For the past few weeks, we have asked our readers to nominate their favorite gardening blogs, catalogs, magazines and books. We’ve narrowed down the nominations to the top 5 in each category and now it’s time to vote!

Voting runs February 22 – March 21… Winners will be announced on March 30th!

You will be able to vote once per day. In order to ensure fairness in the voting procedure, you can either vote through your Facebook login or provide an email address here. About.com will never share, rent, or sell your personal information without your consent, unless it is required by law. Your information will be protected by About.com’s Privacy Policy

If you’d like more information on each of the finalists, here is where you will find links to their websites.

Evan Sung for The New York Times

Anda Andrei with the Cube X night stand by Werner Aisslinger at the Domus Design Collection in Manhattan; $3,320, (212) 685-0800, ddcnyc.com.

ANDA ANDREI has spent lots of time thinking about night stands, out of necessity. Since 1984, she has worked with the hotelier Ian Schrager, designing guest rooms that are stylish and restful.

She has helped develop boutique hotels like the Royalton and the Hudson in New York, with the designer Philippe Starck, whose horn-shaped sconces and illuminated flooring created an of-the-moment atmosphere. More recently, as head of design at the Ian Schrager Company, she has worked on Public Chicago, which opened last October, and Edition Hotels, a new chain in partnership with Marriott.

“We went back to something much more classic, elegant and ageless,” stated Ms. Andrei, 57. “It’s not the flavor of the month, or the designer of the minute.”

Either way, when furnishing a bedroom, “there are maybe 200 million tables that can go on the side of the bed,” she said. To narrow the field, she suggests thinking about function.

In a hotel, she said, there are requirements like providing power for phone chargers and space for reading lamps. At home, your night stand should reflect your personal habits.

For instance, at CB2 in SoHo, Ms. Andrei noted the Formosa tray table: “I have this in my place in Miami. There are times when I like to take my coffee with me. I love that with a tray, you can travel with your table.”

Another issue Ms. Andrei faces at home is a tendency to accumulate stacks of books beside her bed. “I’m lazy and I just keep piling them up,” she said. “So my dream night table at home would have bookshelves.”

Online, she had seen the Ladder Bookcase from De La Espada, which leans against the wall and has five shelves with a drawer at the bottom, so she went to the company’s SoHo showroom to analyze it, only to find that the store had been permanently closed. (The bookcase can still be ordered by phone.)

For similar functionality in a smaller size, she liked the Balance side table from the Conran Shop, which she had also found online. Essentially a low two-shelf bookcase with cantilevered ends, it offers just enough storage space to keep things off the floor, she said.

Next, she stopped at the Domus Design Collection showroom at Madison Avenue and East 34th Street, where she picked out the Cube X, a night stand with a minimalist form she approved of: a box with a single oversize drawer. “It just disappears,” she said.

There are so many appealing night stands out there, Ms. Andrei noted, that settling on just one can be difficult. Her solution: Don’t worry about ordering a matching set — just pick the two you like best. “I like when they don’t match,” she said. “I find it a lot more homey.” 

Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times

Amy Kennedy states having her own place means living without “social checks and balances.”  She runs in place during TV commercials and speaks to herself in French.

IF there is any doubt that we’re living in the age of the individual, a look at the housing data confirms it. For millenniums, people have huddled together, in caves, in mud huts, in split-levels and Cape Cods. But these days, 1 in every 4 American households is occupied by someone living alone; in Manhattan, mythic land of the singleton, the number is almost 1 in 2.

Lately, along with the compelling statistics, a stealth P.R. campaign seems to be taking place, as though living alone were a political candidate trying to burnish its image. Two notable examples: Eric Klinenberg, a sociology professor at New York University, recently published “Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone,” a mash note to domestic solipsism, which he calls “an incredible social experiment” that reveals “the human species is developing new ways to live.” And last fall, an Atlantic magazine cover story analyzed the rise of the single woman, a piece in which the author Kate Bolick fondly invoked the Barbizon Hotel and visited an Amsterdam apartment complex for women committed to living solo.

“I glamorized people who lived alone — I really wanted it for myself,” stated Ms. Bolick, who is in her late 30s and has her own apartment in Brooklyn Heights.

