The Downstairs Gays
Social media makes it easy to virtually tour our neighbors’ homes—and really, their entire lives. The hard part: finding the clear divide between entertainment and cyberstalking.
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A collection of 33 issues
Meet the Flintstones
How to give away a house in Flint, Michigan, home not only to a water scandal but record violence.
Home Sweet Sweden
In a life of perpetual movement, the moment arrives when you find yourself desperate for stillness.
The Books
A couple’s decision to combine bookshelves supplies a series of revelations.
Summer Into Fall
New clothes, AP classes, middle-aged angst. A New York City mom reflects on being pulverized by the first day of school.
Greetings From Sloane-10b
As New York real estate prices skyrocket, it’s time to head where no gentrifier has gone before.
The Window Cleaner
Dirt is difficult to see on glass. That’s why so many people don't bother to hire a professional for the job—they just can’t see what’s wrong.
Flood-Tide Below Me
Seeking respite from a life lived in war zones—too many rebel factions, too many gunshots, too many backfiring motorcycles that sounded like gunshots—a family discovers temporary shelter in the outer edges of New York City. And then, the deluge.
Six Strings
Growing up in Ohio, far from the homeland of her parents, a girl puzzles over her identity, until the strings of a sitar create a connection.
New York Elsewhere
New Yorkers don't fade away—they just move. But to where? From Miami to Austin to Berlin, detailed maps of nearly every other significant city's neighborhoods show ex-pats exactly where to emigrate.
Habitat for Humanity
Manhattan is rife with lumberjacks, Los Angeles is hot for Appalachia, and the latest trend in pornography is cabins. Yes, cabins. But when a woman leaves New York for a log structure of her own, a metamorphosis occurs.
Catlike DIY
A long-ignored home improvement project awaits. The tools and materials are at the ready, and there's nothing to stop you. Then enters a cat named Jeeves.
The Storm Comes Around
Tornado season is a distant concept for most people. For some, it’s a scary but known part of life. Then there’s what happens when one of the South’s deadliest storms in history destroys your house.
When the Town Stops Burning
For 50 years, a fire has been raging in mining tunnels beneath Centralia, Pa. With the town mostly evacuated long ago, what’s left? Mostly journalists and other outsiders looking in.
Nest
Where people build homes, birds sometimes build nests—and there’s no guarantee cohabitation of the species will be idyllic.
Bangkok Anew
Bangkok's image as a city for sex, knife fights, and cobras is burnished to a shine. A trip home finds some of that, but mostly it's ghosts--real ones--and they're not quiet.
Frames Consigned
Parents love to appear unannounced on a grown child’s doorstep. Rarely, though, do they ship 12 cartons of belongings to precede them.
Mr. Can’t Fix It
To the unhandy, a broken appliance offers an opportunity to prove one’s mettle—and finally break the plastic wrap on that toolbox. A stay-at-home dad calls in reinforcements.
Regular Guys
University communities are often divided by townie and out-of-towner, and never the twain shall date. A story of town and gown, and lawnmower mania.
Alla Bayanova on the Arbat
Wandering along the Arbat in Moscow, Elizabeth Kiem finds the residence of a Russian singer who spent a year in a concentration camp during World War II, and who claims never to have known her true home.
William Weaver at Annandale-on-Hudson
After a life spent telling stories in two different tongues, the American translator of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino is struggling with his own.
Essad Bey at Positano
Lev Nussimbaum spent the second half of his life as a refashioned Muslim prince--before meeting an early end in Italy.
Bringing It All Back Home
When the St. Louis Cardinals’ former stadium was demolished, fans rushed to pick up pieces from the ballpark where their memories were made. What they bought, and what it means to them.
Chicken
Don’t know art but know what you like? How would you like to buy some art and never receive it? Falling for a painting and getting something unexpected in return.
Dawn’s Early Fright
Every Fourth of July, numerous Americans celebrate independence by detonating explosives near their loved ones. From 2006, one family raises the white flag of surrender.
The Peril of Ceiling Fans
In South Carolina’s beach country, not having air conditioning, nevermind fans, is these days downright strange. A personal memoir of worried grandmothers and infant decapitation.
Townie or Country?
City or country? Weekends of restoration or weeks of relaxation? With one renovated country house behind him, can our food writer take the plunge and finally open a preserves shop in the woods?
How to Hang a Cabinet
Nothing satisifies quite like home improvement, especially after you've ripped the wall out of your bathroom. A short guide to avoiding complete catastrophe.
I Am Not Your Average Family
When cleaning out your refrigerator, you may encounter a number of unexpected items at the back. But please note: It would be wise to leave unopened the jar labeled “catharsis.”
A Moving Story
Moving is backbreaking work that's best done by somebody else, by professionals--or at least by people you can trust. If all else fails, hire movers.
A New, Old House
It's true: You can never go home again. Watching a construction team renovate the house you grew up in, and understanding why your parents wanted a new place to live.
Albany, Counting the Ways
The heart of New York may be in the five boroughs, but its gear box is buried under snow in Albany. Upstater Tobias Seamon reports on the many reasons to love a seedy town of secrets, bosses, and smoke-filled rooms.
News of a Ratproofing
New Yorkers, like everyone else, are constantly under attack by illness, anxiety, bad air, and cell phones—but only one is haunted by a giant rat. Tales of transformation, staple gun included.