Good morning wonderful friend :)
How's this Friday treating you so far?? I hope productive and nice! I've got a handyman job later this morning working down the road from our house, outside no less. I'm pretty excited :)
Ever since like.. well, forever, my work space has always been so important to me. Even as a kid. If the computer sat a funky angle, if my chair wasn't comfy... anything didn't "feel" right I had a hard time working efficiently.
Over the years I found that it was easier to set up the office space when everyone left for the day. I would get all kinds of crap from people as I set my space up to be more for me. Call me weird, but that shit really affected me. I remember one time having asked and asked for a new chair. The one I had would just eat at my ass, hurt my back, nothing was nice about it. Being around a bunch of construction guys they didn't give a crap how I felt. Finally after enough leading and pulling I got a newer chair.....
Man.. . total game changer! That was all I needed. That was the first night I was at the office until 2AM.. pounding away on an operating room design. My three screens open, jamming out to some design tuneage.. I was humming! ... all because I was comfortable.
Once I got into self employment I could now take AS MUCH TIME AS I WANTED to set up my space!! and I was the only one giving me hell about it. hahah!
When I started in real estate someone gave me their left over office stuff. It was a nice step up to where I was before, so I was very thankful. However as that relationship would disappointingly burnout, so did my space. It felt very secondary, not good enough. This is not me being hoity-toity, it's in addition to how I was treated.. less than. This space felt almost subjectively shaming as I struggled through this new chapter. I know.. weird.. I get it...but it affected my gusto and ambition.
In time opportunities came up that allowed me to afford the change. In a fit of a massive design seizure, I built my own desk! Something just for me... and man! did I love that or what!! It has become my favorite thing I've built yet! That was the start of my very own me space. It did wonders for my production and over all just excitement to get after it!
Needing to put a bow on top of everything and just be totally done, I needed to build one more thing.. Matching race shelves to go with the desk I built... Man! again! I was done, done! :)
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Chas and I have been rearranging our home to help us all move into this new chapter of our life. One of the big things was making our home feel like a different place. The biggest rearrangement was moving my office to the front of the house and turning my old office into our "quiet room".
I'm not sure if it was a culmination of all of my creative instincts, unconscious frustrations of being laughed at in the past?... maybe a massive stress reliever of creativity and work?.. I'm not sure..
So over the course of a month working the real estate, handyman stuff, I sprinkled in enough time to renovate and create a new office... I am so excited about this space! Between the therapy and creative outlet it gave me, I was ok running on 4 hours of sleep daily, putting in 20hrs from the jobs to pull this off. Although still fried at times now that I'm coming down, I am so damn happy!
Chas calls it my man cave... eh... more like a production cave! hahah! a production fishbowl really! haah :) I now share a wall with what I think is my man cave, my shop. All that being said friend! Like other cool shit that I have built in the past.. .this one is no exception. :)
As Chas would sit in her spot, she'd look around and say
"man... I know you did this work.. I mean I saw you... but it really looks like we paid someone to come in and do this"...
This really hit the feels for me. :) As I recall this comment I'm drawn back to our first house when I had a wild hare up my ass and demoed a portion of the kitchen island to tile it.. She was like... "do you know what you're doing".. I was like DUDE! hahah... she supported those efforts.
At any rate, I'm rambling.. hahah... That being said :)
Please enjoy the "bring my friends to work day/open house/grand opening/I built this really cool thing and I wanna share it with a buddy "... set of pictures. haha!! :)
I used to avoid the boys bathroom and go down the hall to use this one.. now with how the house happened to be laid out, this feels like it's part of the office, but not.
The rooms are SO similar in working in them, there are moments that I assume/swear I'm in the old office. That's a pretty cool feeling :)
And yes... I painted those stripes! hahah! :)
The strangest part for me is adjusting to the fact that my chair can roll from on the tile and not force it on the carpet... well, and being so close to a tape measure in the shop... oh, and being closer to my bathroom... I guess there was more that was strange :)
I do also like being so much closer to the house "life".. I can still hear what's going on, but with the glass doors I can visually engage and participate all while still working. :)
Some pretty cool install challenges :)
I loved the new glass doors.. .however there was an unanticipated gap between the doors and the framing.. So after the consultation with my smaller, gud little helper...
