Podcast Episode 1 - Tips for Working From Home

It's hosted on YouTube but is audio-only. Hopefully you find this interesting.

Moved Into the Home Office

Yesterday after work I got my home office to the point where I was able to move my workstation there. The walls and trim are painted.

I removed the hutch from my daughter's old desk for more space. I'll be using it for a little while rather than spending more money right now.

Earlier this week I ordered a Steelcase Think chair arrived from Crandall Office Furniture. This is the same model that I've had at work since around 2008. For me, it's the most comfortable office chair I've ever used. The one I got is a refurb but it looks new. Some of the plastic parts even appeared to have been Armor Alled.

Tearing up the carpet and padding was a major pain. The worst part was pulling all the staples, which meant I had to be on the floor with a pair of pliers. The hardwood floor looks even worse than I remembered. It appears that the original owner of the house used different sections for trying out different stains. It looks like CRAP.

So, yesterday, I ordered an Oriental rug from Home Depot. It should arrive early next week.

Next up is to get a couple of shelves in the closet, a wall bumper for the doorknob, and some shelves for the wall. I'll also be moving a cabinet up from downstairs and eventually a bookcase or two.

In the new office I'm only about 20 feet from my Wifi router, but I don't yet have the ability to connect via Ethernet as I did downstairs. Everything else being equal, a hard connection is going to be better -- more reliable and faster -- than Wifi. I need to scrounge around in the midden to see if I have any CAT5 left and then I'll look into running an Ethernet drop.

The room is currently very sparse but it is a refreshing change from the laundry room.

More Progress on the Home Office

Today I made more progress on the home office remodel.

The first thing I tackled today was sanding the spackling. I used a 3M N95 mask that was stored with my painting stuff and my nose is still a little sore from wearing it for maybe 20 minutes. It would suck to have to wear one on the regular.

After that I got the first coat of paint on. It looks like two will be fine. I'll do the second coat tomorrow after work, and the trim on Tuesday.

I should be able to move in by the end of the week, even though it won't be complete. I.e., it will still need shelves.

Progress on the Home Office

I made it out to Lowe's today to pick up paint, etc. so I can redo my old/new home office. They had a box of shop towels and also cleaning wipes by the carts, which I availed myself of. They had sneeze guards up between cashiers and customers. Everyone seemed to maintain social distancing.

After I got home we got most of my daughter's crap cleaned out and I was able to spackle where needed and got some primer on the trim. Hopefully, the paint I got won't take more than two coats to cover the previous paint -- light blue with one wall painted orange. (I call this decor scheme "eyesore.") I'm going with a light tan.

Did I mention that I hate painting?

After I'm done painting I'll be tearing up the pink rug. There's a hardwood floor underneath but I forget what it looks like. The previous owner of my house had painted the hardwood floor in our living and dining rooms with 4 coats of white paint. Stripping that was a bitch. IIRC, in my office there's some stain on it. I'm planning on an area rug.

I've decided to keep her old desk temporarily but I'll remove the hutch on top of it for more space. I figure once we're done with the Kung Flu I can pick a more permanent solution. My main goal now is to get the room usable and get her settled into the den.

Home Office Renovation

My 15 y/o daughter asked last month if she could move from her room upstairs to our den. We live in a 3 BR, 2.5 bath split-level. The den doesn't get used too much by anyone else and being the youngest, she has the smallest bedroom. My wife and I agreed but we were planning on waiting a bit before starting the project.

Yesterday, waiting went out the window. Today is the last day of my second full week of working from home and I could really use more space.

We pulled the old sectional sofa out of the den and put it out back under a couple tarps until we can dispose of it. We also gave away her old bed (maintaining proper social distancing) My wife ordered her a loft bed for downstairs.

I'm looking forward to getting her moved downstairs because it means that I can reclaim her bedroom, which used to be my home office. For the past several years I've been using a corner desk in our laundry room. It lacks surface area, so I can use only one monitor. I'm looking at buying or building an L-shaped desk with enough space for me to use my 27" monitor, have my laptop open next to it, and still have room for a ham radio or two.

Speaking of which, I'll have to reroute the feed lines to two antennas that are up on the roof, but it will be worth it because they will be significantly shorter. Ergo, less loss.

Aside from more desk space it will get me out of the coldest corner in the house, which will be a relief when next Fall rolls around.

Overall, this is a good project to undertake while we wait for COVID-19 to peter out.

Working From Home Today

Today I get to hang out at home and wait for an insurance adjuster to inspect some water damage we have on our roof.  It looks like during one of the recent rainstorms with high winds we had water blow in through our attic fan, soaking the roof decking, which is now delaminating.  We found the damage last Wednesday but today was the first day an adjuster could come out.  I'm just hoping it's covered and we can get a roofer out ASAP.

