My Husband Is in Need of an Office?

Does he have an actual office space? Is he able to close the door and are you and the kids able to give him the quiet and privacy he needs?
I think it would be really hard to work from home with a wife/spouse and kids running around.
If leasing an office is too much, what about adding an extra bedroom, or is moving a possibility?

Can you fix up a space in the basement or garage?

I was a Mary Kay Consultant many years ago. I had a rule, when I was working I could not be bothered unless there was smoke or blood and a lot of it.

You could see if someone local is looking to rent out a room in their home. While most people are looking for someone live-in, they might be open to the idea of getting the rent and not having a full time tenant.

He could also try to find someone to share the space and split the rent of a real office somewhere.

Unless he is making money faster than he can spend it, this doesn't sound like he needs an office, it sounds like you need to do a better job of keeping the kids out of dads space when he is working.
You don't say if he is working in the bedroom, a home office, a closet…?!?
Working from home is challenging, it take discipline from everyone in the house. I know this because my wife works from home at times. And at times it takes all I have to not barge in there and share something with her when I get the urge.
Everyone in the house needs to know the rules, and follow them.
If you must rent, executive office, shared office… google those. They are everywhere and relatively inexpensive. Good luck.

Is your master bedroom big enough to carve out an office space? Our master bedroom has a little alcove which my dh uses for his little office at home. You could even use a screen room divider to section it off and he could close the door.

Do you have a basement? That's another possibility for carving out a space. The only other thing I could think of is to "trade" services. He could do the tech support for a business in exchange for space for his business.

We bought my husband a small desk from Ikea that is in a corner of our master bedroom. He closes the door when he is on conference calls. Our house is short on space and small for our family of 5 so this was our only solution.
He's not a computer tech. I don't know how much space your husband might need to work in. But it works perfectly for us.

G. when my husband was considering renting an office, he checked Craigslist and posted on FB. There may be someone who you know who has an extra space in their own business space or even their home who would like the opportunity to make a few hundred extra a month by allowing him to use the space during the work day. Another option would be to drive around and look at places that have been vacant for a while that a developer or owner is trying to rent out. If the electricity and heat are already on for prospective businesses who come for a look, they might welcome a temporary tenant for a discounted rate who can make the place look nice, much like one would stage a vacant house for house hunters to avoid that stale, abandoned feel after the owners move out. Of course he'd have to vacate with little notice, but he might be able to string some of those along.

Another creative solution would be to see if there is an elderly or disabled person who could use another person around during the day. Not that your husband would provide care of any sort, but I know quite a few families who were in a situation where an elderly relative lived alone and perhaps had some assistance during the week but it was people coming in for an hour or two for specific needs, not someone there all day. In those cases, they would have loved to have had another person there who could just make sure that the loved one was alive and well and not having dehydration delusions or lying at the bottom of the stairs due to a fall. If you don't have someone in your network of friends and family who knows of someone in this situation, perhaps your local council on aging knows of a family that would be open to this. It's a long shot because of course a family would only do this with someone they know but I know that if we had someone who could have spent the day working in another room in my grandmother's house or my grandmother-in-law's house it would have been a good arrangement.

I just saw your reply and thought of one other thing I use. Headphones! I often have to put those on to cancel the noise and add in some music or news if I have already started a job and I'm just doing busy work. It blocks the kid noises and maybe he can find an option that would work so he could get phone calls through them? Just a thought. Mine actually make me concentrate more, even with the kids out of the house. They put me in the zone. Good luck.

I work from home and I have to have an office door that closes for those phone call times. I would imagine you have already tried to convert a room for him? Then you'd just have to keep them out of his office during work hours. As long as he closes the door and they are supervised, they'll understand that Dad's busy. It does get a bit noisy with little ones, so maybe he can limit phone calls or get used to using the mute button. My husband has that down to a science. I usually limit phone calls to very quiet times and basically schedule them for when I know it will be calm. Email is much easier. Actual office space can be reasonable if you find a building where he can just rent a small room and share the conference room and copy equipment.

He should contact local small offices to see if they have extra space. Law offices, medical offices - many will have a spare room they'd be happy to rent out for a small sum. My brother works from home and rents conference room space from a law office when he needs to meet with clients. A friend rents a room from an accupuncturist who happened to have an extra room. My friend does database design, so nothing related to accupuncture - but he rents the room and uses their bathroom and fridge. So be creative - have your husband walk around to smaller office buildings nearby to see if anyone has some extra space.

My friend's husband turned his half of their walk in closet into his office (he works from home). It is small and intimate, he can close the door for private business calls...it smells like fresh laundry...and he loves his small but functional man cave/office space.

Check with your local chamber of commerce. Often they have some space available or they may know of someone who does.

Do a search on Craigslist for "executive office". These are smaller spaces, with common bathrooms, conference room etc. In Tucson I am renting an 8x12 for $325, utilities included BUT I have to pay for internet which is an extra $75. I get a lot more work done though.

