I’ve been wanting to do a home office makeover ((Whatever for did I watch all those episodes of Merge, Clean House, and Design Remix when we still had the Lifestyle channel?)) for the longest time, and it was last month’s termite invasion that pushed me to finally do it. I’ll tell you why later.
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First, let me show you what the soho used to look like. ((Before you label me a slob though, can I just remind you that — ahem — Creative Minds Are Seldom Tidy.)):
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Ugh, is that a mess or what. Believe it or not, we worked in this kind of environment for close to three years. Arn later relocated to a breezier section in the house since he likes working closer to nature so this office is essentially mine now.
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The makeover idea was sparked when I decided to lose the highly under-utilized green couch (on the right, behind all the clutter) and replace it with a table I found sitting in our compound’s common garage. I decided that I needed a spot to do my art and paper crafting, especially since I already had the supplies but just did not have the space for it. I was actually fine with that slight change for the meantime… and then we discovered that the termites had eaten into the built-in wardrobe ((This office space used to be a bedroom and the cabinet was meant to house clothing, hence the size and depth.)) that housed a lot of our files! Eep! Obviously the best only solution was to tear it down.
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It was a beautiful piece of woodwork but unfortunately, it’s just not meant to house “office” files.
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Obviously the next problem was where to put all the stuff that was in the cabinet. (And what a whole load of stuff that was!)
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Dear oh dear. Just looking at that photo makes my head hurt.
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Three major criteria we considered in buying new storage supplies were (a) termite deterrence; (b) sturdiness; and (b) pocket-friendliness. The industrial shelving and plastic containers we bought all met what we were looking for, and it really helped much that the SM in our area had a 3-day sale last weekend.
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The office taking shape slowly but surely. Yes that’s a Print Gocco PG-5 Abbas is sitting on! Bought it for 6,825 yen at a Tokyu Hands in Shibuya a couple of years ago. See I couldn’t even use it before because I didn’t have a proper work surface.
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Suddenly there was so much space and I excitedly put everything in order once the paint dried up. It took about a week and a half for everything: construction, cleanup, and sorting/deciding what went in and out of those boxes and shelves because there were just too many things to go through.
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Looking good, looking good… now, everything’s within reach unlike before when they were stuck in the depths of that gigantic cabinet.
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And oh, I also found a way to save the handsome narra cabinet doors – we saved what we could of the wood and then had them built into a book case for all my magazines and reference materials.
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This way, those slabs of wood can still live in their “home”. 🙂
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Here, now, are the token “after” shots of my improved soho. I can definitely see myself working more efficiently in this space… well, granted that it stays neat and orderly. 😉
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Now to buckle down and work, work, work.
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Cost breakdown:
– Carpentry work: P400/day for 7 days= P2800
– Zen floor tiles (10 pcs) = P465.12
– Paint, primer, paint remover, cement= P545
– Varnish (for bookcase and table)= P190
– Industrial shelving: P2,200 x 2 = P4,400
– Plastic containers (on sale) = P3,000
TOTAL: 11,400.12. ((I would’ve wanted to stay below the P10,000 mark but we wanted to invest in sturdy shelving and storage and I think that decision will save us more money in the long run.))

January has been quite busy work-AND-household-maintenance-wise for Arn and me. Since my last entry, we’ve somehow managed to accomplish the following:
1) Had the house treated for termites. If you haven’t inspected your cupboards and storage areas in a while, do yourselves a favor and do so now, you’ll never know what you might find growing in there.
2) Had our wiring troubleshot by an electrician and had the old wire casings replaced with newer, less corrosive material.
3) Bought and installed a new energy-efficient refrigerator. It turned out to be a very good good investment, as reflected in this month’s Meralco bill.
4) Did some major spring cleaning, which was the hardest thing for me emotionally because I’m a packrat. In the end though it feels good knowing that someone else out there will benefit from things that I have no use for anymore.
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Still on our list are a few items that need repairing, like the door screen that our puppy Vanilla tore while we were out because she wanted to be able to go inside the house and play with our cat Abbas, and the ottomans that are bursting at the seams because Abbas scratches at them whenever Vanilla’s yapping agitates him.
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Sigh, pets. But yes we do love them to bits.

