My Small-Office Home-Office
A virtual office was in the pipeline while I was still residing at Makati City. But I’ve never gotten around to getting one since I’ve moved homes now. Remember I showed you my Small-Office Home-Office (SOHO) at my old home? Well I’m going to give you a sneak preview of my SOHO over at our cozy home in Pasig City. I don’t know which sounds better. Home-office, Business-office (HOBO) or Small-office Home-office (SOHO) ?
I still have a lot of work to do in the house. I want more decors , furniture here and there. Unfortunately, furnishings, home accessories and other decors are quite expensive so they will have to wait. Right now I just have the bare essentials.
Wi-fi reception was poor in our old home because of the thick concrete walls. I’m quite happy that the Globe Broadband was bundled with a wi-fi router and the reception is pretty strong.
I have four workstations with three Internet Service Providers (Globe Broadband, PLDT MyDSL and Smart Bro) for connection redundancy. I like the idea of variety in my work place. Each of my working space has a purpose. Perhaps I want to blog, work on some papers , websites or just go blog hopping. My mood of the day determines the location of my work.
1. Writing Table at the First Level
This writing table sits at the foot of the stairs . Originally I planned to put a console table here. But see, a console’s purpose in life is decorative . I decided that that every furniture I buy should have functionality.
Working here at my antique narra writing table is best at around 7:00 AM after my dear husband leaves for office . Country angels adorn my table. Hearing the chirping Maya birds and gazing at the greenery of the pocket garden is a good start for the day. This nook works best for me when I am in a calm mood.
I usually stay here until 9:00 AM , checking emails, working on webhosting orders or tickets. Then I get up to check household work for the day. When I come back, the cats decide to invade my table.
Kylee thinks the window view is lovely.
Kylee peeks at my Twitter while Lady naps on my chair.
2. Workstation at the second level
Going up the stairs, the workstation aka mini library greets me at the landing. I want to shield the sunlight with beige Roman Shades but ugh, I still need to save money for that.
Updated (June 28, 2007)
This is my custom-built workstation (built by Connie’s carpenter) where my PLDT mydsl connection is. This is where I stay most of my mornings if I need to pay bills, call people or just do paperwork. As you can see I avoid papers on my desk. They are all inside the drawers . Instead of ugly looking Filing cabinets I had drawers built in the bottom. I use a temporary monobloc chair because I haven’t found the perfect working chair. If I can’t find a white swivel chair then I might as well buy a colored chair. My workaholic mood works best in this working area.
Behind me are Butch books. I keep telling him to sort out his books since it just accumulates dust. It’s one reason I shut the windows in this part of the house.
Usually I go the gym in the late morning once I’ve settled all the work to be done for the day.
3. The couch at the Dining room
The dining room is the favorite part of our home. It’s the soul of the house, a place of conversation. When the kids or my husband are having a snack, I am sometimes found lounging on the couch. If work piles up, I can multitask with my macbook while supervising the food preparation, cooking or house cleaning. Most of the time, I am just doing menial work online while seated here.
4. My bed.
During extremely hot weather, I stay in my bedroom. Turning the airconditioning of the whole house is not a good idea so I prefer to stay in a smaller room where electricity cost won’t be as much. I plan to put a writing table by the bay window as soon as I can save enough for this. I have this thing about windows. I like to pause in between my work hours then look as far as I can .
At night , Butch and I read websites or blog hop before we call it a night. You can see his laptop on his side table.
In the rare occasion that PLDT MyDSL or Globe Broadband is down, I still have one more ISP (SMART BRO) found at the kids’ bedrooms.
Lauren’s blue room and M’s Green room
Now if all three ISP’s are down, I will just sleep, right?
So there you have it. In my ecommerce business , do I really need to lease an office space when I can easily work at my home office? The flexibility of my SOHO allows me to move around as I work . Sitting down in one area stiffles my creativity. I like to work and enjoy the view at the same time.
Now tell me, what part of your house is a favorite spot for blogging or surfing sites?
Technorati Tags: Home-office, Business-office, Small-office Home-office
Filipina mom) and my journey to a "new normal" after the death of 
i really love all the white stuff in your mini-library/office are. hope you find a very comfy swivel chair. that’s one of the most important item in an office.
we have a little corner in our living room that we turned into an “office”. it’s small but it’ll do for now. i could’ve turned the work out room into an office, which has plenty of room but I didn’t want all those fitness equipment in my living room so yeah…
I prefer SOHO than HOBO, thank you very much.
