Squeezing an office in a small space

Like many people, I've been working from home since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the most part I prefer it. There's no commute, fewer meetings, fewer distractions. Plus, it's quiet, which I need since my job involves a lot of writing.

So instead for the first 4.5 months I worked on a laptop from the couch and kitchen table. The window views were nice, but the cats didn't seem to appreciate having to share the table (it looks out onto the birdfeeder and is their favorite window hangout). Eventually the lack of ergonomics took a toll and in early August I knew I had to make a change.But there was one issue--lack of a proper workspace. Because I live in the 740-square-foot house, I don't have the luxury of a separate home office. The spare room used to be set up as an office, but gets much more use as a bedroom. I didn't want to set up a desk in the living room, where I'd see it all the time, or the basement.

My new co-workers do not enjoy sharing their space.

I measured a corner of the spare room and it was big enough for a small desk. I shopped for desks online, but everything I liked in my budget was out of stock. Plus, I wasn't sure I'd like working in a separate area, facing a wall no less.

I went up to the attic and measured the old IKEA desk to see if it would work temporarily, but it was even bigger than I remembered. The boyfriend insisted it would fit if we'd rearranged all of the furniture in the room, but it was going to be a tight squeeze and that's what I'd been trying to avoid.

Office circa 2007

Luckily I found another solution--my old kitchen table that first belong to my great-grandparents. My mom said my great-grandpa Gordon used to clean fish on it. So it's hardly a priceless antique, but I like it anyway. 

This old table has been well--used for generations.

Luckily the boyfriend had already refinished and restained it, so it was ready to go. I repurposed a chair and rug I already had and--voila--a free work from home space. The only new thing I added is a chair pad, which was a gift. 

My new, repurposed work space.

It's advice we've all heard, but having a dedicated work space really has made a difference. It's easier to sit down, focus and be productive. Then at the end of the day, I can pack it up and leave work behind.

Of course the cats still insist on "helping" me work at times.

Best of all, the rooms doesn't feel crowded at all and still functions as a bedroom. So if you too are struggling to find work space at home, try carving out some room for a small desk. It might be just what you need.

Bathroom Redo

While I was away in Alaska for a wedding and vacation, the boyfriend tackled a full bathroom remodel in just one week. The fact that I had no idea any of this was happening was a sore point (to say the least) as it has become rather a bad habit of his to tackle renovations in secret while I'm away. But it was badly needed it and I wasn't sorry to miss all the mess, destruction and 99% of the work that went into it.

I've been planning to use most of these materials forever: subway tile in the shower, 1-inch white hex tiles on the floor and beadboard on the walls. All the essentials are new now, including the tub, sink and toilet.

I do love how it's turned out. After 10 years of dreaming about this it's still hard to believe it's real!

This floor is probably my favorite.

The shower wall tile goes all the way to the ceiling now, which I love.

He even built the medicine cabinet based on photos I saw online since nothing available would fit our oddly shaped opening. 

Myths of the American Dream: Part I

One idea that is continually spoken as fact is that home ownership is always a sound investment. Renters are perceived as throwing their money away, while home owners are building equity!

Home ownership is the expected thing, the thing many aspire too. It's what you're supposed to do.

Often, I'm not sure if home ownership is all it's cracked up to be. Never was, but I bought this little house anyway. I wouldn't say I regret it, exactly, but I think you really have to make sure you know what you're getting into before you buy. Heck, before you go to an open house and fall in love with a property even.

About that throwing away money on rent...let's just look at the numbers shall we?

First, if I take the full 30 years to pay off my mortgage, I'll end up paying more than double the purchase price, and that's WITH a heavy 20% down payment. It would take more than two years of my entire current salary to pay the interest alone.

My mortgage may equal what I paid in rent before I bought this house (which is only because I bought a tiny house), but consider that I'm paying double that with interest and then add an extra 40% for property taxes.

I haven't even gotten to maintenance yet. If you own a home then eventually something is going to break or need replaced. And sooner or later than something is going to be expensive.

