The Home Office

With the raising prices at the fuel pumps (and at the grocery store and just about everywhere else) I had begun to review our families budget and exactly where our money goes each month.  I was driving what I thought was an economical vehicle, getting about 28 MPG.  However, that economical vehicle was costing me over $330 a month in payments and 2 to 3 tanks of gas each week.  All in all my economical vehicle was costing me approximately $700 a month to pay the monthly payment plus the gas used to drive the hour and fifteen minute one way ride to work everyday.

So I did a bit of research and decided that I either needed to trade-in the vehicle that I really liked driving for something MORE economical.  Something that costs less per month and gets better gas mileage.  My first choice has 2 wheels, goes fast and gets over 50 MPG but I didn't think they'd appreciate me showing up with a 5 year old on the back of a motorcycle in the Salem Christian School drop off lane.  So I resigned myself to the fact that I would Trace-in my car and purchase one of those tiny, bare bones, over 40 MPG cars whos size also makes you purchase less groceries each week for fear that you won't be able to fit the extra gallon of milk in the hatchback.  But, alas, my purchase of said mini mode of travel has saved me over $80 a month just on my payment alone and an additional approx $50 a week in gas, so for a savings of approx $330 a month I felt as though I made a smart purchase.  That is, until the very day after I picked up my new vehicle and was feeling quite smug at work thinking of the money I saved on my commute when in a Gift-of-the-Magi-esc turn of events the management of my group announce that due to the ever rising gas prices they are instituting a program where we can work from home at least part of the week.  So there I sit, after selling the car I really liked so that I could have a car that I can afford to drive to work in, only to have my work tell me that I don't need to drive to the office.  Well... more savings.. not a bad thing!

Now that I will be working at home I needed to evaluate my workspace, my work away from work, the home office.  So, as part of my spring cleaning time I rolled in the task of setting myself up a workspace.  A home office in which I can be as comfortable as I an productive in and has all the working conveniences of.. well.. work.

We've had a room that we call 'the office' in our house for a long time, the small 3rd bedroom dedicated to the family computer that we all shared.  As it stood, it was already suitable to be a true home office as it has a corner configuration of work surface that offers a lot of desktop space.  This is where I camp out with my laptop when I work a weekend shift.  However, those shifts I find merely tolerable as I share the space with the home computer.  I literally plant my laptop on the only available desk surface which is right next to, about 5 inches away, from the home computer.  Since it is usually NOT a school day when I work here I tend to have to keep my phone on MUTE so that my customers) don't have to hear sounds of 'Meteor and The Mighty Monster Trucks" web site coming from the family computer on the corner surface.  It is inevitable that at least for some of my weekend shifts a kitchen chair makes its way into the office and is CRAMMED in next to me by a 5 year old who insists that he will be quiet while he plays for his allotted daily computer time.  As we all know a 5 year old trying to be quiet sitting that close to you playing a computer game featuring Monster Trucks is just ridiculous.  So at the least I need enough space between our two work surfaces that I can sit without someone else RIGHT next to me an a dedicated place for my laptop and perhaps a monitor or two.

Our desk / work surface that we have now is the same type of furniture you'd find in your cube in an office.  We were lucky lately to stumble onto a company in our town that was just opening that recovers cubicle / office furniture when business close of sell them.  They were not open yet but I really wanted to expand my office setup, so I barged into the warehouse and asked... which paid off as they agreed to sell us two work surfaces for only $60.  The color doesn't match the furniture I already have installed, but I didn't really care about that.. it's a nice big corner work surface and a 3 foot extension.. that will work our great.  So, before we install the new work surfaces I figured I'd use this opportunity to sneak in a bit of a sewing project.  The room has a double window that my work surface will face that still has on it the drapery panels that we bought for $6.00 at Khols when we moved in just to keep the room from feeling like a fish bowl to the neighbors.  They would have to go.  So to brighten up the wall I sanded the old looking stained wood work, painted it white, put up some new mini-blinds and got to work on a new window treatment.

Now, the fact that I quilt sometimes confuses people into thinking that I also sew.  Technically, I do sew when I quilt.  But putting a project together like a window treatment for someone who doesn't do that kind of sewing every day is like asking for an intern to perform your surgery.  It's a bit of a stretch.  However, I knew what I wanted, a valance style called a 'mock' roman shade, at least that is what I called it.  So to start I went to the sewing version of the Matrix' Oracle, my sister Joy.  I showed up at her workshop with my idea of what I wanted, my window measurements, paper and a pen.  She took the measurements, looked at the blank paper, twitched a bit, and then started to write on the paper basic instructions for how much fabric I'd need to buy, how to make my cuts to use the least amount of fabric and how to put the thing together.  I left her workshop with my instructions and her vote of confidence and was off to the fabric store.  As my luck would have it Joanne Fabrics was having one of their 50% sales on home decor fabric.  I found two I really liked, one had already been marked down from $30 per yard to $15 and had a red clearance sale tag on it... SCORE!!  So in total for fabric I purchased 3 yards each of my main fabric [$7.95 per yard] and drapery lining [$2.95 per yard], pretty cheap compared to trying to buy the treatment in a store.

