I am an adult who was homeschooled almost fifty (egad!) years ago and I think that it would be best to have a separated area for the home school activities. I like the idea of French doors (maybe even Dutch style French doors - does that make them Flemish doors?? - so they could contain the dogs on the lower part but still be opened on top) to set the space apart visually and functionally, even if you leave them open a lot of the time. Although you presently use the room for FR-type activities you may find your kids take a more workman-like approach if the room function is dedicated more to schooling. I think I see a VCR/cable box so I was wondering if you also use the space for after-hours TV viewing. That would be a huge temptation, I think. One of the things that is important for homeschooling is to have some demarcation between your time spent supervising home school and your time spent strictly as a parent. Otherwise it can get very intense. So using spatial cues to reinforce the distinction may help. I know when we had a separate school room for home school it was better and when we homeschooled in the sitting room and dining room it was hard to not have one activity spill into the other. It was much better to have a designated school room where we settled down to work and could also leave things set up on desks and tables for the next session. I'd also vote for putting your desk in there, no matter how functional it looks. That will give you something to do when you kids are working and at the same time they can watch and model your approach to paperwork. Your kids' artwork and maps and posters and natural history specimens will make handsome and stimulating wall decorations. Plus, I'd add a big white board so you could use that space collaboratively to work on problems. Molly

I have ordered from Saatchi Art, a small (4"x12") mixed media piece (collage, paint, pencil). I had to split payment between a Visa gift card and a credit card, which I couldn't do through their website, so I had to go through customer service, and they were great. Really, really helpful. I did not, however, use their art advisory service (didn't feel I needed it; I was happy to browse and their filters let me focus on my price range). When the piece came it was well packaged and looked as expected based on the online pics. I was very happy.

After we removed the too-big area rug, we really considered not having one at all. I think because of the somewhat odd entry/family room function of this comfortable-but-not-big space it created strange visual and walking spaces in the room. Our house is flipped, so the main living areas (kitchen, dining, office, living room, bedrooms) are all upstairs.

Pictures?