-
Beware the 4 most expensive words in home remodeling | Entertainment/Life
Once again, even though I know better, those four little words, often uttered in the throes of a home remodel, got me: As long as we’re, remodeling the kitchen, let’s update the guest bathroom! Yeep! That innocuous little phrase, as long as we’re, and its falsely implied convenience, also masquerades as the equally dangerous (and expensive) four words: While we’re at it. … After these humble phrases often come the words why don’t we, or we should, or let’s. Next thing you know, your whole house is torn apart. My husband and I were in the process of remodeling our kitchen and had picked new stone for the counters. If…
-
What does your home say about you? This designer explains, and offers some pointers on building your look | Entertainment/Life
Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of designers, and have often asked them this same question: What makes you cringe when you walk into someone’s home? While I expect them to say something like bad taste, too much clutter, no sense of proportion, universally, their answer is this: Lack of personality. Whether we like it or not, our homes say a lot about us. Even those cringeworthy homes void of personality send a message. They say the dwellers are too timid, too busy, too boring, don’t care, or all the above. Surely that’s not you or you wouldn’t be reading a home design column. Ideally, the goal is for…
-
Which home improvements bring the best returns? Here’s a look at some factors to think about | Entertainment/Life
CRASH! THUNK! BOOM! The loud clamor jolts me out of my patio chair, where I am trying to write this column. The dogs startle from their naps. “Did you hear that!?” their expressions ask. “I know it sounds like 25 cars and a locomotive slamming into a block wall,” I reassure them, “but it’s just the roofers next door.” We settle back down. A few minutes later, KABOOM! We jump. This scene repeats all morning as the hardworking roofers detach old clay roof tiles and shove them by mounds into a dumpster 15 feet below. It is not peaceful. However, according to a report that is literally in my hand,…
