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  Up for grabs at $3.8 million is the former Palm Springs home of socialite Magda Gabor, seen here in 1954, newly made over by designer Tracy Turco. (Composite by Sandra Barrera, Southern California News Group; Inset: AFP via Getty Images; House: Michael Roth)

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  The veranda. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The living room. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The kitchen. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The dining room. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The primary bedroom. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The soaking tub in the primary bathroom. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The pool. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  A 1954 file photo of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sisters Eva and Magda. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

The former Palm Springs home of late socialite Magda Gabor boasting a glamorous new makeover has hit the market for $3.8 million.

Bursting with color and original fabrics and wall coverings, the revamped three-bedroom, 3,441-square-foot home with four bathrooms is the vision of designer Tracy Turco.

“It’s such a unique property, and then Tracy takes it to a whole other level,” said Conrad Miller of Avenue 8, the co-listing agent.

Property records show Turco and her real estate developer husband, Jerry, picked up the home on a nearly two-third-acre hilltop lot in Little Tuscany in August 2020 for $1.74 million. The couple is known for buying and renovating neglected mid-century properties like a 1961 home by William Krisel listed for $1.149 million and the retro boutique hotels the Art Hotel, Tiki Hotel, Cheetah Hotel and Deco Palm Hotel.

Turco puts her spin on the 1964 abode while incorporating furnishings and treatments that are original to the eldest and only redhead of the famous Gabor sisters.

As Southern California News Group previously reported, Gabor bought the home in the late 1960s at the urging of her countess mother. The property had been the site of star-studded parties and even fashion shoots during her tenure.

County records indicate the property remained in her name and that of her sister Zsa Zsa through separate trusts until August 1998, when the property sold for $440,000.

According to the listing, the sisters “separately occupied the estate for over 30 years.”

A painting of Magda Gabor, who died in 1997 at 81, hangs on the foyer’s wall.

Her first initial is etched on the home’s mirrored walls, including the one that runs the length of the combined living and dining room with its hidden closet. The mirror reflects the veranda.

With its pink overhang and striped black and white valance, the veranda overlooks the mosaic-tiled pool and mountains beyond.

Views also abound from the breakfast room nearest the kitchen, with its custom-trowelled ceiling and original Hungarian rotisserie, to the primary bathroom. It has dual vanities, a shower and a soaking tub. A curtain closes the bathroom from the rest of the primary suite’s bedroom, with its sitting room/office, dressing room, makeup room and two walk-in closets.

Other Gabor-era originals include a grand piano, a dining room table and crystal chandeliers.

The patio table belonged to Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Brandon Holland of Avenue 8 shares the listing, which is available turnkey.

She felt the urge to check on the two large eucalyptus trees across from her home of six years — living in the Bay Area, she didn’t usually worry too much about the weather, but that night’s storm seemed different. While she peered through the blinds at her San Jose condo, her husband, Eric, 30, got up to use the bathroom across the hall.

“I’m watching, and these two trees are just swaying, swaying, swaying,” Lauren said. “All of a sudden, I hear this huge crack.”

During the moments the couple was out of bed, one of the eucalyptus trees — which had loomed large over the condo for years — came crashing down, directly toward the bed where the couple was sleeping just minutes before.

It’s hard for Lauren to remember exactly what happened next that Tuesday morning — if she ran, or if she jumped out of the way. But all of a sudden, she found herself on her bedroom floor

“The whole ceiling was on top of me,” Lauren said through tears. “I was like, ‘well, this is it.’”

But Eric managed to pull Lauren out from where she fell, next to their dresser and among a mess of branches.

“I don’t know if I was stuck, I had so much adrenaline,” she said. “All I know is, he helped pull me out — I don’t know if I could’ve gotten out on my own. And then we ran out of here.”

She and Eric escaped into their living room, which was now littered with debris from their roof and ceiling. After finding a flameless candle in their condo to help light the way, they headed downstairs to their neighbor’s condo for help.

That neighbor, Linda Simi-Ormonde, said she found the young couple at her doorstep at 2:25 a.m., looking absolutely terrified.

