Oh, civility. It resides in some neighborhood, hasn’t arrived yet in others. Knowing city laws can take the sting, and emotion, out of an errant parked car, predawn noise and other annoying habits from the people next door. Oregonian archive photo used to add levity to the topic. Most neighbors don’t mind neighbors feeding birds. […]
London designer Mark Lewis knows how to conjure a world out of empty space: He began his career working on theater sets. So he was the perfect person for the job when a client wanted to transform a charming old garage into a guest room. Remodelista and Gardenista regulars know we have a weakness for […]
Nearly a decade after the Great Recession, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), says concerns that the housing market has peaked and is headed toward another slowdown are purely speculative, regardless of recent sales declines in some regions. What’s in store for the future? Markets should slow down; however, this […]
These smart upgrades pay off big in resale value and enjoyment of your home. “For an immediate face-lift, update your light fixtures,” says Kim Howard, Realtor and co-founder of Howard Homes Chicago. You can buy a stylish ceiling fan for $100 dollars or less and updated semi-flush ceiling mount lights for about $60. Not only […]
Construction cranes are the most visible sign of where new homes are being built. You know there is major construction underway when cranes tower above. And wherever they cluster, it is a good bet that there are new homes being built. The recent RLB Crane Index, a report on the number of construction cranes in major […]
A tweak to Portland’s zoning code will make it more difficult to redevelop mobile home parks, an effort to preserve the low-cost housing they provide. The Portland City Council unanimously approved the change on Wednesday. It creates a new zone for 56 of the city’s mobile home parks, which house about 3,000 households. Six of […]
Interior design might seem as straightforward as choosing a paint color and coordinating your furniture, but the truth is, the devil’s in the details. Those last few finishing touches can really pull together a room and make it your own. Since we’re in the business of adding accents to homes, we were curious to know […]
For New Yorkers — a city of renters with apartments that are usually just barely big enough to accommodate their lives — a vacation home is not always just a house. Sometimes, it’s more like a long-distance lover, the kind you only see when the weather is nice and no one has to go to […]
As a homebuyer, it’s easy to understand the appeal of investing in an older home. After all, it’s the perfect opportunity to tackle a few DIY projects and renovations to give the place the custom touch you’ve always imagined. Although this can seem like an exciting endeavor, new owners may get ahead themselves without realizing […]
You’d be forgiven if the phrase “Portland goes green with innovative water pipes” doesn’t immediately call to mind thoughts of civil engineering and hydro-electric power. And yet, that’s exactly what Oregon’s largest city has done by partnering with a company called Lucid Energy to generate clean electricity from the water already flowing under its streets and through its pipes. Portland has replaced a section of its […]