Welcome to the most popular summer gathering space: the outdoor kitchen. After all, why settle for a stand-alone grill and paper plates when you could have an entire kitchen in your backyard — refrigerator, oven, sink, countertop and cabinets included? We asked area experts for their top tips on creating the perfect outdoor kitchen. Here’s […]
Just when the weather breaks and you’re finally able to enjoy the outdoors, that familiar, aggravating hum arrives. You can’t see them, but they’re there, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. You slap your ear, swat the air and ultimately let those pesky mosquitoes drive you back to the safety of the great indoors, the very place you […]
Marie Kondo opened her 2017 Chicago Humanities Festival program with a simple question: “Is your home tidy?” After the laughter died down, she calmly assured everyone, “Don’t worry, I can help you.” Kondo has been doing exactly that with her best-selling books, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy.” She says her love of order started when […]
Marie Kondo opened her 2017 Chicago Humanities Festival program with a simple question: “Is your home tidy?” After the laughter died down, she calmly assured everyone, “Don’t worry, I can help you.” Kondo has been doing exactly that with her best-selling books, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy.” She says her love of order started when […]
Marie Kondo opened her 2017 Chicago Humanities Festival program with a simple question: “Is your home tidy?” After the laughter died down, she calmly assured everyone, “Don’t worry, I can help you.” Kondo has been doing exactly that with her best-selling books, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy.” She says her love of order started when […]
When it comes to getting a second home in Chicagoland, many potential buyers are looking to spend their weekends on the water. From the obvious (Lake Michigan) to the fancy (Lake Geneva) to the quaint (any of dozens of other lakes in far northern Illinois or southeastern Wisconsin), second-home buyers in the Chicago area know […]
This home maintenance program takes care of the tasks homeowners forget or ignore, which can lead to expensive consequences. Hester Home Maintenance is a quarterly service visit that helps homeowners avoid expensive headaches by following a proven checklist of more than 30 tasks that reduce risks and save money for your home. “While some items […]
Many people don’t associate carpet as the healthy choice for flooring. Contrary to popular belief, carpet holds a lot of health benefits, can be the green and natural flooring choice, and provides endless amounts of styles and color. Health Benefits New carpet is the lowest VOC-emitting flooring choice available and requires fewer cleaning chemicals than […]
Gardening is a relaxing and enjoyable source of creativity, but for millions of people with arthritis and other physical limitations, it’s hardly pain-free. With a combination of educated tool choices, good body mechanics and “Why didn’t I think of that?” tweaks, you won’t have to hang up the trowel. Tools The Consumer Product Safety Commission […]
California’s crippling five-year drought may finally be over for now, but it made national headlines and reminded us how important water conservation is not only globally, but also at the individual level. With water currently being consumed at an unsustainable rate, consumers, appliance manufacturers and governments are looking to technology for solutions that save water without compromising performance. […]
