Your home is the biggest purchase you’ll make in your lifetime—and the experience could be the biggest rush or the biggest headache. Oregon Home asked professionals from Realtors to remodeling pros to mortgage lenders how to make buying your next home a dream.

Daydreaming about exchanging your 3,000-square-foot Irvington Craftsman for a condo in a new South Waterfront tower? Been picking up fliers for houses with less than 1,000 square feet? Oregon Home talked with a designer, two real estate brokers, an estate sale organizer and a downsizer for tips to ease the move from living large to living small.

Are you the biggest loser when it comes to sticking to your daily goal of working out at the gym? Maybe it’s time to ponder whether a home gym could lead toward a healthier you. Oregon Home talked with an architect, two fitness trainers and two sports equipment experts for tips on putting together a home workout space that really works.

If the islands of your dreams harbor cooktops and prep sinks rather than ships, you may be primed for words of wisdom about kitchen center islands. Oregon Home talked with three kitchen designers and an architect about how to navigate through the choices you need to make—height? width? shape? in-island appliances?—to end up with a kitchen icon that cooks.

You don’t have to live in a strawbale house and drink rainwater to live sustainably. There are lots of ways to do it, from the food you eat to the businesses you support to the kind of lightbulbs by which you read. We’ve spoken to some eco-experts and put together a list of simple things you can do to make the world a greener place.