View, save and delete your bookmarked stories here that appear anywhere on GazetteNET. To add a story, simply click on the icon next to any headline.     Fall Home 2007  Designer-owner of South Amherst home is inspired by New England traditions GORDON DANIELS This stone terrace on the rear of the house is an extension of the screen porch and upper-level deck where the Pollins frequently entertain. - FEATURED ADVERTISERS | SEE ALL - Click to view original size This ad ran in Fall Home 2007 9/20/2007 Click here to browse all ads A sleek modern house in South Amherst whose soaring roofline now rises like the prow of a ship, is a transformation of the traditional white clapboard New England farmhouse with its fieldstone foundation. Sigrid Miller Pollin, a professor of architecture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, designed the South Amherst house for herself and her husband, Robert Pollin, a UMass economist. They moved into the home in April after 14 months of construction. » read more...  Work space kept separate Sigrid Miller Pollin designed her new home to be a "live-work" environment, but she consciously separated her studio from the living areas. Although the studio seems to be an integral part of the house, she has to go outside to enter the two-story work space.  When you've gotta go, go green Back in the early 1990s, the humorist Dave Barry stumbled on the kind of issue that can mobilize a country, cutting across party, class, race, religion: how well our toilets work.  All the home's a stage: Professional home staging can spruce up house for sale It wasn't exactly like an episode from the popular TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," but it was close.  Finding Bart Simpson's voice in the country Roses. Chandeliers. Whimsy. Country. This is not a decorating mantra that Bart Simpson would chant. Well, not without his trademark smirk. But for Nancy Cartwright, the Emmy Award-winning actress and voice of TV's Bart Simpson, those four girly-girl design elements are not open for discussion.  A growing clamor over noisy leaf blowers The autumn leaves will soon begin their dazzling avalanche. Honey, pass me the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones.  Bookshelves and beds are doing the iPod shuffle As soon as Kerry Triffin spotted a bed crafted from New Zealand rimu wood at a New York City design show last year, he wanted to carry it in his Connecticut furniture shop. His wife had a different idea.  Cast of 'Extreme Makeover' tears down haunted house Some folks around Milbridge, Maine, might be happy to see an aging farmhouse demolished to pave way for a new home being created by Ty Pennington and the cast of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."  Choosing pet-tolerant plants for curbside Q: I am looking for plant suggestions for the area between my sidewalk and the street. We have a lot of dogs in our neighborhood that pee along this grassy border.  Curb appeal wins in housing resale wars With worries over housing values falling, more attention may now be focused on an overlooked aspect of selling a home: curb appeal.  Designer's recommendations for the kitchen Designing or updating your kitchen? Take into account these tips offered by Washington, D.C., designer Jennifer Gilmer:  Designing around a big-screen TV Big-screen TVs are, well, big.  Easy listening In a world of iPod-compatible jeans and boxer shorts, it's hardly surprising that there are chairs designed to accommodate the ubiquitous portable audio player.  Eco-friendly construction a growing trend Say the words "construction materials" and what traditionally comes to mind are bricks and mortar, wood and nails, concrete and cement.  Fighting the fence post funk Every single time we do a home improvement project we learn something new and interesting.  Filmmaker casts own home in film Most people crave homes that have character, but filmmaker John August wanted a Los Angeles house to be a character. Four years ago, the screenwriter of Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Big Fish" and Doug Liman's "Go" attended an open house and found not only a new residence, but also the inspiration and the principal setting for "The Nines," his feature-length directorial debut that opened earlier this year.  Gadgets and gizmos for everyone Design sells, or so the current thinking goes. Soap dispensers with chic shapes clean up in sales, wastebaskets are an opportunity for a sculptural makeover, and an iPod is as coveted for its looks as its brains.  GE launches new appliance line GE is launching a new line of kitchen appliances.  Harness the sun to save money - and the Earth Are your electric bills going through the roof? A solution just may be up there too: The roof is a great place to install solar collectors that convert the sun's energy directly into electricity.  