"Make a decision and the rest will follow" goes a Chinese proverb I once read and perhaps never was that more poignant in my home improvement life than when I faced a daunting bathroom remodel. The house, mine, a centegenarian American 4-Square. The situation, a bedroom converted to a bathroom (when plumbing was brought inside, the story goes) then hit like a freight train by the worst conceivable taste from ...

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One of my favorite magazines is The Week. It's kind of like Time or Newsweek, but way more informative and entertaining. It aggregates news from all over the world into one 50-page glossy package, complete with a crossword puzzle, celebrity news and a feature called "Best Properties on the Market." Often, these homes are multimillion-dollar palaces, though the editors often include a "steal of the week" in the $300,000 price ...

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On Sept. 26, I toured five homes as part of an "eco home tour" organized annually in my Colorado hometown. There were 14 homes on the tour, divided almost equally between new construction and remodels. As someone interested in old house renovation, I focused on remodels and visited homes built in 1928, 1955 and 1979. And, as I do each year, I began the tour with an expectation of being ...

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