Little House in the Backyard

Now that daytime temps are consistently over 50 degrees, I've moved my home office into the backyard.

In the backyard we have a little house – a converted one-car garage, I think – with electricity but no plumbing. People have suggested we use it as a kids' playroom, a yoga studio, a guest bedroom or a rented bedroom. My mother-in-law thought she might use it as a painting studio.

For the first three years we lived here, though, we never did anything with the little house. The kids didn't want to play in it; I don't teach yoga; and when people visit they'd rather stay in the main house, even if it means they have to sleep on the floor. We left the little house closed up: not mildewing, since it's dry here, but definitely moldering. Finally last month, however, a straw broke. I decided I needed a fixed office – not a spot at the dining room table or in my bedroom, which needs to be cleaned up every day, but a place of my own.

And so: since it is now consistently over 50 degrees during the day, I'm working from the little house .. with all the doors and windows open and a fan running. After three years it's so dusty and cobwebby it makes me sneeze! Opened like this it's more a pavilion than a house; it's just like being in the backyard. I can hear the birds and my neighbors and the train whistle and, in the morning, the parkway buzz. Today the neighbors' cat came by and licked my lunch plate.