Not even two years after moving into their 1919 Seattle bungalow, which they bought at the start of the pandemic in 2020, Natalie Rohde and her husband, Patrick Haig, had a problem. The couple were busier than ever at their marketing and tech start-up jobs, each finding their calendars filling up with video calls and struggling to figure out how to juggle them from home. Not to mention, they had their hands full with an active toddler and were expecting another child.

“When we moved in, there was an existing one-room shed in the backyard that we turned into our shared office,” explains Natalie. “But every night, we found ourselves looking at our schedules together and negotiating thirty-minute slots for calls the following day.” The winner would get the quaint yet chilly, uninsulated backyard office, while the loser got a dark and cramped workspace in the basement. Neither was ideal.

Before the work-from-home mess, the couple had been in touch with architects Tony Salas and Ben Humphrey, who had recently launched their firm, Linework Architecture, about updating their home. “We envisioned an expansion for them with a new bedroom wing, but it was a million-dollar-plus project,” recalls Humphrey. “After a nine-month hiatus, we got an email from Natalie and Patrick with the subject line ‘Tiny project?’”

$11,123 Foundation	$12,590 Wall Finishes	$8,289 Roofing
$463 Hardware	$4,480 Electrical	$818 Lighting
$1,957 Windows & Glazing	$1,200 Doors	$952 Metalwork
$2,980 Furnishings & Decor	$5,037 Architect/Design Fee	$750 Waste/Debris Removal
$537 Insulation
Grand Total: $51,176

Setting their sights on more immediate needs, the couple asked Salas and Humphrey to design a cost-efficient replacement for their backyard shed, a split workspace where they could both take calls at the same time. The catch? The couple wanted to build it themselves. “We knew we wanted it to be a speed- and budget-driven project, and my dad, Rob, is a retired general contractor who had recently relocated to Seattle, so we asked him to help,” explains Patrick.

With the existing shed’s 110-square-foot platform as a constraint—going bigger would have required permits—Salas and Humphrey designed insulated sibling offices divided by a soundproofed wall. Each space has a built-in desk, one at stand-up height for Natalie and the other at traditional desk height for Patrick. Slight bump-outs at the desks—the designers call them “saddlebags”—allow space for computer monitors and keep the offices from feeling cramped. So do the 11-foot ceilings, which have a four-foot-tall band of clerestory polycarbonate panels that provide perfectly diffused lighting for Zoom calls during the day and make the shed glow like a lantern at night.

The project total came close to $51,000, and the couple estimate they saved around $60,000 by relying on Rob’s contractor know-how and finish-carpentry expertise. Harder to quantify is the energy saved by not having to battle over the calendar or deciding who gets relegated to the basement. “Before, it was this constant decision-making about where we were going to work and if it was going to be quiet,” says Natalie. “Now, after the morning chaos of rushing around and the kids going crazy, we come out to our offices and it’s just peaceful.” Patrick agrees: “It’s separate. It’s mine.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Linework Architecture / @linework_architecture

Structural Engineer: Swenson Say Faget

Carpentry: Rob Haig

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Budget Breakdown: A Seattle Couple Build Twin Backyard Offices for $51K—No Permit Required