At Home: Ground Zero Part Nine — Five offers, two letters, one house

The five offers in 48 hours to buy my parents’ former home bowled me over, especially considering the real estate market we all just barely lived through. But what really did me in were the letters.

At Home

This California ranch house, the author’s childhood home, became the center of a bidding war, and a testament to the housing market’s comeback, the power of strategic improvements, and bona fide house love.

At Home: Shop Talk—Dads, kids and garages

I am not done yet. I wonder if I ever will be.

At Home: Ground Zero — Keeping for keeps

I am not done yet. I wonder if I ever will be.

At Home: How to find the perfect house for you

When I was a young woman contemplating marriage, my mother used to say: You don’t just marry the man. You marry the whole family.

At Home: Ground Zero-Part Eight: Enough About Me, Readers Respond

It’s so easy, once you’re in the clutches of home improvement, to keep improving.

At Home: Ground Zero-Part Seven: Fixing to Sell? What Not to Fix

It’s so easy, once you’re in the clutches of home improvement, to keep improving.

At Home: Ground Zero Part Five — The Treasure Hunt

Cleaning out my parents’ former home of almost 50 years involved a rough and ruthless week of letting go of a lifetime of home furnishings.

At Home: Ground Zero-Part Six: Old House, New Look

Everything must go. That thought drove me as I cleared out my parents’ home of 50 years. Little did I know, once everything was gone, the real work would begin.

Ground Zero Part Four: What to Keep

I collapse in bed on the verge of a coma after day one of my two-day estate sale. The sale was to clear out the home of my parents, who have moved on to assisted living.

Brass lamp

Brass lamp, 1920-1940

Ground Zero Part Three: Appraiser Weighs in on Antiques’ Value

I collapse in bed on the verge of a coma after day one of my two-day estate sale. The sale was to clear out the home of my parents, who have moved on to assisted living.

French side table

Cane chairs

French cane chairs, 1960s

Antique Clock

Seth Thomas clock, 1880s.

Cedar chest

Forest Park cedar chest, 20th century

Ground Zero Part Two: Appraising Antiques - Old Does Not Equal Valuable

Trying to sell old furniture, to clear out a parents' former home to get it ready to sell, can be a defeating task.

At Home: Ground Zero Part One — The Estate Sale

I’m writing this from ground zero: My childhood home in Orange, California. To get through my job here, I need smelling salts and a bulldozer.

Estate Sale

Garage or estate sale? The terms get blurred. Typically an estate sale implies that a whole household is on sale, and is held indoors. Garage and yard sales imply a spring cleaning, and are usually in the garage, driveway or yard.

At Home: Remodeling — On the right ride of the statistics, for once

Generally speaking, I am not a numbers person. That is, I only like statistics when they support what I want to believe: Weight down, bank account up. If they don’t, I pretty much stick a finger in each ear, squeeze my eyes closed, and make insect noises.

At Home: 10 steps to the perfect sofa

I still remember my shock and dismay when I realized that sofas had to be bought. Somehow I thought sofas just happened. They always simply showed up in homes, hotels, and offices without explanation or fanfare, like feral kittens or bills.

At Home: Fixin' to Sell

Maybe it’s because I was the youngest in my family. Maybe it’s because I’m five-foot-three and have a voice like snow white, but I lash out like a cornered rattlesnake when someone doesn’t take me seriously.

At Home: If you can dress, you can decorate

I know, I know, to many of you the idea of decorating an empty room feels as horrifying as one of those dreams where you're suddenly in public naked. But I'm going to fix that.

At Home: Turn Your Closet into a Boutique Just for You

Quick: Which room in your house needs attention the most? Kitchen? Bathroom? Garage?

At Home: How to sell what where

The author of "Garage Sale Millionaire" had come to Orlando to visit theme parks with his wife and 3-year-old son. I took it as a sign. Divine deliverance.

At Home: Parents’ possessions put past in perspective

Like my mother, the Roman God Janus — for whom January is named — had eyes in the back of his head. In fact, he had an entire face on the back of his head, so he could look backward and forward at once. This feature earned him the distinction of “god of doors.” He ruled comings and goings.

At Home: Resolving to repurpose

This time of year I always feel a little sick to my stomach, and not just because of those midnight romps at the dessert buffet with the bottomless glass of Prosecco. (Do they make a combo antacid headache tablet?)

