I managed to get the main parts of the office set up today … my PC, LJ’s PC, the server, my laptop, my desk phone and the cordless phone (both connected through NodePhone), my work phone, the ADSL router, the gigabit switch, the printer.
I’m pretty happy with the setup – it’s pretty spacious, and I think it will work well. The biggest problem is light – both too much and too little !!
Given that three walls of the office are basically windows … it was built as a sunroom – I suspect this means I will swealter in here in summer – time to invest in a portable airconditioner unit me thinks. Because of this, during the day there is a lot of natural light in here – a nice environment to work in, but of course, it can become too bright at times with glare from the sun a problem, especially in the late afternoon as the desks face west, into the setting sun. The venetian blinds, as much as I hate the things, actually do give you pretty good control over the light, allowing you to let some natural light in, whilst still blocking the direct light.
The problem at night is that we have a slight issue with the light in the room. The lightswitch is behind my bookshelves !! There are actually two entrances to the room, one from our bedroom, and the other from the lounge. In order to maximise our wall space without putting bookshelves up in front of the windows, we decided to keep one of the two doors closed and put the bookshelves in front of it. We decided it would make more sense to close the bedroom door, especially to help block some extra light and noise through the frosted-glass-paned doors too the bedroom. The problem there is that the only light switch for the room is actually by that same door, and it’s now right in the middle of the back of one of the bookshelves – we didn’t have enough room to move it to one side so we could still reach the switch.
We decided that we would solve the light problem using other means. For now, I have a strip flouro light I was previously using as a desk light, sitting up on one of the bookshelves providing a measure of light – but still not enough. LJ’s desk light helps a little, but not much. We are going to go shopping on the weekend and see if we can find some suitable floor lamps that we can use – including one that will be positioned just inside the door to provide light as you first enter the room. I think it will work out okay.
The wooden floorboards are a bit cold, but some mats under the desk help there, and also provides some cushioning for the subwoofer down there so it’s not directly bouncing on the floor. Floorboards really help to accentuate the bass too :D
LJ was up very early to supervise the cleaner back at the unit helping to get things tidied up there, followed later by the professional carpet cleaners (which is a bit of a waste, as I suspect the owners will probably replace the carpet before they re-let or sell the unit – oh well). She then spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the lounge area here at the house and starting to get the place livable. We haven’t touched the kitchen area yet – meals still involve take-away food and a hunt for plates and cutlery … we’ll get to that soon.
Another good thing – we got a new front door today. Actually, we got the glass insert. A couple of weeks ago, before we signed the lease, there was a bit of a stormy day where the front door (which is mostly glass, with a wooden frame), slammed shut and smashed the glass. Apparently the owners have insurance that covered this, so they paid to have it replaced with a similar glass insert. The guy installing it told me that some of the bevelling around the edges is quite complicated and has to be done by hand – there’s only one person in Sydney who does it, so it was quite expensive and took a few extra weeks. But it was finally done today, so it replaces the boarded up door we previously had – made it feel a little like we were in a rough neighbourhood. I took some photos, I’ll have to upload them. Lesson for the day – make sure the door doesn’t slam shut.
mmm – back to work now.
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