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Introduction

A couple of years ago, my home office started in the basement. It was a convenient place to put me, my computers and all my nerdiness. My wife could stash me away, day by day, without a worry of me showing up in the house unexpectedly.

My wife instinctively knew that with me in the basement, she wouldn’t have to listen to any more stories about Tableau and Alteryx because she knows how much I love my job. She knew I’d stay buried in that basement, even when the clock said it was time to quit. On most days, she was right (she really knows me)!

My Motivation

When my son recently moved out of the house, his bedroom instantaneously became the target for my next office. I claimed this room faster than a gold-mining-49er staking a claim where big gold nuggets were being found. Hence, this story began to form.

Normally I wouldn’t take the time to document such a mundane thing like building a home office. However, motivation for this story came from an unlikely source, and for this reason, his influence drove me to write this tale. When you see who the source is, you’ll understand why this story has been added to this Tableau blog.

A few months ago, my friend, Andy Cotgreave of Tableau posted a great 2-year time series video showing the changes in his office. I was impressed with his ability to stick with such a project. His project motivated me to document the evolution of my home office.

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The Basement Office

Figure 1 was the scene when I was originally banished to the basement. The office was functional but was unfinished and subject to large changes in lighting and temperatures throughout the day. One good aspect of this location was a great view into the backyard to see the birds and bunnies. I also got to use my favorite desk, as shown in the right hand side of the picture. With unfinished walls and ceilings, however, people would always ask me about my setting (when they saw me on video), which was a bit unsettling.

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The Starting Point

It took my wife and I about a month to complete the new office. First, we had to get our son moved out of the room. That wasn’t too hard to do because he was motivated to go.

However, when he left to go to his new apartment, he left behind many things he accumulated over the past decade of living in that room, as shown in Figure 2. It occurred to me that these are the disposable things in life that are so hard to eliminate.

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Creating the New Upstairs Office – The Restoration

We started by making decisions. We knew we needed to repair and paint the walls. I even had to dig the bb’s out of the closet walls that were still embedded from Colton’s days of pre-teen antics.

We had to pick a primary color and repaint all the white trim. We decided on a bathroom remodeling as well, in addition to a new light/ceiling fan. Figure 3 contains a few scenes showing the results of these decisions.

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Once the painting, electrical, and cleaning work were finished in the main room, we cleaned the carpet and refreshed the bathroom with a new mirror, new lighting and other accessories. Figure 4 contains some pictures showing the result of these choices. Having a bathroom adjacent to my office is a huge improvement compared to my basement office.

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Finally we began adding some simple furniture. I wanted to keep the office sparse but yet comfortable. I wanted Toni and Jett to be comfortable when the come to visit me during the workday.

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Completing the Office

We completed the office by adding my computer and screens, curtains, a shelving unit and some knick-knacks. Figure 6 shows some of these items.

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Final Thoughts

So far, it has been a pleasure to be in this office. It is quiet, cool and comfortable. My visitors are happy to see me. My achilles tendons are beginning to feel better after working at a stand-up desk for two years. As with everything in life, I’m sure this office will evolve. Thanks for reading!