches and eyewear to other wearable technologies for brands like Nike and Timex, while Michelle designs and creates handbags and clothing. 

“I was working in our finished basement, which is a nice basement, but there was a lack of light and still, it’s in the basement and it’s in the house,” Steve recalls. “I started looking at renting spaces or doing a prefab build. My goal was to get a modular system I could build myself.”IMG_4034 Continue reading →

Quality, quickly: An on-island solution

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island get awayisland retreatisland get away-2San Juan Island — In an ideal world, Tom wouldn’t have purchased a Modern-Shed.

The Portland-based attorney loves to build things and enjoys having his hands on a project, so when he began considering building a home office on his family’s property on San Juan Island in Washington, he would have ideally liked to build the office himself.

But, we don’t live in an ideal world, and Modern-Shed helps our customers wisely and efficiently use their time so they can have the types of spaces they’ve always dreamed of.

“I really like building things, but I don’t have the time,” Tom admits. “I wanted a quality product that could assemble very quickly. That was the key criteria.”

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Tom’s 12′ by 14′ Modern-Shed office on San Juan Island

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Relax with a Modern-Shed sauna

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It’s the end of summer, but you can still find time to unwind, especially if you’ve got a Modern-Shed primed for relaxation, like Natasha and Bill. Natasha’s art studio and sauna sheds were featured in July’s issue of Seattle magazine, but she gets to reap the benefits of a Modern-Shed relaxation space year-round.

We spoke to Natasha about her sheds two years ago, and it’s great to hear she’s still loving her shed and enjoying time in her sauna.

DSC_1219 Continue reading →

Portland changes rules on dwelling units

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The City of Portland, Ore., made some big changes this year that went into effect Aug. 1.

To combat the city’s affordable housing crisis, city council members rescinded the city’s longstanding waiver of its system development charges for folks building accessory dwelling units and renting them out as short-term rentals.

For builders who want to build an ADU as a long-term rental, their fees will be waived permanently. Other builders will have to revisit the scope of their project.

What does this mean in plain English?

If you’re building an attached or detached dwelling adjacent to your home (think: tiny house, mother-in-law unit, backyard cottage), you won’t be able to rent it out on Airbnb, VRBO or any number of other short-term vacation rental sites (or not through a site) without paying the city’s very high system development charge — between $12-19K!

If you want to take advantage of the waiver and save $12,000, your dwelling must be rented out as a long-term rental for 10 years.

If the city finds out you’ve been using your dwelling to make extra cash renting it out short-term to tourists, they’ll charge you 150 percent of the original SDC waived.

This all only applies to new dwellings permitted after July 31.

DSC_0784While we have many Portland customers who previously took advantage of the SDC waiver (and who are not affected by this change since they’re not new builds), ultimately, we feel as though this could be a good thing for Portland’s tight housing market.

“Since Portland has more people than housing, rental rates have gone way up with the shortage,” Modern-Shed general manager Tim Vack noted. “If all residents could put a rental unit in their backyard that would alleviate the market. It’d be a win-win.”

What more do you need?

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Here at Modern-Shed, where every employee works remotely, we completely understand the needs of our customers who want to find a quiet space where they can work from home in peace.

General Manager Tim Vack can now say he understands the full Modern-Shed experience — Tim recently took the plunge and purchased a Modern-Shed home office of his own!

Tim’s 8’ by 12’ shed is located on his vacation property on Mason Lake in rural western Washington and offers him a way to stay connected with coworkers while enjoying his favorite place in the world.

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The space to be you

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This 10′ by 12′ Modern-Shed art studio could easily work as a pool house!

Northern California — As many moms know, taking care of children is a full-time job.

That’s what Jewelz learned more than a decade ago when she had her first son, who is now 11.

That job took over her life more and more as she grew her brood with two more sons, ages 10 and 8, and a daughter, age 5.

For nearly just as long as the time that she’s been a mom, the California artist knew she wanted her own art studio.

“With four kids, I had to take a break from doing art,” says Jewelz, who primarily enjoys watercolor painting, pen and ink drawing, stippling and is now interested in linol printing. “Now that my youngest is 5, I was able to get back to it.”

However, there hasn’t been much space in her family’s home for her work.

“I leave my art projects out, but we have a lot of playdates, so we always have some little friend helping out with my projects. Which, you know, is not the direction I want to go,” she says. “I needed my own space.” Continue reading →

Social Media Spotlight: Visit us on Houzz!

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Houzz is known as the premier social media platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and professionals together in a visual, collaborative experience.
On our Houzz page you can find photos of past projects, ask questions of specific sheds, save an idea for later, and more!
Scroll through our projects, drop a comment and don’t forget to leave us a review if you have a Modern-Shed already!

3 Tips for Designing in Small Spaces

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When you’re looking at decorating a small space, simplicity is key.

Many of our Modern-Shed customers realize this when they purchase one of our sheds. A small art studio hardly has room for a lot of clutter, but an artist still needs a place to store all of their materials, from small brushes to large easels.

Here are some tips we’ve culled over the years from observing our stylish customers. Continue reading →