Shed, Garage or Workshop?

**bitingmidge** · 28th June 2004, 12:57 PM

When did the shed become a shop?

Another pondering about the loss of our language I think, or doesn't it matter?

Once I had a shed, my father had a shed, or a "garage" as the bit of under our house where he played was called, even though it was never designed to fit a car in it.

In my youth, I think "workshop" was a term reserved for places where mechanical work took place, but I am not sure that my recollection on that is correct either, and may have been gleaned from the pages of Popular Mechanics, because I know they were "garages" or "motor garages" a cabinet maker's shed was a "cabinet works" or "joinery", just as a sailmaker still works in a loft even if the loft is at ground level.....

I think I have the only Salad Roll Shop in an American Chain of 20,000 "Sandwich Stores", so when I tell someone that I'm going to be in the shop for a bit, they naturally don't expect to find me in the shed.

Problem is that the new "shed" is actually part of the house.

While living in the house temporarily pending major renovation, I set up my stuff in what was a rumpus room and discovered that there was a lot to be said for being able to wander into the shed in slippers and jammies (not that going to bed coated in sawdust and glue does much for marital harmony).

Consequently, after a re-think, the rumpus room /home theatre) became "provision for" and the garage relocated adjacent to it. Now I have one space with only a door separating it from my office and our living room.

Is it still a shed? Shed sounds soooo blokey, but playroom isn't descriptive enough, and workshop is surely just a bit pretentious.

Should I call it my workshop...surely not my "shop"? I don't work in it, and I certainly don't sell anything. I'd prefer to refer to it as my "work area" rather than adopting the American terminology; is that just being too pedantic?

Maybe it's still "the garage".

Where do the rest of you hang out?

P

**ozwinner** · 28th June 2004, 01:12 PM

In my studio darling.

Choa, Al

**silentC** · 28th June 2004, 01:18 PM

I definitely hang out in the shed, even though it's actually the sub floor area under my house. There is a garage attached to it, which is the bottom story of a two story addition, but it's called the shed too. To make it even more confusing, I have an old tin shed out the back that houses the lawn mower and whipper snipper. It's too small to 'hang out in' though.

I would certainly never use the term 'shop' in any sentence related to my shed. The shop is where I get my milk and bread. A workshop is a wanky corporate term for a loooooong meeting that always seems to extend into or beyond lunch time or require compulsory weekend attendance. Yanks at it again....

Yep, I hang out in the shed. I'm an Australian boy and I need my shed.

**journeyman Mick** · 28th June 2004, 01:35 PM

I say shed as it is a shed, about 45M away down the lower end of our garden. I sometimes refer to it as my workshop because I do work there and make things for profit (marginal sometimes

) and to differentiate it from the three storage sheds that I have (another on the way). My wife calls my shed "the man cave", which I like

.

Mick

**DavidW** · 28th June 2004, 01:36 PM

I have a 3 bay garage, with one bay set up as a worksh....er work area

, although set up my be to strong a term.

When I go out there I usually tell the boss I am going out to the garage, however when I eventually get a free standing structure to do woodwork in it will definetly be called "The Shed".

**DaveInOz** · 28th June 2004, 01:46 PM

Your garage is for your car
A workshop is for craftsmen
A shop is where you get milk
A shed is where you put all the crap that doesn't belong in the house.

I have a shed - which one day I hope to call a workshop. (I'm one of those things that shouldn't be in the house

**himzol** · 28th June 2004, 02:33 PM

It's definantly "the shed" at my place,

A 6M x9M double garage built by the previous owner in such a way that there is no possibility of actualy getting a car into it, what a shame

Himzo.

**bitingmidge** · 28th June 2004, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by ozwinner

In my studio darling.

Well I may have unintentionally misled one of you :eek: the "office" adjoining the shed is actually my "studio" although it also doubles as a library!! (Where the Phantom Comics are kept.)

Did I also forget to mention that my jammies are of the finest silk?

P

**Zed** · 28th June 2004, 02:45 PM

I have a 2 car garage that I store cars, the pool filter a loo and sundry crap and convert wood/lumber into useful things making it a "gara-shop", I have a shed for garden implements, the wheelbarrow, dynamic lifter and the cement mixer.

I call the garage the "garage" and the shed is the "garden shed" - my SWMBO is german so literal terms are natural for germans who are good at that sort of thing.

My goal is to get enough money out of SWMBO to fill the "garage" with toolware and turn it into a "workshop" - I really dont mind the term "workshop" it describes a set of functions more than a place which appeals to me.

Is americanism so bad ? really the point of language is to communicate innit ? so if I call you a wanker and you think I've called you a wanker i've communicated successfully, however if you think i've called you something else I must be eating something at the same time....

Stink, its time for a poll.

**bitingmidge** · 28th June 2004, 03:03 PM

if I call you a wanker and you think I've called you a wanker i've communicated successfully,

Oh come off it! Would a wanker wear jammies of finest silk?

Is americanism so bad ?

Not at all...... IF you live in America!

Cheers,

Joe the Seppo

**silentC** · 28th June 2004, 03:21 PM

shed (n.) - "building for storage," 1481, shadde, possibly a variant of shade.

shop - O.E. scoppa "booth or shed for trade or work," related to scypen "cowshed," from P.Gmc. *skoppan "small additional structure," from base *skupp-. But it's likely that the modern word was acquired from O.Fr. eschoppe "booth, stall," from M.L.G. schoppe, from the P.Gmc. source. The verb meaning "visit shops" is first attested 1764. Shoplifter first attested 1680. Shop around is from 1922.

I hate it when they're right

**craigb** · 28th June 2004, 03:32 PM

My hobby area is a room under the house too.
Sometimes I call it a workroom sometime a workshop.
I never call it a shed 'cause it's not freestanding.
Although, considering its function it's a "virtual" shed I guess

Thanks for the etymology of "shop" Darren

**Caliban** · 28th June 2004, 03:33 PM

Darren I hate it too, so why did you have to find evidence for the defence?
Turn coat. Go to the corner and wait until we tell you to come out.
No, not the corner of your shed, shop, garage, work space, studio, masturbatory, laboratory, office?????
Oh I give up on these common nouns.
You may as well stay here, you're no worse than the rest of us.
Forget I even said anything.

**silentC** · 28th June 2004, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by hovo

You may as well stay here, you're no worse than the rest of us.
Forget I even said anything.

Curiously, and conversely, my office, where I am sitting right now, really is a shed, where as my shed used to be someone's office. Oh, what a twisted web....

**Barry_White** · 28th June 2004, 06:02 PM

When I lived in Sydney as a young fellow we had a shed down the back yard and we called it the woodshed because that is where we kept the firewood.

When I was old enough to own a car I turned it into a Car Shed. When I got married and built a house I could only afford a carport and a homemade garden shed.

When I moved and built my current house it started out as a 6m x 7.2m two car garage and has now turned into a work shed and the cars have been relegated to the weather.

The 2.4m x 6.6m shed where I store all the things that aren't to do with woodwork is called the little shed.

The word "Shed" does it for me.

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