Lauren “was hit on top of the head,” Simi-Ormonde, 74, said. “She had blood, she had this huge knot on her head. And she was in a daze, and that needed to be taken care of.”

Simi-Ormonde began pulling “wood, ceiling, sawdust, all the debris, leaves, branches — big, huge branches” from Lauren’s hair, helped them call 911, and offered the couple her guest bedroom for the night.

The next day, Simi-Ormonde discovered that her own condo also had been damaged — the walls of her guest bedroom and the mattress in it had water damage, and the ceiling began to leak. She and her husband are planning to move out by the end of the week at the advice of her insurance agency, who said that it’s too dangerous for them to stay put.

But property damage is the least of Simi-Ormonde’s worries. What she’s most upset about is Lauren and Eric’s brush with death.

“These two beautiful people could have been killed if they would have stayed in bed,” Simi-Ormonde said, getting choked up as she spoke. “It’s more than the loss of things. Things can be replaced — people cannot be replaced, and I thank God with my heart and soul that no one died.”

The Kirchicks and Simi-Ormonde said the two eucalyptus trees have been a point of contention in the past, though when the Kirchicks bought their condo and moved in six years ago, they weren’t too concerned about them.

“At first glance, it’s not something you really think about — they’re 40 yards, 50 yards away,” Eric said. “You just wouldn’t think anything like that would happen, especially this far away.”

But things changed several years ago, after another tree fell near the Kirchicks’ condo on a spa — “a little outhouse-type thing with a jacuzzi in it,” Lauren said.

“Ever since, people have been petitioning to get rid of the other two eucalyptus trees,” Eric said. “It’s been denied, and then this happened.”

Simi-Ormonde, a renter who’s lived in the complex for fifteen years, agreed.

“They have talked about getting rid of these trees,” she said. “And they need to know these people are in danger — we are all in danger.”

The homeowners’ association did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Kirchicks and Simi-Ormonde said they’ve had no luck getting the HOA to take their pleas for help seriously. For instance, the Kirchicks have asked the HOA to place a tarp in their home to prevent further damage to the condo, or to make arrangements to have the tree removed with a crane.

“It’s been frustrating,” Eric said. “We’ve filed a claim with our insurance, and they contacted [the HOA] and told them we’ve got to get a debris removal service out, got to tarp the roof to prevent further damage. All they did was send a mass email to everyone saying they were scheduling people to do that.”

“I’ve been following up each day, and they just said it’s gonna take days,” he said. “Nothing’s been done to get the tree removed… it’s raining every single day and it’s causing more damage, and I haven’t gotten a response.”

The three residents also said they fear for the safety of others who live in the surrounding condos — the longer it takes for the tree to be removed, the more danger it poses to others.

“I thought they should’ve evacuated this whole place,” Lauren said. “I don’t know how they haven’t yet.”

On Wednesday, the Kirchicks’ home was dark and empty, with a giant tree branch protruding from their bedroom wall and into their living room. They took their wedding photos off the walls for safekeeping. A red armchair and plush brown sofa were covered in rubble and dust, and pieces of fluffy insulation foam littered the floor.

After everything they’ve been through, the Kirchicks aren’t sure they can remake a home of their old space, Eric said.

Lauren “doesn’t want to come back here, and I don’t think I do either,” he said. “It’s traumatic — when you think you’re safe, sleeping in your bed, in your own house, and then… just playing that over and over again, I just don’t want to be here.”

The controversy erupting from mere talk of banning gas stoves has sparked a culture war that’s about more than politics— it’s about food. And it boils down to one question: Which cooks better, gas or electric?

For most home chefs forced to choose between gas ranges that heat quickly or electric-coil stoves that are inefficient and ugly, the answer is simple: gas. But there’s a third option: induction stoves, which heat with a tightly controlled magnetic field rather than a flame.

On this, even professional chefs are divided. California chef Andrew Gruel, who owns American Gravy Restaurant Group, says induction stoves are “just less efficient” than gas ranges. But Chef Rachelle Boucher, of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, says: “I can boil water or sear a steak or cook something twice as fast on induction.”

What they can agree on is that cooking is an emotional topic.

“When it comes to cultural topics that are close to our hearts and stomachs — mine are one and the same — people have some pretty big opinions,” Gruel said.