The day I signed the purchase papers and got the keys to my house I came over and found a leaking faucet, a roof leak in the kitchen  and a leak in the furnace room. none of these things were there a few days prior. Luckily, with some help from my stepdad, none of them were very expensive, but still you get my point. In the seven years I've owned min hus I've paid for chimney repairs (twice), replaced the AC/furnace, repaired the roof, replaced the hot water heater, bought two dehumidifiers for the basement, and spent hundreds of dollars on paint, painting supplies, tools, sandpaper, and miscellaneous repair expenses. If I hadn't had lots of kind help in making those repairs (thanks boyfriend!!, stepdad!) it would have cost three times as much. And I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

Have I mentioned the lawn and garden equipment I never had to own as a renter? Or all the projects that still
need to be done?

Call me a pessimist, but with the drop in home values I don't see how I'm going to get all that back if I sell anytime soon....and probably not when I sell it no matter how long away that may be.

Why is paying rent "throwing money away," but paying interest, taxes and maintenance aren't?

Don't get me wrong, if you want to own your home for other reasons then great. If you want something to call your own, decorate as you like it, by all means. Maybe you enjoy DIY and maintenance, and in that case, boy will you love owning a home! Buy an old one for extra fun. Just don't buy a home because you think it's an investment or something adults do.

Bedroom Fan Update: Let It Shine, Let It Shine

Since this 2008 post on the new bedroom ceiling fan is one of the more popular ones on this blog, I figure it's only fair to provide an update now that my major complaint is resolved. In case you aren't familiar with the post (and really, who is?) after a long search in 2008 we found a ceiling fan that looked great, but didn't put out enough light to read or even say, get ready in the morning by. And that was with using the max wattage the fixture allows, 40W bulbs. The only possible solution was to find 60W equivalent CFLs. We searched everywhere, and the Boyfriend even ordered CFL bulbs online, but nothing fit in the small space allotted in this fixture.

Until finally, a mere three years later our problems were solved by micro-mini bright white 13W CFLs in bright white, which are equivalent to 60W incandescents. We picked them up here, but I've started seeing them in all the home improvement stores now.

Bam! Now it's so bright I almost have to wear shades. And as a bonus, the three new bulbs use slightly less power than just one of the old ones. So if your ceiling fan light isn't cutting it, or my original post gave you qualms about this fab fan, fear no more.

Now You See It

I loved the little white picket fence in front of min hus from the moment I first saw it.

But six years later, that little fence is looking neglected. At first I thought it could make do with a coat of paint, but when I trimmed the bushes a few weeks ago I saw that it needed more than that. Boards have dry rotted. The whole fence needs to be replaced. There goes another big project for the to-do list.

But this morning I had another idea. Do I really need a fence? Plastic fences look so, well, plasticy and a new wood fence will eventually need more maintenance. What could be more simple than getting rid of the fence altogether?

Hmmm... I think it could work. Thoughts?

The Declutterbug Returns

Gip Plaster had a great post on Friday about the importance of keeping the decluttering conversation alive, which inspired my post today.

If you check my clutter busters category, you'll see posts from many of my on and off decluttering efforts. I doubt I'm unique in that I will often get the declutter bug for a few months or weeks, then motivation wanes and I let the effort go, and on the cycle goes. There is no shame in this. I don't think decluttering should feel like punishment because actually, when done in the right frame of mind, it can be tremendously fun and liberating.

Like I recommended in this long ago post, decluttering is an ongoing effort. What you might not be ready to part with today, might be easily purged six months from now. So let go what you can and reevaluate your items again in the future. Slow and steady progress is still progress.

Though I've taken more carloads of crap out of my house in the last few years than I care to remember, there's still clutter left. A shining example of this is my area of shame, aka the attic. Anyone who is fooled into thinking I'm an aspiring minimalist would quickly forget this notion if they saw the attic.

Yesterday the Boy and I attacked the attic with two purposes in mind: to attempt another clean up and find more stuff to get rid of at next week's yard sale. I also needed some fuel for my newly revived urge to purge.

The picture above, believe or not, is actually an improvement than what it was before we started, given there is a clear walking path down the middle.

The results of yesterday's purge fest?

• At least a carload of items for the yardsale, most of which are the boy's
  
  
• Three bags of trash, including items I inherited from previous owners when I bought the house but hadn't yet disposed of (hey, it's only been five years!)
  
  
• One bag of items to donate including clothing and sheets
  
  
• At least a carload of cardboard and paper to recycle

See updates to the Dearly Decluttered list if you want the nitty gritty details.

I also managed to sell this Mersman end table on Craigslist, and thanks to listening to the Boy's unfailing pricing advice, made $10 more than I originally paid when I bought it off Craigslist. I can't tell you how excited this made me.

