Author: Marni Jameson
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Pup prompts a wholesale makeover of laundry room
By Marni JamesonSpecial to The Gazette Good design is born of pain. A designer notices a friction point and figures out a better way. Hence, the ketchup bottle designed to stand on its head and the long-sleeved athletic shirts with thumbholes so hands stay warm while fingers stay free. The pain point that led to…
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At home: Retiring spouse can create waves on the home front
By Marni JamesonSpecial to The Gazette My friends warned me about retiring husbands. As one succinctly described the watershed event: “Twice the husband, half the income? No thank you.” So, before my husband retired last October, we discussed the many ways we could foresee our day-to-day home life changing once he was no longer heading…
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At Home: Cooking with gas is just not always that
By Marni JamesonSpecial to The Gazette As we walked through the house that would eventually be ours, I made a list of changes I wanted. I would change the electric cooktop to gas because the cavewoman in me likes to see the fire when I burn my food. I would add a gas line to…
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At Home: Too late for design school? Never!
By Marni JamesonSpecial to The Gazette In the year since I stopped writing my weekly column, since I stepped off the hamster wheel whose revolution went like this — come up with an idea, talk to an expert, find a high-resolution image, write something ideally interesting, add helpful tips, then do it again, for 20-plus…
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At Home: Moving into new house offers chance for fresh start
By Marni JamesonSpecial to The Gazette On move-in day, a runway of quilted blankets formed a path between the moving truck and our new front door. Five strong men made a steady trek from truck to door like an army of ants. Meanwhile, my arms flailed like a Dutch windmill’s, sending the movers in various…
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At home: Courting contractor chaos
Until recently, I thought the expression that something makes your head spin was just a figure of speech. I now know it’s real. After my husband and I sold our Happier Yellow House in a whirlwind deal, without even listing it, we had 45 days to find a new house, pack and move. During half…
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If you want a remodel to go fast, know what you want
Since selling The Happier Yellow House and moving out, my husband and I had one goal — move into our new house, The Happiest Yellow House, as soon as possible. But first we wanted to renovate. Our mantra became: Fix it fast. As anyone who has bought a house and remodeled before moving in understands,…
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At Home: Six ways to save on moving day
The movers stormed the house like a SWAT team, dismantling large pieces of furniture as if they were Legos. They loaded all our earthly belongings into a giant truck and then drove away. Just like that, we were de-homed. An hour later, my husband and I are outside an ice cream stand stress-eating ice cream…
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At Home: Eight items to discard during a move
Moving is the ultimate truth test. As I pack up the house my husband and I have lived in for eight years, box towers line the halls, packed and stacked like big-city skylines. Each room coughs up its contents like a kid with consumption. I fear I might never see a clear counter again. I…
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Walking the rightsizing walk: Hunting for a house | At Home
Now that my husband and I had sold the Happier Yellow House to the first buyer who saw it, we were quite suddenly, technically, homeless. Yeep! My head was literally spinning. I need to sit down often and put my head between my knees. What had we done? We had accepted a handsome all-cash, full-price…