Home Improvement is a big deal! If you’re like most homeowners, your home is your single biggest investment. As a steward of your home’s health and value, you are responsible for making smart, informed choices that will maintain and ultimately increase its worth – in addition to making you and your family happy!
Please follow our home improvement adventures and maybe pick up some useful information that will help you navigate yours.
- Preparing for SpringThe weather shifts weekly, even daily, it seems. Only a few weeks ago, Mother Nature showcased no less than three seasons all in less than seven days – put together. …
- How-To: Hazardous Household Waste Disposal (aka Paint!)Information on how to dispose of hazardous household waste or toxic substances, like household paint, should be very easy to find. I recently set out to help a real estate …
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- Trees Do FallI love love love trees. In fact, when people talk about being “an ocean person” or “a mountain person”, my answer is “I am a tree person.” So I, like …
- Modernizing the Present by Honoring the PastOriginally published in the 2020 Matters Magazine, Home & Hearth Edition. Insights from local professionals on doing right by our homes. Every home has a story. And around South Orange …
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- Home Renovation COVID-19 Edition: How the Pandemic Shifted My PrioritiesWaaaay back in March (can you remember what life was like back then?) I was scheduled to kick off a relatively small scale kitchen renovation over here on Oakview Avenue …
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- Considering Our Homes from QuarantineMere months ago it was rare for the majority of us to spend 24 hours a day hunkered down in our homes. Prior to COVID-19, our houses acted more like …
- Torrential Rainstorm, Flooded Basement & Burned Out Sump PumpThe last week of March brought torrential rain to Maplewood, NJ, so much rain in fact, that at one point on Saturday, our one sump pump burned out. Earlier in …
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- Urbanites in the Suburbs Find Your Green ThumbHaving lived my life in cities with no outdoor space to speak of, an ample backyard in the suburbs presented an unfamiliar yet intriguing canvas.
- Nureed Saeed, Interior Design Outside the LinesA look inside the beautiful, fully reimagined mid-century modern home of Nureed Saeed, one of the top interior designers in New Jersey.
- How to Hire Contractor Part Two: How to Plan for a Home RenovationDave Kasdan talks about the key factors that all contractors need to understand to manage and successfully complete a project.
- How to Hire a Contractor Part One: Ready for Your Kitchen Remodel?Nicole Sinclair, a project-manager-turned-home-renovator, discusses the highs and lows of home renovation.
- A Menagerie of Curiosities Finds a Home in New JerseyA Collection of Natural Curiosities, Textiles, and Victorian-esque Oddities That Wes Anderson Would Adore. Margot Tenenbaum greeted me at the door, as she so often does when I visit, and …
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- Understanding Steam Heat. Simple.Many homes in South Orange and Maplewood, NJ use steam heat, an outdated but very comfortable heat source is simple to understand, but requires routine attention for proper operation. Steam …
- How to Hunt for Flea Market FindsI have two gallery walls in the parlor of 139 Maplewood Avenue. I often get asked where I found the art that created them. They are nothing fancy, in most cases, …
- Successful Landscape Design is Child’s PlayWhen Carla approached me to write about landscape design, I was unsure of an approach. I could discuss Aesthetics, Function, Feel, Grading and Drainage, Privacy, Lighting, Water, Trees/shrubs/Perennials, Native Plants, …
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- A Bird Nest in a Tree? Yes! In the Attic? Not So MuchFor two years, we’ve lived in our Victorian with her sharp angles, steeply pitched roof, and openings so small that only a tiny house sparrow could fly in. In each of those …
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- Building a Garage in Maplewood NJBuying a home doesn’t usually involve building a garage. And building a garage is no small feat. It takes planning and hiring the right people to see that it gets …
- It’s Not Just a Finished Basement, It’s a Lower LevelDon’t just create a finished basement, create a lower level that discovers new, livable space and increases the value of your home at the same time. “What do you mean …
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