Bedroom Tweaks

One of my Christmas presents from the boy this year were these new roman shades for the bedroom that match the IKEA curtains. The shades, which are from JC Penney, are pretty sweet. First they're thermal shades, and I have noticed they help block some air leaks from the windows, they also block out the light really well, which is great for sleeping, but make it challenging to take pictures.


One of the interesting things about decorating, for me, is that it's a process, not a single event. It's fun to go back and see how things have changed over the year. What is really just a small tweak here and there, eventually adds up to a completely different look. I still have more plans for the bedroom, but it's finally starting to look somewhat pulled together.

The Neverending Summer To-Do List

Restoring nine windows is just one
of the projects on my to-do list.

Thanks to a job change, I'm lucky enough to have some extended time off this summer for traveling and hopefully tackling some of the things on my never-ending to-do list.

This brings up a topic I struggle with almost every weekend, do I spend free time doing projects, planning for proiects, relaxing and having fun or trying to squeeze in all three? I'm not good at balance; instead I have a bad habit of becoming singularly focused on big projects and work myself ragged until it's done. All of which makes for a very unfun and tiring vacation, weekend, etc. Then I'm not able to find the motivation to do another project for a long time.

This time, I'd really like to strike a balance between getting things done, and still having fun even when I'm home. Anyone who has tips on how to do that, please share! So far I'm thinking: take some time off during the day to do things I don't have time to do when I'm working (eating some breakfasts and lunches out, making a nice lunch for the Boy and I, going to a movie during the day, going swimming, etc.).

But without further ado, here's my list. I'm sure there's still more on it than I can possibly accomplish, even though we've started a few things already and even finished one or two.

Inside:

• Pick out a new AC
  
• Fix living room walls and repaint (Done!, but it almost killed me)


• Fix bedroom ceiling and paint
  
• Finish patch in kitchen
  
• Touch-up bathroom paint and paint window
  
• Patch and paint bathroom door
  
• Hem bedroom curtains
  
• Frame and hang art in living room
  

Outside

• Stain deck, see it here!
  
• Paint/restore three or four windows and storms (two will have to do)
  
• Paint front door and shutters (Done!)
  
• Paint awnings (or at least fix the horrid rusty one!)
  
• Paint garage doors
  
• Remove hideous bushes by driveway(done! thanks to the Boy)
  
• Patch and seal driveway (The Boy said he'd do this one on his break, yay!)
  

What's No Longer Black, White and Purple All Over?

Well, it took almost the entire day and caused more than a few fights, but we can strike another project off the summer to-do list: painting the front door and shutters. I've wanted to tackle painting the black shutters and hideous purple door since I first saw the house, and thanks to the Boy, it's finally done. Now min hus stands out from the other neighboring white houses with black shutters.

I'm happy with how it turned out, but oh so tired. I really hope I never have to strip that much paint off of anything ever again. I'll post more details (probably) when I have more energy.

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Door? A Scary DIY Tale

Grab a pillow, boys and girls, and make yourself comfortable, today I'm going to tell you a scary story about a boy, a girl and a DIY project.*

It all started, as most scary stories do, with a simple, but flawed plan. The boy and the girl planned to go shopping and buy supplies, strip and paint their front door, and clean and paint their shutters. All in ONE day. They foolishly forgot the DIY golden rule: all projects will take four times as long and cost three times as much as planned.

"We'll easily be able to finish this in one day," the silly boy exclaimed.

The girl was not convinced, so they did some preliminary window-shopping the night before. All was well until suddenly the girl sprouted a second head! And not just any head mind you, but a grouchy, snarling, hungry witch's head! The witch put a spell over the girl, so that to anyone else it looked like she was still her usual self, but she wasn't. Suddenly the girl started snarling and snapping at the boy when he didn't find the paint stripper fast enough. The boy snapped back about her painting choices and a fight ensued. Finally, the girl was able to overpower the witch and cut off her head. The boy and the girl managed to make up and go to sleep dreaming happy dreams of a successful project. (the fools!)

The next morning the girl got up, made coffee, and tried not to dread the work ahead. Later, the boy and girl went to a discount home improvement store. They found door hardware at half the price of what was at the nasty box store. This made them happy, but they still had to go to the big, nasty box store. The paint section proved tricky again, as the girl had a minor panic attack over picking a paint sheen and annoyed the paint guy. But eventually the couple got their purchases and headed home.

