August 2010: Green Scene

  Lock it up   “Easier to put together than IKEA,” proclaims the website for Ecolok Furniture. Actually, there’s a lot more to like about this company than the guarantee of a quick assembly. Ecolok furniture is shipped flat, saving space and increasing its portability. There are no nails, tools, fasteners, hot-glue guns, or duct […]

Emma Rathbone greets first novel with jitters and hope

 Emma Rathbone won’t allow herself to fall into the wormholes of expectant authorhood. She won’t refresh her book’s Amazon page to check whether its bestseller rank has changed (steady at #219,146), read too much into whether it’s a hard- or softcover release (soft), or check to see if new reviews have popped up on the […]

August 2010: Stuff We Love

  Color us smitten Something about red roof, yellow house always makes us look twice. In the case of this Locust Grove head-turner, we keep on looking because of the classic proportions, inviting ground-level porch and snazzy black shutters. Looks well-loved, and with good reason.                     […]

August 2010: Your Kitchen

  According to the Ball Blue Book 1974 edition, there are four general classes of pickle—brined, fresh-pack, relishes, and fruit pickles. Fruit pickles often consist of whole fruits (pears, peaches, and watermelon rind, for instance) that are simmered in a spiced, sweetened syrup and stored in the same. Relishes are chopped, seasoned, and cooked vegetables […]

August 2010: Your Kids

Problem: Designing a bug-free, fresh air play space “We feel really strongly about our kids being outside as much as possible,” says Whitney Morrill, mom of two and architect, owner and founder of design firm Woollerton Edifice PLLC. “But we needed to give them a sanctuary from Charlottesville’s heat and mosquito mafia.”   Particularly between […]

August 2010: Modernism comes of age

“The shade of Jefferson broods over Charlottesville. Misunderstood, embalmed by little minds in static thought, the revolutionist must turn forever in an angry grave. The grandeur of his University looks down at sycophants who ape his cornices at puny scale…and strive forever to repeat the form without the soul. To follow in his footsteps means […]

August 2010: Real Estate

 If you’re like a lot of homeowners these days, you’d probably love to go green. Energy efficiency retrofits, high-efficiency furnaces and solar panels are home improvements that can save thousands and thousands of dollars in energy bills over the years. But high upfront costs have so far kept many folks from adopting practical energy saving […]

August 2010: Rental Rescue

 There’s nothing like watching an episode of “Hoarders” to make you feel buried alive, boxed in, and like a slave to your own possessions and space. Cut to me in my front yard with a change box, half of my belongings covered with sale tags, and a poster reading “Everything Must Go.”    In all […]