Home and Garden
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Give up on grass, plant ground covers in shadeSep 11, 2016 7:00 am - If there are areas in the landscape too shady to grow grass, don't fret. There are a number of ground covers that not only prefer growing in shady conditions, they look ...
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Prune back overgrown shrubs in the fallSep 11, 2016 7:00 am - Plants have been putting on a lot of growth this summer and the ones you pruned in June and/or July may need to be touched up again. I have been seeing more late-season ...
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More reader comments on home stagingSep 10, 2016 6:00 am - Readers are still sending in comments about the rant from a seller who resented trying to live in her professionally staged home while it was on the market. Some sellers...
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Fortified mudrooms are more than the place to stash your bootsSep 10, 2016 6:00 am - Mudrooms are the ugly ducklings of the home. Purely functional, the dirt and sloppiness are so integrated and expected in this room that “mud” is a part of its very name...
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Flowery teapots in museums, sure, but how about a coffeepot?Sep 10, 2016 6:00 am - It's not unusual to see teapots on display in museums, celebrated for their beauty and craftsmanship. Often they're centuries-old artifacts, with fussy floral designs or...
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How do you know whether mortgage refinancing pays?Sep 10, 2016 5:00 am - If you took out a 7.5 percent mortgage in 1994 and still have it, refinancing it in a 3.5 percent market is a no-brainer; you don't need much analysis to know that refin...
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A peek inside the world of color forecastingSep 09, 2016 6:00 am - NEW YORK - Earlier this year, in a Manhattan conference room littered with half-eaten lunches, water bottles, laptops and easels, a group of color forecasters from PPG B...
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Surprising gender gaps found in home-buying costsSep 09, 2016 5:00 am - WASHINGTON - Gender and marital status and how they relate to mortgages has not gotten a lot of research attention in real estate. However, two new reports examine the e...
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Builder not honoring one-year warrantySep 09, 2016 5:00 am - Q. We bought our home nearly a year ago, while the subdivision was still being built. The superintendent and the Realtor kept telling us the company motto, which is "cus...
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Is your back yard bursting with late-summer bounty? Make soupSep 07, 2016 6:00 am - When it's late summer and the garden is full of vegetables, it's time to make minestrone. Fruiting ones, rooting ones, leafy crops, stemmy crops - all can go into this c...