Working At Home… Sometimes It Sucks!
March 27, 2007 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
You all know I generally love working at home. Running my freelance writing business from the studio where I live is usually perfect… usually.
This morning started almost perfectly. We had a nifty little storm with some light rain that sounded lovely. Then there was just quiet for awhile. Gradually the neighbors woke up and toddled off to wherever they go to work.
Just about the same time I began to feel, well, superior because my commute is about two feet long, the construction started! Arghhhhh!
My studio is on the alley, which is usually an advantage. Across the alley is a small complex of 4 apartments and a couple of small houses. It dates back probably to the 1940s and although charming, had some real maintenance problems. Recently it’s been sold and the new owners are rehabbing the whole place.
Good grief they’re being noisy today. Some concrete cutting. Some vacuuming – yes, I went and looked. The problem is the noise is bouncing all around me – off the building they’re working on, off the buildings on either side of me and off the house in front of me. And it’s those annoying sorts of sounds that remind me of being at the dentist!
Fortunately this kind of thing doesn’t happen often, and when it does, doesn’t go on forever. But this morning? Arghhhhhhhh
Write well and often,
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Good luck getting through it!
We have a neighbor with a dirt-bike…
He likes to rev-rev-rev it all the live-long day.
Yikes!
Sylvia C.
lol… it could be worse, I could be the one running the jackhammer – they’re jackhammering now… a whole garage floor… 4 more to go!
I sympathize with you. You have no control over things like this. Maybe you could write about how you commadeered the concrete cutters of ko-ko-mo or something.
Next week my PG & E is going to be interrupted to set four utility poles. Yee Gads. At least I have notice. :)
My sympathies, Anne. Makes me glad I’m hearing impaired! I don’t wear my hearing aids around the apt, so its nice and quiet to me, lol.
Good luck with the noise though.
I can relate, and you have my empathy. Most times it is reasonably quiet around here, but lately I’ve noticed a dog barking for long periods of time…very hard to concentrate! I heard (on another list) about “earmuff”-type things called “The Freelancers Friend” but I lost the information about where to buy them. They were noiseblockers you wore like a headset–used by construction workers. Does anyone know about these and where they might be available?
have you tried a google search?
on my end they seem to be quiet at this end
I can so relate to this. I’ve been home based with my business for around ten years now. When we purchased our home I thought that my days with dealing with noise while I worked at home were over. Not. Someone is always building, the city is constantly tearing up the streets and doing “repairs”, the neighbor children come home in the afternoon and do what children do.
Even so, I do what I can to deal with the noise and move forward. Double pane windows can be your friend. :)
Keep up the good work on the blog. I’ve been enjoying reading along and look forward to more articles.
Have you tried listening to some inspiring music using headphones?? Might work – then again – you might not like working to music.
music is fine… I hate headphones…. but that would work for most