When Annie first wrote about the neo-Gothic renovation of a historic house in Omaha, Nebraska, she noted the way in which the Brooklyn-based firm, Ridge House, was able to at once preserve and modernize the space. White walls? Nope. Bright brass fixtures? Not even close. While bucking all design trends du jour, Ridge House layered shades of gray and dark wood with original fixtures and antique furniture. Here we detail their exact sources, where applicable, and a few of our own look-alikes for a similar effect overall. Above: The designers restored the original woodwork from floors to trim. Photography by…

One of these guards won’t totally free you of ladder duty, but it could buy you time between checkups. Mesh-screen caps How they work: A vinyl, plastic, or metal grid sits atop the gutter, letting water in while keeping leaves out. Your job: Brushing aside any accumulated debris from time to time to prevent runoff from cascading over the face of the gutter. The cost: Seamless, pro-installed systems start near $5 per linear foot, while snap-on DIY options, which are more visible, start at about 33 cents per foot. Foam inserts How they work A porous foam that fits half-round…

I was in an old bookshop in Dublin, of all places, escaping the cold and leafing through a book called The Foraged Home, when I stopped on a spread of an old schoolhouse in Germany and was instantly entranced. I hurried back to my hotel room to do some Google reconnaissance and discovered more to the story: Tucked in the Mecklenburg countryside, near the rural village of Rensow, the Schoolhouse and a nearby Manor House are the project of Danish/German couple Christina and Knut. The couple was living in Copenhagen, where Christina is from, before finding the late 17th-century Manor House (“almost…