A couple of weeks ago I was invited to my very first wallpaper removal party. At first I thought, "How fun can this be? Doing other people's home improvement?" but, in the end, it was a blast. There are two fundamental principles at work here: 1) It's always more fun to do stuff like remove wallpaper when it's not your house, 2) It's a lot more fun when there is someone else to do the work with you, 3) Finishing a task with a group is so rewarding, and 4) They had great food at the party. More

Back in my college days, one of the best ways to score free furniture was to scour campus housing right after everyone moved back home for the summer. You could find tons of perfectly fine desks, dressers, beds — anything you might need, and perfect for a student's budget (FREE!). So imagine how much fun it must be to live in Quebec, a province with an unofficial moving day for all renters on July 1. Montréal designer Marjolaine Poulin of M Design takes full advantage of this 'holiday' and rescues free furniture off the streets and transforms them into beautifully restored pieces. More

Recently, I moved from a medium sized house to a modestly sized apartment. Initially I was concerned about the challenges of moving from a full three bedroom house to a modest two bedroom apartment. Luckily, downsizing wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Along the way, I borrowed and swapped my way to put together a lovely apartment. Read more...

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Between our dark roofs and rising heat, cities ("urban heat islands") are relying on more and more energy to keep cool. Rolling black-outs or brown-outs have become more prevalent in the last couple of years, and we know white roofs can help reflect some of the light and heat. Can't paint your own shingles, but still want to help? Find out how. More

In April of this year, Little City Farms in San Francisco scored one for the little guys and their community by being the impetus for the new urban agriculture zoning code in the city of San Francisco... More

So many of us have what seem like amazingly creative or innovative ideas to fill a known gap in the world. But, how do you get the capital to realize the dream? Kickstarter has become a great way to get funding from friends, family and supporters to get your project off the ground! More

I come across so many beautiful baskets in stores that I forget these items are often handmade. With a little bit of practice and patience, it's not so hard... as long as you start small. After all, they don't joke about bird courses as 'basket weaving' courses for nothing! I recommend preparing your materials (find local materials, then dry and soak them), then weaving them into small shapes or flat mats. I've put together a list of tutorials and general rules of thumb below to keep in mind when collecting your materials and putting your baskets together. More

Vertical gardens are pretty popular around these parts, but what about vertical farming? I'm not talking about those upside down tomato plants from the infomercials. I'm talking about the ingenious work of an urban agriculture collective in Vancouver, BC. More

This is exciting news: last year we wrote about 1Bog, the San Francisco-based company endeavoring to make solar purchases more accessible and affordable by having you sign up and pay for solar panels as a group. Well, while previously only residents of the largest solar markets could take advantage of the group pricing, the program has been such a hit that now every place in the nation is eligible if you can get enough people in your neighborhood to sign up! More

Some of us have a professed love for garden snooping while on vacation—which always sends us home with new ideas for our own garden. But we also like checking out the bigger places, too: urban farms, community gardens, and botanical gardens. And if you don't want to go so far as to tend the fields on your vacay, this is a great way to experience the local ecology. More