WFH during the pandemic. A mustachian nightmare?

[jamesbond007]

Sorry for the clickbait. It's not really a nightmare :)


Anyway, coming to the topic, I bought a small 2 bed 1 bath townhome in the SF Bay Area for cheap 5 years ago. Me being a mustachian, I did not want to spend more money than I would spend on rent and this townhome fit the bill. I pay less monthly (PITI+HOA+Insurance) now than rent I used to pay 5 years ago for the same size of house. It was a dream come true.


But the last 9 months have been a little frustrating. Since this is a 2 bed house wife takes up the dining table for her work (teacher), kid takes up one bed room, which we made into an office, for her school (4 hrs/day). I end up on our bed which makes it terrible for work. I ended up buying a standing desk and work standing from my daughter's room while is attending school. But I have to constantly go to our bed to attend meetings and her teacher does not like to have parents around while school is going on. So I end up moving around all day depending on whether I have a meeting or not and who is talking and who is not. I don't have a yard or anything like that. I used sit outside in the patio during the summer but it is getting cold now. I realize that this will be temporary, but it is getting a little uncomfortable.

I am curious how other mustachians are handling this scenario.

[jamesbond007]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

No. I have not. That would be expensive and would eat into my budget.

[sailinlight]

Move out of the Bay Area and get a larger house like everyone else seems to be doing :)

[Jouer]

I live in a 750 sq ft condo with my wife and dog. I've worked from home for the past 7,8 years. But now my wife does, too. It's...uhm...a challenge.

But we make it work. We work at the same table and one of us moves to the living room if we both have calls. There's background noise from the other person but nothing we can do about it so don't sweat it. In spring/summer/fall, I often work from the patio but that doesn't work when delivery trucks come by the grocery store below our building. I've taken meetings standing in our walk-in closet if I need absolute silence.

It's temporary. We deal. And if our co-workers don't like some of the weirdness, well, we don't really care.

[Metalcat]

DH and I share a 1 bedroom apartment and are working from home. He has a lot of phone calls and conference calls for his work, and I have a lot of phone calls for my various projects.

We both work in the living room for the most part. Headphones are key, lol. It works well though, DH has no intention to go back even when he can.

[use2betrix]

If you made a bedroom into an office for her, why can’t she work there instead of the dining room table?

Alternatively, you could be in there while she’s at the dining room table, and vice versa.

[therethere]

I've got no advice on managing virtual schooling and two WFH's. But I do empathize with you on feeling more squeezed and stuck by my house size.

I've also had the added expenses of:
-Upgrading my internet
-Purchased new modem and router
-Buying an office chair
-Buying a new cellphone and upgraded plan
-Heating costs (I expect this to be significant in the winter with my poorly sealed rental). I run space heaters all day now.

I rode my bike or scooter to work. So I'm not saving anything on transportation or anything really. It's annoying for my budget, but I guess I'll take the tradeoffs.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

How big are your spaces?  If it's a townhome, do you have upstairs and downstairs spaces?  We used to have a 2 bedroom townhome and some of our neighbors had converted the closet under the stairs into an office.  Could you combine your bedroom closet with your daughter's closet and turn your bedroom closet into a workspace?  Could you put a wallbed or Murphy bed into your bedroom so you have space to set up the room as an office during the day?  (A wallbed is how we make Kid #1's room work as DH's workspace.)  Is there a closet anywhere you could turn into the schooling space for your daughter?

Also, I don't think teachers get to dictate that students work in a room without a parent present.  They may prefer it, but they can't mandate it.  Having that kind of space just isn't the reality for a lot of kids, period.  Plenty of kids are trying to do online school in a small house with several siblings all in the same room.  Accommodating this preference would be low on my list of priorities.

We live in our "starter house", which was built a 3 bedroom house with a living room but not a family room.  During the pandemic DH has been WFH and both kids are taking online college classes, plus one is in student government and has meetings several times a week.