We decided to remove the existing baseboard and hope to pull off a nice casing around the door with a clean 45 degree cut... this was a stressful detailed demo.. there were no take backs once I started...
But it sure turned out hella cool! I am very happy with it. :)
The new casing looks really awesome... but in doing so it cause an issue with how to mount the handle... it wouldn't sit well centered on the door frame.. Tristan and I spent hours talking about an idea.. he's such a sweet boy... it got so overwhelming for me because he kept just talking and talking, oh we could do this, or this... and kept talking.. it was very hard for me to ask him to slow down so I could think clearly. I was wicked gentle but didn't feel good doing so. He took it a little hard, but was ok and understood.
The next day I remembered I could design something to move the center of the handle... man! like pulling a splinter out!! ! I felt SOOOO much better once I figured out a solution :)
And now some finer details :)
Pretty much my crown jewel!! ... this space would not be the same without the hood of my very first car.. 1970 Camaro Z-28.
Side note... for mine and Chas's first Christmas together as boyfriend and girlfriend, she bought me a 6 point roll cage for the car. :) I would later sell it so we could pay cash for our wedding.. thankfully I sold it to a buddy and was able to score the hood back as a keepsake! hell yeah!
I wish elementary would explain "why" you'll need to know math... it's so you know how to install cool shit on walls! hahah :)
Side note again.... the Steve Jobs in me did not like how low the hood sat in relation to the cabinet... so after 2 days I took it off the wall and centered it more appropriately. I feel so much more productive with that taken care of now. hahahh!
You can't just have only one awesome ass car thing... so... I really thought about taking this old movie cardboard cutout of the elusive unicorn... Elenore, from "Gone in 60 Seconds" movie... I've had this cut out longer than I've been with Chas... and that's a long time.
Thank the heavens for Etsy! ... I was able to find this and keep my original in the shop where she belongs.!! :) I love this piece!!
Even cooler!!! Hell yeah!! I was so jacked with my inner design nerd realized my Scentsy Warmer matched Eleonore's grill so perfectly!! [I have a bomb ass Scentsy Lady if you need... heart her guts we do!]
Pretty cool how I made my router look like a picture!! hhahah! I was like DUDE! this covers this so well! hahha!
nerdier yet!! Check out the most expensive "breath mint holding dish" HAHAH!
It's an aluminum race pulley for a water pump on a small block Chevy 350. I was so thrilled when I stumbled across this idea. She sits directly below the Camaro's hood.
Another fine add was Chas's chair... that's what we call it. I wanted a nice reading chair, or a quiet chair... but Chas has taken it... which I'm totally good for :) When I was in Living Spaces [Love that store btw!].. I was like yup! that's it. I'll take it right now!
Then I found this gem! I was like hell yes right now!! A little splash of orange! sign me up!
The cool thing about the new space is that I have just enough extra room for the important things. I had a nice focal spot in the office to show off my Grampa's trophy. He won it in an airshow for his kit built airplane. It's fitting as it rests on the corner of something I was proud to build. RIP GP! I miss you!
With that small additional space just outside the office doors as you head into the shop... a picture of our real estate team and our accomplishment. I like the placement because it's a humble location, all on its own, and our kids can see what they too are also responsible for as well. I like it <3
I'm excited too! here in a couple weeks we'll be filling one of the empty spots with another new team member :) That will be pretty cool! :)
Well friend! I'm sure you're ready to get on with your Friday... I am too.. I've been drawing out my handyman client and need to follow through on that commitment. I hope you enjoy the pictures. It was a lot of fun to build and share. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. :)
As always! Chas and I are here if you need anything. :) Have a grateful weekend! :)
-Josh & Chas
PS... as soon as I saw this pic... I knew it was the right Friday picture :)
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