Time for Spring cleaning
You won’t find a calendar date designated as “Spring Cleaning Day.” There’s no need for that. You will know when it’s time. It’s usually that first warm, sunny bright spring morning that makes it perfectly clear that it’s time to open the windows, tear into those closets, pull up the rugs, and start cleaning. The...
DIY home project to save energy
Cutting back unnecessary energy use is an easy way to keep your hard-earned money in your pocket. Here are some suggestions you can do at home at absolutely no cost to you. Let the sunshine in. Open drapes and let the sun heat your home for free (get them closed again at sundown so they...
Goodbye, damp basement … Hello, clean air!
That dark splotch creeping along the basement wall or the bathroom tiles keeps coming back, worse than ever, when you thought you’d wiped it all away. It’s mold, millions of spores that feed on moisture, hibernate, return and eventually pollute the air you breathe. It’s nasty, it’s frustrating, it can make your downstairs playroom smell...
Green Energy Systems
According to builder Stewart Lade, the majority of houses built before 1990 in Fairfield County have energy and moisture problems: mold, leaky roof, inefficient heating systems, water in the basement, inadequate insulation, rotting trim, loose siding, chimney air leakage. The older the home, the more problems. These houses are not tear-downs, they are being lived...
Great soil, great veggies
Prepare yourself to look at cantaloupe rinds, potato peelings and used teabags in a totally new way. At a recent workshop on Composting and Wormy Culture at Millstone Farm, master composters Alexis Wilcox and Dana Rozanski gave an entire course in four fascinating hours, from how to make low-cost compost bins to the creation of...
‘Coyote at the Kitchen Door’
Mountain lions in Greenwich? Puppies snatched by coyotes? Moose crossing the road? What’s going on? Animals used to having their own wilderness homes and lots of space are wandering into suburbia, scrounging for food, viewing human beings and their pets as life support and scaring many of them to death. Dr. Stephen DeStefano, research wildlife...
Go or glow!
Reality television shows, such as “Hoarders,” have recently shed a negative light on people who have a difficult time throwing anything away, to the point that they’re living in squalor. The clutter has overtaken their entire lives. Offering a more compassionate and understanding response, Black Rock’s Betsy Krobot, a professional organizer, specializes in helping people...
Embrace your computer with PsiHome as your guide
When Joe Saponare enters his Norwalk condominium, the lights are already turned on. He is welcomed home with a warm greeting that tells him what time it is, the weather, how many messages he has and what his schedule is like for the rest of the day. If he arrives home at noon, it will...
You never forget your first house … But maybe you should
The tree peonies are still there, hidden by weeds, and I think I see a glimpse of the bird bath that I bought before I knew anything about birds. But what was once my garden, tenderly cared for, revised so many times from flowers to vegetables and back again, looked abandoned, as if the people...
Kitchens & Baths
Back in the “good old days” of the booming real-estate market, Realtors often touted kitchen and bath renovations, sometimes major, as important selling points for a home. But with the downturn in home values of the past few years, the advice has changed. “If you want to make improvements to your kitchen and baths to...