For the past 9 months DH has been working from home using the combination kid #1 bedroom / family room as his office M-F during the day (7-5 or so).  Kid #1's laptop started having a major issues, so he uses a desktop computer in the dining room, which is where we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday, so we're always moving the computer around.  Even if his laptop did work he wouldn't be able to use his bedroom for classes, since we needed to give DH the most isolated (quietest) room with the best connection to the internet.  Kid #2 was bouncing between his bedroom and the dining room, but we recently set him up to do everything in his bedroom.  I have a small mid century fold up desk in the living room (can't hold a desktop computer even if left open, or I would set Kid #2 up there), as well as a small table wedged into my bedroom for sewing.  I can create enough horizontal work spaces, but it's a small one story house and it's noisy as heck with various classes and meetings.  Right now as I type this I can hear Kid #2 working with his lab partner (using Zoom) and DH talking to a co-worker (using Teams).

I keep reminding myself that this is a temporary situation.  Without a doubt it's uncomfortable.  At the first couple of months with everyone home all of the time I wanted to move just to get more space (actual space and aural space), but all of the reasons to move were related to the pandemic.  We love our neighborhood, our house is paid off, and we bought 20 years ago so moving would be expensive not only in house but also in property taxes.  Everything about a bigger house would cost more -- utilities, lawn care, insurance, etc.  If we moved we would eventually need a second car, because we'd lose our walkable/bike-able neighborhood and DH would eventually have to drive to work (we currently live within walking/biking distance of his workplace).  It just doesn't make sense financially for a short term situation.

You say your townhome was a dream come true, and it sounds like without the pandemic you would still think so.  If I were you I'd try really hard to make it work.  Think outside of the box!

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I've got no advice on managing virtual schooling and two WFH's. But I do empathize with you on feeling more squeezed and stuck by my house size.

I've also had the added expenses of:
-Upgrading my internet
-Purchased new modem and router
-Buying an office chair
-Buying a new cellphone and upgraded plan
-Heating costs (I expect this to be significant in the winter with my poorly sealed rental). I run space heaters all day now.

I rode my bike or scooter to work. So I'm not saving anything on transportation or anything really. It's annoying for my budget, but I guess I'll take the tradeoffs.

Yep!  We didn't have to upgrade our internet, but did need a new modem to take advantage of the faster internet speeds our provider was offering.  We had to buy an office chair.  Our water and electricity bills have gone up from increased usage.  We needed headphones with microphones for the college kids.  Software they used to be able to use for free on school computers had to be purchased.

[mozar]

Tell the teacher to piss off.

[mspym]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

And leave his wife, who is also working, to absorb all of the childcare obligations? Be better than that.

[Syonyk]

That depends rather heavily on how you set things up before the pandemic...

For me, it's been roughly no change at all, and I'm far better set up for it than most people I know/work with.  Even through a job change in the middle of the pandemic (which was interesting, I've not actually met most of my new coworkers in person).

Four years or so ago, we moved from the Seattle metro area out to rural Idaho, and as part of that, I built myself a shed-office (I like the term Shoffice) on a corner of our property (couple acres in the country, $150k manufactured home, near family, we love it!).  I've got isolated space to work, separate from the house, but still within a short walk of the house (I tend to call it WFP - Working From Property, to distinguish from WFH).

The pandemic has been far harder on my wife than on me - she's got two kids at home, and used to regularly take trips into town (shopping, library, etc) and we're doing that far less.  For me?  I WFP.  I used to WFP.  I intend to continue to WFP.  Isolating from possible covid exposure?  *shrug*  WFP.  Etc.

While we liked having moved to the country before (rural, space, near family), we are exceedingly glad to have done so this year, because it means that not an awful lot has changed.  The car sits far more than it used to (I go poke it to keep the battery warm every few days if we haven't driven it), we go into town radically less and make far larger grocery runs than we used to (2-3 weeks at a time vs 1 week), and... the kids are far better at entertaining themselves out here.  The difference between the start of the year and now is massive - they're way better at playing outside and dorking about with stuff on the property and drawing and such.

We chose to homeschool this year for kindergarten, which isn't a problem since my wife worked as a kindergarten teacher for a number of years (she stays at home now), and... if stuff is nuts in the summer/fall, we'll do it again next year.

I diverge from many on this forum with regards to where we live and how we live our lives (I have a "fuckall huge" truck that gets a few thousand miles a year hauling material to the property for various projects), but I've got the skills and experience to work remotely, have designed my life around it, and it's working great for us.  We don't have a fancy house (well, by some standards - by ours, the 2k sq ft double wide is quite nice!), we don't drive fancy vehicles (the Volt is 8 years old, the truck is old enough to drink, the Urals, well... OK, they're not fancy but they're sure cool!), and we live a quiet life out here, near family, mostly minding our own business.  I don't work with my hands professionally, but sure do on property projects.

