Alchemausterity II

redofromstart

Agree with @savingholmes points.  Making it clear that you will not be making drinks/meals/free for chat about non urgent stuff for others - you are in the office and working.  Offspring not having noisy mates over outside your window during your working hours.

I do a lot of on camera meetings and agreeing a way for people to tell my camera was on (a window in my new office door as it happens) was fairly key for us. 

Noise reducing headphones for when he is running power tools.  

Means of heating the work space, its cold sitting still when it might not be when you are moving around.  My £20 under desk oil heater is effective at chill off but cheap to run.  

greenbee

Replied on my diary, but mostly agree with the points here. I have a very well set up office after all this time, but spend about 6-8 hours a day on camera so getting comfortable with that is key. I prefer zoom as it has a 'touch up my appearance' setting, but sadly mostly use Teams or Webex (although that's not working at the moment) or webinar platforms. 

Heating is important - along with daylight bulbs, blinds (light filtering ones if the window is likely to be a problem - I get evening sun), decent chair, desk(s) (I have 3) - two have 2 monitors each on stands so they can be moved, third has printer and junk. Scarves, gloves, wraps (even in summer, it's always colder sitting still).

And make sure your office is as close to the loo and as far from the fridge as possible (I blocked up a door to increase the latter )

Karmacat

So interesting about the comforts of a home office!  I still have ambitions about writing, but that's not the same as office work and using zoom etc - Alchemilla, hope all this works for you and you can get it up and running really quickly.

apple_muncher

I hope there wasn't still a mouse in the mousetrap...

savingholmes

Ewwww at it going in the dw.... 

Joining the band sounds good... I did think of Lisa when you mentioned the sax.... 

Loading the dishwasher while being paid by work is a whole different feeling - not that I'd know.... 

You'll probably benefit from a surge protected extension lead with at least 4 plug sockets too as you can never have enough sockets. It makes it less likely that there will be an issue too as the fuse on the extension's cable would blow rather than anything else. 

savingholmes

On Teams you can upload your own background. Make it pretty greenery or something that catches the eye and you can look at it rather than your face during meetings - and give others the opportunity to do the same and in theory helps make meetings less exhausting.

greenbee

Good point on the sockets. I have dado rail trunking with about a million sockets in it.

Alchemilla

Thank you all for your comments. This has narrowed down the potential locations.
I won't have a wired connection but will have plenty of sockets. I will investigate daylight bulbs.

Today I have spent some money on DD1's birthday presents. It is tidy up for the plumber coming tomorrow to fix our leaky shower tray. New tray, new bigger cubicle. Very £££.

Going to make soup for DH. He's having fish for dinner. 

Most importantly, R.I.P this wonderful, bonkers artist.

Alchemilla

Today's wacky soup is onion/garlic/ginger/beetroot/celery.
We'll see how that turns out.

It is interesting the paucity of the research into Meatloaf for the news. He was not born Michael Lee Aday but Marvin Lee Aday.
He changed his name by deed poll (or the US equiv) to Michael because of the teasing he had due to the Levis ad that went

 "Poor fat Marvin can't wear levis".

He said he only ever wore Wranglers after that even when Levis made their sizing more inclusive.

He did tell a lot of stories though, and they weren't always consistent. 

Watty1

RIP Meatloaf.   Amazing artist.     Saw live a couple of times.  And the musical Bat Out of Hell is fantastic too.

Just catching up.  Have home office.  Dedicate space, have a larger desk than you think you will  need (mine is two cheap Ikea tables and a return made from an old worktop.  Have a special chair and leave everything set up.  Also be firm with interruptions. I remember moaning to a friend that people just "call in" because "i work from home" and she said simply ask them if they would pop into your office in town.   That focused my mind on work time v down time.   I still welcome the drop ins now but am better at saying I'm working.