Blog Posts by Jennifer Karmon

Guess it's true what industry insiders are saying about the rental market heating up. Manhattan recently welcomed a new rental listing with a monthly chit that's in the neighborhood of America's average mortgage balance: $150,000.

Let's not be too cynical about this, though. You get a lot for the money. First, it's a residence with an impeccable pedigree. Designed by architect Charles Henry Pierpont Gilbert and completed in 1916, the Woolworth Mansion at 4 East 80th Street on New York's Upper East Side is one of a trio of townhouses commissioned by American retail tycoon Frank Woolworth for his three daughters. A 25-foot-wide mansion on either side hugs the center building that's for rent -- and 40 percent wider. (Take that, sisters!)

According to Brown Harris Stevens, the firm handling the listing, it's New York's only mansion fully renovated in traditional pre-war style that is "formally" available for rent. Your monthly rent payment includes the furnishings, if you want them.

You

I've had my eye on the Clutch oak floor lamp at CB2 for quite some time -- in fact, since the lamp was available with yellow shades, not this more versatile matte gray (although at my house, yellow practically counts as a neutral).

I love its simple, plays-well-with-others lines, and because the light sources are magnetic, you can position the shades just about however you like.

But the website and catalog actually undersell the merits of Jannis Ellenberger's design, if you ask me. I've seen this piece in real life, and its true virtue is in the fact that you can do considerably more with it than the pictures show. The electrical wires are attached to the powdercoated steel lampshades, not to the pole, which means you can pull the domes free of the base to set them on a desk or coffee table. If memory serves, you can even stick them to a filing cabinet or other magnetic surface instead. You could also buy a second lamp, set aside its base and stick four lampshades to your original

I know, I know, it's Labor Day weekend, and maybe your mind isn't on home design. But I had to share with you this truly fabulous sale on Fab.com, a membership-only website with flash sales. These butterfly chairs are just gorgeous to look at, even if you're not buying -- I love how the desktop version's colors scroll down a big screen.

The chairs are made with vintage kantha fabric from India, which gives them an extra layer of specialness that no mass-manufactured item can touch.

Each chair is $154, discounted from the usual $225. Not cheap, I know, but each chair is one of a kind, and the impact you'll get in a room helps justify the price (at least to my rationalizing mind).

Act soon, though; they're going fast. The sale started this morning and continues through Wednesday morning, and eyeballing it, I'd say maybe a third of them are gone at the time of this writing -- including the one below. (But the one above is still available! Click either photo to go to its listing; you'll

You're probably wondering what back-to-school, Maria Montessori and Google could possibly have to do with the subject of homes.

It's not just a naked gambit for search engine traffic, I promise. (Not just a naked gambit.)

Today's Google doodle celebrates Montessori education -- of which Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are prominent, appreciative graduates -- in a way that reminds me how lovely toys can be. The simpler the toys are, the warmer they are, and the richer they are in imaginative possibilities for children and decor-minded adults.

Here's the Google doodle, illustrating typical Montessori toys:

The cursive lowercase G is a sandpaper letter meant for a child to trace with her finger, feeling its rough contours. Here's a noncursive version of Montessori-style sandpaper letters, available for about $15:

A similar cursive manipulative (about $25) is offered by Kid O, a New York-based store that sells a lot of simple, attractive designs including a puzzle like the

This brick beauty in Washington has the proportions of a supermodel, all height and little width.

Listed for $549,999 by Tom Lewis of Redfin, the 2-bedroom, 1.5-bath row-house-without-a-row somehow manages to look surprisingly roomy and modern, thanks to some clever interior customization.

The floor plans show an indoor footprint of just about 12 feet wide at its widest by about 26 feet. The lot size is listed at 423 square feet, which means WYSIWYG when it comes to a yard -- a pocket garden in the front, nothing in the back. Yet the house manages to eke out nearly 1,300 square feet of living space spread over three levels, and that's not  including what Lewis calls a "potential" rooftop deck (buyers to verify that potential, of course).

It's situated on an awkward piece of land on a triangular block in D.C.'s Shaw/U Street corridor. The house was built in 1910, and it's showing its age in places, particularly along one exterior wall coated in tar. (Click any of the photos here to go

Here at Yahoo! Homes, we've run stories about homes for the apocalyptic-minded before -- including, most recently, a nuclear-proof bunker for sale on eBay. But never have we shown you a video tour of a decommissioned missile site, let alone a bunker that has been converted into living space.

Behold.

This, uh, durable abode in Saranac, N.Y., in Adirondack State Park includes a launch-control-center-slash-living-space that extends 40 feet underground, plus a 180-foot-deep unfinished Atlas F missile silo, plus an airstrip. Charmingly, owner Bruce Francisco asserts that the possibilities for that missile shaft are endless: "Think of a skyscraper," he urges, perhaps including a hydroponic paradise or a data storage center.

Before the early 1990s, when the owners began cleaning up the site, only a small concrete entrance existed above-ground. Since then, the owners have built a nearly 2,000-square-foot house around the entrance. As WPTZ-TV reporter David Schneider puts it: "mountain retreat

Few sights of summer inspire as much joy as a child swinging for the sky in a neighborhood park.

But why should kids have all the fun? Grown-ups may call them hanging chairs instead of swings, but the idea's still basically the same -- and almost as fun, too. Just make sure that whatever you dangle them from, be it tree or ceiling, the weight is safely supported.

A neutral rattan design will blend into many different environments. Two's Company makes one that retails for about $370. Or for bohemian muchness, swing toward the egg-shaped Knotted Melati Hanging Chair at Anthropologie for $498, in neutral brown shades or brights. They're pictured side by side here.

IKEA's blue or white hanging seat is categorized as a children's product, but the maximum weight is 220 pounds, so have at it. The chair is $70, available only in stores -- and that's if you're lucky; IKEA frequently sells out of items, as any devotee knows.

The aerodynamic-looking Sky Chair shown at right has been around for

Take a gander at this blog gem over on Yahoo! News: "These termites turn into living bombs to defend against attackers."

Living. Bombs. That's toxic chemical bombs, by the way.

Suddenly wood damage isn't looking so bad, eh? (Kidding.)

If you're in the mood for some more gross-out material, you might want to check out "6 household pests you don't want to know" -- spoiler alert: the termite is one of them -- complete with big disgusting photos and one adorable one.