The issue raises some genuine cultural questions, too. For instance: Can authentic Chinese food be cooked without a flame or a wok? Can an electric stove produce the quick sear essential to certain cuisines?

Chef and and sustainable cooking consultant Christopher Galarza, who traces his ancestry to a tribe in the Amazon rainforest, says cooking his family’s recipes is a way of connecting with that heritage. “When folks say, ‘You’re trying to change how I cook,’ they think you’re trying to come after my heritage, my past.” But Galarza, who’s opened the country’s first all-electric campus kitchen, argues that traditional cooking doesn’t have to be done in traditional ways, such as over coals or wood.

The debate is front and center after a member of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said this week that the government could  prohibit gas stoves to curb indoor air pollution. Blowback from lawmakers was so severe that the agency’s head walked back the idea days later.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

At age 73, the retired college administrator, who’s had one knee replaced, found that an upstairs master was a bit of a pain ─ literally. Renovating to put a bedroom downstairs was too costly. Moving from her home of 15 years didn’t appeal either.

So when her niece showed her a magazine ad that featured a modern-looking shaftless elevator powered by air pressure, McGee was intrigued. “It didn’t look like any home elevator I’d ever seen,” she said. “It looked like a piece of art.”

Plus, the installation did not involve knocking out walls or digging into the foundation as it does for traditional shaft elevators. Shaft elevators send cabins through minimum 5-foot square spaces within walls, while shaftless elevators sit in the open on finished floors. Their see-through cylinders transport passengers from floor to floor using air pressure or cables. After talking with a couple of elevator companies, McGee installed a pneumatic vacuum elevator just beside the stairs in her entryway in November, choosing the color of the metal as well as the tint on the polycarbonate windows.

“I love the look of it,” she said. “I worried that it would ruin the aesthetics of my home, but it’s enhanced it.”

While she doesn’t use it every time she wants to go up or downstairs, McGee, an avid traveler, definitely uses it for her luggage.

“I love where I live and how I live,” McGee said. “I wanted to buy more time in this house, and I did.”

Daytona Elevator owner Dawn O’Connor rattles off the reasons customers call her: “Hips, knees, hearts, backs, lungs, in-laws, convenience.”

To that list, Rich Eller, owner of Nashville-based HomeLift, adds people who “flat out are not moving and have got to get upstairs.”

The demand for home elevators has been quickly growing, with shaftless models the fastest growing sector, he said. Five years ago, shaftless elevators accounted for 6 percent of Eller’s home elevator installations. Last year, was double, and he expects that 20 to 25 percent of home elevators will be shaftless by 2025.

“We have a population of people who want to age in place,” Eller said. “More people are realizing that installing an elevator or a stair lift is a lot cheaper than moving. Builders and architects recognize this is a growing market and are designing more homes with elevators in mind.”

While not every home is a candidate for an elevator, if your home’s stairs are becoming an issue, here’s what to consider before you pack up and move.

A solution for every budget: If creating a downstairs bedroom isn’t an option, the lift industry has many ways to get you upstairs, O’Connor said. The least expensive option is a stair lift. A seat that travels straight up a flight of stairs typically costs between $3,500 and $4,000. If the stairway curves or takes a turn, the cost will climb to as much as $15,000. Pneumatic vacuum elevators or PVEs typically cost $35,000 to $60,000 depending on size. They come in three widths: 30, 37 and 52 inches, which will accommodate a wheelchair. McGee paid $40,000 for her 37-inch elevator, which includes a fold-down seat and phone. The extra construction cost to retrofit a space varies.

Build it in: The best time to install an elevator is when you’re building a home. But adding one later may be easier than you think. Have an expert take a look. “Often people think they don’t have a place to put an elevator, then we find two or three possibilities,” Eller said.

Location, location, location: When looking for the best placement, start upstairs where you want to exit, usually on a landing or common area, and work your way down. Remember, you can enter on one side of the elevator and exit out the other. A traditional elevator shaft can be inside a home or built onto the exterior, but a shaftless elevator is easier to fit in most homes.

