[email protected]

In a message dated 1/30/2003 4:09:45 AM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:


> My husband is seriously thinking of moving his office home. Something we
> have had in past years but never in this house with this many children and
> this particular occupation

Mary, I'm 2 days behaind on email, so maybe someone suggested this already.
My husband was job hunting from home and it's was the most stressful thing!
I felt like I had to get us out of the house for a few hours so he could have
some quiet for phone calls but then people call back when we're home and
noisy.

I finally got him to move out to the shed. This is a nice shed built by a
chain (in CA; there's probably something similar in Florida) called The Shed
Shop. We had it built about 4 years ago for less than $4000, including
skylights, four windows, good locking door. It's 120 sq. feet, which is the
largest allowed in our city (and another I know of - it may be a standard
thing) without a permit. Smaller ones cost less of course. We hired an
electrical contractor to do electricity (but skipped the permit - feeling a
little guilty explaining that one to my kids). And now it has a phone line
and is on a network with our house computer. So Daddy's office is in the
backyard and we can be home and live our lives.

And now, it turns out he'll be starting a business and using that shed as a
workshop which I think is really cool because he'll be enough away to give us
space but close enough for us to be involved in the business.

I have another homeschooling friend with a work-at-home spouse. He works out
of a spare bedroom. When their daughter went through a screaming phase, they
stressed about it a lot, but it really helped to buy a soundproof door for a
few hundred. Apparently much of the sound comes through the door rather than
walls. (Of course with my kids, sometimes they're banging on the wall! They
always bang the recliner into it. The other day I was at the bathroom sink
just the other side of the wall from the recliner and bang, the medicine
cabinet popped open!)

Hope these ideas help.

Pam T., still around and appreciating the wisdom on this list


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