And it's working very well.

-Upgrading my internet
-Purchased new modem and router
-Buying an office chair
-Buying a new cellphone and upgraded plan
-Heating costs (I expect this to be significant in the winter with my poorly sealed rental). I run space heaters all day now.

Tax deductions? :D  WFH space is tax deductible!

As for heating, I tend to heat with opportunistic loads (at least in my shoffice if I have sun, thing is solar powered).  Folding@Home/BOINC/etc turn electricity into heat just as well as a space heater, while doing some good in the process, and if all you want is heat, nothing wrong with running a used Bitcoin miner or two as a heater!

[PDXTabs]

-Upgrading my internet
-Purchased new modem and router
-Buying an office chair
-Buying a new cellphone and upgraded plan
-Heating costs (I expect this to be significant in the winter with my poorly sealed rental). I run space heaters all day now.

Tax deductions? :D  WFH space is tax deductible!

Not if you are a W2 employee, and even if you are 1099 the space itself needs to be dedicated space.

[Syonyk]

I'll grant you dedicated space for 1099, but... I'd still claim the tax deduction on the equipment/added costs and dare the IRS to blink, this year.  I tend to have enough "self employed" income that I can do that, though.

[PDXTabs]

I'll grant you dedicated space for 1099, but... I'd still claim the tax deduction on the equipment/added costs and dare the IRS to blink, this year.  I tend to have enough "self employed" income that I can do that, though.

Where would you even put it? For self employed folks you would put it on your Schedule C. For W2???

[MoseyingAlong]

I'll grant you dedicated space for 1099, but... I'd still claim the tax deduction on the equipment/added costs and dare the IRS to blink, this year.  I tend to have enough "self employed" income that I can do that, though.

Where would you even put it? For self employed folks you would put it on your Schedule C. For W2???

It used to go on Schedule A as a Misc. Itemized Deduction subject to the 2% floor. But that's gone now.

[PDXTabs]

I'll grant you dedicated space for 1099, but... I'd still claim the tax deduction on the equipment/added costs and dare the IRS to blink, this year.  I tend to have enough "self employed" income that I can do that, though.

Where would you even put it? For self employed folks you would put it on your Schedule C. For W2???

It used to go on Schedule A as a Misc. Itemized Deduction subject to the 2% floor. But that's gone now.

Yup, part of the Republican tax reform.

[jamesbond007]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

And leave his wife, who is also working, to absorb all of the childcare obligations? Be better than that.

Costs aside, this is one reason I am reluctant to even try go out. My wife is a teacher so she does not have the flexibility to be on and off like I do.

[mspym]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

And leave his wife, who is also working, to absorb all of the childcare obligations? Be better than that.

Costs aside, this is one reason I am reluctant to even try go out. My wife is a teacher so she does not have the flexibility to be on and off like I do.

Cheers ears and a hearty thumbs up

[StarBright]

We have also found it to be a challenge.

We are usually fond of our small-ish house but there has been some regret about not purchasing a larger home in the last couple of months. But this, too, shall pass.

I have worked from home for almost a decade but DH and two elementary kids were also home full time from March until September. I had a nice reprieve for a couple of months as our schools did open with hybrid classes. But now we are all back home full time again. 

All four of us had zoom classes and meetings at the same time yesterday and it was an absolute nightmare: Teachers were asking if parents could stop talking, coworkers were less than charmed at pauses in the meeting to help 1st grader w/ technical issues, and even upgraded internet is spotty with all of us on at the same time. Our house felt so much bigger when we weren't all vying for the same space.

It always helps me to hear that other people are experiencing the same suckiness that I am - so - You are not alone! Your reasonable home will go back to feeling like a really wise choice sometime in the nearish future. Like so many other mustachian things, it is a (n unexpected) bit of hardship now but really a smart choice that will pay off in the long run.