This, boys and girls, is where the real trouble began. First, they discovered that someone evil had painted over the same hinges and screws they needed to remove to begin their project. Eventually, they unhinged the door and removed the old hardware. Then, they soon realized that if they installed the new hardware where the old mortise lock had been, they'd be left with a huge, gaping hole in the door. This worried the girl terribly. She started stripping the paint off the door and it wasn't going well. Morning had faded into afternoon.

Suddenly the evil witch gathered all her magical powers and regrew a head on the girl's body, and all hell broke loose. The girl began hyperventilating as she realized they'd never finish the door that day, let alone the shutters. She also panicked about the right way to fix the hardware problem quickly. The boy wanted to ride off into the sunset to slay the evil lock problem, but the girl knew she'd never finish the door alone. She began yelling and pacing and came quite close to crying. The boy thought she was having a nervous breakdown. They fought and swore they'd never do DIY together again. It began to look like the evil door and witch had won.

Eventually, the girl slayed the evil witch and the boy and the girl calmed down. The girl apologized, and the boy made her repeat it several more times as they spent the next SIX HOURS scraping that stupid door and removing all the old paint. Both of them feared they had fallen into a time warp, because how could it possibly take SIX FRIGGIN' HOURS to strip a door? But by that time, it was dark, and they were dirty, hungry, sore and tired. So the boy and the girl went into their cottage and slept. Without a front door. Oh don't worry boys and girls, they had a great security system in place of the door consisting of a locked storm door, a $1 alarm that would sound at the first sign of trouble, a bunch of newspapers (to block evil, prying eyes) and a vacuum (to booby trap any wannabe criminals).

As for the evil door? And the shutters? Stay tuned kids, stay tuned.

* I'm sure it goes without saying, but this tale is purely fictional. It has nothing to do with reality. Any similarities to real people, real huses and real DIY projects are purely coincidental. And anyone who says otherwise is LYING.

Tired, But Satisfied: Getting Back in the Thick of It

window before

I rarely feel like a "real Houseblogger," those renovation enthusiasts at Houseblogs.net who tackle major project after major DIY project, without pause. You know, the people who totally renovate their entire house, room by room, in a year or so. While I love reading those blogs, sometimes they make me feel extremely inadequate, not to mention jealous.

It's not just bloggers either, my stepdad has been spending almost every free moment he has for OVER A YEAR renovating a house. They took that place to the studs and brought it back. Yeah, that's not me.

I'll go all out on larger projects until they are done, because unfinished project chaos drives me NUTS (though there are some things I manage to ignore for weeks or years), but after they're done I need a nice, long break before I can even contemplate another project. I'm just one of those people who needs major doses of R&R every week. Min hus is on the "never going to be totally finished and will look its best before I sell it" plan.

Case in point, the reason I felt so satisfied this weekend, despite my aching body, is that I finally got back to restoring the windows after a two year break. This summer my goal is to restore four windows, though that may be optimistic. Last Saturday, I finally got started, and managed to scrape (using a heat gun) the paint off the trim of one window, and repaint it. It took about four hours and the project is only half done, if that, as I still need to reglaze the window, paint the window, and repaint the storms.

window during

While the caulk and wood filler was drying, I managed to clean the back stormdoor, light and deck; and do some gardening. Meanwhile, the Boy spent the day working on his own projects in manland. By the end of the day I was exhausted, and even though I had to pop some ibuprophen the next day, I felt great, almost like a real houseblogger.

window after

Our faithful companions were as helpful as usual during the day's work. Here's Piggy, being his usual supportive self. (check out that belly. His fur never grew back after he was neutered, it cracks me up.)

Sometimes It's the Little Things: Bathroom Storage

When your bathroom is this tiny, storage is at a premium. Since the Boy and I both like to have a selection of products in the shower, shower storage was even more limited. Shampoo bottles were lining the tub (and falling off every time I showered) and driving me nuts. Luckily, This Young House shared a clever shower storage tip, putting a caddy on the useless in-shower towel rack. The only problem was that I couldn't find hooks that would work to hold it up anywhere.


Luckily the boy is more resourceful. He figured out a way to hang the shower caddy without spending a dime. How, you ask?

By re-purposing part of an old metal hanger. Genius, no?

