I remember my college move-in day like it was yesterday. I got my room assignment, marched up the stairs, opened the door, and was disappointingly greeted with four walls of uninviting cinder blocks.

Q: My backyard consists mainly of a concrete slab patio and a retaining wall made from concrete blocks. It's so gray that even the trailing rosemary and bougainvilleas I've planted look washed out. I ...

Q: My house was built in the '40s and has a cinder-block foundation. On the inside, it has paint that's peeling. Some of the blocks are crumbling, but the problem is not deep, less than an inch. In ...

Q. My house was built in the ’40s and has a cinder-block foundation. On the inside, it has paint that’s peeling. Some of the blocks are crumbling, but the problem is not deep, less than an inch. In ...