Home. Work. Two distinct life arenas? For many, they are a blended opportunity. One in which commutes are eliminated, wardrobes can be shrunken down, and the cost of after-school day care can be erased from the budget. For those lucky enough to have found a niche lucrative enough to keep them earning money from their homes, the home office has become a new frontier. If you're planning to buy a new home and know you'll need (or eventually need) a viable office, dedicated to conducting business from home, you may want to think hard about how to design it.

In 1997, 46 million Americans worked at home at least part-time. 54% of households say they have home offices, and 70% with home offices have personal computers, according to the UDA Design Idea Workshop of UDA Ideal Home Plans (www.unitedesign.com)

When considering new home designs, buyers would be wise to scrutinize the floor plan for this important work space with all the criticism they use for kitchen design and living spaces. Locations for home offices can vary greatly within the new production home. Some builders offer the trade-off of formal dining room areas for den/office space as you enter the home. Others merely eliminate a closet and add double doors and built-in shelving, converting a bedroom to an office. One of the latest (and actually revived ideas) is for the home office to be separate from the house structure, quaintly referred to as a "casita", or little house, which can someday have a variety of other uses. The casita element requires a somewhat larger home site than some production neighborhoods offer, where local C.C. & R's may prohibit the construction of "outbuildings". Another area builders offer for converted office space is the third or fourth stall of the garage, creating a cavernous bonus of work area.

Depending on how sensitive and focused the type of work you plan to conduct from home will be, the home office is best located in a remote location from the main living areas of the house that create noise and foot traffic. If the office is planned for a room located near the home's entry way, you may want to consider a solid door or double doors to it, instead of the stylish French doors or cased opening you'll see in model home displays. Why? Because, unless you are Felix Unger and have perennially tidy work habits, it may not be the most beautiful view to visitors entering the home. Model home furnishers want to introduce the idea for office use for the room, but don't necessarily account for practicality in all disciplines of model home decorating.

Work with the builder's Design Center consultant or speak directly to the electronic wiring sub-contractor they use to design the placement of optional office-use wiring. Builders have become incredibly savvy in their wiring options these days, offering "structured" wiring, Category 5, ISDN, and networking for computers. Here are some other tips to consider when planning an effective home office:

1. Make a list of the office equipment (including eventual enhancements to it) that you may need. This may include Personal Computers, printers, facsimile machines, scanners, copiers, answering machines, and, of course, telephones. Some require countertop space, with other components capable of "stacking" for space saving. Some more specialized wiring even permits you to monitor a view of your front door, backyard, or a baby's room right from your home computer, with the use of closed circuit cameras.

2. If you plan to meet with clients at all, a small conference table , or worktable may be in order. If no room exists for it, some chairs or a small sofa may have to do. Figure out the furniture pieces you'll need and add them to the list. Don't forget bookshelves if you use manuals, reference books, or a collection of telephone directories, or binders.

3. Study the amount of natural light and glass the room may have. Now is the time to opt for extra recessed, or "can" lights, located in strategic work areas.

4. If you think (and who can ever know for sure) you may sell the home some- day, and the home is left with only two or three bedrooms after the use of one for an office, try to leave free the possibility of this room being converted to a bedroom. If you used any original closet space for shelving, hang on to closet doors supplied by the builder, storing them in your garage, so that you may be able to sell the home with the added marketing possibility of more bedrooms (your Realtor will love you for this). This may open up a wider pool of potential buyers when the time comes.

5. You may want to opt for any builder-optioned extra insulation in walls and ceilings, depending on the office's location in the home, for noise deadening purposes.

6. A separate, dedicated line to the office may be an important precaution, keeping your office equipment and home appliances separate from one another.

7. Seems you can never have enough cabinet, storage, and filing space in any office. Buyers may forget that they can use vertical as well as horizontal space in this room. Some new homes come with nine or even ten foot ceilings throughout parts of the house, where taller cabinets and shelving can be located. This can be done elegantly, with art pieces scattered throughout, and an occasional silk plant or two thrown in.

The home office is fast becoming one of the most sensitively planned areas of the home for many new homebuilders. Telecommuting and home-based businesses have become buzzwords to be reckoned with in well-thought out floor plans. Buyer themselves are the ones in the driver's seat, however, with their demand for elements critical to working from home now or in the future, making builders take notice. Studying your home office needs now, with a finely toothed comb, may permit you to pat yourself on the back, someday, as you wave goodbye to your neighbor, while he backs down his driveway for his ritualistic freeway grind.

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Published: July 30, 1999

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