Garden Cabins – How To Choose The One For Your Garden

Take a moment to imagine your garden. The birds are chirping, insects buzzing, the wind moving gently and gracefully through the plants and trees. What is missing in that picture? You sitting with the doors and windows open from your gorgeous garden cabin with a cool glass of iced tea, a book and a sense of utter contentment, of course!

Garden cabins are the hottest home improvement and garden trend these days. Trust me, you need one.

Why In The World Would I Need a Cabin In My Garden?

People choose garden cabins for a number of reasons. For some they are a guest house, offering people a place to stay as either visitors to their home, or even renting it out as an AirBNB accommodation. These usually have working bathrooms, running water and mini kitchens in the unit.

Others are less expansive. They can be workout rooms, reading nooks or just somewhere to relax and get away from the main house. Some are even greenhouses with increased functions, which is a great way to get a bit more out of things.

Garden Cabins VS Gazebos

You might be wondering why you wouldn’t just get a gazebo. After all they are the same thing… wrong! Gazebos are open, covered patios or decks that are detached from the house. Garden cabins are actual miniature versions of houses, or single room dwellings. They offer something more, like the ability to sit out in the garden on rainy or winter days.

Though a gazebo can be an awesome addition to a yard, a garden cabin really improves the value of your house. Plus they are just nicer.

The Cost of Buying and Maintaining Garden Cabins

The cost of garden cabins can vary. Some will be as little as a couple hundred for what is essentially a fancy shed. Others can be up to ten thousand for a fully functional guest house style cabin. Usually they range in the $3,000 – $6,000 range.

Maintaining them depends on what materials you use. Log cabins require restaining every three to five years, costing between $3,000 and $5,000 during that time. Other materials used probably won’t need that kind of work, though it is a small price to pay for such a gorgeous extension to your home.

Examples Of Incredible Garden Cabins

There is no end to what you can do with a garden cabin. Here are ten examples of incredible ones people have made.

1. The Guest House - These people have chosen to built a guest house style of cabin that allows them to rent out to travelers who need a nice place to stay. It is in a gorgeous garden and works as an alternate form of income that offsets the initial cost of building the cabin.

2. The Japanese Garden – A touch of Japanese culture overlooks a Japanese style stone and water garden. This is another hotel accommodation that takes it a little further, offering its own deck, hot bath and more. As you can see, anything is possible that you wish to design.

3. The Low Roof Vermont - This is a cute little Vermont style cabin that has a very low roof. That might be a problem for some people, but if you aren’t that tall or are building it for children (garden cabins makes excellent playrooms) then it could be a great and affordable option.

4. The Summer House – This adorable summer house uses a classic country style with open windows to take advantage of the natural light during the summer months. It is similar in many ways to a solarium, an old fashioned room that was used for people to get a bit of indirect sunlight.

5. The Triangle Cabin – A unique design really makes this cabin stand out. They have made it into a little triangle that tucks it neatly into the corner of the garden while eliminating wasted space. This wouldn’t be good for a guest house, but might be nice for a little relaxation room, meditation space or home gym.

6. The Dorset Log Cabin – Have you ever wanted an office but didn’t want it to be stuck in your house, in that little unused bedroom in the basement? Some people are choosing mini log cabins in their garden as the place to work. Just imagine doing business with the doors open to the fresh air and sunshine. It is a great alternative!

7. The Contemporary – These contemporary log cabins are made either as primary homes, or as garden cabins in smaller forms. They are custom made for each customer but you can see examples of how they are using modern designs to make something truly in this century. So if you are a fan of today’s architecture and want something that matches it these are gorgeous.

8. The Malvern – This cabin uses top to bottom glass windows that also operate as doors, swinging from the inside to let in as much light and air as you want. Open one or open them all, you have total control. The look isn’t quite as stylish with the gray paneling, but it gives us a general look at the design choice, which could easily be implemented into trendier blueprints.

9. The Pods – For those who want something ecofriendly, these pop-up pods are just the thing. The contemporary design is open without offering zero privacy. The roof can be seeded to add additional plants from your garden that actually grows on top of the cabin itself. They tend to be pretty small but cheaper than you would expect. Not to mention easy to erect, unlike many other styles that require full construction.

10. The English Country – This tiny but adorable garden cabin gives us a taste of the English countryside. It has a very genteel look about it, something that you would expect in a movie or novel. It has more privacy than most of the cabins on this list, though still offers windows that can be opened or closed. The double swinging doors are a nice touch that give it a bit more oomph.

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Hawaii Employment Law And Litigation Basics – How To Draft And Implement A Litigation Hold Policy

Electronic evidence is quickly evolving into one of the most difficult areas of litigation to navigate. Hawaii businesses, especially human resource managers in employment disputes, must understand that it is extremely important to work closely with counsel to determine the extent of their discovery obligations. Once the preservation requirement arises, Hawaii businesses must map out a sensible data gathering plan to minimize business disruptions and to avoid possible sanctions.

1. Ensure the Company Buys Into What is Needed to Comply With the New Discovery Rules and Allocate Sufficient Resources.

Convince other managers/decision makers to make retention policies/electronic discovery planning a key initiative. Those employees need to understand and appreciate the risks of court-ordered sanctions for the improper destruction of documents or electronically stored information.