True, the benefits of living alone are many: freedom to come and go as you please; the space and solitude to recharge in a plugged-in world; kingly or queenly domain over the bed.

Still, as TV has taught us, the single-occupant home can be a breeding ground for eccentricities. Think of Claire Danes’s C.I.A. employee in “Homeland,” who turns her Georgetown one-bedroom into a control bunker for an ad hoc spying operation. Or Kramer on “Seinfeld,” washing vegetables in the shower or deciding, on a whim, to ditch his furniture in favor of “levels.”

In a sense, living alone represents the self let loose. In the absence of what Mr. Klinenberg calls “surveilling eyes,” the solo dweller is free to indulge his or her odder habits — what is sometimes referred to as Secret Single Behavior. Feel like standing naked in your kitchen at 2 a.m., eating peanut butter from the jar? Who’s to know?

Amy Kennedy, 28, a schoolteacher who has a two-bedroom apartment in High Point, N.C., all to herself, calls it living without “social checks and balances.”

The effects are noticeable, she said: “I’ve been living alone for six years, and I’ve gotten quirkier and quirkier.”

Among her domestic oddities: running in place during TV commercials; talking conversational French to herself while making breakfast (she listens to a language CD); singing Journey songs in the shower; and removing only the clothes she needs from her dryer, thus turning it into a makeshift dresser.

“The entire apartment is your room,” Ms. Kennedy said, by way of explanation. “If I leave a bra on the kitchen table, I don’t think much about it.”

In the experience of Ms. Bolick, who has also lived with roommates and boyfriends, living alone breeds “a very indulgent work style.”

“I can work 24/7 for days on end, and I can let my whole apartment fall apart on me and not wash the dishes,” she continued. “And nobody cares.”

Ms. Bolick even has a home-alone outfit. “I have this pair of white flax bloomers that go down to my knee. They’re like pantaloons. They’re so weird,” she said. “If someone comes over, I change out of them.”

Even boyfriends have never seen her in them? “No, no,” Ms. Bolick said, laughing. “That would be the height of intimacy if someone saw those.”

What emerges over time, for those who live alone, is an at-home self that is markedly different — in ways huge and small — from the self they present to the world. We all have private selves, of course, but people who live alone spend a good deal more time exploring them.

Rod Sherwood’s living-alone indulgences center on his sleep cycle. A music manager and record producer who works from his railroad apartment in Brooklyn, Mr. Sherwood, 40, stated he’ll go to bed at 2 a.m. one night, and then retire later and later by increments, “until I go to bed when the sun comes up.”

He mused: “I wondered how many times in a year I repeat that cycle? I’d be interested to chart it.”

Ronni Bennett, who is 70 and writes a blog on aging, timegoesby.net, has lived alone for all but 10 or so years of her adult life. She stated she has adopted a classic living-alone habit: “I never, ever close the bathroom door.”

Stacey Cramp for The New York Times

Barbara Damrosch harvests tatsoi, a hardy Asian green that has grown through the winter in an unheated greenhouse attached to her family’s home in Maine. More Photos »

IT was early February, when the 10-hour day returns here on the 44th parallel, and Barbara Damrosch could see it in the brighter green leaves of her tatsoi and spinach growing in the unheated greenhouse attached to the house she shares with her husband, Eliot Coleman, at Four Season Farm.

Mr. Coleman, 73, began farming here on Cape Rosier, a rocky peninsula in Penobscot Bay, in 1968, on 60 acres of forested land he purchased from Scott and Helen Nearing for $33 an acre.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them,” stated Mr. Coleman, who is a wiry 5-foot-8 and can still swing himself into his apple trees like a boy. “I can’t tell you how much I owe them.”

The Nearings, socialists and free thinkers who built their first house out of stone with their own hands and started growing their food at the foot of Stratton Mountain in southern Vermont during the Depression, inspired young Mr. Coleman and other back-to-the-landers with their 1954 book, “Living the Good Life.”

