Thanks for the suggestions and advice folks. I knew you would steer me right.
I’ve actually thought about it a bit more and decided to go another route.
With 5 macs in the house, and only 4 family members, it makes sense to take the extra Mac in the kitchen, beef up its hard drive, and use it as a backup/music server. I know enough about OS X to be confident that I can make it work. And I already have Chronosync so should be able to set up a regular backup schedule that works.
Thanks again.
S