Looks matter: The entry to a traditional elevator can mimic paneling or a closet door, so you don’t even know an elevator is there. However, as home elevators become more common and sculptural, many are coming out of the closet.

Added value: Most realtors agree that a well-done home elevator adds value. “I feel like having an elevator lets you tap into a whole new market,” McGee said.

Marni Jameson is the author of six home and lifestyle books, including “Downsizing the Family Home – What to Save, What to Let Go.” Reach her at www.marnijameson.com.

The details of the sprawling 14,215-square-foot contemporary home have been carefully curated from the top-of-the-line building materials to the high-tech amenities — to the collection of fine art. All the home furnishings are included in the sale, including gourmet kitchen appliances, linens and a Steinway piano.

The property boasts six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms; it also includes a 1,000-square-foot guest house, a home theater and a wine cellar, among many other amenities. In addition to the indoor and outdoor pool there is an outdoor kitchen, a fire pit and 1.3 acres of lush green space.

Michael Repka of DeLeon Realty is the listing agent.

The property was last sold in 2017 for $15.5 million, according to public records.

Last fall, Atherton was named the most expensive ZIP code in the U.S. for sixth straight year by PropertyShark.

A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems.

“This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

Natural gas stoves, which are used in about 40% of homes in the US, emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the EPA and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and other health conditions, according to reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society. Consumer Reports, in October, urged consumers planning to buy a new range to consider going electric after tests conducted by the group found high levels of nitrogen oxide gases from gas stoves.

New peer-reviewed research published last month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that more than 12% of current childhood asthma cases in the US can be attributed to gas stove use.

“There is about 50 years of health studies showing that gas stoves are bad for our health, and the strongest evidence is on children and children’s asthma,” said Brady Seals, a manager in the carbon-free buildings program  at the nonprofit clean energy group RMI and a co-author of the study. “By having a gas connection, we are polluting the insides of our homes.”

The Bethesda, Maryland-based Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has a staff of roughly 500, plans to open public comment on hazards posed by gas stoves later this winter. Besides barring the manufacture or import of gas stoves, options include setting standards on emissions from the appliances, Trumka said.

Lawmakers have weighed in, asking the commission to consider requiring warning labels, range hoods and performance standards. In a letter to the agency in December, lawmakers including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Representative Don Beyer of Virginia, both Democrats, urged action and called gas-stove emissions a “cumulative burden” on Black, Latino and low-income households that disproportionately experience air pollution.

Parallel efforts by state and local policymakers are targeting the use of natural gas in buildings more broadly, in a push to reduce climate-warming emissions (such as from methane) that exacerbate climate change. Nearly 100 cities and counties have adopted policies that require or encourage a move away from fossil fuel powered buildings. The New York City Council voted in 2021 to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings smaller than seven stories by the end of this year. The California Air Resources Board unanimously voted in September to ban the sale of natural gas-fired furnaces and water heaters by 2030.

Consumers who want to switch from gas to electric ranges could get some help from the massive climate spending bill signed into law in August. The Inflation Reduction Act includes rebates of up to $840 for the purchase of new electric ranges as part of some $4.5 billion in funding to help low- and moderate-income households electrify their homes.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents gas range manufacturers such as Whirlpool Corp., says that cooking produces emissions and harmful byproducts no matter what kind of stove is used.

“Ventilation is really where this discussion should be, rather than banning one particular type of technology,” said Jill Notini, a vice president with the Washington-based trade group. “Banning one type of a cooking appliance is not going to address the concerns about overall indoor air quality. We may need some behavior change, we may need [people] to turn on their hoods when cooking.”

Natural gas distributors, whose business is threatened by the growing push to electrify homes, argue that a ban on natural gas stoves would drive up costs for homeowners and restaurants with little environmental gain. The American Gas Association, which represents utilities such as Dominion Energy Inc. and DTE Energy Co., said in a statement that regulatory and advisory agencies responsible for protecting residential consumer health and safety have presented no documented risks from gas stoves.

Trumka, who before joining the commission worked for a House committee in a role that included work on toxic heavy metals in baby food and the health hazards of e-cigarettes, said the commission could issue its proposal as soon as this year, though he conceded that would be “on the quick side.”