By then, the Nearings had fled the tourists and skiers pouring into Vermont and moved to Maine, where they built a garden walled with stone that collected heat in a climate where winter temperatures can still fall to 20 below zero. Their greenhouse, nestled against the stone wall, absorbed its stored heat at night. Such techniques, as well as a root cellar beneath the house, helped them live off the land year-round.

Mr. Coleman cleared his first acre with an ax and bow-saw, built a one-room cabin for his first wife, Sue, and two daughters, and started to improve the soil with seaweed pulled from the rocks by the bay along with loads of horse manure and soiled hay. His compost piles, which are now large rectangles walled in by bales of straw, also fed the soil. That’s how three inches of thin topsoil have grown to the foot of black gold in these intensively cropped beds.

He and Ms. Damrosch, who is now 69, met in 1990 in the Nearings’ greenhouse, where he was tying up tomatoes. Both had been twice married and divorced, and they had kids from previous marriages. Mr. Coleman’s oldest child, Melissa, writes about her parents’ homesteading, which was both idyllic and impossibly hard, and the loss of her sister, Heidi, who drowned accidentally in a pond at age 3, in “This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres and a Family Undone,” published last year by HarperCollins. After that tragedy, Mr. Coleman spent 10 years running experimental farms in Vermont and Massachusetts, returning here in 1990 to work his own land again.

Mr. Coleman and Ms. Damrosch, who married in 1991, had much in common, including near-endless energy.

He had grown up in Rumson, N.J., the privileged child of a stockbroker. She had grown up in Manhattan, the daughter of a pediatrician.

He had earned a master’s degree in Spanish literature at Williams College and roamed the Americas, teaching at various schools while skiing and rock climbing and whitewater kayak racing.

She had worked on a doctorate in medieval literature from Columbia University (she never completed her dissertation) and had taught college and written for The Village Voice and The Nation before moving to Connecticut to raise her son, Christopher, and to begin a garden design business.

By the time they eyed each other over the tomatoes, Mr. Coleman had already published his first book, “The New Organic Grower,” and taken delegations of scientists to Europe to observe the success of intensive organic farming. Ms. Damrosch had appeared on “The Victory Garden,” the popular WGBH public tv series that promoted composting and intensive gardening, and she had published a book, “Theme Gardens.” Over the years, they have both continued to write: Ms. Damrosch’s book “A Garden Primer” is a bible for gardeners; Mr. Coleman’s “Four Season Harvest” and “The Winter Harvest Handbook” explain his organic methods in detail.

Close attention to soil health and the different needs of each plant are crucial.

Named after his late mother, the lamp is made of powder-coated folded steel with an alder-wood base. “I was trying to achieve some sort of three-dimensional form,” he said. “I think the facets kind of lend itself to an interesting object, as well as some potential interesting lighting effects.”

]]> http://housing-today.com/house/currents-lighting-handmade-lamps-from-a-rookie/feed/ 0 http://housing-today.com/house/home-resales-at-1-12-year-high-as-supply-falls/ http://housing-today.com/house/home-resales-at-1-12-year-high-as-supply-falls/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:01:35 +0000 admin http://housing-today.com/house/home-resales-at-1-12-year-high-as-supply-falls/ — U.S. home resales rose to a 1-1/2 year high in January, pushing the supply of properties on the market to the lowest level in nearly seven years in a hopeful sign for the housing sector.

The National Association of Realtors stated on Wednesday existing home sales increased 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.57 million units last month, the fastest pace since May 2010.

It was the latest sign the housing market may be coming off the floor. While economists attributed some of the rise to unseasonably warm winter weather, they also stated it signaled genuine improvement.

Sales were up across all four regions of the country, with the West recording the biggest gain — an 8.8 percent increase.

“At least some of the improvement in the last few months could have reflected milder winter weather, but for the most part, it seems that the housing sector may have turned the corner,” stated Guy Berger, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

The tenor of the report was weakened somewhat by a sharp downward revision to December’s sales data to show only a 4.38 million unit sales rate rather than the previously reported 4.61 million unit pace.

A brightening economic outlook, marked by a strengthening labor market and buoyant factories, is giving the housing market some lift. Confidence among homebuilders is near five-year highs and they are breaking more ground on new housing projects.

Residential construction is expected to contribute to growth this year for the first time since 2005.

