New Digs (Kind Of)

Holy smokes, I haven’t blogged since our November vacay to French Polynesia!!!!  I knew it had been a while but didn’t realize how far off the blagon I was!

So much has happened in the past 2 months for us all & it feels a bit silly to blog about anything but at the same time, we all probably benefit from a little distraction, right?

There have been a ton of tips out there about working from home.  Having given my share already, I didn’t really read anything that I wasn’t already generally aware of and for the first month of quarantine it was pretty much business as usual for me.

All that changed until almost 3 weeks ago when Matt reentered the corporate world.  His desk in the cave wasn’t going to work anymore.  With COVID-19, the kids are all home all day except for a brief walk or two and they need that space to play.  Plus, even if we could get them to stay out of the cave, he would still hear them in the yard or the front of the house.

Matt said that he thought he needed to move his desk into our bedroom, which is where I’ve worked since we turned my office into Jason’s room.  Even though I knew in my heart it was inevitable, I told Matt that I needed to think about it.

I mulled it over but didn’t come up with any great options.  The garage is dirty, with no direct entrance to the house.  You would have to close the garage door any time you needed to go up to the house for a snack or bathroom break and you would have to listen to the whole neighborhood all day.  Plus it’s smelly.

Lily’s room has a desk and bathroom but kicking her out (after having already made her share her room with a toddler) would be downright cruel.

I was so desperate for an alternative that I wasted an hour looking at sheds online trying to imagine whether it would be possible to put a work shed ON OUR ROOFDECK!  It was at that point that I realized I was being insane and I told him he could move his stuff up.

The first week was OK.  He was on the phone a lot but not talking that much and I didn’t have too many “serious” tasks to get done – mostly just responding to emails, reviewing the odd contract and getting on a few calls.  I missed having that small slice of alone time during the day but I didn’t feel that bad about things.

The second week was… different.  After a week of being in “listen and learn” mode, Matt was starting to run calls.  By last Wednesday he was literally on the phone the entire day.  The. Entire. Day.  I couldn’t concentrate and had to listen to podcasts or music just to avoid going insane. I had an important memo that I procrastinated on until Friday afternoon because I couldn’t find 2 hours of silence in which to think clearly.  I am not a procrastinator and this really bothered me.  Like, a lot.

By Friday evening, I was drained and to be frank, pretty annoyed.  I knew logically that Matt hadn’t done anything wrong (to the contrary, I was happy for him that he was killing it at work and has such a nice group of people to work with) but I was still sour at having no personal space.  Matt and I both worked at Herbalife for about 4 years and we’ve both been working at home since he started startup life in early 2018.  In sum, over the past nearly 20 years, we’ve spent a lot of time together.  In all that time, I’ve never gotten sick of being around him.  But last Friday, I was over it.  That really bothered me too.  Like, a lot.

Then this week got even crazier.  Matt and I both seemed to have calls at the same time all day Monday and Tuesday.  I found myself frantically taking my laptop into our master bathroom and using the counter as a desk so that we weren’t taking calls at the same time. 

By this Tuesday afternoon the garage wasn’t looking so bad.  I came up with a list of what I’d need to do to make it habitable and it didn’t seem so daunting.  On Wednesday afternoon I moved the picnic table out of the backyard into the side yard, rolled up the rug that was under our kitchen table, moved everything to one side of our garage and vacuumed the empty side of the garage.  I told Matt I was going to give it a try and after dinner Matt and I spent about 45 minutes moving things down to the garage.  

As soon as I put the rug down, I knew it was going to work.  Matt felt pretty bad about pushing me out of my office but I was actually pretty excited by that point.

Yes, it is dirty, with no direct entrance to the house.  And yes, I do have to close the garage door every time I need to use the restroom.  I kind of have to listen to the whole neighborhood all day, but my headphones drown out most of it.  And some scented candles have overridden the smelliness.

It’s also pretty well-lit since it’s South-facing and always has some sun overhead.  There’s plenty of fresh air.  My cell service and wi-fi work just fine.  Through my rose colored glasses the walls even kind of give off a cool industrial vibe.  But most important, I’m not sick of Matt anymore and I can get my work done!  Yay!

The beta version on Wednesday night as things started to come together.

Believe it or not, I was able to do this without buying anything new:

The rear desk is actually our backyard IKEA picnic table with some leftover bathroom flooring squares placed on top for a smooth surface.

My parents gave us the rug after they sold their Seattle condo a few years ago.  It's been under our kitchen table since then and I was already tired of picking the kids' food out of it after every meal so losing it from the kitchen didn't seem like such a loss.

The matching rattan back chairs were also my parents back in the day. They were going to get rid of them and I crowded them into our living room because I've always loved them but didn't really have a space for them.  This works perfectly!

The black standing lamp has been in our cave closet for about a year because Jason and Rosie cannot help themselves from pulling at the chord and/or using it as a weapon.

The mirror was just sitting in the garage anyway since we replaced that space of the bookshelves with a TV in January and my diplomas have been collecting dust since we did Jason's room.

Everything else was in my office nook in the bedroom.

And my nifty FabFitFun tote serves as my day-bag for carrying things back and forth between the house and garage.

Just don't look too far to the East... or the South.  But hey, as Matt pointed out, at least we still have that air conditioning unit from back in 2018 when our bedroom AC went out, just in case it gets hot down here in the summer.  And as Jim pointed out, now I can watch Matt get his weight-lifting pump on while I'm working, which has always been my dream.

But the best part might be that "our" cat Minestrone has really made herself at home.