Making Your Home Office Work
It’s your new workplace.
It looks like working from home is here to stay. With so many people performing their jobs successfully from home, many companies are open to continuing the trend. Employees are expressing a desire to stay at home, too, either full or part time.
If you’ve been making do with the dining room table or part of the kitchen island as your workspace, it may be time to create a home office where you can concentrate and do your best work.
Small changes.
If home is an apartment or condo, remodeling is probably out of the question. Time to reassess your living space.
Where could you set up a small desk? It could be a narrow table or even a sturdy drop-down shelf. You may only need room for a laptop and task light, but invest in a comfortable work chair if you can.
Of course, you may need to claim one end of the kitchen or dining room table and call it good. If you can’t leave your office set up all the time, get a storage bin to hold your essentials and pack things away at the end of the day.
Repurpose a room.
If you have a room you can use as an office, you might still need to use it for more than one purpose.
Office by day, guest room by night? This is the place to install a wall bed. It folds up when not in use, looks like a wall unit, and may have the added plus of cabinets or shelves on either side of the bed.
If that’s not practical, or you have an existing bed and don’t want to change it, add slim built-ins to combine a desk with storage.
Convert an attic or basement.
An attic or basement could be a great location for a full office. You can finish the space to make it work exactly as you wish, and if you need offices for two people, you can build half or full walls to divide the area.
In an attic, you may be able to add windows to provide natural light. In a basement, you may already have windows above ground level. If windows aren’t an option, invest in good lighting so you don’t feel like you’re toiling in a cave.
Time to build.
It’s a bigger undertaking, but since it looks like we’re in this for the long haul, why not create the office you really want? Rather than just thinking “build an office,” your remodeling project may be to add a new primary suite or great room, and then take an existing bedroom or part of a dining room and turn that into your new workspace.
Let your home pay for your new home office.
If you think these ideas sound great but wonder where the money is going to come from, look around you. Your home and your borrowing power give you options!
There are home loans designed specifically for renovations. You can also think refinance. Home values have been rising steadily for years, creating more equity (the difference between your home value and your home loan balance) for many homeowners. Refinancing allows you to tap the equity to pay for your project, and cash-out refinance loans can be another source of funds for creating a home office space that works.
If you have any questions about the mortgage process or if you want to inquire about getting preapproved, please contact:
Faramarz Moeen-Ziai
CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC
2987 College Ave
Berkeley, CA 94705
Personal NMLS342090 Branch NMLS2020284
Company NMLS3029