Robert Toll, executive chairman of luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers, welcomed that progress even as his company announced a surprise quarterly loss on Wednesday.

“Since the new home industry is coming off several years of historic low levels of production, we are encouraged by the recent improvement,” he stated in a statement.

The data did tiny to lift sentiment in U.S. stock markets, which were down in early afternoon as investors fretted about a likely euro zone recession. Prices for U.S. government debt rose on concerns Greece might not be able to avert a messy default even with a fresh bailout.

The U.S. housing market had been held back by an overhang of unsold homes, but steady sales gains are helping to whittle down supply.

The inventory of unsold homes on the market fell 0.4 percent to 2.31 million last month, the lowest since March 2005. That represented a 6.1 months’ supply at January’s sales pace, the lowest since April 2006 and down from 6.4 months in December.

However, inventories tend to fall in winter and the decline last month could also be reflecting delays in the process of bringing foreclosed properties to the market.

A supply of six months generally is considered ideal.

“We think the foreclosure process will accelerate, which will speed up the flow of distressed inventory. We anticipate supply to edge back to eight months this year,” stated Michelle Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.

That would increase the downward pressure on prices. The median home sales price fell 2 percent to $154,700 in January from a year ago.

Other data on Wednesday showed demand for home buy loans fell last week, despite mortgage rates holding near historic lows.

The Federal Reserve, which has suggested a number of ways other policymakers could step in to help the beaten-up market, is considering purchasing more mortgage-backed securities to drive mortgages rates even lower.

But some economists are skeptical that would do much good.

“I do not think the problem in the mortgage market is high interest rates or availability of liquidity. The problem is lack of jobs and very strict lending standards,” stated Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University Channel Islands.

Distressed properties, foreclosures and short sales, which typically occur at deep discounts, accounted for 35 percent of overall sales last month, up from 32 percent in December.

A third of pending existing home sales contracts were canceled, the NAR said.

The answer was yes for three out of four affluent Americans polled in a Merrill Lynch survey released Wednesday. Many will make it there: if you are currently 65 and married, there is a 31 percent chance you or your spouse will live past 95, Merrill said, citing research from the Society of Actuaries.

Living to 100 would be a good thing, according to 58 percent of those polled in Merrill’s bi-annual Affluent Insights Survey.

But the prospect of a long life is also causing anxiety. People planning for their later years are thinking about holding off on retiring and are reining in spending today.

“The word ‘retire’ and the number 65 had always been one in the same,” stated David Tyrie, head of personal wealth and retirement for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “That’s just not the case anymore.”

Merrill, which polled 1,000 Americans who had investable assets of $250,000 or more, found that just over half stated they would rather retire later than make tradeoffs on their current way of life.

Still, if necessary, most stated they would make sacrifices like trimming day-to-day expenses, purchasing fewer luxuries and slicing back on their vacation budgets.

No tiki bar The age 65 no longer conjures images of walking out of a job for the last time and heading for the Tiki bar in Florida. In the survey, only 14 percent of those over the age of 50 cited “hitting a certain age” as the factor that would most lead them to retire.

To accommodate for a longer life, 39 percent stated they would work at least part-time during retirement, while a quarter of the respondents stated they would retire closer to 85 than 65.

The rising cost of health-care was named as the financial issue causing the most anxiety, with some 79 percent saying that was their top financial concern.

Tyrie stated the concerns about health-care should motivate more advisers to learn more about how to help clients plan for health-care costs. Some 62 percent of the survey respondents over the age of 50 stated they have yet to estimate what health-care will cost them in retirement.

Merrill Lynch is rolling out an iPad app to help advisers spark conversations with clients about health-care planning, in part by helping clients estimate how much money they need to set aside.

The app is currently being tested by about 100 advisers and will be rolled out to other retirement-focused advisers throughout this year, a company spokesman said.

Tyrie likened an adviser to a primary care doctor who can refer out to specialists.

“Don’t try to know the topic inside and out, just know where to get the information,” he said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Student loan debt in the U.S. now totals more than $1 trillion. That’s more than all the outstanding credit card debt in the country.

A recent report by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys found that both students and parents are borrowing at record rates.

