http://www.post-gazette.com/homes Home and garden news and features, garden columns by Susan Banks, Doug Oster en-us Copyright 2010, post-gazette.com. Sun, 5 Sep 2010 18:09:27 -0400 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084803-30.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml In her first 10 years of marriage, Elizabeth Palmer learned how to lay ceramic tile, cut wood for wainscoting and demolish walls. Now, she has her own tool belt with hammers, screwdrivers, pencils, paper and measuring tape. She also was the first to use the couple's new reciprocating saw for demolition, which she enjoys. Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084806-28.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Real estate news in brief. Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084936-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Q. I unwisely planted a small clump of bamboo in my yard. Needless to say, 10 years later it has become a monster. Is there any way to kill it? Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084938-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Each year, judges for the Great Gardens Contest argue over the entry deadline. Should we keep it in mid-July to give readers at least two months to photograph their gardens and get their entries in? Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084939-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml The sound of gurgling water surrounds you in this North Side garden. Each twist of the homemade stone paths was a pleasant surprise -- an unusual perennial, a small ornamental tree, a pleasing combination of annuals and perennials. Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084945-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Starting a flower garden, I've discovered, is hard work. There's the tilling and the composting and the planting and the mulching and the weeding and the pruning and the watering and the warding off of deer, woodchuck, moles, beetles and mildew. Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10247/1084946-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County will present a fall Backyard Gardening Lecture Series from 9 a.m. to noon next Saturday at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve on Dor-seyville Road in Fox Chapel. This fall's event will focus on native plants and pollinators. Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10246/1084767-30.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml LONDON -- What could be more English than Mayfair? Elegant Georgian townhouses and solid Edwardian mansions line the streets of this sophisticated neighborhood, which has been a haven for the rich since the Great Plague and then the fire of 1666 drove the capital's aristocracy out of the City of London and into the area to the west. Fri, 3 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10246/1084768-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml STATE and local governments are cracking down on people for improperly claiming something called the homestead exemption. Take Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, who was accused of doing just that on a home he owns in Washington, D.C. Fri, 3 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10246/1084769-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml John Begin, a 48-year-old furniture designer in Cambridge, N.Y., once made furniture from slabs of wood. Now he makes it out of branches. Fri, 3 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10246/1084770-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Marla Dekker and Kevork Babian, graphic designers who live in Brooklyn, have been collecting midcentury modern furniture for decades and storing it in their five-story brownstone. Recently, though, their collection "finally reached critical mass," Ms. Dekker said, and their Web site, Townhouse.bz, was born. Fri, 3 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10246/1084771-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml Le Chat Noir, a new line of decorative accessories at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop, was inspired by the work of a painter and printmaker best known for the image of a slinky black cat he created for a cabaret poster in 19th-century Paris. Fri, 3 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10245/1084505-30.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml VNÀ, Switzerland Thu, 2 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10245/1084506-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml THE Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestrated by the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiences and the blogosphere seemed to produce a collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy, too ho hum, they pronounced as one. Thu, 2 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10245/1084507-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml STARTING a flower garden, I've discovered, is hard work. There's the tilling and the composting and the planting and the mulching and the weeding and the pruning and the watering and the warding off of deer, woodchuck, moles, beetles and mildew. Thu, 2 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10245/1084508-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml A space that measures 188 square feet is not what most retailers would consider generous. But to Tyler Brûlé, the editor in chief of Monocle magazine, the storefront that size on Hudson Street that houses his latest Monocle Shop is more than adequate. Despite the small footprint -- a trademark of all the Monocle shops, from London to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Los Angeles -- the store, which opened last week, carries a fairly large, well-edited selection of merchandise. Thu, 2 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10245/1084509-47.stm?cmpid=homegarden.xml "Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen," an exhibition that opens Sept. 15 at the Museum of Modern Art, will explore the way the kitchen has evolved since the start of the 20th century. Juliet Kinchin (right), the curator of the show, talked about the role women played in designing rational kitchens -- including some early ergonomic models -- and the symbolism of utensils like Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer. Thu, 2 Sep 2010 02:00:00 -0400