Home Office

From the driveway, the house is reminiscent of an 18th-century country manor, something from a guidebook to the great homes of Britain. Classical columns mark the main entrance to this grand residence. To one side is a stable yard. In the rear are a formal patio and gardens. And all of it is surrounded by woods. But this estate is in Middletown Township, not Britain. And while the exterior has the look of the 1700s, the interior - with an entertainment area, a conference center, family living space, a swimming pool and an exercise room - is decidedly contemporary.

After more than 51/2 hours of deliberations Wednesday, a Chester County court jury convicted a Strafford man of running a narcotics mill from his Tredyffrin Township home office. Richard A. Brown, 67, was found guilty of all 16 counts of illicit drug sales by the jury of seven men and five women. Brown, who has battled the joint prosecution by the offices of the state attorney general and the Chester County district attorney for 31/2 years, watched without showing any emotion as the verdict was read.

Among the 1,500 entrants in Home Office Computing magazine's "Most Disorganized Home Office" contest was a man who wrote that he couldn't send in a photograph, as required by the rules, because his camera was lost in the mess on his desk. He drew a picture instead. Two entrants submitted their entries on toilet paper, claiming it was the only clean paper they could find. Two others said their wives had threatened divorce if they didn't get organized, and another said his wife had already split for that reason.

In an important case for large numbers of taxpayers who work part time at home, the Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide when the expenses of home offices may be deducted on federal income tax returns. A worried Internal Revenue Service is protesting recent rulings that allowed such deductions even for taxpayers who spend most of their working time outside their homes. Those decisions, the IRS told the justices, "have vastly expanded the class of taxpayers eligible to claim a deduction for home-office expenses.

The best part of starting an office at home isn't the commuting time saved or the freedom to be your own boss. The best part is filling your electronic cottage with all the latest high-tech gadgets. To a large extent, the burgeoning home office phenomenon exists because of the emergence of powerful and affordable electronic office equipment. With the right tools, you can do virtually anything in your bedroom or den that you used to do in a skyscraper. COMPUTERS, TYPEWRITERS AND WORD PROCESSORS.

HARRISBURG ? Federal agents this morning raided the home and district office of Sen. Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow (D., Lackawanna), federal authorities have confirmed. It is unclear what time the raid occurred and what was taken from the two locations. FBI special agent Frank Burton Jr. would say only: "Based on an ongoing joint federal investigation into alleged illegal activities of Sen. Robert Mellow, those search warrants were executed this morning. " Mellow could not be reached for immediate comment.

A proposed zoning change in Washington Township may make it easier for doctors, lawyers and other professionals to open offices in their own houses. At the same time, officials said, the new zoning designation would prohibit subsequent owners of a property from converting it to an unintended use. During a recent meeting, the Washington Township Planning Board adopted the new O-1 zoning category and assigned it to 19 parcels of land, which previously were designated either highway commercial or residential.

Schools Superintendent Constance E. Clayton has been given round-the-clock protection after receiving about a dozen telephone calls last week that police described as "harassment. " The Police Department has assigned two detectives to Clayton when she makes public appearances, and School District security officers have been watching her home at night as a result of the phone calls. District officials had little to say about the calls. Police said one was made to Clayton's Mount Airy home, while others were made to her office.

The Gizmo: Siemens Gigaset 2420 Ghz Cordless Communication System. $399 for two-line desk station with integrated answering machine and speaker phone, plus one cordless handset with charging unit. Additional cordless handsets are $129 and chargers are $19.95. Why we care: There's never been a home and home-office phone system as versatile and easy to install as Siemens Gigaset 2420. One base station can work with up to eight cordless handsets - sharing two phone lines (and separate answering machine files)

Names can be deceiving. Just ask Rich Holmes of Aston. Eight years ago, Holmes took over a rent-a-car franchise in Media with three employees and 10 cars, mostly compacts and subcompacts 10 years and older. Since then, he has increased his staff to 10 employees and his fleet to 70 vehicles - sedans, minivans and trucks large enough to move a five-bedroom home. He operates Rent-A-Wreck at 120 E. Baltimore Pike. "We did a tremendous amount of advertising - radio, cable, newspapers, Yellow Pages and fliers - to build up the business," Holmes said.