What Ana Does

 Dave works two days a week at home, so we've been trying to find the best spot for him. This house doesn't have a dedicated office like our last one did, therefore he's moved around the house, looking for that perfect spot.  Once I sold this pool table we inherited with the house ... ... this corner of the basement made the most sense for him to really set up a comfortable space just for him.  My first step was to paint over the starburst mural I did almost as soon as we moved in. I was never a big mural fan to begin with, but I thought this spot out be a cool place to put it. I should have picked brighter colors in a better spectrum. Luckily, I had just a little of the original of the wall paint left to cover it up.  We found this soft indoor/outdoor rug (he hates the flooring but it doesn't make sense to do this corner of the basement; we'll wait to do the whole thing) that's grey and checked to ground the area.  And we've got a clean slate! Tasks to do:...

Our home office has been a bit of a wreck since we moved back from Paris. A catch-all room. But then we started working from home in March and this room has been in a state of PROGRESS. David used it. Than, he moved to the basement, and I've been using it. We moved the chaise in here for the dogs to nap and watch the neighborhood -- it's everyone's room.  Once the decision was made to distance learn, we had a family discussion on where the girls wanted to work. After last Spring's experience, the dining room or kitchen was out of the picture. Too messy. We quickly identified the office as the optimal place (the first of there several options) so they're close to me, for guidance and questions while I'm working from home, and they're away from distractions in their rooms. The desks in their rooms would play an alternate roll, once they got up and running successfully and needed a fresh location. Options are good.  It was also the perfect opportunity to clear ...

It was around mid-March that we were sent away from the office and asked not to return. Staffers who could work from home, were shipped off to do so. I grabbed all that I could and haven't been back to my office space. Since working from home, I'd been sitting in a corner of my dining room table. The location made sense because: a) the girls did school work on the other corner of the table, so I was there for help and to keep them on task. b) Dave took the office and spends most of his days on conference calls with the doors closed. And c) I could keep an eye on the dogs and all the other activity going on in the house. But lastly d) I could look out the window at my backyard. Sigh. It worked for awhile but, lately, I've been finding that I get UP so many times through the day (see the list above and it's easy to understand why). And getting myself resettled each time was annoying. And now my hours are increasing, so I really needed to figure out a more permanent sp...

Wow! I'm so excited about how this home office project turned out ... as I sit at the desk typing this very blog post. It's just so much more functional and my style. (Plus, the wood shelves still smell like lumber and I love that!) Here's the before picture of the traditional bookcase I just couldn't get used to ( project overview here ). Despite so many voices telling me to leave it, I just couldn't be satisfied with this not-my-style bookcase. Well, two weeks and $200 later, here's the office ... After: Much More Usable Space, Air and Style Quick reminder of the BEFORE picture of the same wall ... Before: Lots Chaos, Not A Lot of Usable Desk Space WOWZA! My goal was to liberate more of that granite desktop to be useful ... spread out papers and electronics, etc. When I work, I need SPACE! At the same time, I needed book storage, a place for the girls to plugin their school-issued laptops, and my file bin for all the papers that need to b...

The office is really coming together! Once the wall was clear and open, I was trying hard to picture how I wanted to assemble the book shelves. Because I need bookshelves here, but I don't want to weight down the space like it was before. I narrowed down to two options (based on all the pretty pictures I've looked at on Pinterest, Instagram and HGTV) ... Option 1) three shelves going almost wall to wall, or 2) two sets of three shelves and a piece of art in the middle. Here's the thing about making these big design decisions: you need to take time to research and find something that feels right. There's a gut feeling about these things. BUT the important thing is to not let it stagnate and go stale. Trust your gut. If there's a happy feeling inside, that's the right decision. So I mocked up the two options and posted it on Instagram Stories and took a quick poll. And this option won by 5:1. Next step is sourcing the brackets, which is the only item I...

The Bookcase Before While trying to fall asleep last night, I worked out the demo on the bookcase in the office. I figured, if I went slow, looked for all the available screws, I could take it down in three pieces and maybe reuse or sell it. I imagined moving it behind the TV in the family room, maybe painting it navy to match and removing the layer cake molding on the top to simplify it. That was not the case.  It's solidly built and was completely stuck together as one unit. I got it unscrewed from the wall, and unhooked the electrical (there were florescent lights on the top) wires and sockets, and that's where I got stuck. I needed to get to the back of it, so I could see where it was all connected, but I couldn't. So we got a little crazy. Leah and I wiggled the entire unit to the edge of the counter, cleared the floor and ... tipped the whole thing over. BOOOM! Yup, so I wasn't going to resell or reuse it in another room after that. But, the drama ...

