The Online Photographer

Okay, so how about this: Build an inexpensive but warm and well-lit garden shed for your new office, just big enough to hold all your working equipment and table space. And convert your old office space to the massive storage room you need. Put lots of attractive shelves in that old space, and file cabinets and flat files. All of it just a few steps away from your new working space.

That sounds like it could be relatively inexpensive. Plus it would give you one room for clutter and one room to keep tidy and useful.

[Two rooms! Now you are taking luxury and decadence. --Mike the Ed. P.S. I really don't have enough of a yard to build any sort of anything on it. ]

Mike.. just watch a few episodes of Hoarders and you will find the energy to thin out your stuff. Less really means More.

Get a good carpenter to create a tailored interior for your office. It can do miracles in terms of storage and workspace.

How much space do you have in the basement? You could put your printer and scanner down there, as well as storage of supplies. Add a small computer to handle the scanning jobs (the printer should be easily hooked to the network).

With a dehumidifier to keep things dry most basements are ok for photos and electronics.

I'm going with the back yard studio idea. My daughter is no 11 and no longer in need of the colossal "swing set" and I've already mapped out space for it. In fact check out this site for tons of inspiration. http://tinyhouseswoon.com

This on in particular has my eye.
http://tinyhouseswoon.com/joeys-studio/

And if building codes are an issue, put it on wheels and call it a trailer. A lot of folks on this site do exactly that.

Here's another idea. Buy a 4-unit townhouse, rent out 3 of them and live in the 4th. Apply for an FHA loan (works with houses from 1 to 4 units and requires you to live in it) with only 3.5% downpayment. Your three tenants will pay out the all the mortgage + tax + insurance, with some left to spare. And since it's 3 years past the last time you bought a house, you can get "first-time home buyer" tax credit too. Run the numbers Mike, you'll be surprised how they work in your favor. You can even move to Florida or California and buy there for more sunny days and nicer weather.

I considered an addition to my home as I have my Epson 3800 is in my living room and my work desk and two other printers in my bedroom. The builder I spoke with advised adding a second floor as I couldn't add a room to the main floor due to the house sitting in a flood plain. Besides the cost, I realized it would be more square feet to clean!

Work area still in bedroom, Epson still in living room. And as I'm the person who has to live with it, I'm happy with the arrangement.

You could turn the garage into your office. Since I converted my garage into additional living space, the car has adapted to life on the driveway. And the space where the car sits is that much less snow to shovel.

Part of the price of everything is the price of the place to put it. You are doing a good job with what you have, and apparently your family is thriving. Any building project may threaten this. Think about going to an 8 1/2 inch printer controlled wirelessly in another room and farm out larger prints you may want. And take a hard look at things you can get along without. Good luck.

I seem to recall you were building a darkroom at one time. Maybe you could use a little wifi magic to put your printer in there rather than the main living area. After all it is the modern way to print photos. The single dim light bulb might be an issue but then again atmosphere is important.

Instead of the garden shed you could get an RV and use that as you office. That way, if spring takes to long to arrive, you can drive your office south to go and get it.

As has been suggested re the last post, it may be much cheaper to have your basement waterproofed, and finished for office use. Or at least for storage. Besides, if you ever sell the house, a dry basement is MUCH more salable than a wet one.

How old is your son? Maybe he would like high-end computer equipment in his room that would enable him to play games, etc. while also functioning for continuation of TOP. Easy transition to future arrangements.

Kickstarter . . .

You moved the kid out -- use HIS old room for YOUR space(that's what's its for).

Sounds like an insoluble problem. One way to deal with an insoluble problem is to give up on it until your situation changes and you can approach the problem from a new angle. In this case that might mean simply waiting for your business and cash flow to grow a bit more. It might not take as long as you think.

How big is you're office Mike....and what is in it, and what of which is in it, is 100% essential to editing the best photosite this side of the Horsehead nebula. Then tos away the rest....believe me, I'm of to a blue and yellow box tomorrow (that serves meatballs), and that will mean....2 little office cabinets that will find there way to a storage room. Will be filled with some craposa of the detritus variety (not essential but maybe handy later). A Nikon Coolscan 5 and a V30 Epson were cleared out and stored until further notice (the Coolscan maybe reborn an Oly 60mm since I could also photograph slided using a reprotube). An old laptop is on the way out as well. The 2 shelves and some big plastic boxes will expand storage room considerable....boxes will be dustproof and under my bed, and store various aquired flashlights (might come in handy and a 45CT4 well you can't argue with a 45CT4 and a old Nikon SB26 as a slave can you).

I just know you're home restoration lady will admire the work.....(and at least I'm satisfied when my musscle ache will fade).

BTW, thinking of that, maybe she can get your stuff more organised and you can get het to co-write a column on perfect digital darkroom arangements.

Greats, Ed.

Sounds like you need more storage space for your STUFF, rather than office space. Add a little room to the back of the garage, and through all the STUFF in there.
Then again, the simplest solution is to get rid of STUFF ;-)

As someone said in the reply to your last post, it's amazing what you can do with a tiny space with some intelligent space planning, but you mentioned you can't use your basement because of flooding.

What would it take to flood-proof or "tank" your basement? There are firms here that do a complete sealing service for old basements using barrier layers and concrete skims. It's relatively cheap and buys you a ton of space. Services (cables and heating) can be included in the process.

http://www.safeguardeurope.com/applications/basement_waterproofing.php

Sure you must have US equivalents.

Another alternative is to use the office space as the living/TV room, and the living room for your office.

.....a dry, permanently waterproof basement beckons......
I did the same in a previous home and was able to have a small 8x12' permanent shooting space that was always ready (and home to a lot of photo stuff that helped to decrapify other places in the house.)
It's hard to over state how much enjoyment that little room produced.

I suspect the best solution (besides living with what you have) is to not build anything, but rather to sell your existing house and buy another house that has a space configuration that works better for you. The net difference in price between the two houses may well be very little or a wash. What houses sell for is not only related to square footage--other market forces effect the price considerably. In essence you would trade the value of your house for another house. You may even be able to find a short sale or a foreclosed house that fits you better. Of course, that would mean you would actually have to clean up and organize your existing house! :-)

http://wimp.com/crazyengineering/

Just some thinking outside the box, if you'll forgive the pun...

How about Xanax? Xanax could make the whole problem a lot easier to deal with.

An office that measures 11' square isn't that small. With a decent budget for new furniture (some which might have to be custom made to fully address your needs) and a talented space planner/interior designer -- FYI, the two aren't necessarily the same person -- I suspect that you could significantly improve the functionality of your present office despite its limited space.

I hate to be a retrocrank, but I have this same problem. The obvious answer is you have too much stuff. Reduce the amount of stuff to fit the available space. It's also a low-cost answer.

"I'm stuck with my 11x11" space, and that's that. Lucky to have that much I guess."

By comparison, it may be considered a large work space, a lot larger than those who've converted their closet for instance. I think that's what Mark Hobson over at The Landscapist did, if I remember correctly the picture he posted on his blog.