About the last question: I have no choice, as the computer is at the living room. It’s a cluttered, heavy-metal (as in heavy metal) table.
@dexie- white is quite hard to maintain as one can easily the dust on the table.
@arbet- Living room seems to be good location so far. I had mine located near the kitchen at my old home.
i like your antique narra table, you have a beautiful home. i enjoy the tour and thanks for sharing it with us.
Regards MM
@mm- thanks. I like my new home. small, simple, compact , cozy and full of warm sunshine unlike our old home which was dark , gloomy and just depressing,
wow, beautiful and immaculate home. i love the kids’ room, so cozy. thanks for sharing.
My favorite blogging position? In bed, definitely.
@Belle- that’s because it’s still bare.
@Riz- I like the bed too cos it’s so relaxing
Hmmm… I have two workstations. One in the kitchen and a desk in the bedroom. Haven’t used the kitchen workstation since summer began — the bedroom with the aircon on is more comfy. Grabe init. GRABEEEEHHH.
@Connie- that’s why I work at my bedroom in the afternoon. I stay there till 6 PM or if not, I go fitness first as the airconditioning is really cold there,
HOBO! the sound of it is awesome!
i like the color of your entire crib. it is painted zen, especially your mini library.
i love the blue and green room! the color gave my sight a warm ease and comfort.
at my age, i love to redecorate and add glow from one place to another. it gives me pleasure!
now, another inspiration from th angelic mom…
I love your cats! They look so huggable I want to squish them
I love the custom-made workstation. Is Butch’s bookcase also custom-made?
re: “…pause in between my work hours then look as far as I can…”
That’s a good practise to rest your eyes. I would also like a similar set up but it’s not possible at home. And in the office I just stare past my bossing’s head
@mats- that’s not a crib. It’s a sofa bed or daytime bed. The mattress is standard. My daughter chose that kind of bed and I had it custom made.
@Prudence- they are lazy cats. All they do is sleep.
@auee- yes Butch’s bookcase is custom made too. It was left behind by the previous owners of the house. That’s why I chose a white work station. Yes staring out eases eye strain.
Parang I got inspired to do something similar to this, tita. I haven’t really found a spot in the house where I feel at ease to work or do my stuff. Hay… really need my own bedroom na talaga.
HOBO hehe
I love the mini library, tita! Dapat may ganyan din ako sa bahay
Have a great week ahead po
It’s a good thing I don’t have my own camera yet. Otherwise, it would be a crime to post pictures of my room/home-office. It’s the typical room of a college boy, organized chaos!
@sasha- call me Noemi. Well you can probably identify a place of your own and call it “my nook” . The mini library is there because of my husband. If I had my way, I’d just have a small bookshelf
@jhay- funny haha. Well you will learn to organize if you really want to.
We’ve lived at our home for 2 years now. I like to call our look the minimalist look but others will probably call it bare. I really prefer it that way to cluttered though. To me, our whole house is nice and cozy.
I love the tour of your home, thanks!
@pinayhekmi- i am all for minimalist. I hate clutter. I threw almost half of my clutter before we moved here.
I didn’t show some rooms of my home yet. still a work in progress.
you’ve got a lovely home
@ric- Thanks. It’s small but cozy and we’re happy here than in our old home.
You have a very beautiful home. Bright and cozy. Your mini-library is clutter-free, as opposed to mine (which is, by the way, in my very cluttered room). I guess it’s one of the drawbacks of having a very small house. Ang lalaki pa ng mga gamit namin, hehe.
I can’t wait till we move to a new house. My father’s planning to apply for (another) house loan since he doesn’t want us to stay for good here. Hopefully, we’ll get a bigger and better place in a quiet and safe area.
A house setup like yours is ideal. I love the minimalist look.
I wish I could use our desktop computer in bed. Hahahaha
wow, that was a mini-tour of your home-cum-virtual office. what i like about your HCVO is that you can work wherever part of the house you would like to, or whatever mood suits you. am impressed–you are serious with your work, you keep 4 connections!
@jeric- can’t you move your desktop at least in your bedroom
@sexy mom- Yes I love the freedom. BTW, I only have 3 ISPS at home though I have globe wifi when I need to go out and surf in coffee shops
wow noemi, you have a lovely home. my workplace is just our bedroom. it’s also where the pc, phone, fax and other office equipment are.