Last month I was driving around Austin’s east side looking for a decent standing desk on Craigslist when I spotted this warehouse with “Restore Design Center” painted across the front.…
# Discovering the Hidden World of Habitat for Humanity ReStore Design Centers NEW_TITLE: How My Random Thrift Store Visit Changed How I Think About Sustainable Design You know how sometimes…
Okay, so there’s this thing that happens when you walk into certain spaces where your body just goes “oh, thank god” and relaxes in a way you didn’t even realize…
You know what I’ve learned after thirty-eight years in the same house? There’s a big difference between contractors who just fix things and craftsmen who understand what they’re working with.…
I’ve been following these amazing home transformation stories for a while now, and honestly, they’ve taught me more about biophilic design than any article or research study ever could. Sometimes…
My old desktop computer finally gave up the ghost last month. Right in the middle of trying to help our church secretary figure out the new video system for streaming…
I’ve been tracking my productivity metrics for about five years now, but it wasn’t until I visited my colleague Sarah’s place last week that I realized I’d been missing a…
I was scrolling through one of those parenting forums at 2am last week (don’t judge – my son had strep and wasn’t sleeping), when I came across this incredible story…
I never really understood how much my workspace affected me until I started working from home during the pandemic. Like most parents, I’d cobbled together a “home office” in whatever…
You know what’s weird? Before I had kids, I never really thought about why certain spaces felt good and others felt… off. Like, I knew our old downtown condo felt…
About six months ago, I was helping my neighbor Marcus install a new garbage disposal in his condo kitchen. This was a gorgeous space – he’d spent more on those…
You know, when you’ve lived in the same house as long as I have, you start to notice things about how spaces affect people. My wife and I have been…
I was scrolling through urban planning Twitter last week when I saw a thread that made me stop mid-scroll: a landscape architect talking about a housing development in Portland where…
# Finding My Way Back to Nature, One Houseplant at a Time My coffee maker broke last Tuesday, and honestly? I was annoyed at first – you know how it…
I was dropping my friend Sarah’s daughter off at school last month when I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up in the basement hallway of Roosevelt Elementary. Honestly?…