"I'd managed to turn my room into the cleanest and quietest place in the house, which meant everyone else wanted to spend a lot of time there"
How true! My home office was also my workshop/server room. I got tired of the heat, noise and technorubble, so I gave away the desk, moved the servers to the (much cooler) basement, and stripped the whole room down to just a sofa and mostly empty bookshelf. Now it's in high demand, and I only use it when I'm home alone. But at the same time, I got rid of all our towers and switched everyone to wireless laptops, so it's not too hard to find a quiet corner anywhere else in the house to work.
How true! My home office was also my workshop/server room. I got tired of the heat, noise and technorubble, so I gave away the desk, moved the servers to the (much cooler) basement, and stripped the whole room down to just a sofa and mostly empty bookshelf. Now it's in high demand, and I only use it when I'm home alone. But at the same time, I got rid of all our towers and switched everyone to wireless laptops, so it's not too hard to find a quiet corner anywhere else in the house to work.