The Goodrums

So, we encountered a number of "technical difficulties" in getting my home office networked and set-up. Our internet/phone jack is behind our huge hutch and credenza unit in the office. That thing is HEAVY and will not move once it's in place - so we had to wait for phone and internet services to be connected prior to assembling it (the techs often need access to the jacks). When Comcast came out to set up our internet connection, they discovered that some fuse in their system had blown. It took them 5 days to order and install the part (the big snowstorm we got the first weekend in the house didn't help any on that count). Qwest took a week to get out to install the phone line. On top of all that, half of the cables we had weren't long enough to reach around to the necessary connection locations. I had a 20 foot long printer cable - and it's not long enough to reach around the super tiny office to the printer. Go figure! I had to order a wireless printer device and hopefully it works.

I was complaining to my coworker, Mimi, the other day about my less than desirable working conditions (while waiting for all the above chaos to resolve so we could assemble and place the office furniture). I took a few pictures at the time to document how bad it was.

I have to say that the conditions were still much better than when we moved to Jackson - when I worked literally on the floor for 3 months, while we waited to be able to afford office furniture. Things like the bed and kitchen table took priority over the office. The things you do when you are young and poor. :)

Here's a little tour of the pre-assembled office.
(Going counterclockwise from the door)




















Hutch and credenza unit dissembled - printer crammed in behind...
My little spot was in the upper right hand corner by the chair















My little haven
It was such a tight little spot that you couldn't even fully turn around in the chair.




















The desk (where I should be working if there was room)
At the time, there was only about 2 1/2 feet between the desk and the hutch (since it was off of the credenza unit).




















The closet (aka storage unit)

The office has improved drastically since then. The hutch and credenza are assembled. All the files are put away. My desk is operational - including my docking station. All the boxes are unpacked (even though there are still quite a few piles books scattered around the room). There is currently a 20 foot long printer cable running through the middle of the room - which I trip over about 5 times a day. The wireless device should show up from Dell today. Woohoo! With that and a little time in the evenings, I should be able to finish the office fully by the end of the week. Once I do, I'll post new pictures - so Mimi and others can witness the improvement. :)

Did I mention that we got a wireless router? We have wireless now - so fun (they were on sale and pretty cheap at Circuit City)! The real reason we got it is because Michael has the option to work from home too. We had to get a router so that we could both be on the internet at the same time (it also gives the added benefit of letting our dinosaur PC get online). However, wireless has many other perks too. Maybe in the summers, I can work outside on the back porch (once we build one). Ha ha ha... Dream on. That's not happening anytime soon anyway. At least not until the temperature gets out of the single digits!