Man. If the new rumor about Jason Hoppy planning on tearing down Bethenny Frankel's walk-in closet and turning it into a man cave are true -- their divorce is a whole heck of a lot uglier than we initially thought.

I mean, it's already bad enough that Jason has supposedly refused to move out of the lavish $5 million Tribeca loft he once shared with Bethenny, but demolishing her beloved closet? Yeah, that's a pretty low blow, all right.

Any smaller and it would be a toy.We bought my little apartment 14 years ago, and it's so sweet and perfect I've never been able to leave -- even though it's way too small. A couple years ago we renovated our bathroom and now it's a gorgeous, sparkling temple to hygiene. But the kitchen? That's a different story.

I love to cook. But I hate my kitchen with a deep and abiding passion matched only by my passion for cooking. Yeah, it's like that. So my home improvement wish? Well, let me tell you about my dream kitchen.

Every single time I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, I usually wound up in tears over the struggling family's story and felt guilty and horrible for all I take for granted in my life. And while the show always reminded me of just how lucky I am, it was also such a "feel-good" family program to tune in for, because seeing those families get the homes of their dreams did nothing short of warm my heart.

And that's why it's so sad to hear that the Llanes family of Bergenfield, New Jersey is being forced to sell the gorgeous home Extreme Makeover: Home Edition renovated for them in 2006 because they just can't afford the taxes anymore.

Well, well, well. That sure didn't take long. After not even a year of dating, Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively are taking a very serious step in their relationship by moving in together. Blake recently purchased a $2.3 million house in Bedford, N.Y. -- and she and Ryan are in the process of renovating and decorating the property to make it the perfect place to settle down and get all cozy together.

Hmm. Certainly sounds like things are pretty serious between them. Ryan's only been divorced from Scarlett Johansson for a little over a year, but it sounds like he's definitely thinking about taking the plunge again with Blake. Buying a house in the country to get away from fast-paced city life usually means a couple is thinking about the next phase of their lives (yes, I'm talking about having kiddos and all that good stuff).

Buying a fixer upper and putting a ton of time and money into the property to make it livable again can be quite an undertaking, but some people can't resist the appeal of putting their own stamp on a house. And this is why Terry Jordan fell in love with and bought a house in Senatobia, Mississippi on a nice piece of land that even came complete with a barn. She paid $11,500 for the foreclosed property, and planned on sprucing it up and then selling it for a profit.

Terry and her husband got to work right away and gave the home electricity, plumbing, and a new roof -- to the tune of thousands of dollars. So you can only imagine their shock and disappointment when they found out they had actually been sold the wrong house!

Elin Nordegren's home before the wrecking ball hit.I think we can all agree that Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren isn't your everyday divorcee. And that's why I guess we shouldn't be surprised that there's still major fallout from her brutal, public split with the pro-golfer-slash-serial cheater. Elin seems to be taking pent-up aggression out on a house -- specifically, a $12 million six-bedroom mansion on the beach in North Palm Beach, Florida. She only bought it last March, but she's gone and knocked it down with plans to rebuild a TOTALLY DIFFERENT home on the property. TMZ says Nordegren has hired a high-priced architect, and every single worker is required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Word is she didn't think the home was "modern" enough, but others speculate she's just doing it because she's so loaded, she can. I say there's more to the story than that.

Congratulations to our winner, mamakin616!

When it comes to home decorating, I love heading to my local Lowe's because it has everything I need in one place. Sure, I might get lost in the massive warehouse while looking for that extra can of semi-gloss paint, but hey, that's half the fun of it, right?

Now that the holidays are here -- Lowe's is the perfect spot to snag great gifts for everyone on your list. That's why we're giving one lucky Stir reader a $100 Lowe's gift card. Whether you're looking for carpeting, window treatments, or that fun doodad your father-in-law just has to have this Christmas, Lowe's is sure to have it all.

To enter to win, simply tell me:

It was with great interest that I read that the standard thermostat had been redesigned by a team that took Steve Jobs and Apple as their inspiration. It’s so genius. I mean, it seems that stores like Skymall and Hammacher Schlemmer exist only to convince us that we need things we’d never use, when in fact what we want is new twists on the ubiquitous items we use every single day. The new thermostat, called The Nest ($249 at store.nest.com), is more than just sleek and sexy-looking -- it learns your family’s habits so that it can turn on and off even when you don’t think to do so, which is supposed to save you energy. Which is great and all, but really, it’s kind of amazing that we accepted this ugly ecru-white box as a must-have for as long as we did. Now, I’m hungry for more home utilities that look better than they have to. Here’s what I’ve found: