Beci Orpin’s Blog

this past few weeks, i have been faced with a few dilemma’s. there are the usual ones – what the hell did i wear last winter to stay warm? is it weird that ari asks for “seven pieces of apple” as a topping for nachos? is it even weirder that he then looks down his pants and tells me his penis is “just like a brachiosaurus”? how do i stop miso drinking out of the fish bowl? you know, every day stuff.

this dilemma is not one of those.

since changing raph’s office into a lounge room (which is so awesome, btw), raph has moved into the studio with me. personality-wise, this works out just fine – raph and i have always worked together, even before we were in a relationship – we do it well. however cleanliness-wise, it does not. i am self-admittedly not the cleanest person in the world – i have a lot of crap, and it can get out of control, but every few weeks i sort it out, have a big clean up and re-set. which is were raph and i differ. his crap (mostly paper work and a few thousand free tee-shirts,) just builds up, and builds up and builds up. no eventual clean up. this is driving me a little mental.

this current studio sharing arrangement is just temporary – raph is looking for a warehouse, but it’s proving harder than we thought to find one which is affordable, big enough to fit the trucks, close to our house and not a dark, squalid cave. but i am sure its coming, and aforementioned dilemma will be solved. but, then, a new one will arise for me – should i move my studio into his warehouse? i would have my own separate space, so mess would not be a problem.

there are things i do like about having my studio at home. i like that during the day i can take 10 mins out to put on dinner/do laundry/have left-overs for lunch. i like that tyke can come home after school and be at here while a work (doesn’t work so well with ari yet). and i have a big space with lots of light and lofty ceilings and a view of the park. it’s pretty great set-up. it’s also convenient with my night-time working schedule.

but, there are also things i do not like: that being the first room in the house, it’s the family dumping ground (school bags, skateboards, last weeks lunch). that i often feel like i have not left the house in weeks. and that if a client comes over for a meeting i have to make sure the whole house is clean incase he/she needs to go to the toilet at the other end of the house. and  there is also the whole worklife/homelife separation issue (of complete lack there-of).

what do you think about this whole work from home business? blessing, or curse?

i have been thinking about it a lot. and have decided, my ultimate working set-up is still at home, but separated from the actual house. some kind of amazing hand-crafted wood and glass constuction at the back of the garden, surrounded by greenery, which could even have it’s own quaint laneway entrance. i am hoping i can make this a reality, and incorporate it into our renovation (which fingers crossed will actually come to fruition one day). in the meantime, i can deal with current set-up, especially if it is sans-raph-mess.

here are some images feeding my garden-enclosed separate home studio dream:

1 – by maziar behrooz architects via arch daily (shipping containers never looked so good!)

2 – via chutzpah (so my favourite interiors blog), via old chum (so my favourite flickr stream)

3 – garden of los pozas; scan from “surreal eden”

4 – old chum’s flickr (again)

5 – gen’s treehouse, nagoya; scan from “tree houses of the world”

also – please excuse the exceptionally wordy post. some of my favourite blogs have very little writing, sometimes i wish i could be one of those. but my workload has been so crazy of late that i am a little starved of non-family or work-related conversation – thus it gets spewed forth into cyber space. just pray you don’t bump into me in the supermarket as i am likely to force a 30 minute conversation out of anyone who gives me a sideways glance.

enjoy your week!