 

 
I am happy with the results.  I did sew it together once, have to take it apart and have a do-over because I sewed the wrong sides together of the two fabrics ended up with finished side IN of my main fabric... a rookie mistake!  But luckily I didn't make a mistake that caused me to have to scrap my work and purchase more fabric.  There was an added expense of the wood that the treatment gets mounted on to be installed which was a 1 x 4 x 84 inch board which I had Glenn cut because I'm not brave enough to use the power saw. [less than $10 at home depot]  It was harder than I thought to mount it on the board although unlike my previous window treatment project that I had taken to the workshop to ask Joy for help with when it was time to finish the tops and mount them to the board, this one I completed all on my own, a bit of an accomplishment for me.  I laughed at myself because I have now have made window treatments for 3 rooms in the house, Jason's room, the dining room addition (which I took over as my sewing room) and my newly updated office and two of them are the same style and all three are valances.  Just like some of my quilts, since I'm fairly comfortable with the pattern I figure stick with it and gain some confidence.   I've added a gallery for these projects called "Other Projects" if you'd like to see some of the 'in-process' photos.

Spring cleaning.. and a bit of down time...

Well, with one sewing machine down for the count and in the shop, where they can't seem to figure out what is wrong with it, and the other needing desperately to be taken apart and given a good cleaning after 2 completed quilting projects... it's time for a time-out and a good spring cleaning.  I suppose it is the time of the year, a spring time renewal of sorts.  This time of year I always get the itch to empty out, purge, clean out those closets, you know the ones, where you open the door really quick, toss in the item you need to put in there and slam the door before it all tumbles out at you.  Time to bag up all those old clothes that I'll never fit into again because lets all face it... that pair of acid washed jeans from high school that you think looked really good on you so you've been dragging along all these years not only will never fit again... but truthfully... are you really ever going to find the perfect place to wear them... say.. a Bon Jovi concert??  No! Time for the big bag and off to the donation bin.  It is ingrained in us, at least in my family it is, "Spring Cleaning", it's nearly automatic. 

It's kinda the same as the urge I get in September to buy new clothes and shoes.  When I was a kid every August we'd shop and shop for "school clothes" and a new pair of shoes and sometimes a new pair of sneakers.  I remember a few specific things about new school clothes; (1) they were always itchy and stiff... big bulky sweaters, heavy wide wale corduroys and stiff shoes that gave you blisters the size of silver dollars, (2) you bought them in August and had to try on every item on in the store to make sure there was some 'growing room', then the first week of school we'd wear each outfit and could feel ourselves melting on the way to the bus stop in 95 degree weather, (3) you had all these new clothes and new shoes but for the 2 weeks before school started you were not allowed to wear them, even if your current sneakers were held together with duct tape you had to wait til the first day of school to wear those new shoes!

Anyway, in light of the season's spring clean-out and with Jason's school vacation I had taken a bit of time off.  The intention was to spend some time with the family and take some day trips, to clean out and build a work area for myself to work from home, try to empty out the basement so I can start thinking of finishing it to give Jason a play room (and me a bigger sewing room) and lastly to do some general spring cleaning.  I suppose I over-estimated how much I can get done in 2 days.  I took a total of 5 days off, but 3 of them I dedicated to spending time with Jason. Three of those days we did day trips (went to the beach, climbed on the rocks at the light house, went to the Lego store, that kinda stuff) and then two days after he went back to school I intended to get about 764 things done.  Didn't' happen.   So it will be an ongoing project.  One of the projects should have been titled; "how to get the man who lives in the house with me to give up and toss some of that *stuff* that he keeps dragging along with him."  You know the things... the "collectibles"...the baseball cards and the hot wheels from when he was a kid.. I just don't see it.  I guess because I'm just not that much of a sentimental person when it comes to items you can touch.  I don't put too much of myself into any one item or hold an item because of it's attachment to a place, an event or a person.  That's just not what I'm about.  Ask yourself this; If you had an urn that contained the ashes of a loved one would you be a saver or a sprinkler?  Well, I'm a sprinkler.  I'd rather symbolically say good-bye and sprinkle the person's ashes in a garden or on a mountain or where ever, and move on.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless.. it's just that things that are important to me are more memories and experiences than items.  I think this years' spring cleaning is likely to be an ongoing project.  And, perhaps we should all clean out our closets more often.

As for projects... my sewing table will soon be buzzing back to life.  I've got a lot of projects on my list.  I've got 2 half finished quilts; a baby quilt I made but can honestly say I really don't care for the fabrics in it but I'll finish it anyway, and a Spiderman novelty quilt that I'm making for Jason kinda like Jack's Batman project.  I've also got 2 new babies (2 of my nieces are expecting) to quilt for, one of which I have chosen the fabrics and just need to pull the project together and the other I will pick fabrics for in June because we don't yet now if it is a baby girl or a baby boy.  I've also purchased fabric for my new office window.  I'm going to try to put together a window treatment for that room that will be a valance that looks like a roman shade, kinda like a mock-roman shade as it won't go up and down.  That is a project that is somewhat beyond my abilities, a bit of a stretch for me, but I've got some advice and instruction from my sister (who is a professional fabricator of window treatments and general sewing guru) and I found drapery fabric at Joanne Fabrics for 50% off... so I'll give it a try!  After all those projects I have drawn out a quilt project for my own bed, something I've been trying to get to for years and something that this year I am going to hold myself to completing.