Do you ever feel you spend too much time outside enjoying yourself? I do. While the dishes and laundry and dust are building up inside, I can usually be found outside watching the birds, fiddling with a fountain, pulling weeds, keeping track of my polliwogs and frogs, contemplating the garden, pondering my fall plantings. And…
The worst part about ordering a home-improvement item or sample online is that you know you’re going to be receiving catalogs in the mail that you may not want, even if you unclicked the send-me-unlimited-marketing-materials-from-you-and-all-your-partners-from-now-until-eternity button. And how do you stop the catalog influx once it starts? Do you call the customer no-service number and…
I guess the apartment where Carrie Bradshaw researched and wrote her columns in the "Sex and the City" television show probably did need a makeover. Several years had passed from Carrie’s life on the small screen to her promotion to the big screen, and we all need to evolve. Carrie’s guests needed to stop sitting…
I got a bunch of questions about the original ceiling and archway of the $20,000 kitchen remodel in the latest Rate This Remodel feature. So I thought I’d show the old and new compared here: What’s neat about the story, for me, is that Dani had a lot of time to think about her kitchen.…
Dear SoCal Gardeners: My mother-in-law gave me this Chinese elm tree (click photo to enlarge) and I planted it about five years ago. It’s never done that well. It grows fast but the leaves get blackened and the branches break off. The latest break took off about a third of the tree, and it looks…
If this was my house I’d be really fit, and here’s why: Every evening, I’d walk back and forth, from street to front door, over and over again, just to enjoy the sensation of this lit walkway. I’m sure this would make the folks at the International Dark Sky Association happy. After all, this is…
My entry into the world of barter — the new world order referenced above — is the result of a perfect storm consisting of (1) a broken Pottery Barn market umbrella, (2) my ridiculously fruitful avocado trees and (3) the miracle that is Craigslist. The umbrella is a delightful red and blue paisley that goes…
You don’t need to share with me the definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Been there (bought junk), done that (had it fail), still slipping into it. Specifically, I’m talking about the solar fountain I bought ignorantly and impulsively at Home Depot last October. I paid…
I really want to wean myself from impulsive purchases of junky household stuff I don’t really need and that won’t last. One strategy is getting clear on the implications of my actions. If my purchases of junky stuff help foul the earth and exploit its people, but I remain willfully ignorant of that, does it…
Suze Orman would not be happy with me. If you’ve seen her show, you’ve heard her intone: People first. Then money. Then things. My current lineup is: People first. Then tile. Then everything else. Back at the tile shop, where I picked up my free tiled tabletop in the alley behind the store, I checked…