san francisco chronicle articles

A few years ago my husband, Blue, and I took out our front lawn, and by removing the weed- and gopher-ridden turf and disabling the sprinkler system, started saving 18,000 gallons of water a year. We put in a drip system whose sprinkler heads consumed a...

To children of suburbia, the lawn is perhaps our first hands-on experience of nature. It's the green expanse we, as kids, tended, perhaps for a bit of extra allowance, by weeding or mowing. And yet, like so much landscaping, its form is hardly natural, being...

Editor - Thank you for the Parkmerced piece ("Parkmerced: Symbol of the future or the past?" May 3). I write as one of the (fortunate) first occupants of a flat in the development. It was in 1942, and I was stationed at the Point Montara Naval Anti-Aircraft...

Q: Unfortunately, I made a mistake when depositing my payroll check into my checking account. As a result, my rent check bounced. The manager sent me a bill for bank fees of $100 along with a copy of my agreement, which allows for the fees. I think this is...

Q: We have a lot of weeds in our yard. We tried the white vinegar you wrote about and it didn't help. Are there any alternatives other than a herbicide that may help? A: Mix 1 gallon of white vinegar, 2 cups of salt and a dash of dish soap; put it in a...

There are some things you just never forget. The sun had just come up and Ms. Mollie and I were lazily watching light move down the mountain when we heard a woman scream below our Montana cabin as if she were being attacked. The scream ended before we could...

Shame on you for writing an article encouraging people to replace their wood double-hung windows without any consideration of the type of home and type of replacement window, and whether the two go together. Many old, historic or potentially historic houses...

We Americans have happily given our cars the run of the country, paving over a good 40 percent of our cities so they can roam unfettered, and have generously ceded a big chunk of our hard-earned homes to keep them warm and dry. But apparently that's not...

The recession is running into the green movement - and that is not a bad thing. Habits we weren't able to break simply on the grounds that our continuous consumption is bad for the planet may now fall victim to the interests of the pocketbook. As gasoline...

City balconies could use the noise negation of a waterfall, but who's got room for that here in the big-bucks real estate capital of the country? Maybe more of us than we think. Rolf C. Hagen Corp. has given us the Laguna Deck Pond, which takes up just under...

Phil Davis invented the iWave Cube because he wanted to do a hot towel treatment before a shave and thought he ought to have a microwave in the bathroom. Yeah, yeah. Something for the guy who has everything. Well, the iWave Cube is perfect for someone who...

It's a beautiful morning, and you don't want to stay indoors. Before you head out for the day, here are five things to do that will make you comfortable inviting your playmates over later. • Sweep the kitchen floor. • Straighten up the coffee table....

If there were any holds barred in the move of indoor furniture to the outdoors, Frontgate has unleashed them with the art piece at the top of its "Openly Original: Handmade Graphics" vignette. Shown in this arrangement are nine hand-crafted metal panels in...

At Shattuck and University avenues in downtown Berkeley, a tall, stately mixed-use building rises from gritty surroundings, taking you back to a time and place you can't quite name. Completed in 2004, the Bachenheimer Building features a handsome tower with...

Grandma may have been right. With the downturn in real estate prices and many stocks, keeping your money under your mattress doesn't sound foolish. At least the folks at Hollandia International ( www.hollandiainternational.com) don't think so. The...