We converted an armoire in our bedroom into a little desk(Pinterest) for my husband. He needs a room where he can close the door while on the phone. I stay home w/ our 2 year old, so on his "office days", he goes in there to work. It is a fairly new arrangement and is working so far. We don't have an extra bedroom and working at the kitchen table didn't work. He has thought about converting some space in the garage. A friend of his did this complete w/ a small portable A/C. If the bedroom doesn't work out, he may do this. This is a quick fix, though, and he travels most of the week, so it seems to do the job.

You could try looking for a business incubator, an Executive Office (many MA locations I don't know how close though), Intelligent Office (Boston financial district - may be too far?). Or Something similar where people share offices. GL

Do you have a closet that's big enough for him to be in, put a desk and close the door?

Do you have an area, like a niche, where you can stick a desk (preferably upstairs if you have a 2-story) and put a divider there to kind of close it off. Best you can do if you don't have an extra room.

You could close off a tiny area in your garage, insulate it, put up some sheetrock, put a door (I'm talking a very small corner of the garage) and have that be his office. I've seen it done a million times. Works great &
serves it's purpose!!

There are lots of shared office spaces in complexes designed for this - you share a receptionist and a copier, etc., sometimes conference room space and cafeteria space, free parking, internet access, but you can have a private, furnished office in a convenient location. Of course, this expense is deductible as a business expense. I looked a similar spaces about 2 years ago and found a number of management companies that run buildings like this, and I don't live all that far from you. If you PM me, I'll look for the company I talked to.

A lot of other companies in other fields have laid off workers, and may be interested in renting a very small space in their offices. They might like someone like your husband to rent on a very short-term basis, even month-to-month so he wouldn't have to sign a lease. That way he could try it for 2 or 3 months and see how it works out. He probably couldn't work in a secure location like a bank or a company that does any kind of government contract work, but I would think real estate offices and a zillion other small companies might be interested. Maybe some accounting or law firms would be open - it depends on the type of work they do and the nature of their clients. He could possibly barter his computer services for someone who doesn't have anyone on staff to do this. If he agrees to barter, there should be an informal contract indicating how many hours a month they feel is fair for free rent, so he doesn't get locked into working for them for free and not having time for his own work.

I totally agree with the idea of trying to sublease from a local business. My aunt owns a smallish but important company in downtown Minneapolis and she usually gives herself growing room when she moves the company from one building to another. She has been known to sublet conference rooms or private offices to people in unrelated fields.

ETA:

Check with your local Catholic diocese to see if they have any office space available in one of their parochial schools. My K-12 school rented out space to a credit union, an athletic association, and a Catholic television station.

a friend of ours turned a closet into an office. he put bifold doors on the closet so they could be opened up out of the way. and then put a desk top across the inside of the closet. all you need is power. he still had the shelves up top for his work stuff, and put hanging file things all across the back wall and shelves up both of the inside walls on the sides. it was very very nice to have the space. and he could close it up when not needed. they put there's in the guest room. but you could put it in all most any closet.

He should have a room with a door that he can close when he's working.
Also - working from home is just like working at the office without the commute.
People don't bring their kids to the office - the kids go to day care or spend time with a baby sitter or nanny.
When Daddy's working someone else should be watching the kids and the kids can not bother Dad when he's in his office space.

Our house is big enough for my husband to get away for his important calls. When my 2yo insists on being with Daddy, I insist right back that Daddy is on a call. He doesn't like it, but that's just how it is. Sometimes that means that he gets some extra TV time, just depending on what's going on. I also like the idea of your hubby using noise-cancelling headphones or even turning on the news or music in the background.

I wish that your post noted what kind of space you're living in. Do your kids have their own bedroom(s) and bathroom(s). Do you have a master bath? Maybe your husband slip into the bathroom for those calls, with the bedroom and bathroom doors closed. Maybe his calls can be scheduled and he can go sit in the car when it's time to take them.

Thanks all for the responses.
NO - we cannot afford a nanny.
No - we do not have a garage or a closet or a basement place for my hubby to work from.
He works out of our bedroom, but when the kids are home he can hear them playing and it is distracting. I have one child who knows when he is home and will not bother him, the other one is the strongest willed child you'd ever come across, and wants daddy!
I do my best to keep them out of the house, but sometimes they want to play at home with their own toys, we HAVE to come home to eat, change etc, or to pee, or if i'm sick or just plain old tired, we will be at home.
but we're gone at parks, library, gymnastics, swim lessons, etc, etc, until I come home to get ready for work as i work nights.
Then the sitter comes.
He is looking into renting an office, but we cannot afford it, nor can we afford to move. some of the recommendations seem to come from rich people!
I was hoping another self-employed person had an idea, like a church, school, gym, etc that rents out spaces for less money.
Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone!

