(All moved and loving it!)

At least every two years, I pick up stakes and move my entire office space to another area of our cabin and occasionally, over the years, to other geographical areas. While working away for a couple of years, I lived in two different apartments. Then there was my time at the university – a dorm room and two apartments over a six and a half-year time span.

But the majority of these moves (ten out of fifteen) have been within the confines of this 1400 square foot home. I’ve been upstairs, downstairs, east, west, north and south.

(A short-lived try at working in the entryway.)

Why this urge to move around? I haven’t tracked the whole process thoroughly enough to give a definitive answer. All I know is that now and then I have to move.

Since I reinvented myself as a self-published author of fiction, I have moved four times within the cabin. I was upstairs at a nice built-in desk that overlooked the downstairs with my big writer’s desk commanding a view of the lake. I suppose, I should state, for the record – I do require two desks to survive. One is a beautiful, walnut writing desk that is long and spacious. For my laptop, I’ve used various standard desks. Right now I have one we got from the local library for a great price when they decided to upgrade.

(Writing desk upstairs in front of a beautiful view)

For a number of reasons, working upstairs wasn’t my cup of tea. I began to feel closed off and closed in. I started hauling my laptop down to the kitchen table, which sat in a ten by eleven space off the galley kitchen. This room has the best views of the lake. It often feels like sitting out on a deck with the large windows and abundance of natural lighting. Before long, I was spewing my stuff everywhere and running up and down the stairs to get things from my desk at an inconvenient rate.

By mutual agreement – even I could see things were getting out of hand when we could no longer find a spot on the table to eat – I gave up the kitchen table and moved both my desks into our dining room and we moved the table from there outside to our garden. After all, how many spots do two people need when it comes to eating?

I lasted in that location for over a year and during the winter months there was much to recommend it. Oriented inwards to the cabin, it was near the wood-burning stove, so nice and cosy. Close to the bathroom – always convenient. But, I confess to mentioning on more than one occasion that I missed the view from the kitchen nook and once again, I began to feel closed in.

(We took the picture before we moved the writing desk down. It went in front of the window and the desk for my laptop swung out at a ninety degree angle to face into the living room thus blocking the nice flow we use to have from one room to the other.)

The other day we found a large, leather recliner at the ReStore for a great price and Bruce wanted it. Once we had that chair in the living room things felt squished. We threw a few ideas around and out of the blue Bruce suggested we move my desks up to the room off the kitchen – make that my office space – and put our table back in the dining room. We’d free up space in the open design living room/dining room and give the whole area a less jammed feeling.

(It worked – nice traffic flow. We enjoyed eating out here last night – first time in a while.)

I jumped at the idea. Working in the room off the kitchen is perfect for me. Tons of space for both desks, enough room left over for two glider rockers in the corners – perfect for those times we want to chat – scads of natural light and wide, expansive views of the lake and the mountains. The room is near the back door so I can run out for a breath of fresh air anytime. Oh, and did I say easy access to the coffee pot – always a plus.

(It does really feel like being out on the deck!)

Maybe, just maybe, I won’t ever want to move again. But wait – we have tossed ideas around for an addition off the dining room sometime in the future. It could be an office and more. I would definitely think of moving to that space. It would have all the advantages of where I am now plus a door. Open concepts don’t always work for stay-at-home writers. But for now, I am a happy camper in this new space.

Do you ever get the urge to pick up and move your work space to a new area? What reasons motivate you to desire a change?