Q: My single-level, end-unit condominium, built in the early 1980s, is always cold, despite the fact that the outside walls are insulated and the windows are double glazed. I have a gas furnace in the ...

Rebecca Brill is a writer whose essays have appeared in The Paris Review Daily, VICE, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She runs the Susan Sontag's Diary and the Sylvia Plath's Food Diary accounts on ...

Q: We are moving to a new house with the loudest forced air furnace I've ever heard. They're common to our builder. What can I do to reduce the noise? Some is the fast air movement, some is the fans.

The garage got hot in the summer, too, but I solved that problem with solar-powered ventilation fans, plus a cheap air conditioner for the really hot days. Murilee Martin Insulation and paneling ...