The largest task in my home office redesign is removing this expensive, custom bookcase that the previous owners had built-in. I know it was expensive because I have the receipt! And because it cost them a lot, it's controversial for me to trash it. I mean, it's custom work! Why? Because... 1 - YES, it was a selling feature in this house. It's "pretty" and "stately" but it's SO NOT my style. This swings really "traditional" (layers of classic molding) and that's a contradiction to my minimal, modern style. 2- And YES, if we were selling the house tomorrow, I wouldn't touch it. But this is our house and it should be a reflection of us, and this bookcase isn't it. It just isn't. 3 - PLUS, look at all the room it takes up on that desk counter. It's crazy. The middle 1/3 is really all the work space you have. The other sides are walled off. And while I'm at it ... If I had my dream setup in this office, I woul...

Now that we've gotten all the really ugly rooms in my home addressed ( basement , laundry room and our master bathroom ), I'm turning my attention to our home office. Office Floor Layout; 1) Cabinets and Bookcase, 2) Sewing Cabinet. 3) Chair? 4) Second Desk We are so lucky to have this room. It's right off the entryway, is a great size and when we work from home, we can close the doors and have some privacy. But, mainly, it's a clutter-catcher room. Boo! My goals for updating it will be to add more table/work space , which is sadly lacking. I'd love to have enough seating so the girls could do their homework in here, too. But for now, getting two working desks will be enough. Also, I want to keep books and my sewing storage in here. And I want a space dedicated to household paperwork . I'd love to get an upholstered "reading" chair in here, too, but I'm not sure it will fit. Last, it needs an overall stye update . Right now the ro...

We are SOOO fortunate to have a fourth bedroom in this apartment, which we'll use as a guest room. And an office. And a video game room. Here's the space just after we moved in when it acted solely as an office. See my calendar made from shipping paper on the wall? BEFORE: The Guest Room As Office Before we moved, I had a plan for all of the rooms, except this one. I was pretty sure it would be a guest room, but I didn't pack any furniture specifically for it. In hindsight, I wish I did, but there just wasn't time to consider it before the movers arrived. It took a few weeks to put together the right strategy. At first, there was talk of getting a daybed or a convertible sofa. But ultimately, we decided to make it as comfortable for guest use as possible and put a nice full-size bed in the corner. But also buy some light-weight chairs for when we don't have guests and want to use it to watch TV or play wii. Dave went to Ikea and got some Poang (iconic and...

Thanks to my CSA, all I eat for lunch in the summer is fruit ... and cheese, of course. Need to meet my daily cheese quota. Plums, Peaches -- and Cheddar (and Rice Cake) (Not shown -- homemade yogurt with a few berries.) 

Nothing worse that leaving your hair down for work and then going crazy pulling it out of your face all day. Thus, I mastered the two-pencil upsweep yesterday. Though it took me the morning to figure out the mechanics, it stayed secure all afternoon ... leaving my neck to bask in the lovely breeze of office air conditioning. Two-Pencil Updo It'd call that a win for the week. 

My office has gone ahead and replaced their awesome full-service cafeteria -- once resplendent with a salad bar and grill -- with an automated 7-11 store. Yes, I now have kiosks with processed foods and meals made in a factory at my convenience, all day long. And no one works the kiosks, so I would just punch in my food choices and pay the machine. We went from real people making real food, to machines. Is this the future? Sure, I get that it's going to save the company money. The office population is small and I'm sure couldn't justify having a kitchen staff of five. But I will miss my salad bar. And the yummy turkey burger I got on soccer practice days -- when extra protein was needed. Not to mention the real milk for my coffee and the real utensils for my yogurt and lunch. In response, my mornings will now include a lunch packed for Mom, as well as Leah. Because this girl doesn't eat processed food (or as little of it that I can get away with -- I mean, try...

The Original Spot for Fabrics. A Mess Although I'm not at all focused on decorating our office, I was DONE digging for fabric in the corner cabinet. It was a dark spot and my little collection had outgrown it. So while searching for the dining room cabinet of my dreams -- that just doesn't exist, sigh -- I stumbled on this little yellow cabinet from Martha Stewart. I have always aspired to have a place where my pretty (and growing) fabric collection could be stored and displayed. This cabinet just happened to the be the perfect dimension for this corner of the office and the glass doors can be closed up while the pretty fabrics can still be seen. Sure, it's veneer and wobbles a little, but it's cute and I could probably cover the glass at some point with frosted contact paper or pretty decorative paper. Bonus! Yellow Cabinet Filled With Crafts and Games A place for all the lovely fabric, crafts and some games?! Oh be still my heart. I'm falling de...

I'm working from home tomorrow (as I now do most Fridays), so I should probably clean off my project table in the office. Ugh! The "Project Table" in the office. No wonder it takes me so long to finish a project. What a mess! 

This Sunday morning I'm attempting to get through a bunch of household and personal project on the computer and around the office (where are my 2011 taxes!?!). And, as usual, I'm not alone. My Little Buddy I pulled out the toddler mattress (from the bed we no longer use) and placed it on the floor for Alice, who is watching videos on Amazon Prime ... and providing me commentary. She was outside playing in the snow but her pants got wet -- I think her snow pants are officially too small. Another To Do item on my list. Meanwhile, I haven't seen Leah in a few hours. Hope she doesn't turn into a snowman out there. Relate posts: More more and more Alice