“There is this misconception that if you want to do fine-dining kind of cooking it has to be done on gas,” Trumka said. “It’s a carefully manicured myth.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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  Fred Karger, the first openly gay candidate to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2012, has listed his longtime weekend home in Laguna Beach for $3.495 million. (Composite by Sandra Barrera, Southern California News Group; Inset: Ken Steinhardt, The Orange County Register file photo; House: Property Media Services)

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  The kitchen. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  Windows frame views of the ocean from the living area. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  This dining deck is off the living area. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  One of three view decks. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  The large deck off the primary bedroom. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  The primary bathroom. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  The primary suite’s walk-in closet. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  The Laguna Beach weekend home of former presidential hopeful Fred Karger is on the market for $3.495 million. (Photo by Property Media Services)

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  The garage and driveway. (Photo by Property Media Services)

Fred Karger, the first openly gay and Jewish candidate to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2012, has put his longtime Laguna Beach weekend home on the market.

The asking price is $3.495 million.

A white exterior with periwinkle trim, three decks and a Dutch door painted a cheerful orange distinguishes this three-bedroom, 1,451-square-foot cottage with three bathrooms.

Just a stone’s throw from the steps to Victoria Beach, the house — recently updated by Los Angeles-based interior designer James Lumsden — boasts panoramic views of the ocean and Catalina Island.

One of its many vantage points is the combined living and dining room with its open-beam ceiling. A fireplace anchors the well-appointed space, which opens to the eat-in kitchen with custom blue cabinets, a tiled backsplash, Corian countertops and an under-counter wine cooler. The living area also extends out onto a dining deck.

Upstairs, there’s a larger deck off the primary bedroom whose en-suite bathroom features a tiled shower. There’s also a walk-in closet.

All of the home’s furnishings are available to buy separately.

The house has direct access to a two-car garage and a driveway, a plus in this neighborhood where parking is hard to come by. As a result, the famed public beach known for its “Pirate Tower” and a circular man-made pool doesn’t get crowded.

Records show Karger bought the property in June 1996 for $455,000.

“After 26 amazing years, I’ve decided to sell my house,” he posted on Instagram and explained in the comments that he planned to spend “more time in New York and San Diego.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fred Karger (@fredkarger)

Chris Tebbutt of Compass holds the listing. The house at 155 McAulay Place will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. Jan. 7-8.

Karger, 72, is an LGBTQ activist and retired Republican strategist who worked on presidential campaigns for Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Although he never held elective office, he ran for president to change attitudes within his party about gay rights and marriage equality.

That campaign, which ended after more than two years in June 2012, has been documented in the 2014 film “Fred” and, very recently, a 4-minute video produced by History UnErased. The nonprofit education organization brings LGBTQ history in the U.S. into the mainstream classroom.

Karger writes about the experience in his 2011 memoir “Fred Who? Political Insider to Outsider” and the upcoming “Undaunted,” both co-authored with Steve Fiffer. The one-time presidential hopeful also has another forthcoming book, “World’s Greatest Crasher,” co-authored by Sam Eichner, that documents the places where Karger has unexpectedly popped up, from the Oscars stage to White House parties.

Locally, he first became known for an unsuccessful campaign to revive the landmark gay bar the Boom Boom Room after its closure in 2007. He continues to advocate for marriage equality and LGBTQ causes nationwide.

That’s because while most home insurance plans account for rain and wind damage — such as a blown-over tree crashing onto your roof — the policies generally don’t cover floods, mudslides or debris flows.

“I think many people are going be in a situation where they might have a landslide or even flooding, and they may be out of luck when it comes to coverage,” said Kami Cady, personal lines manager with Cassidy Insurance Agency in Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz.

In designated flood-prone areas, including along coastlines and rivers, specialized flood insurance is required to get a mortgage. But homeowners in other low-lying neighborhoods that have flooded over the past week may not have that same coverage. Outside of a flood zone, that kind of coverage is optional, similar to earthquake insurance.

Cady said anyone now looking to buy flood insurance, which typically covers mudslides, would have to wait 30 days before a new policy could take effect.

“There’s no way for people to go out and quickly obtain that type of coverage unless it’s the close of escrow,” she said.

