Is there such a thing of temp. colomuns to install in your home? I'd like to give the entrance living room an "pop of a greeting look" I am thinking that temp coloumns will do the trick. I am leasing the home currently so I do not want to install anything perm. until I purchase it

Anything you put in a home that is temporary will look just like that.

If your leasing/renting. Do as little as you can until you are under a purchase agreement.

Its not your home, any work you do will oftentimes become the landlords property.

I operate a home based business as well & I was told that anything I do for the benefit of the business will be a tax deductible item - including landscaping & such ...

Again your asking professional trades people about tax issues. While we could respond to this its best left to the person that knows your own business and tax issues.

But what I do know, is that your limited to a % of what you spend. Talk with your tax preparer.

Personally, I think fake columns would look nearly as chintzy as bad spelling, unless, of course, you plan to hand out cheap bedding at the door and call it a toga party. But here are a couple of options.

http://www.wishihadthat.com/decorative-columns.aspx

http://www.royalcorinthiansales.com/columns.html

Bog,

Your signature doesn't say where you are, but in TX at least, anything you do to improve a property belongs to the owner, So Home Care is correct--don't do anything to this home you don't want to leave behind for the landlord should you decide to relocate rather than purchase.

As to your home based biz and deductions, I would get a 2nd opinion--Home Care is right on that one, our custom design/build firm is based out of our home, and the decution rate is approximately 5% and is a pain in the rear to calculate, it is better to use depreciables, etc. and the Feds don't make this area easy--they pretty often flag home-based businesses for audit if you try to claim everything as "for the business"--long way of saying if you take this advisor's advice, you could be in for a few years' worth of scrutiny by 'Big Brother'.... using your example of landscaping, aobut the only way I know you could use this for a deduction at the 5% of cost rate is if you are a landscape company, and the area you are speaking of is an 'outdoor showroom' for potential clients.