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Common Sense On Mold
In 2001, Melinda Ballard of Dripping Springs, Texas, sued her insurance company in a dispute over the settlement amount in a mold mitigation case. The case gained national attention, inspiring…
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Power Outages Grew Longer in 2017
The lights went out for nearly 8 hours last year for the average electricity customer in the U.S. as the number of hurricanes and other major weather events rose, the…
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High-Tech Toilets Will Be Game Changers
Ready. Set. Go! The race to the high-tech toilet of the future is officially on. In early October, the International Organization for Standards, better known by its English acronym of…
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The Craigslist Factor
The average American generates about 1,500 pounds of garbage annually, and then spends lots of tax dollars disposing of it. Even as recycling has taken off across the country in…
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Airbnb Will Design Its Own Houses
Airbnb's network of rental listings includes more than 5 million properties globally, a $38 billion empire built on the idea that homeowners would be willing to rent a spare room,…
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Frugal Happy: Introducing the Share Shed
Editor’s Note: This post is one of a series by Chris Stratton and Wen Lee, a husband-and-wife team living in the Los Angeles area who are turning their 1963 suburban…
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As Wildfires Get Bigger and Deadlier, Insurance Is Harder to Find
Wildfires in California are putting new demands on insurance companies and making it tougher for homeowners to buy policies in high-risk areas. The New York Times reports that 3 million…
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Seven Reasons Your Filter Isn’t Cleaning the Air
Indoor air quality (IAQ) researchers have established that little bitty invisible pieces of stuff that float around in the air are bad for human health. Of course, being scientists, they…
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Tiny Houses in the Woods
A pair of Harvard entrepreneurs is putting a new twist on a very old idea: spending a few days in the woods is good for what ails you. But rather…
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Urban Rustic: Choosing Windows
Editor’s note: This post is one of a series by Eric Whetzel about the design and construction of his house in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A list of…
