Home Office

A home office doesn't have to be a boring white space with a desk made out of filing cabinets and an old door. Working at home, after all, is supposed to provide a greater degree of freedom -- and that applies to the physical surroundings and the day-to-day schedule.No matter where you stand on the corporate ladder, it's possible to look like a CEO at home. Don't skimp on comfort and convenience if you're lucky enough to have escaped the standard work environment.The prerequisites for achieving this look are the same as for any successful interior design.

The Gathering returns to the Baltimore Museum of Industry this Friday. Almost 20 food trucks are expected to attend this time. But here's the big attraction. They're giving away a food-truck visit. Guests at the Gathering will enter the contest by texting to a number that will be posted on the food trucks. The winner, who will be randomly chosen at 9 p.m., will be able to have the truck of their choice show up at their home or office. That's all according to Damian Bohager, who's been organizing the rallies.

THOUSANDS OF homeowners who run businesses from their houses would be the beneficiaries of a new legislative effort on Capitol Hill to redefine and broaden the tax deductibility of office-in-the-home expenses.Spearheaded by Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, the Missouri Republican who chairs the Senate Small Business Committee, the push is designed to bring clarity -- and fairness -- to one of the most controversial sections of the federal tax code affecting homeowners.An estimated 9 million Americans now run businesses from their homes, according to Bond, and roughly 70 percent of those enterprises are owned by women.

Standing in the driveway of Arleen Dvorine's Lutherville property, it is clear she has successfully realized her dream of converting an old carriage house into an office and home. The 240-year-old, one-story structure served as the stable for the long-ago gentleman farmer and owner of White Manor, a mansion still standing and still occupied further down the winding road. A gently sloping roof flows into the exterior's cedar shake siding. Multi-paned windows — colonial in style and with cream trim — are symmetrically placed on either side of a portico, also in a cream color.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to resolve an escalating legal dispute over what requirements taxpayers who do some of their work at home must meet to qualify for a home-office deduction.The question, which the justices will not decide until next year, pits the U.S. Tax Court against the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has long regarded home-office deductions with suspicion as an area of abuse.Two years ago, Tax Court judges rejected the IRS position and adopted a taxpayer-friendly interpretation of the relevant provision of the Internal Revenue Code.

Ah, the luxury of having a home-based business. No office leasing costs, no daily commute and no disturbances from co-workers. Here are seven tips to get your home office on the right track: 1. Legalize it. Check with your local zoning office about regulations in your area. Licensing requirements also vary among jurisdictions. 2. Establish a business address. Some people rent a post office box and use that address on business cards and stationery. 3. Get the right equipment. Devices such as an all-in-one fax machine, printer, scanner and copier increase efficiency while conserving space.

So, you've got a home office complete with your very own swivel chair, file cabinets that you don't have to share and no one to complain if you hang up a "World's Cutest Dairy Farmers" calendar. But how ergonomically correct is your personal office space? Are you wreaking havoc on your lower back, wrists or eyesight by the way you sit at your desk, manipulate your mouse or gaze at your monitor? When you work for a big, responsible company, most of the important stuff is taken care of. You might have a glare screen for your computer, a wrist rest for your keyboard and an adjustable chair with more settings than a formal dinner at the White House.

Paula Brantner's job as a program director for a nonprofit group is centered in San Francisco. But she works from her home in Silver Spring. Brantner is a long-distance telecommuter - and has been for more than four years. She makes up just a sliver of the work force that is employed in a home office that is far from the company's main headquarters. Yet a number of businesses have gone to geographic extremes by allowing workers to telecommute full time - even if they live halfway around the world.

The home office is starting to look more like home. That's the message of collections from Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Ethan Allen and other furniture makers that are integrating pieces that work into overall home design. They're catering to a growing market of people who work at home at least part of the time. The International Telework Association & Council says a recent survey showed 24.1 million Americans -- nearly one-fifth of the work force -- worked at home at least one day during the last year.

Personal computers have enabled millions of Americans to operate businesses out of their homes. According to recent market surveys, some 20 million people will earn all or part of their household income from a home-based business next year.Finding the right computer at the right price is a goal of most of these workers. Link Resources Inc., a market research company in New York that tracks the home office market, found that home office workers spent an average of $1,830 for their latest computer.

Ann Fligsten, a noted land-use attorney in Anne Arundel County, has long voiced her opinion on planning and zoning issues, testifying before the County Council and meeting with county officials. As chairwoman of the Growth Action Network, Fligsten helped organize a lawsuit filed last month alleging that the County Council violated state law by passing several amendments to a zoning bill that would allow development that opponents believe is prohibited by long-established county guidelines.

