Besides serving as a way to find where you live, can the name of your street influence the perception of your home and its value? The thought occurred to me once when I read a newspaper report about a complaint

You can’t always believe what you see, hear or read. That’s true even if it appears in The New York Times, is supported by research by the new professional designation of “experts in happiness” and associated with the Harvard Business

Okay, so gutters and drains may at first blush seem like a boring subject with no room for my usual bent toward humor. But it’s something well worth considering if you want to avoid some very unsexy problems in your

Do you remember the story of Chicken Little, the fable in which the central phrase is “The sky is falling?” Normally we apply the phrase to people who manage to incite an unreasonable fear in others. Recently, I was told

When I was a kid in the dark ages, my family had but one telephone in our home, placed atop a designated “telephone table” in our entrance hall. It was a heavy, black pedestal model left over from the 1940s

Nobody likes getting dumped. Whether we are dismissed from a romantic relationship, a job or political office, it can be painful. But I assure you, few experiences compare with receiving a non-renewal notice for a home insurance policy and having

Did you ever say something to someone, offhandedly and unfiltered, where you immediately wanted to sink into the ground? My worst experience like that happened when I was too young to know better, visiting close friends who asked me how

Of all the gadgetry in my home, there is one device with which I have an intense, almost unnatural relationship: my bathroom scale. Each and every morning I surrender myself to it just before I jump into the shower. If

When my historic house was on the market almost two years ago, there were buyer prospects who fell in love with it. But in each case, the feedback from their agents was similar: Clients love it but don’t want to