Home Office

The Willistown Board of Supervisors has revised township law governing offices that are in homes. The board voted, 3-0, at its meeting Tuesday to adopt a new home office ordinance that permits a home office for a physician, dentist, lawyer, architect, engineer, accountant, public official, artist or tutor. Any other proposed use must be reviewed and approved by the Zoning Hearing Board. And the office must be within the dwelling unit only; not in a garage or other building. The new ordinance also stipulates: No more than one home office is permitted for each dwelling unit.

IF YOU'RE WORKING on your 2012 tax return, you probably aren't in the mood to consider changes that await you next year. Nonetheless, the IRS wants to hear from you now about something that it's going to implement this year that could affect the return you file in 2014. The agency recently announced a streamlined option for claiming a home-office deduction. You have a chance to comment on this new option, and your suggestions could help improve the change for tax year 2014 and later, the IRS says.

Wear pajamas. Kick back on a recliner during conference calls. Play with the dogs on your break. These are some of the options for the work-at-home crowd, whose growing numbers have pushed the home-office concept well beyond the kitchen table of yesteryear. More than 8 million Americans work from home, according to telecommuting trade associations, and the numbers are growing. Some say as many as 30 million full- and part-time businesses operate from home. Add to that people who do at least some work at home, and there's a whole lotta e-mailing going on. This growing market demands a more sophisticated home work space.

Remember the old television series Lost in Space? Well, until recently, Len and Ellan Bernstein were lost without space. They needed an area in their Bala Cynwyd house large enough to accommodate Ellan's full-time law practice and Len's after-hours legal work. Their two children, Mathew, 5, and Suzanne, 11 months, eventually would use the same space for homework and playing computer games. Since buying their 30-year-old, four-bedroom Colonial two years ago, "I'd been making do with an old, poorly functioning desk in the corner of a guest room," Ellan Bernstein said.

A 79-year-old Lansdowne doctor known for his civic involvement has been arrested and charged with selling prescription drugs from his home office. Lenwood Boyer Wert of the 200 block of North Lansdowne Avenue prescribed Oxycodone and other painkillers on a cash-only basis, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said. "Dr. Wert is no different than a drug dealer standing on the corner. In fact, he's worse because he's operating under the guise of a medical professional," Whelan said at a news conference to announce the arrest.

Sometimes, when guests step inside the Washington Square condominium of Gail Caskey Winkler and her husband, Roger Moss, there's a classic double-take moment. Past the typical 1960s architecture in the building's public spaces, a sudden sense of grandeur grabs you - all the way from antiquity forward. In the vestibule, a classic black-and-white patterned floor of marble and granite, rests a first-century B.C. amphora, a carrying vessel that looks its age. But on a wall nearby is an unmistakably modern steel sculpture.

Janice Drennan's alarm clock buzzes each morning at 7. She gets up, feeds the cat, makes breakfast, showers, dresses, sees her daughter to the school bus and heads to work. It's a familiar routine, one that is played out in households across the country on weekday mornings. The only difference is that Drennan's "commute" to work is just a half- dozen steps - the distance between her kitchen and the spare bedroom that she uses as an office. A Little Rock, Ark., freelance writer and graphic designer who contracts with advertising agencies, Drennan is one of an estimated 38.4 million American adults who now earn some or all of their living by working at home.

As with all great love stories, Bobbie Ann Tilkens-Fisher and Matthew Fisher found their dream home when they weren't even looking. The couple were happy living in their Northern Liberties rowhouse until they visited Bobbie's family in Wisconsin for the December 2008 holidays. Cocktails at an acquaintance's midcentury house piqued Bobbie's interest: What would it be like to live in one, and are there any in Philadelphia? Back East she went searching, eventually finding the website Modern Homes Philadelphia, run by real estate agent Craig Wakefield, which hosts listings plus resources to learn about the history and significant players behind the region's considerable inventory of midcentury homes.

For most Americans, the home office has become a necessity. However, many apparently can't afford the kinds of work space they want or need. "Cost does seem to be an overwhelming issue," said Charles Ansert, vice president of Spector Development Co. in Swedesboro, "especially when you consider that many people are working at home just to pay the mortgage. " According to a 1997 study by Emerging Technologies Research Group in Washington, 52 million Americans work at home in some capacity, and more than 11 million telecommute from a home office at least one day per month.

Linda Sayre's office used to be her dining room table. She's expanded, branched out to accommodate her growing client list. Now she works from the dining room table and a roll-top desk. "Before, I had an organized mess," explains the Doylestown loan officer. "As long as nobody touched the piles of papers, I'd find things. I had a sort of mental picture of where everything was. Somewhere along the line, I lost the picture. " But she found Linda Anderson's 2-by-3-inch business card in a copy and resume store in Doylestown.