Since I was going to be home today, we also scheduled an appoint for an exterminator.  We have a contract with a pest control company to come out every six months or so to keep the bugs in check.  The tech who services our account is a great guy and if I'm home during an appointment we always wind up shooting the breeze for a bit.

One thing he mentioned today was that he's seeing a lot more husbands home during his visits.  Not surprising, considering that men have borne the brunt of the job losses in this recession.

Edit: Shit.

According to the adjuster there is an exclusion in our policy for the particular kind of damage we had.  I've called a roofer to come out so I can get an estimate to get it fixed.  Looks like it'll require a sheet of plywood and one or two bundles of shingles.  I am considering having the attic fan removed to prevent a recurrence, but that'll drive up our utility bills during the summer.

New Security System

Yesterday I got to work from home while an experimental home security and monitoring system got installed.  It's broadband-enabled, so that instead of using a phone line to contact the monitoring service, it uses my cable modem connection, with a cellular backup in case the cable modem connection goes down due to a system outage or tampering.

Included in the system are some door and window sensors, a motion sensor, a couple video cameras capable of streaming live video, a controller which can be used to automatically turn a lamp on or off, and a touch screen control panel.  Everything connects back to the central hub via wireless and the door/window sensors are battery powered with an ~5 year battery life.

Overall it's pretty slick and I look forward to exploring its capabilities.

Getting a few things out of the way

I took the day off yesterday so that I could be home while a contractor came out to install Comcast Digital Voice. With my employee discount, I'll be saving about $10 per month compared to Vonage. (I don't mention my employer by name very often but I've disclosed it here previously.)

According to the tech, my RF levels are perfect, which is good to know. Before installing the Arris MTA (Multimedia Terminal Adapter -- fancy name for a cable modem which supports telephone connections) he replaced the ground block for my cable drop, and the splitter out back. He also cleaned up some of the spaghetti where the drop comes into the house by shortening the coax patch cords.

I now have both the Arris MTA and my regular SMC8014 modems. The Arris is being used only for my phone service, while the SMC, with its built-in router, will continue to provide my Internet service. The SMC and my phone are plugged into an APC Back-UPS 650 for electricity. The Arris has a built-in battery that should provide up to 6 hours of standby power in case of an electrical outage.

Because Comcast CDV packets are prioritized on our network I am hoping that the quality will be better than Vonage's. Vonage packets are treated like any other packet, so they'll be more susceptible to network congestion. So far the only call I've made was to call Vonage to cancel my service, and it sounded fine.

After taking care of the phones I ran down to Microcenter to pick up new speakers for Bagend. Awhile ago I'd removed the old Altec-Lansing satellite/subwoofer speaker system and just had a headset connected. We now use Bagend sometimes for Skype calls to my brother-in-law, who lives in Okinawa, Japan. So, we needed speakers so that we could all see and talk at the same time. I wanted a two-piece speaker set due to space constraints, and Microcenter had a set of Altec-Lansing speakers w/o a subwoofer for $30. I hooked them up yesterday afternoon and they sound decent. For a mic we use the one built-in to my Logitech webcam. This setup works well.

The last thing I accomplished was to get my wheelbarrow back in service. I found a new wheel with a solid tire at Lowe's and used it to replace the original wheel which uses an inflateable tire. The original tire had long since gone flat and I'd never gotten around to fixing it. Now I'll never have to worry about it. I see no need for an inflateable on a wheelbarrow, at least for my use, it's not like I care about dirt getting a smoother ride. If the weather is decent this weekend I'll see about refinishing the wooden handles. They've been exposed to weather for about five or six years and need it. I'll probably just slather on some linseed oil and call it good.

Further Developments

Work has been a bit slow so I haven't had much to write about lately.

Last week I did become a floor captain, as I'd mentioned in my last post. I'll be getting a Blackberry, which will help me keep apprised of what's going on the next time we have an emergency. I already have the floor captain's emergency kit, which I need to inventory and make suggestions to HR about. It's fairly minimal, which is fine, but there are a few things that should be added, in my opinion. One good change going forward is that batteries for the flashlight and megaphone will be replaced twice a year, when the clocks are changed to go on daylight savings time and back off of it. Just like you should do for your smoke detectors.

I was off on Friday because Amanda had her adenoids removed and new ear tubes put in. Hopefully, this will take care of the recurring sinusitis she's had to endure. She bounced back very well from the surgery and in the hour and a half after waking up from the surgery, she ate 11 Oreos and drank three 8 ounce cups of apple juice. She hasn't needed any painkillers since Saturday night.

Yesterday I managed to throw my back out while playing outside with Amanda. It's still stiff today but the Percocet I took yesterday loosened it up enough that I was able to come to work today. That stuff is some good shit.

Tonight my parents are coming over to babysit while Judith and I go see Eric Clapton at Philly's Wachovia Center. I saw him twice way back in college and I'm really looking forward to the show. The Robert Cray Band is opening, so we'll make sure to get downtown in time to see him as well.