Sleeping Right on the Mattress, Sheets Optional
I keep a mental tally of how many nights a year I sleep on a bare mattress, and the number is higher than I’d admit to most people. Somewhere around…
Is a Tempur Mattress Worth the Price Tag?
I used to be the guy who bought a “memory foam mattress” off a flash sale site for $340, bragged about it to anyone who’d listen, and then quietly returned…
Do You Need a Topper, or Is It a Bandage?
I was stripping the bed on a Sunday, good sheets in one hand, a sock I’d apparently lost since April in the other, when I got as far as the…
A Portable Fire Pit and a Wood Deck: Easy to Move, Easy to Get Careless
Portable fire pits have a reputation as the responsible choice for a wood deck. The story goes something like this: an in-ground fire pit or a heavy stone ring is…
Actually Using a Fire Pit on a Deck, Not Just Owning One
Ask ten people whether you can actually put a fire pit on a deck and you’ll get two answers, both delivered with total confidence, both slightly wrong. Half of them…
Outdoor Rugs Out in the Weather All Year?
I was out on the back steps hanging a load of towels on the line, the cheap collapsible one from the corner store that always tips over if you clip…
The Right Moment to Buy a New Mattress
I’m on the floor of my own bedroom at six in the morning with a tape measure, trying to figure out if a platform bed I’m building is going to…
Sizing a Console Table Without Guessing
I’ve measured the same gap in my hallway five separate times since February. Same tape measure, same eleven and a half feet of wall, same result every time, and I…
Repainting Wardrobe Doors: What Paint Holds Up?
My wardrobe doors get touched, grabbed, kicked open, and slammed shut somewhere around forty times a day in this house. I actually counted once, out of boredom during a rare…
Square Rug, Round Table: Does the Shape Fight Back?
I own eleven rugs. Eleven. Across a one bedroom condo with, generously, five zones that could plausibly need floor covering, which means I’m carrying almost double the inventory the space…