A 79-year-old Lansdowne doctor known for his civic involvement has been arrested and charged with selling prescription drugs from his home office. Lenwood Boyer Wert of the 200 block of North Lansdowne Avenue prescribed Oxycodone and other painkillers on a cash-only basis, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said. "Dr. Wert is no different than a drug dealer standing on the corner. In fact, he's worse because he's operating under the guise of a medical professional," Whelan said at a news conference to announce the arrest.

IF YOU'RE WORKING on your 2012 tax return, you probably aren't in the mood to consider changes that await you next year. Nonetheless, the IRS wants to hear from you now about something that it's going to implement this year that could affect the return you file in 2014. The agency recently announced a streamlined option for claiming a home-office deduction. You have a chance to comment on this new option, and your suggestions could help improve the change for tax year 2014 and later, the IRS says.

Sometimes, when guests step inside the Washington Square condominium of Gail Caskey Winkler and her husband, Roger Moss, there's a classic double-take moment. Past the typical 1960s architecture in the building's public spaces, a sudden sense of grandeur grabs you - all the way from antiquity forward. In the vestibule, a classic black-and-white patterned floor of marble and granite, rests a first-century B.C. amphora, a carrying vessel that looks its age. But on a wall nearby is an unmistakably modern steel sculpture.

When did fact checking get so sexy? I arrived home the other night to catch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert going on about the rising class of sharpshooters who aim to separate substance from spin. The factcheckstapo, Colbert called them, as he dismissed those who balked at a few things Paul Ryan told the GOP convention in Tampa. Stewart, for his part, accused the entire Fourth Estate of falling down on the essential job. "When did fact checking and journalism go their separate ways?"

Working from home sounds like a great idea. But is it? Home- and mobile-office life may have advantages, but perhaps not for everyone. See if it could work for you. Pick the right occupation. This 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Labor said 12 percent of all workers were working at home on an average day. The percentage rose to 20 percent for occupations in computer and mathematical sciences, 34 percent for the self-employed, and a whopping 55 percent for occupations in the arts, design, entertainment, sports and media.

Francis R. Coyne, 80, a lawyer and former executive at what is now the Magee Rehabilitation unit of Jefferson Health Systems, died Friday, May 25, of kidney failure at his home in Drexel Hill. Mr. Coyne was executive vice president at Magee from 1978 to 1992, chief operating officer there from 1980 to 1992, and director of development from 1990 to 1992, his son Francis R. Jr. said in a Tuesday phone interview. "He was an advocate of patients' rights and the Americans With Disabilities Act," his son said.

The e-mail arrived in the late afternoon of March 30. The subject line read: INVITATION. It looked like spam and I was about to delete it, but something caught my eye in the preview window. A seal of some sort. The White House. Like any registered voter, I receive e-mails all the time from Barack, Michelle, Joe, and Jill. This was different. I wasn't being asked to donate or host a gathering in my home. I was invited to their home, for a signing of the JOBS Act. I reacted in a manner consistent with the maturity and grace I have cultivated in my 43 years of life.

As with all great love stories, Bobbie Ann Tilkens-Fisher and Matthew Fisher found their dream home when they weren't even looking. The couple were happy living in their Northern Liberties rowhouse until they visited Bobbie's family in Wisconsin for the December 2008 holidays. Cocktails at an acquaintance's midcentury house piqued Bobbie's interest: What would it be like to live in one, and are there any in Philadelphia? Back East she went searching, eventually finding the website Modern Homes Philadelphia, run by real estate agent Craig Wakefield, which hosts listings plus resources to learn about the history and significant players behind the region's considerable inventory of midcentury homes.

Philadelphia Police Department Internal Affairs investigators served a search warrant Wednesday morning at the home of a city officer alleged to have stolen firearms parts from the department. Investigators found 51 firearms in Anthony Magsam's home, but a preliminary check of the serial numbers did not match any guns missing from the department Firearms Identification Unit, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said. The rifles and handguns were taken as part of the investigation of what happened in the unit, Ramsey said.

Remember when the "experts" said that most Americans would telecommute from home offices to work every day? Hasn't happened, although ever-evolving technology has made the notion more viable. Think laptops, netbooks, printers, smartphones, and tablets, networked through a wireless router to a high-speed Internet connection. Thanks to wireless technology, you don't even need a physical home office - although if you are counting on an income-tax deduction, the IRS requires that space be dedicated to that purpose.