What might seem like a trivial amount of additional storage has really made a positive difference in my daily showering experience. No more falling bottles, shower scrubbies or other debris equals a happy hus owner!

We're Fans of the New Fan

The Boy has been complaining about my lack of blog love for the new Hunter living room fan, which is due to lack of time not lack of love. I think he has an ulterior motive. See, he wants the opportunity to brag about the fan that I spent weeks resisting, even putting my foot down that I would never live with that fan. Until, that is, I realized that it was the best option imaginable and he wore me down to the point where I bought it. Impressively he installed it mere hours after it was purchased. He was probably afraid I'd change my mind.

Now that it's up, I'm happy with it. Unlike the bedroom fan, which is pretty, but too dim and is the reason I will only buy globe fans like this in the future, this fan is quite bright. We actually downgraded the strength of lightbulbs used.

As you can see it is a bit of an improvement from the rickety, ugly mess that was there previously. The Boy and the cats were afraid for their heads when this old girl was on.

Good riddance!

Decking Out the Deck

This past week I spent several hours (around nine, but who's counting) cleaning and staining the deck. It's definitely not a fun job, but since it had been three years since I stained the deck it definitely needed it.

I'd still like to spruce it up a little more with more pots and flowers, and other finishing touches, but I wanted to give the stain a little more time first.

The nitty gritty: First I cleared the deck and cleared the crevices from all those stupid helicopters which seem to be everywhere this time of year. While I prefer using the shop vac to suck those suckers out of the hard to reach spots, it gets clogged, so the boy's solution of using the air compressor did ultimately work better. Though it pains me to admit this. Then I cleaned and scrubbed the deck with oxygenated bleach deck brightener. Lastly it was just me and my trusty paintbrush putting on one coat of stain (Olympic, semi-transparent, oil-based in Redwood Naturaltone) for hours and hours and hours.

Now if only someone would invent a stain that would last twenty years. Or more than one.

Banishing the Black and White

I've never loved the white house and black shutter color scheme of my house, especially since three of my neighbors have the exact same color scheme going on. I'd also like to make the house look more cottage-y and cute. It's definitely lacking in the cuteness factor right now. Last fall I bought some light blue spray paint for the shutters, but I haven't gotten around to doing any painting yet. Which might be a good thing.

When looking through the June 2009 issue of Better Homes and Gardens for the third time I spotted this picture (sorry for the horrible picture of a picture, I couldn't find the image online) and the gears in my head started turning. I never would have thought of lime green, but doesn't it look great? I can also see the lime green door with grey shutters. Hmmmm....

There's also my favorite house in the neighborhood which is an adorable little cottage with grey shutters and accents and a lavender door.

But then again I have the blue paint ready to go. This is exactly why it takes me forever to make decisions, I keep second-guessing myself.

I Found My (Realistic) Dream Kitchen

I've mentioned before that my kitchen needs some renovation love, but I don't want to totally lose my kitchen's 1940s vibe. I'm also leaning towards keeping my cabinets, which aren't anything fancy, but are original and in good shape. If I bought cabinets, I'd buy ones that looked old anyway, so why spend the money? I was having a hard finding inspiration of the look I want (and I'm very visual, I need visual inspiration) until I visited Casapinka's blog last week and spotted these two shots.

While I don't want a tile countertop, I love the subway tile backsplash and the cabinets. In fact I'd kill for those pantry cabinets. But it's so great to see a kitchen that kept its classic roots and still looks contemporary.

But then, while visiting Apartment Therapy today, I hit the motherlode. The inspiration of all inspiration.

This kitchen, which was featured on the 2007 Architectural Heritage Center's 11th Annual Kitchen Revival Tour (in Portland), is not only gorgeous, it also features a pretty darn close layout to my kitchen. I love everything about it, the cabinets, the subway tile, and the countertop. In fact when I showed the boyfriend, he thougt I'd photoshopped a picture of my kitchen with the changes I want (I only wish my Photoshop skills were on that level). If only I could find pictures of the rest of this kitchen. If anyone has pics of it, or knows where I can find them, please, please let me know.

Just imagine these bottom cabinets and the countertop above them gone, and you can see how close the layout of my kitchen is to the picture above. I want to remove this section of cabinets and countertop anyway, so I can have a proper dining area.

I'm so excited about finding the inspiration above that I'm almost ready to start demo now.