While the current pandemic has prompted many to work from home, wedging your work space into a corner of the busy kitchen or dark basement is hardly ideal.
And crossing the few steps from your bed to your laptop balancing on the corner of your dresser? Definitely not a setting that inspires!
So if your new home dreams include an office that lets you pair creativity and efficiency, the home’s floorplan is an important consideration.
Here are a few points to think about:
- Do you want easy access for clients, for example? If so, you’ll want an office positioned off the entry or with its own outside access so clients needn’t walk through your home to reach your office.
- As basic as it might sound, a dedicated office space – with a door! – offers more than privacy when deadlines loom; it also lets you close the door on your workday when your “5 o’clock” arrives, making it easier to separate your home life from work life.
- Even in these darker days of winter, natural light is another must for your home office – there’s nothing more uninspiring than dreary, artificial lighting with no view to the outside. So, if you’re considering cordoning off a corner of your windowless basement, the lacklustre setting may spill over into your productivity.
- Next, consider the space you’ll need for your office, and how you’ll use that space. Do you need a sitting area to welcome clients? How about bookshelves or file storage? Do you need a physical work area, such as a drafting table?
Here in Nanaimo, one of the community’s newest developments was designed with the home office scenario firmly in mind.
The Owl floorplan is one of the newest at Arbor Park, a multi-phase planned community near Beban Park. From Vancouver Island’s award-winning PacificGold Homes and built by Nanaimo’s Tectonica, this is a vibrant, diverse community welcoming everyone from young families to empty nesters, with Phase 1, Perch, currently 60 per cent sold.
At 1,623 sq.ft., the three-bedroom, three-bath open-floorplan home boasts a spacious main-floor master, along with a second main-floor bedroom located right off the entry that doubles perfectly as a home office space – including that all-important door that closes.
A third bedroom and bath are downstairs, along with a legal, self-contained, 593-sq.ft. suite – ideal for an aging parent or as a mortgage helper.
As an additional incentive especially appealing for those home office converts, homebuyers will also enjoy their first year of internet free from Telus or Shaw.
While a show home is scheduled to open next month, prospective purchasers are invited to visit the Arbor Park sales centre Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. at 2205 Boxwood Rd., at the bottom of Mountain Vista Drive. A limit of one group of no more than three individuals is currently permitted at once. While it’s ideal to book appointments at 250-915-1220 or info@pacificgoldhomes.com, a New Home Specialist is available during open hours.
Learn more at pacificgoldhomes.com and stay-up-to date on Facebook.