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William and Diane Hellar live surrounded by more than 1 million pounds of concrete. And that just includes the walls of their Schweitzer Mountain ski getaway, a four-unit condominium building made of steel, glass and concrete. A whole lot of concrete.

"Someone is outside photographing our house," my husband announced over breakfast on a crisp October morning last fall. Following his gaze out the window of our Cannon Hill home, I saw a woman standing in the street, her face obscured by a camera. "Who does she think she is?" I wondered aloud. It wasn't until last week that we learned the answer. She, apparently, was my neighbor, Amy Shook, a member of the Spokane Preservation Advocates who volunteered to photograph roughly 300 homes in the area surrounding Cannon Hill Park.

If you're like most do-it-yourselfers, you probably think of the garage as a workshop. The problem is everyone else thinks of it as a parking space. This full-size workbench project provides a neat compromise: It folds up into a tidy, wall-mounted package just 13 inches deep, and even includes integral storage shelves and space for a built-in light. How to build it

Travertine, a natural limestone which is marbled with impurities such as iron, is a natural choice for tiling bathrooms, floors and even kitchen countertops. Travertine is a "beautiful and timeless choice," says Lynnelle Caudill, General Manager of the Davenport Hotel and Tower. During the 2000 restoration of the historic hotel, travertine was installed in the Davenport's rooms. Now, Caudill says, it's been installed in the new Davenport Tower.

I spent the better part of the day potting up bare root roses and a few other things. This is new to me, potting roses in early March.

Keresha Riley was a caterer. While carrying a tray of full champagne glasses, her arm went numb, and the tray crashed to the floor. Her arm was numb for three weeks, and she decided that a trip to the doctor was in order. It was multiple sclerosis. That was 15 years ago,

For me, gardening season really starts in January and February. And the reason for that? Bare root roses. By the first of February or earlier, they start arriving at area stores. And I start making my visits there twice weekly, fearing that if I don't, I may miss something important.

The two-story house sat on a hill across from Manito Park, and best of all, it was for sale. But Nancy Johnson wasn't impressed, says her husband, Larry, recalling the day more than 20 years ago when he took her by for a tour. "She said, 'I hate it.' It did not look like what you see now."

Birthdays are important milestones, and an 18th birthday is especially significant. It marks the time when a teen officially transitions from childhood to adulthood. When Melissa Pittz, a social worker at Colbert Elementary School, thought about her son, Andy's, 18th birthday, she knew she wanted to give him a memorable gift. "I'd made a T-shirt quilt for my dad's birthday several years ago," she said. She remembered she had boxes full of Andy's outgrown sports jerseys and T-shirts and decided to create a similar quilt for him.

Anyone who has ever spent frustrating minutes hunting for a business card buried under stacks of mail or combed the house desperately searching for car keys could benefit from a few basic organizational skills. Cindy Vanhoff, owner of Reclaimed Spaces, says Americans can spend up to 25 minutes per day looking for things. That adds up to a whopping 19 workdays per year. "Time is a precious commodity," she said, "and once it's gone – it's gone!"

Treasure hunt Grandmother's hand-me-down corkscrew better than any others.

Last fall, Marilyn Rapp's then-boyfriend asked her to marry him and move to a new city for a new life. That's a lot of new. But she said yes to it all.

Sometimes the simplest things are the most important. Most modern kitchens are outfitted with high-tech appliances and the drawers are filled with complicated gadgets. The stand mixer on the counter can do anything from mixing dough to making sausage. Looking at the espresso machine – with its dials and switches and dangerous looking nozzles – makes you wish you were an engineer. Or there was a Starbucks next door.