College seniors who graduated with student loans in 2010 owed an average of $25,250, up five percent from the previous year. Parents had an average of $34,000 in student loans for their children. The report states the number of these parental loans has jumped 75 percent since 2005-2006.

“These are enormous numbers,” states Ike Shulman, a bankruptcy attorney in San Jose, Calif. “They’re basically setting us up for having a massive number of fellow citizens become economically non-functional for the rest of their adult lives.”

Growing numbers of people are being crushed by this debt — unable to pay and unable to get relief. A recent nation-wide survey of bankruptcy attorneys by NACBA found that most (81 percent) had seen a spike in the number of people with student loan debt looking for help. But in most cases, there is nothing a lawyer can do.

Current law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debt through bankruptcy. And unlike other unsecured debt, there is no statute of limitations on student loans. Lenders can pursue borrowers to the grave.

“It’s not fair and it needs to be corrected,” states NACBA president William Brewer. “It is a debt bomb that could cripple our society.”

The association’s report states the country faces a serious economic threat from this growing mountain of student debt, one that could be every bit as devastating as the mortgage meltdown.

“This will be a drag on the economy for the foreseeable future,” warns John Roa, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and NACBA’s vice president.

It’s a problem for students and parents who co-signed loans Dave Ingham, a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Minneapolis, fears he could lose his savings and his house because he co-signed student loans — now in default — for his son. Ingham is being sued by collectors.

His son Shannon has been unable to find work since October 2009. He’s now been diagnosed with acute anxiety disorder and depression. He’s still looking for work, but his dad states the loan defaults keep him from getting hired.

“It seems that whenever he comes close to a job interview, they run a credit check, see his loan defaults and the interview does not proceed,” Ingham stated at a recent telephone news conference arranged by NACBA.

Can something be done? With student loans backed by the federal government, someone in trouble can try to get the payments deferred or modified. There are even loan forgiveness programs. With private loans, it’s pay or end up in default.

The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys wants a “safety net” under student loans, just as there is for other consumer lending.

If you begin a business that fails, they point out, you can file for bankruptcy and go on with your life. But college students — or their parents — don’t have the same protection.

“We need to make some common sense reforms, something like creating an escape valve to relieve some of the pressure before the whole thing blows sky high,” states NACBA vice president John Roa. “There’s no way to diffuse this bomb if the status quo remains the same.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-Tennessee), has introduced a bill, H.R. 2028: Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act, which would treat private student loan debt the same as other consumer debt.

Congressman Cohen states his bill would “restore fair treatment to Americans in severe financial distress” and give “an honest but unfortunate debtor a chance for a financial fresh start.”

The bill is supported by the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education and the American Federation of Teachers, as well as various consumer groups.There is currently no formal opposition.

The idea of making it easier to discharge student loan debt via bankruptcy will not sit well with those who backed bankruptcy reforms passed in 2005. Clearly, getting the law changed is a long-shot.

Dave Ingham states he doesn’t know how to solve the current situation. But he believes something should be done before others face the same financial ruin he does.

“It’s something that’s really out of control,” Ingham says. “There are thousands and thousands of us out there who need help with this situation. Please do not give up on us.”

Read: NACBA report and member survey on student loan debt

Are you struggling with student debt? Share your thoughts on Facebook.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit, Apt. 38B, is also listed for sale for $2.3 million by Richard Nassimi of the Corcoran Group.

Lin will have furniture provided and is expected to sign rental papers this week, according to the New York Post, which first reported the move. His exact rent was not disclosed, but other two bedrooms in the building rent for around $9,000 per month, according to StreetEasy. Lin’s condo is 1,182 square feet.

The W Downtown, a 56-story mixed-use tower at 123 Washington Street, is the tallest new development in the area and has views overlooking the World Trade Center and Hudson River. The base of the building has 217 hotel units, a restaurant and fitness center. Condos begin at the 23rd floor, and tenants have access to a mid-level lounge, outdoor terrace, gym and spa.

Developer Joseph Moinian built the tower with foreign buyers in mind, even working with a feng shui consultant during the design process and visiting China to lure prospective buyers in partnership with Windham Realty Group.