[researcher1]

Since this is a 2 bed house wife takes up the dining table for her work (teacher),
kid takes up one bed room, which we made into an office, for her school (4 hrs/day).
I end up on our bed which makes it terrible for work. I ended up buying a standing desk and work standing from my daughter's room while is attending school.
But I have to constantly go to our bed to attend meetings

I'm confused.
Why can you just set up a small desk space in your bedroom?
Then you all have separate work spaces and you don't have to constantly move around.
- You:  Master Bedroom
- Daughter:  Second Bedroom
- Wife:  Dining Room

[SaucyAussie]

Yeah, I'm saving a ton working from home, eliminating things like commute, dry cleaning, deodorant...

[therethere]

Yeah that's the problem. W2 workers are kind of getting screwed with extra expenses and no tax deduction. I feel like there should be a temporary WFH deduction on my taxes or ability to deduct with receipts for 2020 and 2021. But alas, there's not. Pretty unfair when I've had to give up 1/4 of my house to an office and have probably $1,000+ in extra expenses on the year!

But it's relatively minor, temporary expense for my household and I'm grateful that I can still work. But it has put a damper on it. I also hate my rental and was planning to move. But the 10-20% increases in house prices on the year I'm now pretty stuck unless I want to move into an apartment.

[jamesbond007]

Since this is a 2 bed house wife takes up the dining table for her work (teacher),
kid takes up one bed room, which we made into an office, for her school (4 hrs/day).
I end up on our bed which makes it terrible for work. I ended up buying a standing desk and work standing from my daughter's room while is attending school.
But I have to constantly go to our bed to attend meetings

I'm confused.
Why can you just set up a small desk space in your bedroom?
Then you all have separate work spaces and you don't have to constantly move around.
- You:  Master Bedroom
- Daughter:  Second Bedroom
- Wife:  Dining Room

Space constraints. I have a Cal King bed in the master bed that takes up majority of the room. We barely have space to walk freely :) Again, during normal times it is perfectly fine. This is an unusual situation.

[ender]

We have a non-mustachian house that I have a dedicated office in.

I love having a dedicated work-only space.

[windytrail]

Sounds like you may want to consider temporarily downgrading to a full-size bed until no longer needing to WFH. Flexibility is key when you are dealing with limited space.

My partner and I are living in a ~570 sq ft apartment and both WFH. She has her workstation setup on one side of the dining table. I work on my laptop here and there, switching between the dining table, the couch, or the floor of the bedroom.

I personally think "ergonomic" devices are overrated and encourage people to sit in one place too much. It's healthier to move around often, exposing your body to different muscle positions and postures. Sitting cross-legged on the couch is not too bad if you engage your quads.

[jeromedawg]

I'm in a small place and WFH too - second floor 2 bed/1 bath apartment unit with my SAHM wife and two kids (both in a couple online preschools currently). We had a 3 bed/2 bath condo with people living above us and ended up selling that place. It was actually a bit of a nightmare living below someone, even in a bigger place, due to the noise those particular neighbors generated. Loud footsteps (plus a toddler) and the husband's short-fuse and potty-mouthed temper-tantrums paired with crap construction and a poor remodel job upstairs (by a previous owner) was a huge PITA - we heard a lot of things we didn't want to.
We were already contemplating moving prior due to schooling for the kids but that situation (more so than COVID) accelerated things. We resolved never to live below someone again, which is why we're on the second floor now. And we tell our kids not to jump or run around so as to piss off the downstairs neighbors.
Anyway, I was already WFH so was 'used' to being at home with everyone, so I guess I have that 'advantage' now with COVID in the sense that it's not really all that different for me. I have a 6' folding table that I setup currently in our living room and the kids do their class on the small dining table about 10' away. My work doesn't often require a *ton* of intense focus/concentration so it's fine. But when I have a phone call or meeting for work that coincides with their class, I just have my wife move them into the bedroom and do class on the bed. Our kids are relatively tame so the rest of the day they don't bug me too much. Sometimes it can be irritating but for the most part it's OK.
Would it be nice having my own room/office? Of course it would but it's not really necessary for me at least at the moment. The next big decision is figuring out if we should continue renting (and perhaps moving into a larger place once we've got our kid into the school, which should be by March 2021) or if we should look to buy. Home prices are still insane right now and even with the equity from the place we sold it would still be nuts. I don't anticipate any 'relief' in prices while COVID is still a threat (since I think a lot of ppl are looking to buy bigger places as well for the WFH/home office setup). My job isn't that secure either - there have been rolling layoffs and attrition that I anticipate continuing through 2021. If this happens, I don't think we'll have much of a choice unless we just move out of state (or country). Another factor is that we have a ton of crap in a 10x15 storage unit (since we downgraded). I think a majority of it is furniture and boxes of clothing with various other things mixed in. While that's a' motivating factor' to buy/move into a bigger place, it's not that big of a deal either...at least until they raise the rents on that LOL

