They were conned by skilled online criminals into draining their retirement savings. After the shock, shame and grief that followed, the victims were often left with something else: an enormous income tax bill. Mary Ellen Strange, a 75-year-old widow who was deceived by fraudsters impersonating federal investigators, now owes the Internal Revenue Service an estimated … Read more
Here’s a terrible thing that happens: Thieves pretend they’re you, file a tax return in your name very early in the year, claim a fat refund and run away with the money. When you try to file your own return, the Internal Revenue Service rejects it. After all, according to the agency’s system, your taxes … Read more
House prices are stubbornly high, and mortgage rates remain substantially above their prepandemic level. Now, with the spring home buying season looming, shoppers have a new worry: A major federal consumer watchdog has been hobbled. Without the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency responsible for overseeing most aspects of the home buying process, consumer advocates … Read more
My grandfather’s house used to be flanked by a magnolia tree so large that, in spring, all you could see was creamy blossom. It was the kind of tree that felt fairytale-like to a child: a twisting trunk good for climbing, a transportive shadow over the garden path. It would nudge against the house like … Read more
Can you feel it? A warmth to the air, brighter days, and smiles on people’s faces. Spring is almost upon us: toes that haven’t seen the light of day for months need a polish, seeds need to be sown, and there’s an urge to spring clean (windows look particularly filthy when sunlight pours through them). … Read more
I’m going to do one of those tricks like a magician with a ball and cups, because it is imperative for legal reasons that I don’t say which of the household’s three teenagers was involved in this thing … but on Sunday morning I woke up and there was a wheelbarrow in the kitchen. Cross-examination … Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2024/jan/22/colourful-glass-furniture-from-vases-to-lampshades-in-pictures
Docking, Norfolk Only 15 minutes from the coast, in a conservation area, is a pretty cottage with roses growing around the pitched porch. In fact, roses are a theme with the motif repeated in several stained-glass windows. The five-bedroom home was once a pub with 1795 carved into a small arch of exposed brick below … Read more
Main image: Sand tube table lamp by Houseof Photograph: Houseof Mon 25 Mar 2024 15.00 GMT Last modified on Mon 25 Mar 2024 23.52 GMT The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
Prospect Cottage on the beach at Dungeness, Kent was a home and sanctuary for the artist and film-maker Derek Jarman. The gardens are world famous, but the interior, shielded from public view by net curtains hung by his partner, Keith Collins, after his death, has been largely unseen. This haven has been photographed by Gilbert … Read more