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On stimulus handouts and bargain-seeking brides
3 commentsSome builders argue with Marc Rosenbaum when he reports the results of a blower-door test. He tells them the air changes per hour at 50 pascals, and they roll their eyes and say...
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Is the LEED program a fraud?
11 commentsThe LEED rating system is “a tragedy,” according to Henry Gifford, resulting in buildings that use more energy, not less, and “a fraud perpetrated on U.S. consumers trying their...
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The character of an old house
3 commentsBy the time I bought my old house, it had suffered much abuse and many indignities. The outside was covered with aluminum siding, the inside with wallboard. There was no plaster, no wide floorboards...
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Can you put a runner on winders?
4 commentsMy dog keeps falling down the stairs. It makes an awful racket and takes a surprisingly long time. If there were a landing, it would probably stop him. But the winders act like a banked turn, and he...
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Why politicize the magazine?
16 commentsWe’ve gotten a lot of feedback about Alex Wilson’s letter to President Obama in the latest issue, much of it negative. For example: “Not sure why you decided to politicize your...
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Trade shows versus the real world
2 commentsThe first construction-industry trade show I ever attended was probably the National Hardware Show in Chicago, which would have been, to use my mother’s term, umpteen years ago. I had only...
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A final roundup from IBS 2009
1 commentYesterday I was in Las Vegas. Today I’m back home at my desk, looking out on a snowy landscape and unsure what day it is. If I never again hear the cloying ping of a slot machine, it'll...
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Another day at the show
3 commentsThe folks at Rigid have introduced a couple of new tools that look interesting to me. One is a small cirular saw designed to cut fiber-cement siding that has a built-in dust collection...
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Just call me Ken
1 commentOkay, so yesterday I'm in the press room trying to post my blog, but feeling like a genuine reporter. Next to me is a guy named Alan Heavens, a long time reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer...
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Greenest siding on the planet, among other things
2 commentsYesterday started at 6:00 am with a 3-mile run on the Vegas Strip, and it ended around 1:00 am this morning when my computer froze up as I was trying to post this blog. I lost what I had written and...
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
