We Are The Entrikin Family: My office

Here is the story of the work I did in my office this year, with before and after photos:

Last year I had some ideas of redecorating the office at PHS that I shared with Sheri. However, the days got busy and I never talked to Sheri about it. Then over the summer, Sheri moved to Wisconsin with her family.

I went back to work a few days before school started, and found myself with an office to myself (if you don't count sharing it with all of the History department) and several hours of time to myself. The first thing to go was the posters that had been on the wall since time immemorial, if the yellowing was any indication. I also removed the color-by-number done by a student for Sheri a few years before and the dead tree virtues poster that didn't seem very uplifting or motivational.

I overhauled the inside of the closet, which is the only space that is truly my own, or our own, if another partner comes to join me some day.

Sheri collected school supplies when they were on sale to give to students when they need them. I didn't even know what all we had in there!

I took everything out and thoroughly cleaned the closet inside and out. Then I moved the shelves around to optimize the space at eye level. I gave each one a Post-it Note label to remind myself, and future partner, of where to put things. I organized the school supplies and put them back in, leaving one shelf near the bottom that is solely my own, and a shelf for a partner, if/when I get another one. (Then I put the box of notebooks on the partner shelf. Since I don't have one, there's no sense in wasting good space.)

I had pretty much finished restocking the closet when school started. The first week was pretty quiet, so I had time to clean the desk that is a hand-me-down from a teacher, and put a few spare school supplies in the drawer. I requested that our school technician connect the computer to the school network, so now I have a working desk and computer!

I fixed the broken handle on the closet with Scott's help, but I was not able to fix the broken blind.

I thought a lot about decorations. That kind of thing does not come easily to me. A funny part of the decorating was that I started putting up the "Welcome" sign one letter at a time, starting in the middle, and ran out of sticky tack. I didn't get a chance to get more until Scott brought me some a week later, so for a week the sign above my closet said, "LCO." No one said anything, but they must have wondered what LCO meant!

Finally, I finished and surveyed my work. I think it looks nice and homey! But then I thought, it needed more color, a few bright spots. So one day when I wasn't busy, I made a nice, cheery, autumn-themed door decoration.