HOME OFFICES
Michael Holigan: Frustration at the office, lack of job security, a desire to spend more time with the kids. All reasons a growing number of Americans decide to work at home. Then they realize they have no place to take care of business.
Patricia Magadini: In most houses that you'll buy will have a kitchen, and they'll have bathrooms and they'll have bedrooms, but if you're going to remodel, most of them do not have a home office.
MH: Architect Patricia Magadini says home offices rank among the remodeling projects most in demand. Many families are building additions or enclosing open areas. Others are finding clever ways to use existing space. Take a look at Sherry Reed's family room, for example. Can you find a home office here? Most visitors would never realize it's camouflaged by this handsome wood cabinet. Locked away inside is plenty of horizontal workspace, a pullout computer keyboard and a computer monitor that fits into the cabinet when it's not being used. There's plenty of storage room, a phone, fax and printer. Sherry would rather have her office here than in a separate room in the house.
Sherry Reed: It puts me in the part of the home where we live, where my children are most of the time, where I am most of the time. I think it keeps everything central. I don't have a little bit in my bedroom, a little bit in the kitchen, a little bit, you know, in my car. Everything is really centralized right here.
MH: These particular mobile offices, which can move from house to house, sell from $2,500 up to $6,900. They come prewired for computers and phones. If that's more than you want to spend, however, your home office solution may be your nearest bedroom closet. Replace clothes rods with simple melamine board cut for a desktop and shelves. Use braces that screw into wall studs and you can have a home office for as little as $400 to $800.
PM: Because we had some existing porch space already out here that they didn't use, the most logical thing that seemed to do was just to capture that space and enclose it.
MH: Architect Patricia Magadini says you'll have to spend a lot more to move walls or add on to your house. But it's one way to get an office with everything you want. Magadini will increase the size of this tiny upstairs office by enclosing a narrow, unused balcony. She'll add privacy by moving an entrance from a busy hallway to the bedroom. She says location is just one thing you should consider.
PM: Most of the time I ask them the first question, which is, 'How do you want it to function. Who's going to use it? What are you going to have in there?'
MH: Answers to those questions help Magadini design this home office for a photographer. The woman needed a lot of storage space for organizing slides and prints. Because the converted bedroom space was small, Magadini chose space-saving built-in countertops that can be used to spread out work. The photographer's husband didn't need a desktop space. He needed an office for his computer and books. He's a lawyer who likes to sit in overstuffed chairs while reading. Recessed ceiling lights allow him to control brightness.
PM: The worst thing is to not have enough light. It's hard once you've underlit a space to add lamps or anything.
MH: In addition to questions about use and room location, you need to ask yourself about your technical needs. Do you need extra phone lines for a computer modem or for a fax machine? Do you have enough electrical outlets in your home office? And you may want to go ahead and invest in a surge suppressor to protect all of your office equipment, in case of electrical problems. Whether you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars, the result you're looking for is the same - a home office that is comfortable and convenient. And if you plan well, most everything you need should be handy
SR: I really don't have to get up. I've got my filing...everything is like within a reach.
Episode 66 1997 - 98 Season
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