It's Like Christmas

I have vaguely been wanting a new WFH set up, I mean, who can blame me? The set up is high enough that my feet do not touch the floor close to flat so I usually sit cross-legged. I don't mind that, but for 9-12 hours a day, not only makes my knees hurt but I imagine the constraint in circulation isn't good. Occasionally I can stand during meetings, but if I need to see the screen (most of the time), then not so much.

So, for the last month I've been really thinking about a sit-stand desk. I had to get over the mental hurdle of what to do with the filing cabinet and printer stand. My biggest constraint is the fact I only have 42" between the frames between the kitchen door and the "closet" that has the hatch to the attic. Then there is only a 20" depth between the left edge of my regular desk and the wall. And no, I don't have a bigger wall in that room (there are two doorways, two closets and the windows in the way). I can't use wireless for my work laptop either, so setting up in another room isn't possible.

Most sit/stand desks are too big. When I could find one smaller than 46-48" long, the desk was more like 36" long. Oh, and small desks also come with thin tops, so mounting a keyboard underneath is not advisable. Small desks don't come with very many amenities either (and I had a laundry list). I had all but given up but decided to do one more search last weekend. I must have hit the right keyword combination because a site popped up that I had either not seen, or not noticed before, for Uplift Desks. Perhaps I had seen the site and the cost scared me (as it did for most good desks) - because, as we have established, I'm cheap - er frugal. Also, other sites for good desks didn't have what I was looking for.

Well, I had Christmas money, so decided to look further into the site. And surprise, they had a customization method where I could get a desktop that was 1" thick (needed for adding a keyboard tray). And they HAVE EVERYTHING that you could possibly want as an add-on. Extra bonus - the warranty is for 15 years.

After putting in all my wants, yeah, it was a hefty price, but again - Christmas money was available that I would not feel guilty over spending. So my order was for a  24" x 42" walnut laminate with a black frame, advanced comfort flush keypad (desk controller), 8 outlet surge protector, soft casters, keyboard tray with quick adjust, and matching file cabinet. And I got my choice of 5 "freebies" from which I chose: bamboo rocker X-board (they only had bamboo), clamp on cup holder, notebook/tablet stand, under-desk accessory hook (for my headset) and modesty panel.

Of course I found a coupon code for $100 off, so I used that - LOL. Friday I received 4 big boxes of stuff (and the file cabinet is coming separately in a couple of weeks). When I first looked at all the parts, I thought that I should have sprung for the assembly service (not sure they would have had one in my area though). But once I got started, the detailed instructions made it fairly straght forward. It did take me 4-5 hours though.

Everything was separate but well protected. The desktop itself was probably 20 pounds even though it is laminate.

The first assembly - put the desk supports on the legs - they used a very heavy duty metal and those suckers were not light

Legs/desk supports installed. The desk control keypad is also at the lower left corner. The interesting and good thing about this system is it uses two separate spacer rails that slide into the desk support. That makes it adjustable for any size desk (and yes, they sell the legs/support stand separately if you want to make your own custom desktop size). Everything lined up nicely to the pre-drilled holes.

No, I didn't take pictures of all the steps, nor would I bore you with them all. This is the final set up. I had to do the keyboard rail twice since I had my choice of using a short one or long one. I picked the short one, but found it would not allow the keyboard to slide under the desk (which I didn't know until putting the desk upright and mounting the keyboard holder itself. I actually waited until yesterday morning to upend the desk again and do the swap.

I placed the printer stand in front of the attic access. Since it is on rollers, it will be easy to move the few times I need access per year.

I'm hoping the matching file cabinet will fit under the desk. But, I'm pretty sure it won't since the comfort height has the keyboard at 23". Hey, and speaking about keyboard trays - the long rail system required a stand-off system (there is a cross rail that it has to clear). And the front of that system has a cubby - you can see the blue tip of a pen in there. Oh, and the cup holder has been installed in that picture too (right side of desk).

That is the rocker board. It's main use is for standing - it seems like it would really work the core muscles to steady yourself. I think it could also be used for sitting - changing the angles of the legs to the seat.

I did not take a picture of the notebook/tablet stand as I am going to use that for my kindle in the living room.

So thanks for the Christmas money CopCar and HH - it went to good use!

Comments

[Cop Car]

You are ever so welcome, Bogie. We got enough enjoyment out of reading your put-together session to pay us back! What an office setup. Who ever heard of a cup holder on a computer desk? Not I, obviously.

I think you bought that office suite just for the challenge of putting it together. Well done - so far.

It looks, to me, like your attic access closet is over your basement stairs. I guess I didn't notice that closet when we were there.

[bogie]

I would never thought of a cup holder but I am always worried about my coffee being knocked over by either me or the cats. My water bottle has a twist on cap, so that isn't a worry as far as spillage. I also no longer need to keep a paper towel on under the water bottle to catch the sweat.

The attic access is built over the stairway. Not like we spent a lot of time in the office for the closet to be of special notice. The chimney is to the left of that closet (behind the new desk).