Some places hardest hit by the storms have been in Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties, which have been primed for mudflows in recent years by massive wildfires that burned up hundreds of thousands of acres of vegetation that helped hold the soil together.

In those areas, homeowners dealing with mudslides might be eligible for coverage regardless of what type of insurance they own.

That’s because the state started requiring insurers to cover slides caused by wildfires following a devastating 2018 mudslide in a wildfire burn scar near Santa Barbara that killed 23 people and left more than $421 million in damage.

“If you had a mudslide or debris flow, it’s going to depend on the cause of that,” said Michael Soller, a spokesperson for the California Department of Insurance. “If (a) wildfire was the cause of it … then you may have coverage.”

Soller said homeowners who were ordered to leave during the storms might be able to claim evacuation expenses, such as food and lodging, after paying a deductible, which can vary in amount depending on the policy. “That’s another thing people should be aware of,” he said.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency throughout California to respond to the relentless weather. But unlike a federal declaration, the move won’t unlock money for homeowners whose properties were wrecked in the storms.

“Several thousand homes would need to be damaged,” said Ferguson, adding that a total estimate likely won’t be available until the storms pass. Two more are forecast to strike Saturday and Monday, and there could be others in the days and weeks ahead.

Insurance agents and regulators said homeowners facing damage should first contact their provider to understand their coverage and figure out next steps. The Department of Insurance is offering to help homeowners figure out how to contact their insurers at 800-927-4357 or insurance.ca.gov.

“If you’re ever in doubt, call your insurance agent or call the carrier directly,” said Cady.

True, all was going swimmingly. The new counters, cabinet hardware, sink and faucet all went in without a hitch. I was waiting until the counters were installed to choose new backsplash tile, so I could see it in my light. After the counters were in, I dragged home 10 samples from two tile stores. These are heavy. If you ever want to sink a dead body in a lake, use tile samples. I picked one and waited a week for the order to arrive.

Then I called my handyman, Richard Swann. I have not found any job around the house he can’t do. The only problem with Richard is there is only one of him. When I told him I was ready to have him install the backsplash, he said he would send his tile guy, whom we’ll call Joey.

Joey arrived the next morning at 8:30 and got right to work. He zipped along installing the warm white, 2- by 8-inch tiles in a horizontal subway style with staggered joints, nothing fancy. After the tile was up, he swiped on the grout, wiped up and was out the door by 5:30 p.m. When it got dark, I turned on the lights. That’s when I noticed the tile edges poking up at angles and lines that looked like waves. Maybe I was just being too critical, but when my husband came home, he said, “Are the tiles supposed to be crooked like that?”

I texted a picture of the uneven backsplash to Richard and said, “Seems like the tile should lie flat, shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, it should,” he replied. “We will fix.”

Here’s my philosophy: Every business makes mistakes now and then. Take Southwest. What counts is not that they mess up, but how they fix it.

To confirm this wasn’t just me, I texted the photos to my salesperson at the tile store, whose husband is also an installer. They’ve seen a lot of backsplashes. “Unfortunately,” she texted back, “it looks like he didn’t check with a level to see if the wall was flat. The only way to fix this is to take the tile down and start over.”

I called Richard. Joey came back the next day and took down the rock-and-roll tile. A few days later, Richard returned.

“I tell my tilers,” he said, “their number one job is to install the tile straight, square and flat.”

He made no excuses. He leveled the wall, installed a backer board level and true, scraped the thin set off the tiles, so we could reuse them, and reset the tile using a laser beam to keep the joints perfectly square. And 36 hours later he applied the grout.

After 30 years of installing tile, Richard has this advice to offer:

Get a good installer: Tile looks only as good as its installation. Consider getting a referral from a specialty tile store.

Assess before you start: Proper prep separates the amateur from the pro. Before setting the first tile, a pro makes sure the surface is ready and any blemishes are fixed before tile goes up and amplifies the problems.

Start with a flat surface: Use a level to make sure your substrate, whether a wall or floor, is even. If it’s not, flatten out the humps and fill in the lows.

Be square: The most common mistake Richard sees is tile that is not laid square. Laser levels emit beams of light on walls and floors that help you keep tile lines perfectly straight.