[PMG]

Similar struggles here.  No kids though.  Spouse was full-time WFH already and has our second bedroom for an office.  I have floated around from dining table to card table and finally bought a small desk and have designated corner of the kitchen/living room. I just built a small bookshelf that increased my workspace and storage and makes things so much nicer. I would do better with a door to shut.  I do sometimes go into the bedroom and work from bed or floor.  I do generally like moving around, so couch one day, desk the next and bedroom the next is good... but it has helped me a lot to have a dedicated space for all the work stuff and a curtain to hide it when I'm not working.  I've considered moving my set up in to the bedroom, I would benefit from that closed door, but that is such a small room and work already disrupts my sleep so much that I would not do well sleeping next to it! 

So... I am determined to make my little corner space work.  I recently got a busy/available sign in a conference goodie bag and while it seems a little silly I've been trying out using it so that my spouse can easily see when I need him to be quiet and not disturb me. He's recently been suggesting that we trade spaces but I know his work stuff would spread all over the kitchen and living room.  I'd rather deal with this inconvenience myself because I have much less actual stuff and I keep it well corralled. 

All that to say that I am empathizing with everyone struggling here.  I hate spending more money on it, but I may end up with a sturdier room divider and noise canceling headphones.  I don't want to buy things I won't have a use for later... but I need to get through this somehow.

[Sandi_k]

Space constraints. I have a Cal King bed in the master bed that takes up majority of the room. We barely have space to walk freely :) Again, during normal times it is perfectly fine. This is an unusual situation.

I would get a collapsible TV tray for the bedroom, and put a computer riser on it for your computer. Something like this:

https://www.flexispot.com/standing-desk-converters/alcoveriser-standing-desk-converters-m7-28-inch?gclid=Cj0KCQiAtqL-BRC0ARIsAF4K3WEDJM2NUErXIZzpqRNsDX9Q0pepmyYAyoFdkiZSyqR21H4M-HTb3MUaAqncEALw_wcB

[jrhampt]

I've worked from home for years and almost always work from my bed.  It is more necessary now that we've downsized to a smaller space, but I did this even when I had a dedicated room for an office in our larger house.  I know it's technically frowned upon to do this, but I find it extremely comfortable and I still manage to be quite productive from bed.

[Syonyk]

Yeah that's the problem. W2 workers are kind of getting screwed with extra expenses and no tax deduction. I feel like there should be a temporary WFH deduction on my taxes or ability to deduct with receipts for 2020 and 2021.

That's certainly reasonable - I've worked from home enough over the years that I keep a side business alive partly for tax deductions related to WFH expenses.

Write your Congressman?

[justplucky]

Have you considered a desk that folds down from the wall when in use and folds back up when not? This could be installed in any room and would have almost no "footprint" when not in use.

[Dicey]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

And leave his wife, who is also working, to absorb all of the childcare obligations? Be better than that.

Hmmm, they could take turns using the shared workspace, couldn't they? I didn't assume the OP (or anyone else) was intending to dump all the child care on the spouse.

IMO, telling someone to "Be better than that" feels wrong, possibly even a violation of Forum Rule #1.

Also, that Bay Area teacher should a) know better and b) piss off. I wonder if that's the school's position or her personal preference. Pretty sure it's the latter.

[jamesbond007]

Have you thought of using WeWork or LiquidSpace? You can rent a desk in an office by the month.

And leave his wife, who is also working, to absorb all of the childcare obligations? Be better than that.

Hmmm, they could take turns using the shared workspace, couldn't they? I didn't assume the OP (or anyone else) was intending to dump all the child care on the spouse.

IMO, telling someone to "Be better than that" feels wrong, possibly even a violation of Forum Rule #1.

