Work from Home – Page 2 – Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker

Working from home, week one

August 7, 2011 by Karen, posted in family, friends, Life in the cube, Work from Home, writing

At the end of my first week working from home, I thought I’d reflect a little on how it’s all going. There were several things that I knew would be different, but my days are shaping up to be much different from how I envisioned them. One of my friends said that she was worried that she’d be too isolated if she worked from home, since she lived alone. I never thought for a minute that I would feel that way, but it is sort of an isolated feeling to be sitting in your office alone all day, interacting with no one face to face. I mean. there are certainly people in the house sometimes while I’m “at work”, but I’m not a part of their activity, their day. I am APART.

What I thought I’d be doing once I started working from home:

Exercising more, since I would have more time in the morning (you know, that part of the day before you talk yourself out of exercising?).
Writing more. After all, I would be gaining more than 2 hours a day of not commuting and not getting meals packed and unpacked.
Gaining weight. There is actually some walking involved in getting to and from Portland every day, parking the car, walking from the parking garage, taking a few sets of stairs…that would not be part of working from home.
Seeing my husband and kids more.

What I actually am doing now that I am working from home:

Turns out, I actually am exercising more. It will be 4 (maybe even 5!) days that I’ve done some form of excercise (yoga, beach walk, gym) by Saturday, versus the 1 or 2 days in a commuting week.
Turns out, I’ve actually lost 2 lbs. Go figure.
Turns out, I’m actually writing less. I really don’t have much downtime. I’m getting up later in the morning (which will end of course, when my daughter goes back to school in September) and pretty much going to bed shortly after I finish working at 9PM.
I am seeing my family more, which is good. If I could only be right about one thing, I’m glad it was this one. 🙂

I’m missing a few things: seeing my friends at work, the Wednesday Farmers Market in Monument Square, my audio books, the cupcake stores, Micucci’s pizza…

Pretty much, I’m still working on getting it together here, finding a new rhythm to my days.

Working from home, day one

July 28, 2011July 28, 2011 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, Life in the cube, Work from Home

It’s coming together; my office is just about set. All of the equipment has been hauled home and (with the help of the teenager) connected to the modem and everything actually works. What’s left to do is figure out what just does not fit and let it go (read: haul it back out of the house).

Here are some of the good things about working from home so far.

I got more sleep! I was able to get up an hour and fifteen minutes later than I usually do. Yay! Of course, I still woke up at the same time but I rolled over and went back to sleep.
I can wear whatever I want! My daughter said, “Can you wear pajamas to work now if you want to??” and I realized, “Yes! I can! I can wear pajamas now if I want to!”
Things were so much less rushed. My daughter and I actually ate breakfast together this morning, which we usually can’t do because I leave (used to leave!) so early.
I got to eat lunch with my entire family! My son was working the evening shift and my husband and daughter both happened to be home as well. They even cooked for me! (Okay, so I cleaned up; it was so worth it!).
I got to eat dinner with 2 out of 3 of the family members! Okay, so son was at work, but I always got home too late to have supper with them this evening they waited for me and we ate together.
When my shift ended, I was all through for the day! No hour commute to get home (of course, that means I missed an hour with my audio book, but I digress…as my husband pointed out, I can certainly pop it into the CD player in the house and listen to it!).

It was the best (work) day ever!

Setting up a home office: the desk arrives

July 7, 2011 by Karen, posted in Work from Home

We got the call that the desk had arrived at the furniture warehouse and was ready to be picked up. They offered one more time to deliver it and assemble it in our home for the low, low price of $75. We had already turned this down once, but on this particular day my husband (who also happened to be the picker upper and assembler) was busy in the garden.
“When can you do it?” he asked the guy. The answer was “Today,” so he said, “Okay, see you soon.”

Well, “soon” turned out to be an hour and a half later, a small truck bearing two men and the two parts of my desk arrived. This in itself was kind of confusing, since the warehouse was only 20 minutes away, but it soon became clear what had taken them so long, After coming in the house to announce their arrival and to see where the desk was going, they went back out to the truck and reappeared carrying the already assembled first half of the desk. Hmmm, recalling that the man had said it would cost $75 (first) to deliver the desk and (then) to assemble it, I naturally assumed he meant assemble it in my home. When the first piece was pushed up against the wall, I decided to just wait and see what happened next.
They disappeared again, then after a loud crash and much whispering, came back with the second half of the desk It soon became evident that something wasn’t right. My husband finally figured out that because they put the desk together elsewhere, they didn’t realize that it was supposed to be a “left return” and not (the more common) “right return” and they put it together backwards.