Know how to cheat: Very few walls or floors have perfect right angles, so tile that is set straight can still look slanted. You need to anticipate where the flaws are and make subtle adjustments to trick the eye.

Don’t rush: Generally, it is not a good idea to install tile and grout on the same day. Give tile a day or more to set.Work small. Today’s grouts dry fast. To make sure grout goes where you want it (between the joints) and not where you don’t (on the surface of the tile), apply wet grout firmly using a float. Press it into joints, then wipe it off the surface with a clean, only slightly damp sponge before it hardens.

Act fast: If you do see a mistake once tile is in, remove it quickly.

Marni Jameson is the author of six home and lifestyle books, including “What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want,” “Downsizing the Family Home – What to Save, What to Let Go” and “Downsizing the Blended Home – When Two Households Become One.” Reach her at www.marnijameson.com.

There is, of course, an app for that.

Actually, there are well over 100 apps, for both iPhones and Androids, that claim to help users fight the effects of climate change in some way. Many are buggy, little-used or outdated, since most apps are made by startups that often don’t have support to follow through at scale. Some are little more than greenwashing, using environmentally-friendly claims to hawk products. And some sound promising but aren’t yet available locally — like BlaBlaCar, a carpooling app that can be used in places like Europe and Mexico.

But other apps offer data to show the impact they’re already making. Litterati, for example, claims it has helped inspire people to pick up more than 20 million pieces of trash. Earth Hero says its global users have saved a combined 101 million kilograms of carbon emissions. And Plant-for-the-Planet says it’s helped get nearly 14 billion trees planted.

After testing a few dozen of these over the past six months, I settled on nine (described below) that I’d recommend to Southern Californians who are looking for tips, resources and motivation to be better climate citizens.

None will save the planet. But Joe Ávari, a psychology professor at USC who researches how people make decisions related to climate change, said apps can help people make some positive changes. Users might be inspired to compost for the first time, or eat less meat, or air-dry their laundry. And Ávari believes any choices that are better for the planet are worth celebrating.

“Every step in the right direction is a step in the right direction,” said Ávari, who heads up USC’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.

The biggest challenge, he said, is keeping people motivated to use these apps when they rarely see any direct results. Many of the apps are gamified, offering badges and the like for making choices that conserve water or cause fewer emissions. But Ávari said those digital rewards aren’t as motivating as, say, perks from diet apps, where there are relatively quick and tangible benefits for sticking with them.

A lot of personal choices that could have more substantial impacts on the climate — such as transitioning to an electric vehicle or installing a heat pump at home — are also complex and require people to make tradeoffs, Ávari pointed out.

“An app can point the way, sure,” he said. “But it’s not a substitute for human decisions and commitment.”

If there are any real-world rewards involved, one of the most common offered by climate change apps is a promise by the developer (or organizations it supports) to plant trees once users earn a certain number of points. But Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Technovation, a global nonprofit that helps girls develop tech solutions, said not all tree campaigns are equal. Instead of planting new trees in temperate climates, she said, it’s more impactful to spend that money conserving trees in tropical areas where they grow naturally and can draw down carbon much faster.

“It’s a slightly nuanced argument,” she said, “but any expert will tell you that there are too many initiatives in the climate tech sector where people love silver bullets.”

So, before spending time on an app that makes big promises, Chklovski recommends doing research — and maybe even making your own suggestions for improvement. Since so many of these apps are startups, they often build in features that let users make recommendations or that otherwise support development. The app LiveGreen, which narrowly missed making my top 10 list, even lets you schedule a 15-minute chat with its founder.

A final thing to consider before diving headfirst into using one of these apps is how it might impact any climate anxiety they may be experiencing. Just like calorie counters aren’t recommended for folks with eating disorders, daily carbon trackers might not be wise for people prone to obsessive behavior or who feel extreme anxiety about the state of the planet. But for many people, both Ávari and Chklovski said finding ways to connect with like-minded neighbors, and take meaningful action, can reduce a user’s climate anxiety by making them feel empowered.