Gwathmey Siegel & Associates was the architect of the building, and Graft designed interiors. Starwood Hotels, owner of the W brand, manages the building.

Lin is also renting a two-bedroom condo in White Plains through David Lee, a former teammate who plays for the Golden State Warriors.

Photos of Lin’s apartment from the Corcoran Group:

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Croatian paper Jutamji List reported that Pitt has partnered with businessman Danko Koncar and actor Rade Serbedzija to build a luxury waterfront resort in the Brijuni Islands in the Adriatic Sea.

The planned development will contain hotels, villas, a golf course and marina. The project’s architects and cost have not been disclosed.

The islands are largely uninhabitated, but have been used for stone quarries and contain remnants from Ancient Roman structures.

Koncar, who amassed his wealth through chrome mines in South Africa, purchased the project from Hypo Bank for 85 million Euros ($112.4 million), according to Jutamji List.

Serbedzija appeared in “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” directed by Pitt’s wife, Angelina Jolie, who has been attracted to the Croatian region. She has reportedly considered buying a house in the area.

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“The uptrend in home sales is in line with all of the underlying fundamentals — pent-up household formation, record-low mortgage interest rates, bargain home prices, sustained job creation and rising rents ,” stated Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a statement.

While sales reached the highest level since May 2010, they fell below expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, who had forecast 4.66 million in existing home sales in January.

Sales were 0.7 percent above the 4.54 million units sold in January 2011. Inventory fell 0.4 percent to 2.31 million available homes.

“The broad inventory condition can be described as moving into a rough balance, not favoring buyers or sellers,” Yun said.

“Foreclosure sales are moving swiftly with ready home buyers and investors competing in almost all markets. A government proposal to turn bank-owned properties into rentals on a massive scale does not appear to be needed at this time.”

The median sales price was $154,700 in January, down 2 percent from the prior year. Distressed sales, including foreclosures and short sales, were 35 percent of the market, up from 32 percent in December, but down from 37 percent from the prior January.

All-cash deals were 31 percent of the market in January, unchanged from the prior month, and down slightly from 32 percent in January 2011. Investors accounted for the bulk of all-cash deals and represented 23 percent of home sales, up from 21 percent in December and unchanged from the prior year.

First-time buyers made up 33 percent of transactions in January, up from 31 percent in December and 29 percent from the prior year.

Although month-over-month sales increased in all regions, pricing dropped compared to the prior year.

Sales in the Northeast were up 3.4 percent month-over-month in January to an annual pace of 600,000, and up 7.1 percent from a year ago. But the median price was down 4.2 percent year-over-year to $225,700.

Midwest sales were up 1 percent month-over-month and up 3.2 percent from the prior year to 980,000, while median price dropped 3.9 percent year-over-year to $122,000.

Sales in the South were up 3.5 percent month-over-month to 1.76 million, but were unchanged from the prior year’s pace. The median price was $134,800, down 0.3 percent from the prior year.

Western sales were up 8.8 percent to 1.23 million in January, but down 3.1 percent from a spike in January 2011. The median home price in January was $187,100, down 1.8 percent from the prior year.

Lower prices may entice more prospective buyers, but expected further declines could also discourage them.

“Word has been spreading about the record high housing affordability conditions and our members are reporting an increase in foot traffic compared with a year ago,” stated Moe Veissi, president of NAR.

“With other favorable market factors, these are hopeful indicators leading into the spring home-buying season. We’re cautiously optimistic that an uptrend will continue this year.”

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Mary Kay’s former home is painted a soft pink

By Erika Riggs,

Mary Kay Mansion8915 Douglas Ave, Dallas TXFor sale: $3.3 million

The former home of the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics is exactly the color you would expect: A soft shade of light pink. Mary Kay pink, to be exact.

Mary Kay Ash’s stucco mansion was built in 1984 by Dallas Design Group and served as the businesswoman’s home and headquarters for pleasing Mary Kay consultants until 2000. Although Mary Kay did not design the home, touches of the makeup icon are inherent in many of the home’s features, according to listing agent Karen Luter.

Like, for instance, the solid pink quartz toilet and bath.

