Some of the most stubborn plants in a North Carolina yard arrived in a nursery pot, with a tag and a price on them. Regardless of their origin, N.C. Cooperative Extension publishes control instructions for several plant species. Homeowners with yards need to be aware of them. These are the plants North Carolinians regret ever…
A homeowner in Punta Gorda calls her insurance company eleven months after landfall, the week her contractor finally has an opening. She’s four weeks from losing the claim. Florida gives you one year from the day a hurricane comes ashore to put your insurer on notice, and a contractor’s calendar has nothing to do with…
A Costco membership costs $65 a year for a Gold Star card, or $130 a year for the Executive tier. That’s the easy half. The harder half is whether the Executive upgrade earns back the extra $65 it costs. It turns on one figure almost nobody works out before they hand over a credit card:…
A dad hands his six-year-old his phone at bedtime and gets thirty minutes of peace out of the deal. Not long after lights out, a stranger left a bag of food on the porch. Then another stranger did. These are the things kids accidentally order the second a parent hands over the phone. Take this…
Your first set of directions in Missouri ends with a letter. Take Z to MM, then watch for the outer road. The person telling you that assumes you already know what a letter on a road sign means. These are the things Missourians do that confuse everyone who moves there. 1. Asking Where You Went…
You find a stranger’s mattress in your empty Horry County beach house, and every instinct says change the locks tonight. If you do that, you could end up writing a check. The check goes to the squatter. These are the South Carolina squatter rules that leave homeowners feeling powerless. Note: This is general information, not…
A brother-in-law from Buffalo drops his bag in the driveway, looks over the yard, and asks which tree is the orange tree. He’s just getting started. The postcard version of Florida is decades out of date, and the relatives who fly down every summer haven’t updated their questions. These are the questions Floridians brace for…
A pickup truck idles outside a gas station on the edge of Franklin, windows down, engine off. The driver doesn’t bother reaching for the radio. There’s already plenty to listen to. These are the sounds of a Tennessee summer locals can place before the first note even finishes. 1. Katydids After Dark Step onto a…
Renewing a standard driver’s license in Texas costs $33, whether you do it online, by phone, at a driver license office, or through the mail. That fee buys eight more years before you have to think about it again. Turn 85, and the price drops instead, to $9, though the card only lasts two years…
Hurricane season hands Floridians a legitimate reason to open their guest room. But that doesn’t mean the welcome mat stays out forever. Somewhere between a guest’s second rebooked flight and an eleventh night on a leaking air mattress, patience runs out. In our opinion, these are the situations when it’s perfectly acceptable to kick out…
