A HOME OFFICE OASIS ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST

In the middle of California wine country, overlooking endless views of rolling vineyards, the very first Alpha sits, a respite from a home office filled with interruptions, distractions and disturbances.

In early 2020, when everyone was scrambling to work remotely, Alex was ahead of the curve. She was already working from home part-time, sharing space with her partner Marci, who works in the wine industry. They had the perfect setup: a beautiful home with a built-in office nestled into a gorgeous landscape.

What could go wrong? 

Hitting the wall with domestic distractions

After a year of working from home full-time and full of ‘domestic distractions’, Alex realized she was in dire need of a separate space to focus.

“I would sit there in the office and I’d hear things like the laundry buzzer go off, the cat pawing at the door, or Marci stomping around doing chores and of course feeling guilty and like I needed to help,” Alex said. “Now, it’s nice to be in a dedicated space free of constant distractions.”

But, before Alex could find peace in her new home office, she had to find a way through California’s stringent zoning laws, as well as her own set of strict criteria, and find a company that would impress both her and Marci.

“I told Marci at the beginning, you know, this is my thing,” Alex said. “I’ll do the research and when I find someone I think you’ll be ok with, then we’ll have a second call.”

The search for solutions

With a small sea can already on their property, Alex’s first instinct was to retrofit it as a home office, since it wouldn't need zoning approval. The couple toyed with the idea of renovating it themselves, or partnering with friends, but decided they just didn’t have the time.

So, Alex contacted a local company specializing in sea can construction.

“They advertised on their website that they could do sea can retrofitting. So, we contacted them and I told them, ‘this is what I’m looking for’,” Alex said, “and they never got back to me.”

A plethora of prefab builders

Finding no luck with a sea can reno, Alex expanded her search to prefab buildings – and the floodgates opened wide. Suddenly, there was company after company promising her the perfect prefab home office.

“But the quality wasn’t there,” Marci – a mechanical engineer – said.

Each company featured a ton of renderings showcasing what their product could be, but when it came down to showing an actual physical product, they had nothing.

“Most [companies] hadn’t been in business for a year,” Alex said. “It was like, ‘we’re out of work and we’re in COVID, so we started making these offices’.”

Finding and deciding on DROP Structures

After exhausting her search for local companies, Alex widened her net, trying to get a hold of anybody who could give her what she needed, let alone pass Marci’s rigorous quality standards.

The problem was, she struggled to find a company that would actually return her initial phone call.

Then, she found DROP Structures. Years of experience building and delivering small structures across North America convinced Alex that even though DROP Structures was based in Alberta, Canada, she should call. So, she booked a Zoom call and got an immediate response.

“They just seemed, to be honest, like they had their shit together,” Alex said.

The first call convinced Alex, but Marci still wasn’t quite on board with shipping a home office across two countries.

However, when Marci jumped on the second Zoom call, she was convinced.

“I just told Alex, put in the order,” Marci said.

Their greenlight came down to four factors:

1. Communication

The first factor was simply that DROP Structures called back to have a real conversation with both Alex and Marci.

“I talked to Conor on a Zoom call – and nobody else did a Zoom call either; I appreciated that – and he gave me a [virtual] tour of their facilities,” Alex said. “Overall, communication was really good.” 

Through that quick Zoom tour, Conor was able to show the couple the people and processes working behind the scenes that led to the creation of each unit. 

And once they agreed to go with DROP Structures, Conor continued to update Alex and Marci as their Alpha was being built.

2. Experience

As small structures rise in popularity (especially home offices), businesses have sprouted up like dandelions in the spring. Alex, as she waded through these weeds, wanted a certain assurance that there were real tradespeople behind the brand that could create the structure she wanted.

“The fact the DROP had been doing it for a long time and had different layouts – it was a big thing,” Alex said. 

Though the Alpha unit was new when Alex decided to buy, she felt confident in DROP Structures’ ability based on past performance.

“I had a lot of confidence that things were going to get done, you know, that the structure was going to be good,” Alex said. “I didn’t ever get the feeling, like: oh man, what did I do?”

3. Flexibility

During Alex’s search, she found a lot of companies selling their vision of a home office, with no room to modify. So, when she came to DROP Structures’ website and saw the array of possibilities to make her office her own, it was a breath of fresh air.

“DROP had the flexibility,” Alex said. “We could add extra square footage, a bathroom or even a window.”

That allowed Alex to pick from various options to create an office she would actually enjoy spending time in, and one that didn’t require excess energy to fit into her life and property.

4. Quality

With so much time, energy and money on the line, both Marci and Alex knew they wanted something that would last – something they could depend on to stay functional and beautiful for years to come. Though they couldn’t visit a DROP Structure before their delivery, they were able to see the shop and real builds in progress.

For Marci in particular, their process lent credence to DROP Structures’ claims. 

“When I saw how the buildings were being built, and how they were skinning them, insulating them, weatherproofing them – the quality of the doors, the windows – I was really impressed with their engineering as a company,” Marci said.

Embracing joy – especially in a home workspace

Though it took Alex and Marci some back and forth to agree on where the new office would go, they settled on placing it next to a barn, beneath the shade of oak trees.

Now, Alex can look out her office window from her hilltop property and see the gorgeous rolling hills of wine country and the city skyline sparkling in the distance – and so can her Zoom coworkers.

On a recent video call with a coworker, Alex was told her new office, with its gorgeous views, looked like a preloaded background image – perhaps one of the highest praises for a home office in this day and Zoom age.

*A little Lego fandom

Inspired by her new DROP Structure, Alex decided to model her Alpha in Lego and share it with us. With creativity like that, we think her home office is in great hands.