New nests ...

 Just before escaping to meet up with my cousin, my computer had gone bellyup so shortly before departing, I replaced it and they said they could transfer over my stuff from the backup drive I had been fairly good about doing every week. BUT ... turns out the new computer like many now has a small primary drive for the operating system and a large secondary area for everything else only my backup won't cooperate with it, trying to put everything on the small primary drive and of course it just won't fit so grinds to a halt. They finally gave up and all my files now reside on the new computer as a drive of its own called "DATA" and all my programs are going to have to be reinstalled!

kitchen side

Back when we lived in Cleveland, we had gotten two large file cabinets with four long lateral file drawers each. When we moved, one fit into the closet of the bedroom I used for my office stuff and the other against one of the dining room walls which was Geoffrey's computer area .. well, except for the intrusion of my big file cabinet and the two smaller white cabinet we put over the entry into the kitchen. Anyway, with the passing of my youngest son Michael, the one with Kentucky roots, and my own general disengagement from a lot of my genealogical research,  it was time to empty these file cabinets and get them out of the house.

Geoff's side of the entry from the kitchen

We also were disposing of the cabinets we had used on both sides of the kitchen/dining room entry and now we'd be able to go direct from the kitchen into Geoff's office. We had put these cabinets in back in 2005 shortly after moving in and the file cabinets were older than that. It was time for them all to go, besides I needed the space in Geoff's office for the upright freezer!

We decided it was about time to replace the old office furniture too as it was as old or older than the file cabinets and although we had managed to make it all fit adequately here in Florida, it was not chosen for this new life. Since we had been so pleased with the bedroom and living room furniture we got back in 2015 from Sauder we went back to them, studying the choices on the web site before going to the local store, choosing to go with the same salt oak finish as previously. Besides, it matched the new floor!

Ordered and arriving in late December, Geoffrey's space was soon filled with an L shaped desk, bookcase, lateral file cabinet, another type of smaller desk and a storage cabinet with the freezer and another cabinet on the last wall. I particularly like the small desk and hate that there was no good way to have it in my office. It is hard to tell in the image borrowed from their web site but the desktop surface is a black slate. It goes beautifully below what we refer to as Geoff's Ego Wall which displays various awards and items from his life, most of which carry stories like the little stuffed minion on the right hand shelf ... I brought this to watch over him in the hospital for those long three months after his accident.

My office received its share of new furniture starting with three small white file cabinets in the closet to help hold the files I did keep. I especially liked these because on top of the two file drawers is a small drawer for 'office stuff' of which I have lots!

My laser printer, right, and color printer, left, fit nicely on top. The shelves in the closet that had been above the old cabinet were retained and extended down to the new files.The higher ones are hidden behind my growing baseball cap collection. The file cabinet fronts being metal get to display my souvenir magnets and I don't even have to be neat about them since the whole cluttery mess can be hidden by simply closing the folding closet doors.

To the right of the closet is my treasure ... I have always wanted one of those bookshelves with the glass fronts, often referred to as library shelves. Geoff had one when we married and it resides in the front entry now with those special pretty dishes you use once a year if that. One of the pieces in the salt oak finish collection at Sauder is exactly that and one now resides in my office.

I had not even thought about what I was going to put in it but it quickly filled up as we unpacked all that stuff that had been shoved in the garage for the floor installation. I tried to get a good picture of it but my amateur efforts were defeated by flash reflection  off the glass so I have again resorted to stealing borrowing from their web site. It holds all sorts of treasures including the ceramic ducks that were once my grandfather Roth's and a flute playing angel from Willowtree that I bought myself last year to go with the figurine my mother sculpted years ago of me playing my flute as a child.

One corner of my office holds two of what the Sauder site calls 'Tall Bookcase' abutting each other. Some of the cubbies hold books and other large items and some hold fabric boxes which contain all those ugly things you're never sure where to put.

Most of the fabric boxes I have have a label holder across the front so I have fabric boxes marked 'file stuff' or 'labelmaker' and so forth. The shelf cubbies have small label holders but so far I have chosen to leave those empty.

On the floor I have an area rug that picks up the blue color of the window curtains. Especially with my increasing difficulties with arthritis, I have come to really appreciate having touch lamps - no switches to manipulate! I already have a couple of small ones in the halls to use as nightlights and to continue the Wolf theme in our lives I got a couple more to have a low light option in my office - touch lamps with Wolves on the glass shade!