New Eden Prairie company provides custom four-season backyard buildings, in either the do-it-yourself or finished product variety

By John Molene

No backyard shed was ever like this.

Step into the yard building of the future – perched in a lightly wooded corner of Gerald Walsh’s Eden Prairie yard.

Inside, this is what you find, in this model anyway – a backyard home office with just about all the utilities and creature comforts one could ever want or imagine.

Along one corner of the 10-by-14 building, there’s a large desk which holds a computer and printer, with shelves above and below. There’s a mini refrigerator in another corner. Along a second wall is a small comfortable sofa and tables, which face a large flat screen television on the third wall. The fourth wall consists of double French doors which open onto the garden. There’s overhead lightning. The walls are self-healing cork with an integrated iPod music system.

The room includes a garden window, cement-board siding, stone-covered steel roof and a stranded-woven bamboo floor.

Prices range from a low of about $7,000 for a mini office kit to $23,000-plus for a larger outdoor building.

 “Basically, it becomes a miniature house, except there’s no plumbing,” said Gerald Walsh, owner and head consultant of Getaway Spaces.

The features of the garden office make it a great space, while “green” technologies make it an economical and earth-friendly space, added Walsh.

Walsh launched Getaway Spaces in February with a debut at the 2007 Minneapolis Home and Garden show, showcasing the garden office space building now set up at Walsh’s Eden Prairie home.

Walsh’s company designs and builds the four-season backyard buildings. The structures can be customized in an almost limitless number of designs and uses. Some of the possible uses include backyard offices, art, writing or pottery studios, exercise, poker or game rooms, playrooms, climate-controlled storage, hobby spaces, libraries, home theaters or home school classrooms.

Walsh envisions most buildings will be used by homeowners as backyard and/or garden office spaces or studios, but it’s the functionality and flexibility of the buildings that has Walsh excited.

“If you put one in as a home office, you get to work in your home, but you’re still able to get away from home,” Walsh said. “You’re 10 steps away from home.”

The buildings are constructed of advanced structural insulated panels (SIPs). The standard four-inch panels outperform an insulated six-inch “stick-built” wall, Walsh said. Optional six-inch walls provide more insulation.

Add a 3.5 amp electric panel heater, high-efficiency windows and doors and the high performance value allows the owner to heat the 140-square-foot building in the dead of a Minnesota winter for about three cents an hour.

While a single 20-amp service provides ample power for heating (3.5 amps) and electrical outlets, the addition of a high-energy air conditioning system requires a minimum of a 30 amp service.

The stone-coated steel roof provides additional ventilation, 120 mpg wind and hail protection. Cement-board siding, soffits and fascia complete the weather-resistant, long-life exterior. The cork walls and bamboo floors are produced from renewable resources, while a high efficiency air conditioner provides quiet cooling.

Walsh is nothing if not excited about the possibilities for the four season spaces.

“To me, this is what is going to replace stick-built houses,” said Walsh. “It’s a higher cost initially, but after you recover heating and air conditioning costs, it’s so much less.”

As for the design, “we can do virtually anything,” he added.

Several California companies are building such outdoor spaces in that state, Walsh said, but none were adapted for a Midwestern climate. Walsh collaborated with a Cottonwood, Minn., manufacturer – Extreme Panel Technologies Inc. – to bring the buildings up to local conditions.

The foundation system eliminates the need for a cement foundation, while providing excellent support and wind resistance, added Walsh, a licensed contractor. The buildings sit on 4x6 pieces of ground-contact-treated lumber anchored to the ground. The lumber sits on four inches of compressed aggregate. Angle irons and lag bolts secure the building to the foundation and lag bolts are anchored into the floor beams.

The panels are brought to the site, hand-carried to the desired space and then assembled in days. There are no tractors, or landscape damage and none of the dirt, dust and disruption that comes with a typical remodeling or addition project, Walsh noted.

“Start to finish takes about three to four weeks,” Walsh said. “And there’s no waste when we’re done.”

The spaces are also very versatile, allowing the buyer to add windows, choose a different style and decide on virtually every element of design and finish.

Getaway Space will provide the buildings in either a kit or turnkey status, or anything in between – all designed to the owner’s needs, wants and specifications.

The kits are the ultimate do-it-yourself option and include wall, floor and vaulted roof panels, doors and windows as specified, a foundation system, all materials to assemble the panels, a half-day’s on-site assistance for do-it-yourself owners and a high-efficiency electric heating system.

Either Walsh or another Getaway Spaces employee will assist do-it-yourselfers with site preparation, panel assembly instructions and finishing options. Kit prices range from $7,880 for the 8-by-12 little office space to $12,205 for the 10-by-16 studio space.

Bigger, in this case, means you actually get more for your money.

“The smaller you go, the more expensive it is per square foot,” Walsh said. “You’re basically building a house.”

Homeowners can do the project themselves, or contract with Getaway Spaces for shell assembly, exterior finishing and electrical work. Getaway Spaces will assemble the shell at prices ranging from $1,764 to $2,817.

Getaway Spaces will work with buyers to ensure the space conforms to all local and state building codes.

For the owner who just wants to step into a completed space, turnkey packages include roofing, siding, windows, doors, floors, exterior and interior finishing. Prices begin around $17,000 for the small office space to $23,000 for the studio space.

“What you have is just a real solid building when it’s done,” Walsh said. “One you can use for just about anything.”

For more information on Getaway Spaces, call 612-396-1050 or see the Web site: www.GetawaySpaces.com.