Is there any space in the house that is not generally used and could be turned into office space, like attic or basement or garage? Even a large closet could work.

Children should not be running around their father's office while their father is trying to work. So, if your home is the only reasonable location for your husband to work, your children need to be taken somewhere else (playground etc) while he is working. Try to arrange a "schedule" that works for everyone.

We own our own company and we work from home. Hubby is the one who does the travel and he will sometimes work from a hotel lobby if he is near a client and it is not practical to come home or to his hotel if he is on the road.

Do you have a guest room or any small area in the house that you can designate for him?

My office is the (MIL suite) in our house downstairs and a tucked away a bit from the rest of the house and it works perfectly for me.

Hubby uses either the breakfast table (which I hate because when he is there working, I can't do work in the kitchen or that area) OR he uses the game room upstairs so he can have the TV on the financial networks all the time. The game room upstairs has been the best spot for him to focus on what he needs to do.

We work best when we are not in the same office, LOL... because he is on the phone a lot and I am on the computer with the QuickBooks and financial part of the business. We both have our areas of needed focus and being in the same room does not work.

Since our daughter moved out for college and we need to re-arrange upstairs because she had that entire floor to herself growing up, we are considering making one of the guestrooms his office upstairs.

There are a lot of places around here in the DFW area that will rent a 1 room office space fairly reasonably. We looked at them before deciding to keep what we have. I believe one company name was Regis and they are located all over the US. We were not crazy with this idea because we are very private with our company and when we were were given a tour, the sales rep opened an office in use for us to see as an example.

It was right then and there we left because in our line of work, we are dealing with highly confidential formulations, patents, clients, etc in the raw materials industry. We must have a secured location where no one would enter, even if just to show the layout.

Best of wishes to you! Get creative at your house and it can save a lot of $$. We pay for warehousing in Dallas and Houston ($1000-$3000 a month) so it makes sense for us to save that extra money and office from home unless we office from the warehouse location which is not doable right now.

My husband has worked from home since our kids were little. We made the spare bedroom his office. The kids knew when the door was closed not to disurb their father. If he had an important call that absolute quiet was necessary I would take them outside. My husband's business partner finished a space in his basement so he could work.

A corner in the bedroom works well at our house.

I second the suggestion of checking with local law firms. I have worked at 2 where they rented out their conference rooms to other out-of-the-area attorneys to meet with clients. They charged like $200 per month. The attorneys simply called the office and reserved the conference room for whenver they needed it. Sometimes more than one would call, and then one of our attorneys would give up his/her office so that the out-of-area attorney could use that for his conference. We all pitched in and it worked great!

G., there are so many places to check out in Watertown (I used to live there). Has he tried going over to the Arsenal or calling the management over there for advice? There are also a ton of spaces opening up on Pleasant St/Bridge Street. New spots with companies moving in. I'm SURE he can find a quiet spot to work there. I work on Chapel Street in Nonantum (off of California St.) and I bet we could even find a quiet office for him in our space! Let me know!

He needs someplace he can go, work, leave it laying around, get up, go out the door and lock it.

I have a sewing room in our guest bedroom. I have to be able to leave stuff laying out, scissors, pattern pieces, pins, needles, etc...I have to be able to know that these items will not be messed with or played with when I am not in this room.

Your hubby needs to have that security also. Can you imagine the cost of a small child pulls an expensive computer off the table and breaks it into pieces? You'll have to completely replace that unit.

So I suggest you make room for him in either your bedroom or a space in your house where he can have absolute privacy and security.

I looked at rooms to rent in an old elementary school that currently houses a church. They have several businesses in the building too, birth right/choice (?) and some crafters have rented space too.

They wanted $150 for a larger room and just $80 for a small one. I could do fine with the smaller one but would really love how clean my house would be if I rented the larger one. All my scrapbooking stuff, sewing stuff, paints, brushes, craft books, wood crafts, ironing board, all the stuff that takes up our personal space every day. If I get this stuff out during the day I have to stop, clean up, and put it up before the kids get home from school every day.

I think you need to consider this. How much money does he make each month. He can have a successful business but if he is spending all his income on rent and utilities he's not successful at all.

Think about your home. Where can he find some personal private space that locks up? If you have 2 bedrooms and no extra room then it might be that you guys need to find a larger home with more bedrooms or a designated office space.

We have 3 rugrats and my hubby offices at home, but he is out seeing clients quite often. However, when he is home working, he just takes his laptop in our room and closes the door if he needs some peace or to make a call. The dining room is also his work space, it is always chaotic in there, so I hung some nice long curtains on a decent rod and I shut them all the time. Our children call it Daddy's man cave, it's really cute. They have been taught to stay out of there, all the time. Even the baby (22 months) stays out and he goes all over! My husband works in there and he can hear the wildness but he just tunes it out and the kids don't harass him bc they can't actually see him. Hope that gave you some ideas :). Good luck!