Every house has its story. What's yours?

The sturdy red bikes that arrived in the District and Arlington County as a curiosity and now blend into the urban landscape will swarm into suburbia this year.

By summertime, the bikes should be rolling through the streets of Rockville and Alexandria as the popular Capital Bikeshare program expands into several outer Washington communities. If grant applications come through, they might also appear in the inner-ring areas of Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Friendship Heights and Forest Glen. The development of White Flint and Wheaton make those neighborhoods likely candidates as well. College Park, with thousands of students looking for cheap transportation, is also a tempting location. Greenbelt is in the mix, as are Frederick, Howard and Prince George’s counties.

Grace Maldarelli, a medical student in Baltimore, finally has her own apartment and calls herself an “absolute design novice.” She says her 330-square-foot studio unit (kitchen, living space and bedroom, all in one) feels “impersonal” and lacks cohesiveness. Maldarelli wants to decorate but doesn’t know where to begin. Her requests are simple: She loves warm, muted colors and needs plenty of shelving for her schoolbooks. But the space is a challenge: With white walls, white wall-to-wall carpet and a 7-by-6-foot sleeping alcove, it hardly feels like home.

Q

I have an 18th-century French mantel clock. It runs quite well, but its chimes are not properly synchronized with the time, so I hear things like nine chimes at 7:30 and one chime at noon. How do I find a reputable clock repair place?

My name is Terri, and I’m a serial redecorator.

I admit it, and I’m not ashamed. Because as vices go, I don’t think this is a bad one. Unless, of course, you are my husband.

On many days he can be found schlepping large pieces of furniture around our house, rehanging heavy mirrors and shelves or patiently holding a piece of fabric against a wall or chair so I can stand back for a better perspective.

Perhaps the notion of a “normal” winter or any other season is nothing more than an artifice to protect us from the taunts of the weather gods.

Normal, we discover, is not a constant. It changes with where you live and how long you have lived. My formative years in England brought February walks alongside frost-crusted wheat fields. I searched for puddles that were frozen, so I could smash them with my boot as if they were panes of glass. Rarely were they frozen solid. Usually, the “glass” was eggshell thin, unhappily.

Some seeds are a joy to plant. Poke a pea, a bean or a kernel of corn into a straight furrow and you can easily see what you have just done. You can guarantee that if the seeds germinate well, they will be correctly spaced, and each plant will have just the right amount of earth it needs to grow in. These are the seeds we hand to children when they are learning how to garden.

Whether your home is 700 square feet or 7,000, having organized spaces will make your life easier and less stressful, says professional organizer Rachel Strisik, who is based in Bethesda. Here, she offers three household projects that should each take about 20 minutes to accomplish.

I sometimes wonder why garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) are not as commonly grown as regular chives (Allium schoenoprasum). They are hardy perennials and just as easy to grow. Like regular chives, they can spread and become too much of a good thing. But more likely, they’re just less familiar and slower to creep into our kitchens.

A curious throwback to the analog age landed in my mailbox the other day. Hortus, a journal of garden writing, is the size of a slim paperback but printed on heavy, ivory colored stock and illustrated with line drawings and wood engravings.

Q. Where can I go to get a radiator cover? Not the 1950s style, but just something that looks good?

Washington

A. A good carpenter or cabinet maker can probably help you, or you can go to a company that advertises its expertise in this area, such as SMK Enterprises (877-768-8072, www.smkenterprises.org) or Lloyd Pitts Custom Cabinetry (301-599-1616, www.lloydpitts.com). Both make regular deliveries to Washington and surrounding areas.

Have a problem in your home?

Send questions to localliving@washpost.com . Put “How To” in the subject line, tell us where you live and try to include a photo.

Meg Biram moved from Kansas City to Fairfax last March, but she didn’t have a plan. Her husband had accepted a job at the Department of Homeland Security, so she left her position as a senior marketing designer at Hallmark to accompany him.

THE CHALLENGE

After spending their honeymoon in Florence, Shawna and Will Smith of Potomac want to give their guest room a “Florentine feel.” The hurdles: Finding a proper place for the TV and adding art to spruce up the bare walls.

Q. I live in a condo that is heated and cooled by a water-source, electric heat pump. From what I understand, it’s an unusual system for a residential building. There is no outdoor space or even a balcony, so the unit is inside the apartment in a utility closet. The unit, probably the condenser, is extremely noisy. In a small space like my condominium, it’s similar to the constant noise on a jet airplane. Is there anything that can be done about the noise? With all the condo construction that took place during the housing boom, this must be a fairly common problem.

The apple was not born here, although in a pie there is no fruit more American. As to what goes into that pie, feelings run strong. Should the crust be made with butter, shortening, lard or two of those combined? Should you get fancy with spices, nuts and raisins, or stay pure? Most important of all, what kind of apples should you use? If you’re a gardener with an eye to spring planting, you might also be wondering what kind of pie apple to grow.

Political punditry has its place, but the breathless and incessant chatter about the presidential race can become wearisome, even in Washington. Tomatoes, on the other hand, that’s a topic that transcends tedium.

As new year’s resolutions go, organizing is an evergreen.

What are your best home organizing solutions? Did you furnish your living room with ottomans for seating and storage space? Purchase a closet organizer to keep sweaters, shoes and belts in order?

As new year’s resolutions go, organizing is an evergreen.

What are your best home organizing solutions? Did you furnish your living room with ottomans for seating and storage space? Purchase a closet organizer to keep sweaters, shoes and belts in order?

THE CHALLENGE

Stephanie Kane of Burke says her 13-by-22-foot family room “is suffering from clutter and gloominess.” She needs more storage, a place for the television and
child-friendly furniture.

THE SOLUTION