Better bathrooms Taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth—conserving water doesn’t require gadgetry, but eco-minded technology  can save you both money and resources. According to the EPA, toilets account for nearly 30 percent of residential indoor water consumption, and a leaky toilet can be a major source of wasted water. Does […]

Chair fair A really well-chosen stuffed chair can be nearly as important as your bed: It’s the place where you spend the last hours of the evening, reading, swirling a snifter, or pontificating to your dog in total comfort. Here are our favorites from local stores.   Patterned Pearson wing chair from The Second Yard, […]

The flowers of fall Like a dusty hen rustling down onto her nest, trees, shrubs and perennials are settling into fall. Many are going dormant early, yellowing and shedding leaves. This is a natural defensive process (don’t we all shrivel a bit when abundance is not forthcoming?), allowing them to conserve as much energy as […]

Preserving warmth for winter Summertime swaddles September in sunshine, goldenrod and a dappling of apples, but October edges into autumn, with cooler nights and crystal clear days that are perfect for “working” outdoors. With an average last frost date of October 15, in Central Virginia this is the time to harvest and preserve the last […]

Front porch blues A front porch is a wonderful piece of civilization, but not if it threatens to dump guests onto the ground when the framing underneath it finally gives way. This was the unpleasant prospect that drove us to renovate our little veranda. What drove us to do it on a sub-freezing January weekend, […]

All good things come in threes. The Dixie Chicks, tennis balls, SweetTarts, and this month’s project: decorative mirrors. Of course, you wouldn’t have to make only three of these. We have visions of filling up an entire wall with them, each covered in a different pattern. And, for less than $3 each (what’d we tell […]

Saws, y’all!   You know you’re a true DIYer when you’re ready to move on from mere paintbrushes, hammers and screwdrivers to the really fun stuff: power tools. One power player that you’ll need for doing serious business such as cutting into plaster, drywall, wood and metal is the hand-held electric reciprocating saw, commonly referred […]

The Albemarle home of Rob Capon looks perfectly ordinary—until you notice the 30-foot radio antenna in the backyard. Together with the small astronomical observatory on the other side of the house, the antenna is a clear sign that someone of a technical bent lives here. And inside the house is another giveaway: an entire room […]

Energy info coming in your mail, online   Doug Lowe, left, and Scott Elliff show off insulation added to an attic panel in a public building at Forest Lakes. Remember the Buy Fresh, Buy Local guides that have shown up in area mailboxes the last few years? This fall, the Piedmont Environmental Council, which produces […]

  The one decor book to buy Standing tall at 464 pages, House Beautiful’s The Home Book is a big, hefty beauty full of practical advice suitable for both newbies and old hand home professionals. Jargon gets translated, designers consulted and quoted, and color broken down into paint swatches and playfully pinned fabric squares. With […]