Bill Primavera's (williamprimavera) Blog

I’ll confess that I’ve always been a country boy at heart, having been reared in the Tidewater area of Virginia where, as a boy, I spent most of my time outside and barefoot at that. So, it was a real transition for me when I went to college and lived in a third floor dorm room and couldn’t just ...

The classic sitcom Seinfeld may rival Shakespeare for the number of neologisms it has given us—“low talker,” “regifting,” and “anti-dentite” among them—and it has also brought us the holiday Festivus and the career of The Original Soupman. But there is still one area of the Seinfeld universe that...

Each fall throughout the years, I have given various tips for preparing for the long, cold winter ahead, and among them, here are some that are top of mind.For the lawn, rather than gathering leaves and lawn clippings in bags, cut the leaves while dry with your lawnmower into dime-sized pieces. T...

During the last quarter of the year, any homebuyer prospect can tell you that it hasn’t been a sure thing that you can get the house you’ve set your cap on. In today’s market, if a house is priced right and is in good condition, it doesn’t last long on the market. Further, we’ve seen the return o...

Who says bigger is better? Well, all of us do, it seems, when it comes to living larger and wanting more space, especially if we happen to be downsizing, but don’t want to be fully aware of it.There are countless ideas in decorating magazines, on HGTV and the internet about how to give the illusi...

As I opened the door to my kitchen pantry to grab a quick snack, the thought occurred to me that I’ve lived in homes and apartments that didn’t feature a pantry, and I wondered what I ever did without one.As a kid, I distinctly remember how happy my mother was when she and my dad were able to pur...

For a politician, John G. Testa, Westchester County Legislator, says he’s too sentimental about most things, including his hometown of Peekskill where he was born and bred and particularly his Arts and Crafts home which has been in his family since 1940.“I am the fourth generation of my family he...

When it came time for my friend Abby to have a tankless water heater installed, she got the distinct feeling that it made a difference that she was a woman when dealing with both the manufacturer and the installer.  “I felt that I was being treated differently in both cases because I was asking q...

One big question mark remains in the decoration of the great room of our new home and it doesn’t seem likely to be answered any time soon. That is, the choice of chandelier to be hung in our dining area.For the first time in our long marriage of agreeing over most things that surround us, my wife...

Anna Maroselli could write the definitive book or teach a master class on preparing a home for sale. While normally it is a matter of a month or two from the time a seller and realtor engage in the process of listing a home, there was a gestation of more than two years from the time I was called ...