Color-coding definitely helped me once, but only after a lot of trial and error. I used different colored tape for each trade—plumbers got blue, elect...

I totally get what you mean about the “breathing room” being more psychological than practical. When we first bought our place, we went with a 30-year...

DIGGING UP THE BACKYARD: FOUND MORE THAN JUST DIRT I get the urge to overbuild drainage—been there myself—but I do wonder if sometimes we go a bit to...

I’ve definitely had the “whiteboard wipeout” happen—once it was the HVAC guy’s tool bag, and I swear I almost lost my mind. I started snapping pics ev...

WEIGHING THE PROS AND CONS OF SWITCHING TO A 15-YEAR MORTGAGE You nailed it with the “forced savings” vs. flexibility thing. I remember thinking I’d ...