Long story short, we got a replacement (they fortunately had a correct version in the warehouse) the same day and we didn’t pay the $75 delivery/set up charge (okay, so this last part was my idea~comp for pain and suffering). What was that about anyway? I mean. Sears only charges, what, $30 or $35 dollars to deliver a major appliance and will even take the old one with them when they leave ! Just sayin’.

P.S. I didn’t mean to make them cry!

P.P.S. The loud crash? That was our wreathe that was hanging intact on the front door when they arrived, and was lying in pieces on the coffee table in the living room after they left. They never said a word of apology (or anything else) to either me or my husband about breaking the wreathe…true professionals? Not!

Home Office: Post book purge

June 25, 2011June 29, 2011 by Karen, posted in books, education, my one word, Work from Home

post purge bookcase — Post purge office bookcase

It took several days and lots of cold hard decision-making, but the purge is (almost) complete. It was interesting (and sad) for me to note that I had no less than 5 books about Simplifying My Life.

We don’t know when we’ll be transitioned to working at home but we’ve pretty much been told to be on standby for a couple of weeks already. This is stressful because I”m still waiting for the desk to be delivered! It would be really helpful if the desk arrives before person who is installing the ergonomic keyboard tray does! Hopefully that will come next week.

First I had the thought that I had to get honest about the books. How many are there, really? I got all the books from all the hiding places…I thought. When I was done I remembered a few more places that I was keeping books in the house and ferreted them out and added them to the (rapidly increasing) pile.

The next thought I had was this: I almost never reread a book (I definitely won’t re-read a novel). This thought was followed by an epiphany: why, then, was I keeping any book I was sure I would never read again?

I didn’t know.

Next I thought, wouldn’t having at least one bookshelf containing only books that I haven’t yet read be wonderful? As would having empty space on the shelf to receive new books. Heaven.

Anyway, back to the book purge. Here’s what I did with them:

I put a box out at the end of my driveway with a sign: “free to a good home”.
I brought some to the library for their annual book sale.
I made a gift of some of them to several friends.
I brought some to Annie’s Book Stop, where they give you store credits in exchange for your used books.

Then I took the what was left, organized and shelved them. When I was done, I felt fabulous. Every time I’m missing one of the books I gave away, I remember the shelf on the book case that contains a little empty space now.

Bliss.

Setting up a home office, continued: the purge

June 21, 2011 by Karen, posted in books, my one word, Work from Home

I’ve been reading Mary Carlomango’s book Live More, Want Less slowly over a period of months. It’s organized into 52 chapters and my initial intent was to read a chapter a week (as the author suggested), then implement the “action items” listed at the end of each chapter to help pare down my belongings, hopefully simplifying my life in the process. I started off okay, but then lost track of which week I was ‘supposed’ to be on, so now I’m picking it up occasionally and reading at random.

The chapter about books came at exactly the moment that I most needed it. Currently I have books in many locations throughout the house. Now I am emptying out the room to use as an office that contained the bookcase and about half of our (okay, mostly my) books. In our first home, we added on a room (not just for the books!) and my husband had a bookcase built to fit on a wall that was very tall and very wide and accommodated all of my books: past, present, and future. When we moved the big bookcase wouldn’t fit anywhere in the new house, so we found a smaller one at a yard sale which I am still using.

At first I thought I”d be able to reduce my collection and make it fit the space I had available, and I did that. Unfortunately, over the years I have amassed books. I’ve been sort of stuck for the past few days as I tried to decide about what to do with not only the bookcase (where to put it in the now empty room) but also the books on it, on top of it, and in the basket along side it (full disclosure: there are more in my closet, under my bed, and in the built-in bookcase in the bedroom…oh, and in the kitchen!). When I posed this question to my husband, he said, “Maybe you don’t put the bookcase back in at all…”

That brought me up short.

Maybe I was asking the wrong question! What if I don’t put the bookcase back at all? In that case I would have (at least)one different question: What to do with the books?

To be continued…

Setting up a home office, Part Four: Flooring

June 15, 2011 by Karen, posted in my one word, Work from Home

We had a Berber carpet down in the room. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing except that it wasn’t a wood floor and that’s what we both really wanted. After we bought the house we planned to replace that floor at some point, and had been talking about it for about 5 years or so. We decided to view my “work from home” event as an opportunity to finally take the leap and replace the floor in the new office.

