Makeovers and more...

Working at Home But Not in the House

Ask anyone who works from home what their biggest challenges are and you're likely to get one of two answers: they find it hard to stop working because they're always at work; or they find hard to start working because there's always something to do around the house.

Get Out of the House - Even if it's Just 10 Feet Out

Sonoma: There's something about having a place that exists just for work that makes Stacey more productive.

Both of these dilemmas are easily solved by constructing a Summerwood home studio on your property. There's something about having to commute - even if it's in your pyjamas, just across 10 feet of yard - that puts you in the mindset for work. By leaving home physically, it becomes much easier to leave home mentally. Then at the end of the day, you leave the office and commute home. Again, it becomes easier not to take work home with you if you don't work in the home.

Stacey E of Redwood City CA points out that while their home is small, it was still plenty big to distract her when she first started working from it. There was always laundry to be done, dishes to be put away, counters to be scrubbed. "Yes! That's exactly it," laughs Stacey in agreement. "It's like you have a little webcam on my life." Like most home-based workers, Stacey telecommutes to the company and clients.

"I work mostly by phone and on computer at home... I sell meetings and convention space for a hotel chain on the East Coast. So I found I was in a position to work at home."

Working at home sounded ideal, like a dream come true. Pretty soon, however, she realized, "I wanted something at home but not in the house." So she and her husband Derek did some research and liked what they found at Summerwood. They ordered a preassembled Sonoma home studio. With its distinctive hip roof, the Sonoma adds style to a home office that you just won't find in the typical home studio. We've built them here at Summerwood and use them as offices for our employees. So we can honestly say that one can inspire you to new heights in productivity.

Beautiful Home Offices That Are Easy to Construct

Copper Creek: With a view like this - is it really work?

Preassembled structures from Summerwood cost a bit more than the pre-cut variety but are far less work to erect. "My husband is pretty handy. His brother built it together with him. The floor and walls took less than a day (to put up). The hip roof took structurally another day." What ate much of their time was manoeuvring the roof over the walls. They wanted to save space an the spot where they placed it was adjacent to a fence and deck. "There's only a foot surrounding it, so putting the roof on was tough because the space was so constrictive," she recalls.

Stacey knew she'd be spending a lot of time in her new home office and wanted it to be a welcoming space. To make it bright and breezy, an atmosphere any salesperson would do better in, they installed 3 generous 10" x 12" hinge windows which open and close and mostly glass French door. They finished the outside with cedar channel for that laidback wooden look.

It's Big Enough for Storage too

San Cristobal: You can't beat the natural light for painting and other artistic endevours.

Given that their house was fairly small, they also wanted some storage space. "We cut the Sonoma in half," Stacey says. They put a wall inside and, "there's another door that closes off the back half." They also built wraparound shelves to squeeze every cubic inch out of their storage space.

They could have ordered both the wall and the shelves from Summerwood, but Stacey wanted to experience the space first. Only when she knew how much room she would need to work efficiently did she and Derek carve out the other space for storage.

Today Stacey has no problems diving into her work and being productive. Her Sonoma home office was finished in January 2004 but Stacey loves it as much today as the day they built it. "Everyone's been really impressed by it. I've talked to others about Summerwood and given referrals."

Referrals for Summerwood? Hmm, maybe there's another home-based business idea floating around there!

Back to Top