As you may know, Brad Pitt helped create the Make It Right Foundation, which has the goal of building 150 new homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The area was decimated when the defective walls of the Industrial Canal gave way after Hurricane Katrina blew past, making the destruction part of the…
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.…
First off, I’m addicted to House Hunters on HGTV. Well, I was addicted. Then I started looking into some allegations on the Internet that the show is really quite phony. For instance, some say the clients have already closed escrow on a house and the other two houses they are trying to choose from are…
I’m enthralled with this small kitchen, which I saw in an article by kitchen designer Susan Serra, author of The Kitchen Designer. What’s so appealing here? The antique wood floors are most beautiful. Susan points out that the direction the boards run, along the length of the kitchen, rather than the width, draws your eye…
In 2008, I posed this question in a poll: Is contemporary style on its way out? My theory was that hard economic times would propel people into the comfort of traditional styles. I used this June 2008 photo from Architectural Digest to illustrate the shift. Notice the farm style table and warm floors to balance…
As you may know, Brad Pitt helped create the Make It Right Foundation, which has the goal of building 150 new homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The area was decimated when the defective walls of the Industrial Canal gave way after Hurricane Katrina blew past, making the destruction part of the…
The Earth Advantage Institute has given this matter a lot of thought, and here are what it considers the Top 10 green building trends for 2010 (stop me if you’ve heard these before): 1. The smart grid and connected home. 2. Energy labeling for homes and office buildings. 3. Building information modeling (BIM) software. 4.…
When I visited Arnie and Lily Richards at home in Downey, California, they were naturally proud of the new dining room they added, and the adjacent kitchen they remodeled. You can see it here and it’s nice, isn’t it? And the couple did every single thing themselves, with their own hands — demolition (friends helped…
I’m enthralled with this 435-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village, N.Y. It has only one window, in the living room, yet the space feels light and open. What you see here is the living room from each end, with the kitchen on one side, and the bedroom on the other side through glass doors. (Click photo…
The New York Times had a pretty good concept for a series: Remake five rooms around the city for $300 each. In these times of job losses and declining prosperity, $300 is still a lot of money but not too much. In a living room on Long Island, $250 of the budget was eaten up…