Kim Werker

Home Office Plan

Speaking of very very special things I want desperately, there’s one other thing on the list. I want this desk. And I want it for my home office, even though I don’t have a home office. I have an office in our detached garage (read: our detached garage is my office), and I do work from home.

But I’ve been working from home for about five years now, and I gotta say, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It can be quite lonely, even though I sure do love not having to go to meetings or being distracted by random conversations. But also, the man doesn’t have an office job, either. He’s a student, and that means he’s home a lot, too. His office is in the basement. (His office used to be my office, but we switched.) And so I only ever have work time to myself when I’m working in the garage or when he’s at school (where he also has a desk). But I need a lot of change, and so I’m often compelled to work from inside the house, and that’s where it all starts to slide rapidly downhill.

First, I don’t like to work when there’s another person around, unless I’m in a proper office. So I sort of get in a perpetual state of annoyed. Second, I don’t have anywhere to keep my work stuff in the house. Which means things like yarn colour-card binders pile up in inconvenient places, balls of yarn can be found in every corner (beyond the yarn I have around for non-work projects), and papers pile on any and all surfaces. This drives the man nuts, understandably.

And so I’ve decided what I’d really like to have is a home office, in addition to my garage office. I mean, tons of people who work out of the home have a home office, too. And in my home office, I’d like that beautiful, beautiful desk.

The end.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

11 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Carol

But then won’t you soon just need a change of scenery from the home office as well? And then need a second home office? And then a third? And then pretty soon your whole house will be filled with nothing but home offices?

Hmmm. But then you could like rent out the extra office space. That’d be kinda cool. There might be some zoning restrictions to work around. And parking might get to be a problem. But I think you should look into this.

0
Reply
mmt

For want of a desk the war was lost? I don’t think it’s that simple. Because I’ve designed for 20+ years, there is a certain acceptance of disorder that comes with the territory. For instance: if I have one skein of every color of every yarn of several companies to swatch with, that’s a lot of stuff to keep organized, especially since the design process requires mixing and matching and pretty soon there’s mountains of stuff that insane deadlines don’t give me the time to put away in a timely manner. If I ever win the lottery (which is NOT gonna happen because I don’t even buy tickets)I would hire a clutter expert to design something that works. But for now, I’m settling for total chaos sometimes and an almost anal cleanup after whatever rush is happening.

0
Reply
Robyn

I giggle only because as I type this I am day dreaming of how to make the dining room my office and a dining room. We do have a real office, but that’s all the way upstairs…

0
Reply
Kim Werker

I see some clarification is needed.

@Carol – I see your concern, but I’m confident this isn’t an iteration. For years I’ve worked either in the garage or in the living/dining room, with occasional (and now more frequent) jaunts to coffee shops. So my home-office plan is just a solution to the problem of my work stuff piling up in the living/dining room and annoying the man a lot (and also sometimes it annoys me). But I do appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit. (I’ve considered seeing if I can join up at Workspace”; a year’s membership would cost as much as the desk :)

@mmt – No war involved. I think it’s cool that the man would prefer me to put my stuff away after a reasonable amount of time. My solution is to have an option that’s inside the house.

@Robyn – It’s a challenge! :)

0
Reply
vashti

My guy also works at home and it’s supposed to be blissful but it’s surprising how easy it is for me to get annoyed. I’m not a TV person for example, so I grit my teeth when the TV goes on while I have a design jam happening. My studio/office experience is completely different when I’m alone in the house, but if I’m alone too much I get lonely. I can get work-related lonely even when he’s home and sometimes I do a weird restless pacing thing. Actually this happens more often when I’m blocked about a design/problem-solving, or when I’m writing the pattern. I can spend too much time on the ‘net as part of this restlessness and/or work-lonely thing. Ultimately I’m not complaining though! I much prefer it over any other job I’ve had!!

0
Reply
Carol

But then won’t you soon just need a change of scenery from the home office as well? And then need a second home office? And then a third? And then pretty soon your whole house will be filled with nothing but home offices?

Hmmm. But then you could like rent out the extra office space. That’d be kinda cool. There might be some zoning restrictions to work around. And parking might get to be a problem. But I think you should look into this.

0
Reply
mmt

For want of a desk the war was lost? I don’t think it’s that simple. Because I’ve designed for 20+ years, there is a certain acceptance of disorder that comes with the territory. For instance: if I have one skein of every color of every yarn of several companies to swatch with, that’s a lot of stuff to keep organized, especially since the design process requires mixing and matching and pretty soon there’s mountains of stuff that insane deadlines don’t give me the time to put away in a timely manner. If I ever win the lottery (which is NOT gonna happen because I don’t even buy tickets)I would hire a clutter expert to design something that works. But for now, I’m settling for total chaos sometimes and an almost anal cleanup after whatever rush is happening.

0
Reply
Robyn

I giggle only because as I type this I am day dreaming of how to make the dining room my office and a dining room. We do have a real office, but that’s all the way upstairs…

0
Reply
Kim Werker

I see some clarification is needed.

@Carol – I see your concern, but I’m confident this isn’t an iteration. For years I’ve worked either in the garage or in the living/dining room, with occasional (and now more frequent) jaunts to coffee shops. So my home-office plan is just a solution to the problem of my work stuff piling up in the living/dining room and annoying the man a lot (and also sometimes it annoys me). But I do appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit. (I’ve considered seeing if I can join up at Workspace”; a year’s membership would cost as much as the desk :)

@mmt – No war involved. I think it’s cool that the man would prefer me to put my stuff away after a reasonable amount of time. My solution is to have an option that’s inside the house.

@Robyn – It’s a challenge! :)

0
Reply
vashti

My guy also works at home and it’s supposed to be blissful but it’s surprising how easy it is for me to get annoyed. I’m not a TV person for example, so I grit my teeth when the TV goes on while I have a design jam happening. My studio/office experience is completely different when I’m alone in the house, but if I’m alone too much I get lonely. I can get work-related lonely even when he’s home and sometimes I do a weird restless pacing thing. Actually this happens more often when I’m blocked about a design/problem-solving, or when I’m writing the pattern. I can spend too much time on the ‘net as part of this restlessness and/or work-lonely thing. Ultimately I’m not complaining though! I much prefer it over any other job I’ve had!!

0
Reply
wpdiscuz   wpDiscuz
11
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x