"You don't know what you got till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." -- Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi. Okay, so it's not exactly paving paradise per se, but a developer in Sioux Falls, S.D. is planning to demolish a 129-year-old gothic-style mansion in the city's cathedral district to make way for a used car lot, according to a story reported on KELO TV. The home was ...

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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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