What Baltimore police suspected was a barricade situation at a northwest Baltimore home ended shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, with police entering the residence of a correctional officer slain earlier in the day and finding nobody there. Baltimore police began investigating what they called a "barricade situation" mid-afternoon at the Northwest Baltimore home of Sharon Jones, 28, a correctional officer killed earlier in the day. Jones had been a correctional officer since 2004, working in the transportation unit of the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, said Danielle Lueking, a public safety spokeswoman.

Land once intended for a new Howard County government complex in Ellicott City will instead be the site of 163 townhouses, according to a developer's plan scheduled for presentation to the public Tuesday night. Ellicott Mills Overlook is the latest change in one of Howard County's oldest areas of suburban development, near U.S. 40. A 150-unit Alta at Regency Crest apartment complex for seniors is under construction on a former farm remnant across Rogers Avenue, and plans are to eventually redevelop the nearby Normandy Shopping Center and the adjacent former Miller Motors Ford dealership across the divided highway.

The arrests Friday of Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife suggest that a federal investigation of corruption in county government, long a subject of rumor and speculation, is reaching critical mass. Law enforcement officials familiar with the probe, which is being overseen by the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said more arrests are expected, possibly this week. Johnson, a Democrat whose term ends next month, and his wife, Leslie Johnson, also a Democrat and newly elected to the County Council, were charged with destroying and tampering with evidence.

When it was announced that the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School would move into the Legg Mason tower in Baltimore's Harbor East this summer, school officials touted the benefits of the move: waterfront view, hip neighborhood, new building loaded with technology and a chance for students to interact with Legg's executives. But in light of recent events, it might not be wise to expose the business leaders of tomorrow to the people running Legg Mason today. Instead, it might be better if Legg executives took the elevator to some classes this fall, after the Carey school joins them in the taxpayer-subsidized tower.

A developer is planning Howard County's third urban-style mixed-use development along the MARC rail commuter line near Elkridge, a site long expected to be used for a Coca-Cola bottling plant. The 122-acre project, called Oxford Square, would include up to 1,400 apartments and condominiums, 1 million square feet of commercial space, retail stores, a hotel and possibly six acres for a school, mimicking similar proposals at the Savage and Laurel Park train stations farther south. The transit station projects have all been promoted as examples of Smart Growth - absorbing new residences and commercial development in areas already served by mass transit, roads, utilities and schools.

"It just snaps together?" I asked the salesman, pointing at the floor model of a simple plastic desk, just big enough to hold a computer and keyboard, a cup of coffee, a sweet roll, some note paper and a telephone -- the tools of my trade."Right," the salesman said. "Just snap it together or unsnap it to take it apart.""It doesn't have bolts, screws or anything like that?""Nope. All it has are grooves and tongues. Just slip one part into another and, pop, it fits into place. See, here? Got a nice tray for the keyboard that slides in and out."

Janet Dillon shuts off her buzzing alarm clock at 7 a.m. each day. She gets up, feeds the cat, makes breakfast, showers, dresses, sees her daughter to the school bus and then heads to work.It's a familiar routine, one that is played out in households all across the country on weekday mornings.The only difference is that Janet Dillon's "commute" to work is only a half-dozen steps -- the distance between her kitchen and the spare bedroom she's converted to home office space.A free-lance writer and graphic designer who produces newsletters for non-profit agencies in a Midwestern city, Ms. Dillon is one of an estimated 38.4 million American adults who now earn some or all of their living working at home.

I'm trying to carve out space in our family room for a home office. It's not meant to be anything grand - just a chair-desk combination, some storage units and space for my computer and printer. Most of what I've seen in furniture stores seems scaled for a commercial office. It's either too large and heavy-looking or too modern in its styling to fit comfortably into a simply furnished family space with a contemporary design. You've just used a couple of the most indefinable terms in the lexicon of interior design: "simply furnished" and "contemporary design."

I recently downsized into an apartment and must now decide how to make the best use of limited space. The bedroom, for example, is doubling as my home office. I store files in a closet and work on an L-shaped desk with a side return where I keep my computer. Can you suggest where to find an attractive desk with more storage space and a convenient surface for my laptop? Would it have to be custom-made? The bedroom has contemporary black-lacquered furniture. The services of a cabinetmaker may be needed to furnish a home office that succeeds visually as well as functionally.