If you’re considering incorporating a climate change app into your 2023 routine, here are nine suggestions:

Earth Hero

The average American produces nearly 20 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. After inputting some basic information about you and your habits, Earth Hero tells you how your carbon emissions compare to others in your area and around the world. It also allows you to set a goal for reducing your carbon footprint, then offers 191 ideas for actions you can take to get there, from using reusable silicone muffin liners to switching your search engine to OceanHero. It’s easy to navigate and has useful graphics, with promises of expanded community features such as live events coming soon.

TooGoodToGo

Food waste poses lots of environmental (and ethical) challenges, from the waste of water used to produce the food to the methane emissions created if it’s left to rot in a landfill. So this app lets you claim a “surprise bag” full of food that would otherwise go to waste from local restaurants. Local offers available on a recent afternoon, for example, including a $3.99 bag from Louie’s Chicken & Fish Grill in Upland, a $4.99 bag from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Santa Ana and a $5.99 bag from Auraganic Juicery and Cafe in Chino. The app also can tell you how much carbon — and money — you’ve saved over time.

Joro

This carbon-tracking app asks you to put your money where your emissions are. Rather than relying on your own estimates of how many miles you drive and how much meat you eat each week, Joro gives you the option of connecting the app to your bank account so it can track how often you purchase gas, fast food and more. It then calculates a dollar amount to “zero out” your monthly carbon footprint by donating to emissions-reduction organizations it pledges to carefully vet, such as kelp farming and biofuel projects. Seeing that dollar amount next to your carbon footprint helps make the impact more tangible.

Milkywire

Many on-the-ground organizations and projects working to combat climate change live hand-to-mouth, relying on one-time donations and grants to survive. Milkywire aims to combat that by pairing “local changemakers” with supporters who commit to a monthly donation. You can opt to support one or more of 71 vetted organizations around the world, from a group working to bring clean water to a needy area in Peru to an organization that supports beekeeping in northern Kenya. Your donation of $5 to $20 will be split evenly between all organizations you choose. Then you can see regular video and photo updates from organizations you support in the social media-style portion of the app.

JouleBug

This app is like a social network, a game and an educational tool in one. It provides a long list of actions you can take to reduce your climate impact, each worth some points. You get four points if you wash your clothes in cold water, for example, and seven if you go without meat for a day. You post a picture when you complete the action, which is visible on a community platform. The app offers badges and medals for racking up points, and there’s an option to join or set up challenges, where you can compete with friends or coworkers to hit certain targets.

GreenChoice

Curious about which brand of refried beans at your local grocery store makes the lowest environmental impact? GreenChoice lets you scan bar codes to compare different products, with a score based on issues you care about most. Environmental impacts are one option, with higher scores for foods that require less water to produce and that create less carbon in manufacturing and transportation. You also can browse highest rated products, make shopping lists and read articles about food sustainability. The app is a little buggy to load, and the search function is a bit spotty, but the bar code scanner and other resources work well.

GetGreen

This app from a Seattle-based startup is similar to several above in offering lots of ideas for actions you can take to reduce your carbon footprint, such as listening to a climate podcast or putting reusable shopping bags to work. But it includes some features that make it stand out from the crowd, including links to options for those recommended podcasts and daily challenges. You earn a green leaf for every 10 pounds of carbon averted, which the app explains is equivalent to charging a cell phone more than 500 times. And if you pay $4.99 a month to join GetGreen+ you can use those leaves to financially support projects, such as kelp forest preservation in Palos Verdes.

That Helps

This app lets you pick causes that are important to you, such as sustainability, clean water and wildlife, and gives you options for actions to help support those causes, such as signing a petition urging companies to reduce plastics, supporting a kids’ art contest for World Wildlife Day, or swapping your mouthwash for one that doesn’t come in a plastic bottle. You can also create opportunities for others if you know of an event, petition or brand they might support.

ReFree

Need to get rid of clothing, furniture or other goods? Or need something but don’t want to contribute to emissions to get it? This app lets people offer and claim goods for free, then arrange local pickups or deliveries. You get credits for listing items, inviting friends and other actions, which you can use to boost your post or make “wishes” for items you want. The only downside for Orange County and Inland Empire folks is that ReFree is not very active yet outside of Los Angeles.