So I’m sitting here watching HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with Larry David, one of my many guilty pleasures, and Larry is in one of his typical fixes. He’s offered to let the residents of a battered women’s shelter use his washer and dryer when theirs has gone on the fritz. Of course, if you know…
When Kristina Johnson and David Franke remodeled their California kitchen and laundry room, they did a surprising thing: left the door off the laundry room. Of course, I had a question about that missing door: “Why?” You might have to love appliances as much as Kristina and Dave do to understand the reasoning: The high-end,…
Before we start generating energy onsite with solar panels and geothermal, we should cut down on any needless uses of energy in our homes. That way, we'll need fewer solar panels to give us all the energy our homes need. But we are mostly in the dark (pun intended) when it comes to energy use.…
This is one of the best budget kitchen remodels I’ve seen. While you can see a dramatic change from before (bottom) and after (top), notice that the cabinets are the same, the window is in the same place, all the appliances are in the same locations and the floor and ceiling are the same. So…
With a hurricane on the way, you have a long list of things you wish you’d done earlier. They include: • Installed some kind of shutters or hurricane-resistant windows • Bought a generator to avoid the long lines at Home Depot or Lowe’s • Bought a small air conditioner and small refrigerator to run off…
What is the most critical, dangerous, life-threatening problem of our time? Carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Everything else — political discord, economic downturns, loss of freedoms — can be changed fairly quickly. But once those greenhouse gases become trapped in the atmosphere, they will be there for a long, long, long time. And…
Here’s an embarrassing situation: Your air conditioner stops working so you call out the repair company. When they arrive, they’re puzzled to see a bare concrete slab where your air conditioner used to be. Your AC has been stolen. This happens and not infrequently, unfortunately. Thieves can sell the copper in an AC unit for…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product. Name of Product: Box fans Units: About 4.8…
Outside of Charlotte, N.C., Judy Hammill moved back to the farmhouse where she grew up and that her own father built. But the kitchen was dated and would not work as Judy settled into retirement and got older. She won a makeover from AARP and an aging-in-place specialist to make the kitchen accessible. The new…
If you can’t sell your parent’s former home, why not turn it into a showcase for green remodeling? That’s exactly what Jay DeChesere and his wife did with a ranch style home in Wilmington, N.C. that his parents moved out of and into an assisted living facility. You could say the collapse of the housing…