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American Morning

Home Office Becoming The New Family Room

Aired January 02, 2002 - 09:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: As we look to new trends for the coming year, check this one out. Move over family room and so long kitchen. You know, it seems the home office is the one place that families like to hang out, nowadays.

Bridget Naso of our affiliate station KUSI in San Diego has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIDGET NASO, CNN AFFILIATE CORRESPONDENT, KUSI (voice-over): Remember when the kitchen used to be a gathering place for families? Well, today, families are spending time together in the home office.

SCOTT CORLIT, PART-TIME TELECOMMUTER: We spend all our time in here. We spend very little time in the living room or the family room.

NASO: The Corlits are not alone. According to studies, half of the homes in the U.S. have a home office.

CORLIT: The great thing about this environment is that, s opposed to sitting in front of the television and trying to get work done, everybody else is distracted with computers too. So everybody is getting work done. And whether they're studying or whether they're playing, it's a good environment for me to get a lot of work done.

NASO: With more kid-friendly web sites and educational games, the office does tend to get a little crowded. Phil Jennings is a home office designer.

PHIL JENNINGS, NEXT DESIGN TEAM: We want to be able to work and spread things out. But we want to do it in an organized way. In other words, paper and clutter, that works in an office because you leave the office. But you really never leave your home.

NASO (on camera): These days you'd be hard pressed to find a new home being built that isn't completely hard-wired. Apparently builders have seen the statistics, that by 2005 nearly 70 percent of all Americans will be on the Internet. Here in San Diego, we're ahead of the curve.

(voice-over): San Aleo Hills in San Marcus picked up on the trend. They've built the infrastructure for high speed Internet all the way to the curb. And Standard Pacific Homes hired Jennings to design their home offices.

JENNINGS: We've provided slots, filing, storage, organization, bins like this for CDs and other, you know, school supplies.

NASO: Clean and organized but room for a personal touch. Something this family appreciates as part of the growing number of part-time telecommuters.

CORLIT: I had a small desk that was somewhat cluttered.

NASO: Home office guru Phil Jennings gave their office an update.

CORLIT: What was amazing was that we were able to sit down and design every component and every feature of this office.

NASO: So now it's an office the whole family can enjoy.

Bridget Naso, KUSI News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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