It's nice. But I think you're techy, like me. So I'm sure like me you already know the pros, and that's why you've gone that route thus far.
So forgive me, but I'll only point out the cons, since I'm sure that's all you need to hear at this point.
It's small, and as more and more folks jump on it, it'll be harder to follow the threads and read what just scrolled past. I could see 3 or 4 youngsters chatting so fast that the older slower parents, like me, might not find it that useful on busy chat days.
2nd, running on the same server could be detrimental to the resources of that machines processor and memory. I've seen similar sites using vbulletin that incorporated chat, and as the membership grew, so did the chatters, and the servers performance suffered.
3rd, Because of it residing on the main page, it can't get too large in size, so that limits the options such as different chat rooms, etc. Maybe you can have one main room on the front page, and links to "more rooms" that takes you to other pages. Maybe the front page can be the "foyer" and the other areas on a separate page/server.
If you need server hardware, let me know. I can probably donate some items to you. If you use hosting, that's irrelevant, but if you have your own idf/server room, I can get you some hardware.
JB