(This page is in the middle of being written)

Why?

• I work really odd hours (very little sleep) — "available in all time zones"
• My creativity goes up in controlled environment, and an office is not one (controlled environment)

Background

We bought this big ranch house... at the very end of it was a semi-separate couple of rooms for storage... (mold, spiders, rodents, rust, ...)
The walls were far more rotten than we could imagine, once we started to examine.

We also learnt, that we can't do external modifications, as the structure is "grand-fathered" permits-wise

How?

We hired a contractor, a good one, no nonsense kind of fellow (contact me for name/number)

A split plan...
Me: clean junk, take the walls down (inside), clean the walls
He: fix the beams, fix the roof, replace half of one wall with cinder block
Me: install networking (CAT 5E every 16") and power (20A circuits every 16")
He: sound proof, temperature proof, put the walls up, paint
Me: Move in and ENJOY!

Result?

• A nice office, very quiet, lots of computers, though all portable or ultra-quiet.
• A surround sound system
• A door that locks
• Air conditioning, heater, air purifier (HEPA filters) — any temperature from 10 C - 50 C is easy
• Enough 100M/1GB network outlets to beat most startups
• Bandwidth; multiple redundant networks 4Mbps - 12Mbps symmetrical for uninterrupted work
• UPS (battery) power to last for a while
• Solar panel powered house grid... no electricity bills
• Private phone lines
• Comfy chairs

New machine

I needed a new Linux desktop. As usual, I prefer to build my own machines — not as hard as some think. Follow the link for the whole story.