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Let me just share that one of the best decisions we made when the year began was switching cable companies. We signed up for Sky’s Silver package when we moved here 3 years ago and if there are two — sorry, make that three — things we don’t like about the service, they are:
1) Not having Discovery, Disney, and Hallmark Channels ((Yes I admit it, watching sappy made-for-tv movies is my guilty pleasure! Hey that’s where I saw “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” for the first time years ago.)). The only reason we got Sky is that both Arn and I came from Sky-subscribing households and we were used to their lineup. We weren’t aware, however, that the Silver package didn’t have the channels we liked, but we didn’t find it practical to pay P300 extra for them.
2) Too many commercials! It didn’t feel like we were watching cable at all.
3) Paying P645 a month for the issues I stated above.
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So anyway, after some research, we switched to Destiny and we’ve been a couple of happy potatoes ((The couch kind.)) since. There’s Discovery Travel & Living and Hallmark for me, Arn has his EuroSport ((Great timing too, it’s World Cup season.)), and we get to have our Discovery & Disney Channel fixes. All that to the tune of P450 a month. Not a bad deal at all.

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On the workfront – yes, the January to June issue of Wedding Essentials is on its way to hitting the newsstands ((If it’s not already there, that is.)) Again, we have over 300 pages of beautiful wedding ideas, tips, and tricks to guide couples in planning their dream weddings. Here’s a quick preview of what you will find inside:
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Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as the team did in putting it together! 🙂

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Don’t ask me what my subject heading means, at the moment I’m loving the Rilo Kiley song ((Didn’t care much for the new album, though. Sorry but I only liked 5 of the 11 tracks.)) it came from. Listen to it here.

A pleasant and prosperous brand new 2008 to all! Here’s to fresh beginnings, shiny new hopes, and clean slates aching to be filled with happy memories.
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Can I also just share that this year, I will be “celebrating” my 11th year aboard the world wide web. Before I acquired the domain in ’99, my very first address was at good ole Geocities ((Get ready for this: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/3395. Where was TinyURL when you needed it?)) and the next one was at Tripod. ((A slightly easier to remember http://members.tripod.com/~cbauzon)). Unfortunately (or actually, fortunately) I don’t have screenshots of previous incarnations of my site but *gasp* it seems the wayback machine holds the key to my shame. Please promise not to laugh.

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I know 2007 is SO last year but I just wanted to list the good things that came out of it, in no particular order.
1. Poptastic and The Paper Basket, our Cafepress shops. Yay to designing for fun — and getting paid to do so!
2. The trips to Japan (March), Singapore (April), Dumaguete (August), and Hong Kong (November). We hope to do more sightseeing this year, finances permitting.
3. Engagements! Some of our close friends and a family member are tying the knot soon and Arn and I couldn’t be happier for all of them. 🙂
4. Reconnecting with long lost friends & relatives, strengthening ties with the ones I’m in touch with, and making up with missed, estranged (well, estranged no more) ones. All thanks to Facebook.
5. Papa coming home for good. He’d been travelling to and from Japan since I was little and had lived there as a visiting Professor for a year in 1978, three years in the ’90s and then another six years before retiring last year. It’s such a comfort to know that he and Mama are both at home, right next door.
6. Arn and me turning four years strong as man and wife. Looking forward to many, many more wonderful years together. 🙂

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So this year kind of started with a bang — on my hard drive and consequently, my wallet. One of our home computers, the PC I use for work, CRASHED. See if this happened to my Mac ((Actually I hardly use my Mac for work anymore, it’s so jurassic it can only handle web-based projects (which I choose not to do so much anymore too).)), I would’ve known how to fix it but PCs are as alien to me as Bode Miller ((Sorry, Arn is watching the world cup right behind me and I know absolutely nothing about speed skating and curling and what other winter sports there are)) so I had no choice but to bring it to a shop that charged x amount for labor, another x amount to install an OS, and x amount for a new hard drive to replace the damaged one. But then I was prepared to spend whatever it cost to retrieve the magazine layouts I slaved on over the holidays (wouldn’t you, now?) and hooray, hooray they were all safe. So yes, Wedding Essentials Jan-June 2008 will be at the stands soon … er, soon enough. 🙂

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It was a different case for our media collection though. We lost ALL the music, tv series episodes, and movie files we’ve accumulated these last couple of years. A few had been backed up on file, some are in our iPods, but most are now gone… forever. Lesson learned? Backup your files, backup your files, BACKUP!
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