A bed can be neatly made and still look unfinished. Pilled or mismatched sheets pull the eye away from everything else in the room, and they feel no better at night than they look by the day. Egyptian cotton sheets…

Say you come home to a Capitol Hill rowhouse near Eastern Market and find the back door open a few inches. The police have left, the report has a number, and the house feels quiet in a way that seems…

The storm lasted fifteen minutes, maybe less. Hail clattered on the driveway, and the gutters spilled over. Then the sky cleared as it had never happened. From the yard, the roof looked okay the next morning. But three weeks on,…