It's either a drought or a flood. Or at least that's how my work-load can seem at times. Actually, there's never really a drought, just a manageable stream that allows you to sleep at night as you're carried along - no terribly sharp turns and certainly no rapids, until the dam gates rise and flood-waters gush in. I was almost getting into a rhythm of handling the generation of content for tkArena and everything that goes along with that, when suddenly one day one writer is no longer able to be part of the team and as soon as I'd let out a big sigh over that disappointment I have more writers and topics and products being hurled at me than I can handle!
Actually, this is great. I just have to learn to shut off properly at the end of the day - to turn work off and quiet down my busy mind. I often find myself running into my study when I'm cooking dinner at night or making school lunches in the morning, so that I can hurriedly write down a reminder about something that needs doing for work. Maybe that's part of the package when you work from home, or maybe that's just the way I work. We'll soon find out as work and home life will soon be more separated than they've been in years, ten meters from the house. Yes, that's right - we're moving to the garage!
Just to make life extra-busy, we're in the midst of converting our two-car garage into the office. At the moment, I have a small study where I work most of the day. John's work area is in what should realistically be a rumpus room, which joins the kitchen/meals area. The problem is that it's also his after-hours area. His gaming PC is in there as well. So poor old John never really gets out of his office! It has room for 2-4 test beds, depending on how much cramped space you can stand, plus the video editing/share PC, his gaming rig and his laptop. Hardware is stored in tubs and boxes under the seven tables that line the walls of the room. Once you get a couple of lamp stands for photography and video work in there, it's more than a little cramped.
So finally, after being in this working situation for over three years, last weekend we had over half a dozen mates spend two days completing the major work to convert the garage to an office.
The large metal door was removed and in its place is a lined wooden wall with one large horizontal window along the top to let in some natural light.
Several sci-fi obsessed friends said we ought to paint the wall silver and get a red light installed on the inside and we'd have ourselves a Cylon wall!
We also installed two man-holes in the ceiling and lined the roof with 7-ply to give us ample storage for motherboard boxes etc.
Now all that's left to do is the electricity, heating/cooling, networking/phone, strip and paint the walls, ceiling and floor. Looks like we're in for another grueling weekend. Have a good one everyone!