Writing Report September 14, 2020

If you’re following me on Facebook (and if you aren’t, why the %#@& not?), you’ll know I recently switched my office with our old guest bedroom.

This has proven to be a good move in more ways than one: I’ve finally got enough shelf space for all my books!

The reason for taking my old office in the first place was that the router cable terminated in that room’s closet, so that seemed like the most logical place to put the computer.

But of course routers and wireless technology keeps improving, and we’re able to access the router now from anywhere in the house, and since my old office’s closet doors were the only full length mirrors in the house, I frequently had Soon-ok drop in -- “Ignore me, I’m just checking something out” -- trying out different wardrobe combos.

(I mean, total waste of time, right?  She looks great in everything.)

So when we started some serious renovations elsewhere in the house, I opted to swap out my old office for the old guest bedroom.  While the square footage was roughly the same the layout was slightly different, and the new office’s closet is an innie (i.e., extends into the wall) rather than an outie (i.e., is built as a projection into the room).

In addition, the new office closet has a curtain, not sliding mirrors, so it’s a lot easier to access everything in it.  The old guest bedroom closet already had some wall mounted shelving units in it so we moved a standalone shelf into the space set aside for clothes and use it to store files, office supplies, art equipment, etc. There’s still a lot of sorting to do, but at least it’s off the floor.

The old desk had been an Ikea boomerang table; lots of leg room but no storage. We took two small bookcase we had and laid a door across them so the computer wires and power cords can run through the doorknob hole, making the top neater. (I still need to brace up the underside, however)

We put a small Target storage unit across from the desk and ran the router power and cable wires behind it (we had the local cable company extend the router into the old guest bedroom). Since the Target storage unit’s cloth storage bins are accessible from either side, we can hide the router in one yet pull it out easily if we need to reboot it. Other storage bins hold disc back ups of various files, blank notebooks, my older stories and scripts, and various odd sized items that don’t fit on shelves.

And speaking of bookshelves, we got four Ikea Billy bookcases. Inexpensive, easy to assemble, and rugged. We thought about getting the taller model with an additional shelf but realized the ceiling was so low we wouldn’t be able to stand it up once erected! Even with the 78” models I’m finally able to get all my books out of their boxes.

One plan that did fall through was installing a wall mounted TV above the Target storage unit.  I wanted it to be completely wireless with the exception of a single power cord but all the wireless units available can’t be mounted behind the unit so rather than waste time and money on that, we opted to forget it (besides, with my larger desk I can now prop up my iPad and watch movies on YouTube, so I really don’t need a TV; if I can find a disc player that can jack into the iPad, then I’m set as I can watch DVDs that way [or else maybe just buy a MacBook or PC-compatible device that can play discs).

The $64,000,000 question is:  
Does it make writing any easier?

The answer is yes.

Mind you, I’ve really been derailed these last three months due to renovations. Office switching, and various family matters, but since setting up my new office I’ve found I’m much more productive in the brief hours I can squeeze in.

It’s fulfilling its intended purpose perfectly, and once everything has settled down, I expect to get back up to speed PDQ.

© Buzz Dixon