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Well, at least it's warm here
I woke up to 3 inches of fresh snow in Connecticut, which made the drive to the airport beautiful. It was the light, fluffy snow that outlined every tree. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the...
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Live (or maybe half dead) from the International Builders' Show
1 commentI just noticed that the educational seminars are being sponsored this year by Countrywide Home Loans. Am I the only one who thinks that’s a little ironic?
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Curious about my window seat?
My colleague Chuck Miller said that if you're going to build a window seat, make it big enough to sleep in.
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What's my house worth?
2 commentsLast week I read in the New York Times that nearly one in six homes is “worth less than the mortgage owed on it.” In this context, I’m sure that “worth” means...
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Let there be light
My wife and I bought our house—a 200-year-old story-and-a-half Cape—in the summer of 1989. We moved in and immediately gutted the place. We slept upstairs under exposed rafters and...
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Dear Mr. President...
By last Friday, my office looked like a tornado had struck. I had over 300 unread emails in my inbox. The latest round of budget cuts was due to the management team. The February/March issue of Fine...
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The truth behind LEED inspections
1 commentMy friend Jim Picton recently got the final LEED inspection on the first house he has built under this progressive and, in some quarters, controversial program. It was pretty boring. . .
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Electrical hubris
After wiring 14 receptacles, I was feeling pretty cocky about how quickly I could do the job (never a good sign). . .
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The value of delight
1 commentLike a lot of people these days, the editorial staff at Fine Homebuilding has been debating how best to survive these tough economic times.
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The great home-office debate
1 commentWhen I turned my attention to designing the home office, I considered extending the balustrade to enclose the space, but I didn’t like the idea that the view...
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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.
