May 2010: Real Estate

 With interest rates still at a historic low, some homeowners may consider refinancing from a standard 30-year fixed rate mortgage to a 15-year mortgage. Nationally, it seems a lot of folks are doing just that—the Mortgage Bankers Association says that one in four refinance applications in March was for a 15-year loan, up from 12.2 […]

May 2010: Rental Rescue

My mother always told me your hardware is like jewelry for your cabinetry and furniture. And this is from a woman who wouldn’t think about entertaining guests without her best pearls. As always, Mom is right. Your choice of hardware (knobs, pulls, handles) can really dress up your cabinetry, update your space, and create that […]

May 2010: Toolbox

The wrench is a crucial implement in your bag of D.I.Y. tricks. It’s what you’ll need for gripping and applying torque to objects that need to be turned, fastened or tightened such as nuts and bolts. As with most tools, there are many different kinds of wrenches designed for specific jobs, but I’m here to […]

May 2010: Designing woman [with video!]

“When I got here,” says Jeannine Lalonde of the Walker Square condo she began renting in 2005, “there was one guy upstairs, and the next door neighbor moved in the same weekend. It was my first time living in new construction; it was a ghost town.” She kept waiting to meet people, but even power […]

Local lens on Mexican carnies

Imagine a world without carnivals—no spinning cup rides. No funnel cake. No stuffed animal prizes. Hot on the heels of two documentaries about Charlottesville, a pair of local filmmakers, Miguel Martinez and Jamie Sisley, turns the camera on another place entirely: Tlapacoyan, Veracruz, a struggling Mexican city of 78,000 that provides 30 percent of carnival […]

Give a dog a home

 It’s a dog eat dog world, folks. Hot dogs, that is. And while the hot dog cart is a growing trend—as Restaurantarama touched on last week—one local chef is bringing the craze back indoors. The Downtown Hotdog Company will move in to York Place at the end of this month. The goal? To “give the […]

Moscato d'Asti is springtime in a glass

 Ah, spring. Birds are chirping, people are smiling, the world is alive again. And, after more than 60 inches of snow this winter, we seem to be taking the allergies, stink bugs, and re-mulching in stride. No sooner do the first daffodils peek through the barren earth than do I raise a glass to the […]

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts breaks its cocoon

 When I-64 dumps Charlottesvillians in the heart of Richmond, and they see the stoplights, the long, flat stretches of pocked roads and chain restaurants they’ve never heard of, one thing usually comes to mind: I should have stayed in Charlottesville. But if there’s any reason to weather the task of getting to Richmond, it’s the […]

All hopped up

Brewmaster Jason Oliver thinks his recent win at the 2010 World Beer Cup is “pretty cool,” but Restaurantarama suspects he’s being a bit modest