The Office

The house where we live is old (pushing 100 years at this point) and weird. Beyond the usual old-house things, where nothing is quite square or plumb and the 2x4s are actually 2x4 and not 1.5x3.5 and the wiring and outlets are insufficient, the semi-finished upstairs is peculiarly shaped. It doesn't have rooms so much as it has a series of connected room-like spaces with sloping ceilings (because it's just under the roof) and other oddities. When we moved in [uncomfortably large number redacted] years ago, we had plans for that space. We were going to build them out into actual useful spaces: an office, a guest room, a lounge, a library. And we made a start on some of that work. However, over time the upstairs became a default storage location. Not sure where to keep something? Put it upstairs. Most of those spaces ended up packed floor to ceiling with boxes and Rubbermaid containers. 

But a few months ago, we resolved to do something about it. We were going to reclaim the space and turn it into something useful, one area at a time. And the first space was going to be one designated to be my office.

Once I got all the boxes out, it looked like this:

It's about eight by fifteen feet altogether. The ceiling slopes under the roof, of course, so it's a bit over six feet at the highest, but mostly less than that. The room isn't well-defined because the space next to it more or less just opens into it. And there's an odd space divider built into the back of the room, with a closety area on the left and the right divided into upper and lower halves by a deep horizontal shelf.

So what does it look like now? Kinda like this:

Fresh paint, of course, a batch of new outlets bringing much needed power to the room. I got a batch of unfinished kitchen cabinets which provided a lot of storage and allow me to use a lot of the room under the sloping ceiling I couldn't otherwise use. I cut and finished some slabs of wood to serve as countertops and the desk surface, built shelves, and put in a number of little details. For example...

The area at the back of the room retains its original thirds, but the right-hand side is storage (long-term storage behind a useful triangle of whiteboard on top, a "tool shed" hiding my 3d printer among other things behind the accordion blind below. And the left-hand side behind the curtain got another desk surface, pegboard, a light, and a few other bits and pieces to become an arty workspace: 

Then there's the empty area of floor near the back of the room.

That design on the floor is a reproduction of the labyrinth at the cathedral of Amiens, possibly one of the easiest such designs to reproduce because it's all straight lines. It's a little lopsided near the middle, but it basically works, and it's well-sized for meeple pilgrimages.

There's memorabilia all over, since we conceived of the room as a sort of wunderkammer. This set of shelves near the back of the room houses, among other things, an astrolabe and a scientific balance dating to no later than 1947.

The cabinet next to that, to the left of the desk, houses a number of technical works, a couple of animals from Botswana, and a Cypriot icon. The icon is made from wood harvested from a forest burned during the Turkish invasion and was sold as a fund-raiser for refugees.

To the right of the desk, the tea station. Moroccan-ish tile, a small electric kettle, and (at the moment) a tea set from NCC-1701-D. Atop it, a small Cypriot vessel made in a style going back to the Neolithic (slow wheel, decorations applied after forming the main pot), an Acheulean-style hand axe I made from Napa county obsidian, and a souvenir from my time in Starfleet.

The other side of the room has the professional library, RPGs to the left, interesting and useful historical works to the right (both are a fraction of the whole library, of course; these are just key works). Memorabilia include a carved figurine I was given by my lovely and talented spouse and a kukri I picked up in Nepal. Most of the wall to the right, separating this room from the next, is new.

Between them, there are a few other bits. Above, there's a world map. If you look carefully at the pictures above, there's a small latch on the left. If you unlatch it, the map opens down to reveal a video screen.

 

Below that is the stone "mantel" (adhesive stone tile) and heater, an electrical heating element made to look like an iron stove. It'll be quite cozy once it gets cold again in, oh, November or so.

Natural light isn't great in that room despite the window, so it's supplemented by four lamps. I got some inexpensive Moroccan lanterns, did a bit of surgery to put light sockets into them, and hung them on the wall. And the fobs on the end of the pull chains? Dice.

And it's a bit subtle, but the ceiling has a scattering of stars. That thing just over the window is a page from a Buddhist text written in Pali on a leaf made from a disused monk's robe, stiffened with lacquer, and gilded.

It's a tiny space, then, but it's cozy, and there's room for a rotating display of memorabilia. But the next projects are furniture downstairs.