When we first moved from Oregon, I was working in a small 2-person office near the Scottsdale airport. Following the other person leaving the company it seemed a waste to keep the large office just for me, so it was decided I would begin working from home. The problem was we still had our two young daughters at home with my wife during the day, so working inside the house wasn’t a great option. Especially when you consider that most of my time remote is on video-chat.
Knowing that wasn’t going to work, and that we were renting so we couldn’t do anything too crazy, the wheels starting turning. For the first week or so, I just put my desk in the middle of the garage on one of the kids rugs, and that was the “office”.
In the garage there was an odd alcove where the hot water heater was. The alcove was probably 6′ x 7′ but I decided I would close that in with a temporary “wall” and that would serve as my office. Now being Arizona, being in the garage meant it was going to be hot, so ensuring I didn’t get too hot also was a major consideration in my plans.
The desk fit this area, but actually staying in the garage as the summer came would not be much of an option without air conditioning, so something had to be done. What I decided on was to build a wood frame out of 2×4’s, and then attach 2″ rigid foam insulation panels to the frame, with plastic to form as airtight an enclosure as I could. There was a workbench near the alcove, which you can see in the above picture, on which I chose to rest a small window a/c unit.
Things were now starting to take shape, but there was more to do. It was now time to put my 2×4 frame in place so that way I did not put any screws or anything into the original garage. It was all attached to my frame that I wedged in place with some pink foundation insulating foam. Following that, I then figured out that if I put 1.5″ metal washers with a 5/16″ hole around a fairly good-sized screw that was 3″ long, I could screw threw the foam boards and still keep enough surface area on them so it didn’t just tear through the foam.
With the main top foam board in place, now I had to work on the vertical panels. I attached the one around the a/c unit firmly in place along the bottom and sides. I then made a channel to put the final board in place, such that I could slide it open and closed. When I was in the office, I would slide it closed to retain as much cold/heat as needed. But when I was going in or out, I would slide it open and bend down to half-crawl into the pod space. Given that I was on video calls most every day and for a majority of each day, I hung a sun-blocking window screen that was extra as my backdrop behind my chair.
While it was rather tight inside the alcove, especially since I had to share the space with the hot water heater, it did work out well. The window a/c was able to keep it workable inside the alcove during the summer, and I was pleased with how this turned out and was a workable solution.
I usually ran the air conditioner on low, and this is a super small, 360watt unit, so it wasn’t too loud. Sometimes its hum could be heard over phone and video conferences, but for the most part this served its purpose and did a great job. I worked in this space for around 4 months and again, it worked out well.
Pysan 