When I started this project, I had a very specific vision in mind for this room. I modeled it out using Unity, which allowed my wife and I to play with details such as paint color and light positioning, and created a strong visualization of the room that guided us throughout the project. It was very nice to be able to pull up the prototype for each contractor and say, “This is what it should look like,” leaving very little room for error. As you can see, the final product is very, VERY close to the concept scene. The pictures of the vision vs. reality could almost be one of those “spot the difference” games. I call it “precision interior decorengineering”.
Since the remodel involved completely emptying the room, I got to do a little Dehoarding of my own. I was very selective of what I brought back into the office, relegating other things to new places or to the garage sale pile. One of the nice side effect of this is that my old desk will now become an electronics workbench so that I have a proper place for my microcontroller hobby. Between the substantially improved warm lighting, reduction and hiding of clutter, and the long horizontal lines imparted on the room by the furniture, the office now feels like a very relaxed place to work. It should be easier than ever to get in the “flow”.
So work I shall, reducing the huge stack of 150+ tasks that I have laid out that should bring Dehoarder 2 to a beta state. Arvex’s last planned batch of models should be ready before the holidays, so I will be integrating those over the holidays and in the first part of the new year. Until then, I need to continue paying down technical debt, the kind that is born from situations where you come up with a great new design, apply it to a few things, and then make a note to convert everything else later while moving on to higher-priority (i.e. geared toward expo showing) tasks.
The household Christmas Machine is running full blast, despite the chaos with the office suddenly materializing after months of delays. The tree, decorations, and lights are up, and the baking and gift wrapping are well underway. Gill and I hope that every one of you has a safe, happy, relaxing, and loving holiday season. For those of you awaiting the release of Dehoarder 2, I am grateful this Christmas for your patience while I get this right and allow Dehoarder 2 to fully mature into the game that it wants to be. Hopefully next year I can ship this opus that Dehoarder 2 has become!