Upgrade to the home ‘office’

After working from home part-time for nearly 11 months, it was clear I needed some updates to my home office space.

We don’t have a dedicated office in our house. It was never something I thought we needed. I do have a desk in our basement with my files, printer and other office essentials. The room is mostly my husband’s “man cave” with me taking one corner of it for some of my computer equipment.

The desk was one I had at my parents house, and it was in decent enough shape to get by when we were first moving into our house. As soon as Tim saw it though, I could tell he didn’t really like the desk. It was a cheap thing I bought on Black Friday special from Staples. It did the job, but more screws had to be added to hold it together and the keyboard tray was held on by a hope and a prayer. That has since fallen off too many times that it was balanced on the desk and no longer used. I’m sure Tim could have fixed it but he wasn’t wanting to put any effort into something we planned to replace.

Using a laptop, I can pretty much work anywhere I need to in the house, so I found myself working upstairs in the living room or on the kitchen table for much of my time at home. Whenever I need a change of scenery or I am working after hours or on weekends, it is nice to have a space to go to get a little quiet while my husband watches our son.

Previously I had just used my desk as a filing area for important documents, and it held my old Macbook laptop that is considered ancient by today’s standards. It still works, but at a snail’s pace and contains important files and lots of photos, all backed up of course for the day it eventually refuses to work. I have a newer laptop that works much faster, but I am too sentimental about that old machine to get rid of it.

But I digress.

For my birthday this year, I decided to take the plunge, and I asked my husband to get me a new desk. I was hoping to find one that wouldn’t take up too much room and still hold all of my computer items. I bought a nice monitor to hook my laptop into three years ago; however, I failed to measure it. It was far too big to work with the desk I had. So, it had to be safely stored away until the desk upgrade happened.

I found the perfect desk I wanted online. It was a corner desk, with a roomy area for a monitor and plenty of space so I could have both laptops on the table top.

We started working on the transition, but it was hard enough to keep Lincoln entertained while clearing my old desk out of the way that we opted for an after-bedtime assembly. So, Tim and I spent a Saturday night putting the new piece together.

It was relatively easy to put together, and we had the desk functional in about an hour. I am still working on getting things organized to my liking. I never seem to get it perfect on the first try.

I love having the bigger monitor to work with and was so glad that the purchase had that added benefit. I have even found myself using the ancient mac for a few things here and there since I’m at the desk more often.

It may have taken a spell of working from home to expedite the desk purchase, but I am so glad Tim agreed to make it my birthday gift this year. Now if you’ll excuse me, I see a different place to put my stash of pens.

Contact Pam Pratt at pampratt@newtondailynews.com