Also, that Bay Area teacher should a) know better and b) piss off. I wonder if that's the school's position or her personal preference. Pretty sure it's the latter.

Hey folks. I don't want you guys to get into an argument because of my post. Having said that, this is the teacher's position. There are several teachers in our district that are forcing parents to move out of the same room. I, for one, am seeing an opportunity while I work next to my daughter and check myself firsthand how good or bad the teacher is teaching. Depending on what the teacher is teaching, I am supplementing my own teaching after school. It is working out well.

I emailed the teacher telling her that I cannot move out as we don't have a big home.

[Seahorse]

Might be simpler to buy a 3 panel room divider to put behind your kid when she's in school and adjust the dividers - so the teacher doesn't have to know where you are located in the room.

Kid can use a virtual background if that's allowed.

I moved my desk downstairs took over a part of living room.. Maybe that's an option for you?

[jamesbond007]

Might be simpler to buy a 3 panel room divider to put behind your kid when she's in school and adjust the dividers - so the teacher doesn't have to know where you are located in the room.

Kid can use a virtual background if that's allowed.

I moved my desk downstairs took over a part of living room.. Maybe that's an option for you?

The divider is a great idea.

[PDXTabs]

Yeah that's the problem. W2 workers are kind of getting screwed with extra expenses and no tax deduction. I feel like there should be a temporary WFH deduction on my taxes or ability to deduct with receipts for 2020 and 2021.

That's certainly reasonable - I've worked from home enough over the years that I keep a side business alive partly for tax deductions related to WFH expenses.

Write your Congressman?

Good idea. It's not just WFH people, the misc itemized deductions was also how you would deduct scrubs if you were a nurse.

[Ichabod]

I don't have a lot to add but my empathy. I'm struggling with WFH too. I live in a small urban house. I was able to convert the kids' playroom into an office, but the kids are little and are often banging on the door or yelling just outside. The suburbs have become much more attractive in the pandemic, but moving isn't a feasible solution.

Is there anything you can do to make the patio/outdoor space more accommodating during the winter? Maybe a space heater and screening it in some way? If you have a car, would taking calls from your car being any better than your bed?

Previous posters have covered other ways you could make your existing space more accommodating, but I don't see any great solutions, and they may not exist.

Good luck!

[E.T.]

Sorry for the clickbait. It's not really a nightmare :)


Anyway, coming to the topic, I bought a small 2 bed 1 bath townhome in the SF Bay Area for cheap 5 years ago. Me being a mustachian, I did not want to spend more money than I would spend on rent and this townhome fit the bill. I pay less monthly (PITI+HOA+Insurance) now than rent I used to pay 5 years ago for the same size of house. It was a dream come true.


But the last 9 months have been a little frustrating. Since this is a 2 bed house wife takes up the dining table for her work (teacher), kid takes up one bed room, which we made into an office, for her school (4 hrs/day). I end up on our bed which makes it terrible for work. I ended up buying a standing desk and work standing from my daughter's room while is attending school. But I have to constantly go to our bed to attend meetings and her teacher does not like to have parents around while school is going on. So I end up moving around all day depending on whether I have a meeting or not and who is talking and who is not. I don't have a yard or anything like that. I used sit outside in the patio during the summer but it is getting cold now. I realize that this will be temporary, but it is getting a little uncomfortable.

I am curious how other mustachians are handling this scenario.

You mentioned having a patio, could you put up a temporary solution like a shed or greenhouse? That way you'd have shelter from wind / rain and could potentially use an extension cord to run a space heater and your laptop to make a mini makeshift office.

Maybe something like this: https://amzn.to/3m0WymU

[Syonyk]

The whole "Shed Office" thing (I prefer the term Shoffice) is quite popular, it seems.

I've been working from a shed for the last 4.5 years (you can probably find the old build thread here somewhere).  A coworker of mine has taken over part of his storage shed, and one of the guys at my church has, this year, built a shed for the purposes of work from home space.

Just that I know of.

[Dicey]

The whole "Shed Office" thing (I prefer the term Shoffice) is quite popular, it seems.

I've been working from a shed for the last 4.5 years (you can probably find the old build thread here somewhere).  A coworker of mine has taken over part of his storage shed, and one of the guys at my church has, this year, built a shed for the purposes of work from home space.

