After finally completing the dreaded decorating, (see earlier posts) the new office room is officially up and running, since 7 pm last night. Julie helped me get the huge desk top in from the garage, and we screwed the legs on. The thing is enormous, and takes up about a third of this small room. It runs almost the full width. nearly touching the wall one side, and only a few inches from the radiator under the window. It is more than twice as deep as its predecessor, and from a sitting position, I cannot reach the back edge. Placed upon it, there is the PC desktop tower, the cordless phone and charger base, two small speakers, the broadband router, keyboard, and a monitor. With the old setup, there was no room for the router, and the rest of the items were all crammed together. Everything looks lost now, and we are contemplating the purchase of a much larger monitor in the future, to replace the trusty Dell 15 inch, that was a generous gift from a friend.

The drawer units are more useful too. They have a large filing drawer, and two smaller drawers above. They are also lockable, not that I have any need to lock them. Even with these large units in place underneath, there is ample room to put my legs under, and spread out in comfort. There is even enough room to be able to write a letter on the desk top, without having to move everything to one side. The large shelf units fitted in on the opposite wall, still leaving enough room to get access to more power points, and to store items at the side. They are almost six feet tall, with large cupboards at the base, and three adjustable shelves above. I am now getting excited by the prospect of opening boxes of books, DVD films, and compact discs that have resided in the garage for over two years. I anticipate finding many forgotten gems, as well as being able to donate a lot of items to charity shops.

There are also two boxes of odd bits and pieces removed from the previous desk. They have to be re-examined, to see if their contents are worthy of being put into the swish new units. No longer will I have to tolerate writing paper stacked in piles on the floor, or things stashed under the desk that prevented me from moving my feet. I will have enough room to use my daylight reading lamp, a legacy from my late Mum; and I may even be able to display some of my collection of vintage cameras, by placing them along the tops of the bookcases. My treasured reference books will be to hand, as will my collection of photographic ‘coffee table’ tomes, always a pleasure to occasionally flick through. I have a brand new coaster for my coffee cup, and enough room for a printer, if I ever decide that I need one. As the previous printer never really worked properly, and used an inordinate amount of ink, I could never really see the point.

If I have a lull in blogging activity, I will be able to recline my new chair to its full extent, and rest my legs on the spacious desk, ruminating on what to do next. Of course, the addition of all this superb new furniture has closed down the feel of an already small room. However, the trade-off between perceived lack of space, and usable facilities, more than makes up for that. It is like the start of a new adventure for me. That may seem to some to be an excessive statement, to describe the re-fitting of a spare room, but believe me, it is true. There is only one downside to the whole thing. Julie thinks that it would be nice to have curtains in here. I suggested that it wasn’t necessary, as you cannot see into here from the street, due to a large hedge. But she thinks that it will be nice for the window to be ‘dressed’, to complete the transformation. So, I now have to fit a curtain pole, and I have only just filled and painted the holes from the previous one.

And as you know, I am no good at DIY.