As my husband and I think ahead to our next move, we’re considering something that hasn’t come up to any great extent for us before: how what we want in our home will be significantly determined by the fact that we will both be working from there. We both regularly work in our current home, me in a rather sunny breakfast room in which we’ve got a desk, and he on our sofa in the living room. But in the long term, that’s very impractical, not only for the health of our eyes and our backs, but also for our marriage. We really each need to have a space where we can keep things however we like to make working more efficient. Even less critical things like the amount of tea we drink while working has meant that we’ve added “instant hot water” to the list of must-haves.

We were just in Portland, Maine — one of the places we’re thinking of relocating when we’re ready to be full-time freelancers later this year. At the beginning of spring (when we were there), it wasn’t as obvious, but during the long stretches of frigid winters they have there we can both imagine that having plenty of space in your house to stave off cabin fever would be critical. But how practical is it to heat a huge house through 6 months of winter? And unless we have solar, how well does the idea of a $400+ heating bill each month factor into our desire to live well with less money? Even with wood fires and the warming aerobic activity of chopping wood.

As of this moment, we’ve decided that we would each like to have our own office space that isn’t shared with something like a dining room, but can serve double-duty as a guest room when necessary. Ideally, these office rooms would be located near both a bathroom and a kitchen, and would have enough space not only for our desks and various peripherals, but also for filing, and clean workspaces on which non-computing projects may take place. They will have good natural light, and plenty of wall space for art and a corkboard on which we can pin whatever’s important. Since neither of us have clients coming to the house, we don’t need a meet & greet public area, but I will need a space in which to do pottery which can be very easily cleaned, and wired with its own circuit for the kiln, which will need to be adequately vented.

In my mind, this means we’ll need a house that is mostly on one floor, with a small out-building in which I can build a pottery studio. We saw lots of spaces like this in Maine, which is promising. Our next stop is Portland, Oregon, where heating bills will be lower, but still a consideration, and it’s more expensive per square foot of space. It’ll be interesting to compare the two after that trip.