Just that I know of.

I'm doing a 12 days of Christmas for my 96 year old former neighbor. When I lived next to her,, everyone used their garages.  Now, there are one or two cars in almost every driveway. There are more cars parked on the street, too. I'm convinced people are using their garages for living or office space during the pandemic.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

The whole "Shed Office" thing (I prefer the term Shoffice) is quite popular, it seems.

I've been working from a shed for the last 4.5 years (you can probably find the old build thread here somewhere).  A coworker of mine has taken over part of his storage shed, and one of the guys at my church has, this year, built a shed for the purposes of work from home space.

Just that I know of.

I'm doing a 12 days of Christmas for my 96 year old former neighbor. When I lived next to her,, everyone used their garages.  Now, there are one or two cars in almost every driveway. There are more cars parked on the street, too. I'm convinced people are using their garages for living or office space during the pandemic.

We have one small car and don't park in our garage, which is detached and at the rear of the property.  We also have a good sized porte-cochere, intended for driving under to get out of the car before someone moves it to the garage.  In other words, not intended to be used as a carport (for parking under), but we can use it that way if we want.  Which we mostly don't, because managing the dogs and the gate and moving a car in isn't easy.

The main area of our garage is used as a small workshop for DH (he has a workbench), plus it holds a refrigerator and chest freezer, many bikes, some bike stuff, rolling tool chest, and a large workbench that belongs to one kid.  I don't see us turning that into workspace.

We also have a "bonus room" attached to the garage. It's not as nifty as our neighbor's, who has the bonus room *and* and small garage basement, but it's nice to have.  It's currently in use as a bike workshop and storage area.  Since it has electricity, we could empty it out, do some drywalling, and use it as office space, but I worry about the expense of heating and cooling with electricity.  Plus the wi-fi is super spotty out there and would have to be augmented.  We've talked about spending the money to fix it up, doing drywall, paint, flooring, and some sort of heat pump for heating and cooling, but we won't need the space forever, and we really don't want to keep the nest softly feathered by creating a nice cushy detached room for an adult child to stay in.

[Dicey]

The whole "Shed Office" thing (I prefer the term Shoffice) is quite popular, it seems.

I've been working from a shed for the last 4.5 years (you can probably find the old build thread here somewhere).  A coworker of mine has taken over part of his storage shed, and one of the guys at my church has, this year, built a shed for the purposes of work from home space.

Just that I know of.

I'm doing a 12 days of Christmas for my 96 year old former neighbor. When I lived next to her,, everyone used their garages.  Now, there are one or two cars in almost every driveway. There are more cars parked on the street, too. I'm convinced people are using their garages for living or office space during the pandemic.

We have one small car and don't park in our garage, which is detached and at the rear of the property.  We also have a good sized porte-cochere, intended for driving under to get out of the car before someone moves it to the garage.  In other words, not intended to be used as a carport (for parking under), but we can use it that way if we want.  Which we mostly don't, because managing the dogs and the gate and moving a car in isn't easy.

The main area of our garage is used as a small workshop for DH (he has a workbench), plus it holds a refrigerator and chest freezer, many bikes, some bike stuff, rolling tool chest, and a large workbench that belongs to one kid.  I don't see us turning that into workspace.

We also have a "bonus room" attached to the garage. It's not as nifty as our neighbor's, who has the bonus room *and* and small garage basement, but it's nice to have.  It's currently in use as a bike workshop and storage area.  Since it has electricity, we could empty it out, do some drywalling, and use it as office space, but I worry about the expense of heating and cooling with electricity.  Plus the wi-fi is super spotty out there and would have to be augmented.  We've talked about spending the money to fix it up, doing drywall, paint, flooring, and some sort of heat pump for heating and cooling, but we won't need the space forever, and we really don't want to keep the nest softly feathered by creating a nice cushy detached room for an adult child to stay in.

Huh. I think I can top that;-) We have a 1050sf three car garage that hasn't had one of our cars in it since we bought the house seven years ago.

But that 100% was not my point. The old neighborhood never had so many cars parked in the driveways or on the streets. It's a very noticeable change. Perhaps you were referring to synonk's comment, not mine. I'm so confused...