Home Guru

By Bill Primavera One way that I really enjoy serving my community is as a member of my town’s Advisory Board on Architecture and Community Appearance (ABACA). All sorts of projects come to our attention for review and recommendations, from

By Bill Primavera We’re coming into vacation season when many of us will be away from home, and that’s a good time to be aware of home security. When I owned a historic home in Brooklyn Heights, I was always

By Bill Primavera When I rented my first apartment on my own in New York City (well, actually the quaint neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights), I was in seventh heaven: living independently after a rough patch of sharing an apartment with

By Bill Primavera Of all my home do-it-yourself projects, the most satisfying was the creation of a large brick patio at the rear of an 18th century home my wife and I purchased in Yorktown in the early 1970s.  There

By Bill Primavera The other morning, I entered the elevator at my condo complex where I rarely see any other residents. But this time there was a fellow in the car when the doors opened. I had never seen him

By Bill Primavera When I was in college, I appeared in a play called “The Madwoman of Chaillot” by Jean Giraudoux with the actress Linda Lavin who would later go on to achieve fame as “Alice” on television. The most

By Bill Primavera It thrills me to remember my dad as a man who really loved and enjoyed his family and who really loved and enjoyed his work. I know because, although he wasn’t very talkative, he said many times

By Bill Primavera Maybe I was 14 or 15 when my mother allowed me to select the color that “my” room (as distinguished from the one I had always shared with my older brother until he went off to be

By Bill Primavera Each Home Guru column I write has the benefit of an excellent proofreader, my wife Margaret. She not only is perfect with spelling and grammar, but she also comments and advises on the subject matter I might