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.