At Home: A Look Back at Lessons Learned 2012, Part 2

A look back at the lessons the year served up reveals I once again had my share of jams, upheavals and awakenings. I faithfully reported these with what I hope some would call humor served with a dollop of advice on the side.

At Home 3

Taking notes.

At Home: A Look Back at Lessons Learned, Part 1

As has become tradition, the last two weeks of the year I glance back at the 50 cathartic home columns I’ve written, and pull one takeaway tidbit of scenario-wrapped advice from each month, and re-share them here.

At Home: What Color Is Your Future?

In the same way many of us can sense a cold coming on or a storm in the offing, some tuned-in types can spot a hot (or cool) color trend long before it arrives. These color forecasters go around with divining rods implanted in their foreheads.

At Home: When young love meets a good house, much is possible

Young love is a state unto itself — full of starry-eyed possibilities, idealism, passion, and a hefty dose of delusion. Young house love is exactly the same.

At Home: With gifts, it's what's on the outside that counts

In my constant endeavor to live more graciously, haste is my undoing. I am often whirling through life on extended credit from the time bank, and it shows — especially in my gift wrapping.

At Home: This Christmas, make a scene

Whenever I visit a holiday tree festival where top designers deck the halls (and trees), I come away feeling as dull as a bureaucrat from Buffalo.

At Home: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – and staying!

Those who’ve managed to keep tabs on the coordinates of my far-flung family know I have a husband in Colorado, a daughter with me in Florida and another daughter in Texas allegedly attending college.

At Home: Rats! One Pest Problem Spawns Another

“YEEP!” I text my oldest daughter at college.

At Home: Three hurricanes, one homeowner's horror, and some heroes

Linda Lipofsky, of Orlando, stands in her almost finished kitchen with grandson, David Lipofsky, 4, and Tim Parsons, of Rebuilding Together. The non-profit helped renovate Lipofsky's home eight years after hurricanes destroyed it and a contractor ran off with the insurance money before finis…

At Home: Three hurricanes, one homeowner's horror, and some heroes

So you think you've had contractor nightmares. I know I have. But I guarantee ours wither like flowers by the fire compared to what Linda Lipofsky's been through.

At Home: Making the world better, one napkin at a time

If I have pounded one message into my kids’ heads it’s this: Your job is to figure out your gifts and use them to make the world a better place. I try to model that behavior. And I am going to do that today beginning with — cocktail napkins.

At Home: Design questions from readers

As long as I live, I will have more questions than answers. In fact, I’ve built this column on my endless design and home improvement quandaries. I run my problems by experts, and report my findings to you.

At Home: A design challenge to help Habitat

You will find this hard to believe. You will wonder how this could be. I did.

At Home: A design challenge to help Habitat

Habitat Design Challenge: A team of decorators and former "This Old House" host Steve Thomas created this room using furniture and materials purchased from Habit for Humanity ReStores, all for under $1,000, less than a third what it would have cost retail. ReStore proceeds go to help build h…

At Home: Design rules made for breaking

I’m not a fan of rules. Give me a rule, and my inner rebel asks why and looks for an exception. While I get that rules have their place in society — kids should stay in school; drivers going the same direction should drive on the same side of the road; everyone should turn off his cell phone…

At Home: Go to the dark side

I am in the dark about a lot of subjects, and light is one of them. But the dark is a great place to start when seeking enlightenment on lighting, says at least one lighting expert.

AT HOME: I Had a Dream – And I Got Over It

Attention those who can’t let go. The problem is not your stuff. It’s your stories.

At Home: Romance at home

Some homes are filled with love. Some homes are made with love. Some homes make you fall in love.

At Home: Creating a stress-free space

I recently had one of those weeks so stressful that I would have rather juggled flaming power saws. Not a death-in-the-family kind of week, but a week with a string of everyday life problems that proves the world cares about me about as much as a windshield cares about flying insects.

At Home: Talking with the editor of Do It Yourself magazine

Deep down everyone wants to create. The smallest kids want to create a mess. Men have a particular need to create something tangible, often big, like skyscrapers, because they have so much catching up to do compared to women.

At Home: House on strike

I don’t like to discuss politics. I avoid political conversations like I avoid mud puddles. I go around. It’s just cleaner that way.

At Home: High end, down home

Most people walk by a discarded wooden wine crate and see a discarded wooden wine crate. Sabrina Soto, host of HGTV’s “The High Low Project,” sees an ottoman, or an end table, a bookcase or a planter.