Amy Tan Takes a Novel Approach to Bird-Watching: ‘Be the Bird’
In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.
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![Before Amy Tan began studying drawing, there were just three bird species in her backyard that she could identify; Anna’s hummingbird was one of them.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/09/realestate/10garden01/10garden01-thumbLarge.jpg?auto=webp)
![Before Amy Tan began studying drawing, there were just three bird species in her backyard that she could identify; Anna’s hummingbird was one of them.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/09/realestate/10garden01/10garden01-threeByTwoMediumAt2X.jpg?auto=webp)
In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.
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The fire-resistant house she built in Napa, Calif., with the insurance money was “so different — and I like different.”
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A 1735 stone house on 32 acres in Saugerties, a Queen Anne Revival home in Stockbridge and an early 18th-century farmhouse with a guest cottage in Collegeville.
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Prospective buyers should limit any offer to the value of a property as they see it.
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$3 Million Homes in California
A midcentury-modern house in Los Angeles, a three-bedroom condominium in San Francisco and a hillside home in San Rafael.
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The Simplest (and Cheapest) Way to Decorate With Flowers
It starts in your own backyard (or the tiny container garden on your balcony): “You can put a single bloom in a flower vase, and that is often enough.”
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A mews apartment, a two-bedroom in a semidetached Victorian villa, and a three-bedroom in a rowhouse with a private backyard.
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Big Ticket: N.Y.’s Top Sales and Listings in June
Take a look at some of the most high-profile real estate listings and sales in June in New York City.
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From an R.V. to a Condo Near Washington: Which Was Better for Their Growing Family?
After spending two years on the road and having a baby, a young couple decided to put down roots just south of the nation’s capital. Here’s what they found.
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Homes for Sale in Manhattan and Brooklyn
This week’s properties are in Sutton Place, Gramercy Park and Flatbush.
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Homes for Sale in Connecticut and New York
This week’s properties are a three-bedroom in Weston, Conn., and a five-bedroom in Stony Brook, N.Y.
By Claudia Gryvatz Copquin and
How Do You Restore a Chestnut Forest or an Apple Orchard? Very Slowly.
This botanic garden is determined to bring back the American chestnut tree and heirloom apples that taste like those grown 500 years ago. It won’t be easy.
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$550,000 Homes in Maine, the District of Columbia and Kentucky
A two-bedroom cottage in Castine, a one-bedroom apartment in a Beaux-Arts building in Washington and a circa-1900 house in Louisville.
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Cowboy Hats and Koi Fish Photos? There’s a Reason.
Some interior designers decorate their adult apartments to be reminded of the hometowns where they grew up.
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When Your Neighbor Renovates, How Do You Protect Your Home?
A law exists to balance the interests of people who renovate their properties with the interests of their neighbors.
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Co-op Assessments: Do You Have to Pay What They Say?
Courts allow co-op boards significant power over building finances, including assessments — if the fees are in ‘good faith.’
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I Hired an Agent to Sell My Home. Do I Have to Pay the Buyer’s Broker Now?
The legal settlements roiling the real estate industry are changing the way commissions get paid. But the change could come slowly.
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My Neighbor Has a Very Annoying Emotional Support Dog. What Can I Do?
As long as this dog isn’t biting people, it’s probably not going anywhere. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live with the noise.
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I Can’t Use My Co-op’s Keypad Entry on the Sabbath. Am I Entitled to a Side Door Key?
Because of your religious beliefs, your co-op could face legal liability if it fails to accommodate your request.
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A New World Order for Renters? Well, It Worked for This Guy.
During the pandemic, a man realized he was free to work remotely in any city he wanted, in the U.S. and abroad. After moving a dozen times, he had a second epiphany.
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Looking for Friends? How About 23 Housemates?
An engineer who moved from London to New York was planning to live alone, but ended up doing just the opposite — and loving it.
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The Make-or-Break Question for a New Roommate: Do You Drink?
A Brooklyn woman who has been sober for three years needed a roommate. But alcohol would not be allowed in the apartment. Some people thought that was a joke.
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He Wanted to Go Back Home to the Hamptons. Could He Afford It?
A man who struggled to find housing in East Hampton has turned his experience into a podcast, and many of his guests are ‘navigating the waters of trying to make a living here.’
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An Independent Life of Flowers and Bible Verses in the Bronx
A woman in a HUD-subsidized apartment in a building for older New Yorkers bristles at the notion that she would stay home and “watch these four walls.”
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With the cost of college through the roof, some parents have sold their homes or taken out exorbitant loans to pay for their child’s degree. Share your story with us.
By Linda Federico-Ó Murchú and Rukmini Callimachi
A recent study found that the size of the average new rental apartment increased by almost 30 square feet last year.
By Matt Yan
A stone villa in Calistoga, a Spanish-style retreat in Santa Barbara and a four-bedroom house with a guest cottage in Los Angeles.
By Angela Serratore
A four-bedroom house with a thatched roof, a turn-of-the-century rowhouse and a three-bedroom duplex in a converted grain distillery.
By Marcelle Sussman Fischler
Retailers like Chick-fil-A are opening smaller, takeout-focused outposts with little or no seating to complement their traditional locations.
By Celia Young
Co-op rules meant they couldn’t add a second bedroom, so they came up with an elegant workaround.
By Julie Lasky
With their lease on a Lower East Side apartment expiring, two software engineers wondered if buying made more sense than renting, now that the housing market wasn’t quite so frenzied. Here’s what they found.
By Heather Senison
Facing high home prices and mortgage interest rates, many people need huge down payments to afford a mortgage.
By Matt Yan
This week’s properties are in NoMad, the East Village and Park Slope.
By Heather Senison
This week’s properties are waterfront homes in Massapequa, N.Y., and Margate, N.J.
By Jill P. Capuzzo and Claudia Gryvatz Copquin
A tight-knit immigrant community trusted a developer as one of their own. But he pocketed the money, according to the state attorney general’s office.
By Matt Yan
The world-famous New York City gardens offer a master class in how to grow and maintain a naturalistic landscape. Here are a few takeaways.
By Margaret Roach
A Colonial Revival retreat in Greenwich, a Prairie-style house in Chicago and a Queen Anne Revival home in Houston.
By Angela Serratore
Tal Alexander, who rose to fame in the luxury housing market with his younger brother Oren, will take a leave from the firm he helped to create. Oren left earlier in June.
By Debra Kamin
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The small house in Washington was designed to sit lightly on the land: It touches the ground in only six places, and they didn’t cut down a single tree.
By Tim McKeough
A Craftsman bungalow in Altadena, a three-bedroom condominium in San Francisco and a renovated midcentury house in Sausalito.
By Angela Serratore
Flip taxes, also known as transfer fees, help co-op buildings raise money for repairs and improvements, and they must be described in your governing documents.
By Jill Terreri Ramos
A three-bedroom loft in an revamped factory, a two-bedroom apartment in a 16th-century house, and a detached villa in a leafy residential area.
By Joann Plockova
The Harlem home of the circus impresario James A. Bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along.
By John Freeman Gill
A recently married couple moved to the Italian capital in search of a two-bedroom with a terrace in a central neighborhood. What would their $950,000 budget afford?
By Lana Bortolot
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