Backyard Home Office Build (43 Pics)

Obligitory Final Product

This is the result of about 4 months of work on my backyard office.

Foundation is where it all begins

I made the base 8 x 10 using 3 treated 4x4s on concrete pavers with 2x4 joints 16" on center. It's so important to take the time to square and level the base. Also, I took the time to compact the concrete blocks to help ensure the foundation wouldn't settle. Doing it over again...I think I might have chosen to do concrete just for longevity sake. We'll see how long it lasts this way.
Floor before flipping

Sheeted the floor with 3/8" OSB
Flipped floor and installed 3/4" OSB subfloor

I flipped over the floor now so the 3/8" OSB is facing down against the 4X4's. Then I installed R13 insulation between the floor joists on the OSB and finally installed 3/4" OSB on top of the joists.
Walls framed and started rafters

Walls are framed using 2x4's 16" on center with a height of 92" so I could use an 8 foot sheet of sheething / T1-11 siding and go down to the 4x4's. The back two walls (against the fence) are not sheeted but are done with T1-11 siding. The front and right side are sheeted with 3/8" OSB.
Finished rafters and roof base

I decided to vault the ceilings and build rafters using 2x6's 24" on center. There are some good youtube videos showing exactly how to calculate / design your rafters. It was tricky, but once I got it right, I used one for a template for all of the rest. The roof was also sheeted with 3/8" OSB with a 8" overhang on the sides and 12" overhang on the front / back.
Roof papered and begin facia

I installed tarpaper on the roof and began installing facia boards.
Roofing begins

Here the roof is being shingled. Pretty straight-forward...just followed the package directions.
Windows and doors installed

Here the walls are wrapped with tarpaper and the windows / doors are installed. I couldn't bear to spend the money for real house wrap...I think this will do fine.
Exterior trim installed

The exterior trim is installed with a nice extra little bit of flair. It wasn't much more work but I like it more than a simple box.
Begin siding front and right side

I decided to side the front and right side of the building with LP SmartSide lap siding instead of Hardie and I'm happy I did. It was so easy to work with and really turned out looking good.
Lap siding finished

Starting cedar shake accent on gable front

I used a pack of cedar siding repair from the orange store to do the shake. It was actually pretty easy to do and matches my house exactly!
Shake completed

Cedar shake is completed using the same overhang as the lap siding.
Siding overhang tool

I made a little tool for measuring the siding overhang using a leftover trim board. This worked great!
Siding finished

One more shot

Digging electrical trench

Luckily the yard was mostly soft topsoil...digging didn't have to be as deep as usual because I am using a GFI'd subpanel on the outside of my home to service the building.
Pretty big rock

It sucked to run into this big rock right before the end of the digging...
Recessed can lights installed

I used shallow halo IC rated can lights in the 2x6 roof joists and they worked well.
Electrical boxes installed

The electrical boxes are positioned and nailed in.
Front view of recessed lights and rafters

Inside wiring

Here you can see the subpanel with 14-2 romex and cat5e wiring for power and data / phone cabling. There ended up being 4 dedicated circuits in the office. 1 for lights, 1 for outlets, 1 220v for cadet heater and 1 for A/C outlet.
More inside wiring

More inside wiring
Wiring lighting

Wiring lighting
Hanging 5/8" ceiling drywall

This is pretty tough to do but I eneded up building a "T" shaped wooden holder using some 2x4's and trim board to wedge under the sheetrock while screwing in the drywall.
Hanging drywall

Drywall being hung on the walls. I just used 1/2" drywall. This wasn't too difficult to do. I did the walls without any extra helpers (which wasn't really possible on the ceiling). You can see the insulation a bit in here as well.
Mud and taped drywall

Here is a shot of the drywall mudded and taped. I just used the paper tape rather than the fiberglass mesh. It was pretty easy to do. After doing a couple of seams, I had gotten the feel for it.
More mudding / taping

More mudding / taping
Wall texture

I've always like a knockdown styled texture and I also didn't want to have to rent / buy a texture gun, so I built a texture "dopper" (a round piece of wood lag screwed into a thick dowell with leftover stapled insulation wrapped in a plastic bag.
Laying on the texture

Here you can see what the texture looks like before being knocked-down with a drywall knife. You just take the dopper and dip it into texture and then blot it onto the drywall.
Close-up of the texture after being knocked down

Close-up of the texture after being knocked down
Another angle of the texture

I really was happy with how the texture turned out and it was not expensive at all. I used one box of premixed texture and spent $10 on wood for the dopper.
Free floors on craigslist

Thanks to Zach on craiglist for hooking me up with free laminate flooring. I picked up about 150 square feet for free and about half of it was not in perfect shape but I was able to get the 80 square feet I needed in nearly perfect condition.
Another angle of the floors

The floors came with foam attached so I just layed this down on top of the 3/4" plywood floor.
It's starting to come together

It's starting to come together. You can see the framed in A/C unit which is just a standard window A/C unit that can be removed and replaced if needed. I bought two of the exact same model on craigslist for $40 a piece so I would have an exact fit replacement just in case. Walls are also painted a light / medium grey. I think they call it "greige".
Installing interior trim and finishing electrical