The beauty-product queen’s former home is back on the Dallas real estate market for $3.3 million. Mary Kay sold the home in 2000 in her efforts to downsize, and now the current owner, a Dallas physician, is following suit and hoping to move to the San Juan Islands. What’s unusual, notes Luter, is that both Mary Kay and the doctor are successful entrepreneurs.

“It’s interesting that it [the home] was bought by Mary Kay, who was a self-made woman, and it was sold to another self-made woman from humble beginnings,” stated Luter.

Ideally, the next owner would follow the trend, but if the buyer happens to be a self-made man, Luter states she will not discriminate.

Despite its pink-hued exterior, the interior of Mary Kay’s home has an elegance that belies the outside.

The home is built on a grand scale, with 40-foot-high ceilings and a foyer that includes busts of famous composers inserted in the ceiling. Highly detailed panelling and moldings appear throughout the house, as well as enormous floor-to-ceiling, beveled glass windows that look out to the terraced gardens.

Situated on an acre of land in the high-end Dallas neighborhood of Old Preston Hollow, the grounds of Mary Kay’s home were designed to mimic the San Simeon estate, William Hearst’s famous home in California.

The former Mary Kay home was redone by the current owner: New flooring, paint, updated kitchen and geothermal system for heating and cooling.

Mary Kay Cosmetics was founded by Mary Kay Ash in 1963. Frustrated when her employer promoted the man she trained rather than her, Mary Kay quit to write a book to help women succeed in business. Out of her research, she realized she had a business plan that would work for her makeup company. She began giving out pink Cadillacs to her top Mary Kay sellers in 1969.

In an age when many women were not encouraged to work outside the home, Mary Kay’s company was a significant opportunity. Luter shared an anecdote from one of the woman who worked with Mary Kay in the company’s early days:

“Mary Kay told them (the consultants) to work really hard all day and then get home and sauté some onions in a skillet. As the fragrance fills the house, your husbands will think you have been cooking all day.”

According to ‘s affordability calculator, a monthly payment on the pink manse would run about $12,150, assuming a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-mortgage.

The main doors open up to a marble foyer and grand staircase.

The kitchen has been completely updated.

The grounds and lavish pool were mirrored after the Hearst estate in California.

See more pics of the Mary Kay mansion on .

Discover more real estate eye candy on the blog.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot’s strong quarterly earnings report Tuesday has some wondering: Is this an indicator of an improving trend in the much-beleaguered U.S. housing market?

Brian Nagel, a retail analyst at Oppenheimer, thinks so.

One of the warmest U.S. winters on record has certainly encouraged home owners to take up home projects earlier than usual, leading to strong demand for everything from paint to concrete and boosting Home Depot’s results. But behind that factor you also have a strengthening hosing environment, Nagel told CNBC.

“I spend a lot of time looking at the index of builders confidence and the commentary that has come from the home improvement retailers lately — it all points to a strengthening demand trend here over the last few months,” he said. “I think this has legs and will persist for some time.”

The world’s largest home improvement chain also gave a better-than expected profit forecast for the year Tuesday, just days after a report showed U.S. homebuilder sentiment had risen in February to its highest level in more than four years. That report raised hopes that the housing market was stabilizing.

Tuesday’s news drove Home Depot shares to their highest level since May 2002.

Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter stated the most important part of Home Depot’s strong quarterly earnings performance and earnings beat were that “they are occurring prior to any sustained housing recovery.”

The company’s earnings power will rise significantly once the housing market and the economy improve, Balter added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Is the housing market rebounding? Discuss on our Facebook page.

For the past few weeks, we have asked our readers to nominate their favorite gardening blogs. We’ve narrowed down the nominations to the top 5 and now it’s time to vote! Which blog deserves the badge for best?

Voting runs February 22 – March 21… Winners will be announced on March 30th!

You will be able to vote once per day. In order to ensure fairness in the voting procedure, you can either vote through your Facebook login or provide an email address here. About.com will never share, rent, or sell your personal information without your consent, unless it is required by law. Your information will be protected by About.com’s Privacy Policy

If you’d like to see each of the Finalists for Best Gardening Blog, here is where you will find links to all their blogs.