Horsetails, primitive beauties Horsetails are in their full glory now, looking crisp and green even as the season's wind, rain and pests have taken their toll on most other plants.  Instead of a cabinet redo, try a refinish Dreaming of redoing your kitchen but waking up with a budget that seems too small? Think Botox instead of a total face-lift. Kitchen cabinets can be spiffed up for one-third to one-half the cost of replacing them while still refreshing the room dramatically. Cabinets can be repainted, refinished or refaced, then dressed up with new hardware - all without having to change the floor plan or replace the counters (a relief if you put in that granite a few years ago).  It pays to sweat the small stuff with contractors Most homeowners consider it a victory to find a suitable contractor for home projects. But the battle is far from over once project budget numbers are crunched and work begins. Ahead lie skirmishes over all manner of minutiae. Where do workers park? What happens to debris? Can work crews use the kitchen sink to get a drink of water? Each point in itself is minor, but homeowners can get riled up in a hurry if they don't sweat the small stuff with contractors.  It's Martha Stewart, live from Macy's When Martha Stewart was growing up in Nutley, N.J., she and her mother journeyed to Macy's flagship store at Herald Square in New York City to shop for fabrics for sewing projects.  Rebuilding a house of dreams Before Anne and James Hubbell's home in Wynola, Calif., was reborn this year, before it caught fire in 2003, even before its first indoor kitchen was built in the early 1960s, the place looked different from other houses. Like a Hobbit's retreat, perhaps, or oversized shells from some distant sea bottom.  Removing wallpaper It's a sticky job, but it has to be done. It's time to tear down that dated wallpaper.  Restoration, from able hands Ina Brosseau Marx speaks painstakingly about furniture restoration. Make the mistake of using the word "refinishing" instead, and her retort is quick: "In this country I don't know why we have the problem with the word 'restoration.' It is not the same as refinishing."  Retooling the garage Whether off to the beach or out for a bike ride, Susan Hentschel and her two daughters of Wainscott, N.Y., often found their plans delayed while they searched through the maze of stuff in their garage.  Seeing the light: To save money and energy, switch to CFLs Looking to save money on your electric bill? Change your light bulbs. The latest Energy Star bulbs use one-third the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs, and they last up to 10 times longer.  Teens' bedrooms need to grow up too Room owner: Maureen Zimmerman, 13  The future of your lawn is right now When managed properly, a lawn can slow rainwater, allowing it to percolate into the soil and reduce sediment and other runoff into rivers and streams. Healthy lawns control dust, dissipate heat and noise, reduce glare, lower fire risk, and can improve soil and water quality.  The latest weapon in the rat wars The legions of rats that have forever scurried across the Earth have inspired no shortage of inventions promising to make them vanish.  Tips and trends for home improvement and design Flood insurance  Tropical plant sources Joe Seamone said he has used a "hodgepodge" of suppliers to build his collection of tropical plants. His three main sources are an Internet nursery called Brian's Botanicals, based in Louisville (www.briansbotanicals.net); Home Depot; and eBay. Most of the material is purchased in the spring, though he will buy a plant now if he thinks it is rare and unavailable from other sources.  Weatherizing your home As we head into the coldest months of the year, here are 10 tips for weatherizing your home:  What dormant season? New grow lights make indoor growing easier Innovations in high-output fluorescent lamps are making the growing easier for people whose only garden options are in places where the sun won't shine.  When the leaves turn brown, you can work on making your lawn green The arrival of cooler nights and moderating daytime temperatures makes autumn the best time of year to revitalize turf grasses. A good maintenance plan will help lawns withstand harsh winter weather and enable them to return with an abundance of thick, green growth next spring, said John Marshall, manager of The Scott's Training Institute, a division of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. in Marysville, Ohio.  Worried about a drought? Think tropics At some point this summer, the objective in my garden shifted from watering plants to keep them pretty to watering plants to keep them alive. This required a lot of effort and resources for a landscape that became increasingly distressed. Depressed, I devised the ultimate drought gardening strategy: I fled the country.