We went to Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Ben’s Flooring in Biddeford. We discussed the pros and cons of dark versus light wood, bamboo versus cork, hardwood versus Pergo. After several trips to evaluate the options. we both agreed to go with a darker wood, Maple? No… Hickory! Hickory it is.

But, Hickory it (ultimately) wasn’t. In the end, the most important factor wasn’t how well my husband and I could compromise on what we each liked best. In the end, the most important factor turned out to be this: What was available, could be installed in a timely manner, and was within the budget we’d set.

Red Oak it is. Hey, at least we got the hard wood!

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Setting up my home office, Part Three: Paint

June 12, 2011 by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, no fear, Work from Home

The walls and ceiling of the office-to-be are white, so at least it will be easy to cover. Earlier this month I went paint color shopping with my husband at Lowe’s. I spent an hour browsing through all of the paint samples. My favorite color is yellow so that’s where I started out, but then gravitated toward the lilacs (my favorite flower), the blues (my second favorite color)…I could have made a day of it. My husband (wisely) left me to go look at some tools or something while I basked in paint heaven.

When he came back, I roused myself from my stupor as he said, “Have any luck?” I proudly displayed the dozen or so paint chips that I had chosen, fanned out like a hand of cards. He looked at them briefly then pulled one lonely paint sample from his back pocket.

“How about this?” he said, and showed me a foresty green color. “Oh. That’s nice too,” I offered. “Well, you don’t have to decide today,” he said, so I put my paint samples into my bag to be revisited at a later date.

So I never did revisit the paint samples because day to day life got in the way. Then I talked to my husband on the phone from work one morning and innocently asked “Whatcha doin’?” and he said, “Painting”.

Whaaaaaa…? I thought, but did not say. “Oh,” I said. “What color?” I asked, feigning nonchalance. “Eggshell,” he said.

Whaaaaaa…? “What happened to the foresty green?” I managed. “I saw this and liked it better,” he said. It really is just that easy for him. My husband is spatially talented; he can look at a stick, plant it in the ground, and know what it will look like in five years; he can literally see the tree it will be. 🙂 I, on the other hand, look at the stick and see only the stick, in all it’s “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” glory. Bill’s talent that translates well to interior design. He can sort through those millions of little paint chips and find THE little paint chip of my dreams. More importantly, he can know what the entire room will look like when the painting is done.

It looks amazing. I totally love it. “Eggshell” turned out to be a pale yellow color, the pale yellow color that I was hoping for but unable to locate on my own.

🙂

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Next up: the flooring. To be continued…

Creating a home office, Part Two: Choosing a desk

June 10, 2011 by Karen, posted in quest for the best, Work from Home

Choosing the desk was the next step. I have to be ready when the tech person comes out to set up my computer equipment so I must have a place for them to set it up on! Finding a desk sounds easy enough on paper, doesn’t it?

It’s not. Well, if your space can accommodate a desk that is 6 feet by 6 feet then you’re good to go. If it can’t, then your starting off at a distinct disadvantage. Distinct. Disadvantage. We were told that there was a chance we could buy our desks from our current job, so I waited a couple of weeks, but then the word came down that we should act “as if” we would not be able to buy them, so off I went: Target, Staples, Bob’s Discount Furniture…I checked online after someone mentioned that Overstock.com had desks (they do, but they aren’t cheap).

Then my husband remembered a store on Rt 1: Fisher James. I walked in, looked around, then…I saw it. The desk that had been in my mind’s eye whenever I saw myself working from my home office.

It was love at first sight.

For some reason I envisioned a wooden work surface with black metal filing cabinets for a base, which this desk had. Alas, my room couldn’t accommodate the size of the floor model, but it turned out that having it custom-made was cheaper. I would lose one of the filing cabinets but I could live with that. I use one of my filing cabinets at work right now mostly as a pantry anyway…but I digress. We ordered the desk. It will take 3-5 weeks to arrive. I’m saving some money because my husband will pick it up and assemble it. You gotta love a man who knows how to use tools…

Other considerations are setting up an ergonomically friendly work space, a chair, a tray for the keyboard and mouse, a coffee source…all still TBD…but since right now I’m sitting on a yoga block on my kitchen chair, it shouldn’t be too hard to improve on that!