2. Understand Basic Retention/Hold Issues.

Understand that a litigation hold is required when:
(1) The Company receives a demand to preserve the record(s);
(2) the Company is aware that a lawsuit or administrative action has been filed;
(3) the Company receives a preservation order from the Court, OR;
(4) litigation is reasonably foreseeable. Understand that a record is stale and therefore subject to destruction where the record no longer has any operational, business or legal value to the Company, any applicable retention period(s) has expired AND the record is not subject to a litigation hold.

3. Draft and Review Policies on a Regular Basis.

Draft appropriate policies, such as retention and computer usage policies, and communicate with and train employees on them.

Understand that a retention policy should limit how long information is kept and that “business related” documents generally should be retained at least for the amount of time established by statute. A document is “business related” when it documents a specific business related event or activity, it demonstrates a specific business transaction, supports facts of a particular business related event, activity or transaction, or it relates to specific legal, accounting, business or compliance issues.

4. Have a Plan to Preserve Documents.

Understand when preservation obligations are triggered and work with your IT department, Administrative and Executive personnel to formulate a plan. The goal should be to incorporate necessary retention requirements with organizational needs to establish not only a retention policy, but also a policy regarding the manner in which documents will be stored or organized when the hold arises.

Ideally, the Company should have a response team in place when preservation obligations are triggered comprised of individuals from various departments within the organization such as Human Resources, Information and Technology and Administrative.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1)(B) and 26(f)(3) now require parties early on in a case to disclose the category and location of electronically stored information and the forms in which they would be produced as part of the mandatory disclosure process. Accordingly, it is important to be prepared early on in a case to specifically discuss with your attorney preservation issues, network systems, procedures, storage, and locations of potentially relevant electronically stored information.

5. Understand that “Electronic Evidence” May Reside Not Only on Computers, But on Other Electronic Devices.

Information Technology (“IT”) professionals need to understand more than the technical side of computer network and Human Resource managers need to know more about the technical side of the computers/devices used by employees. IT should be able to help you determine to what extent “Instant messaging,” home computers, laptops, PDA’s, flash drives, floppy disks, CD ROM’s, voice mail and similar devices both retain and communicate electronic/digital information.

On the other hand, understand that the IT department might not be aware of every server, hard drive, and file location and the impact the discovery rules may have on IT-driven policies/procedures.

6. Have a Response Team Prepared at all Times.

A response team should be comprised of individuals from various departments within the organization. The team should also communicate early and often with legal counsel.

7. Educate/Train Employees on the Importance of E mail.

Electronic mail essentially launched litigation into unknown territory that many employers have still not addressed with policies and/or training. One of the best steps you can take is to educate and train your employees on the potential that e-mail will be the “smoking gun” or at the very least used against them.

Employees think that when they delete an e-mail from their computers, it is gone and erased for good. Of course, that is an incorrect assumption. Employees need to understand that e-mail is not private, and that the employer reserves the right to inspect and view employees’ e-mail and on-line activities at work.

8. Understand the Impact Metadata will have on the Production Process.
Fed. Rule Civ. P. 34(b) permits the requesting party to specify the production format for electronic documents. When the production format isn’t specified or if the responding party objects to the requested format, the responding party must state how the information will be produced. The default production format may be a form (or forms) in which the information is “ordinarily maintained” or in a “reasonably usable” form.

The federal discovery rule changes may not promote self-regulation. Courts will likely get involved very quickly in discovery disputes involving electronically stored information. The issue whether the producing party must allow metadata to be viewed by the requesting party may have to be decided by the Court since the issue is relatively uncharted area.

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The When and How of Modern Art

Over and over again, there have been debates surrounding the origin of modern art. Some believe it to have originated in the initial years of the 20th century while others claim that modern art refers to contemporary art which has its roots in the recent past, i.e. around 1950. According to the Tate, modern art begins in 1900.It cannot be that one fine morning in 1900 gave way to modern art. The inception of modern art can be much ahead of 1900. In 1863, Édouard Manet painted Olympia- a portrait of a Paris prostitute. Many critics claim that Manet’s style in the painting is queerly flat, displaying lack of emotion and even of desire. This off-the-track painting is regarded to be the pioneer of modern art by some critics. But if Manet bore a different style then how can one classify the radicalism of The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)- an orgy of sex and drugs floating free of pictorial gravity?On a rational level, there is one artist who can truly be called modern- the Spanish artist, Francesco Goya. Known for his depiction of madness and war, Goya continued to surprise his admirers till his death in 1828. However, Italy can take the entire debate even further back to the disturbing realism of Caravaggio, who died in 1610.If modern art is all about originality and novel experiments, then Michelangelo (1475-1564) stands unparalleled. It was he who pioneered the idea of artistic originality. If the current generation artists pride themselves on abstract art, then Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà is none the less abstract than Brancusi.Herein rests the irony. Once you push modern art to Michelangelo, the term becomes meaningless. Every generation tries to break away from the past. When we admire art as modern, we do so because it appears to be urgent and meaningful in the current scenario. The same can be applied to a cave painting or a Frank Stella sculpture.

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