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Can a white picket fence co-exist with an exciting life? Photo by It, used under Creative Commons license.
As I close in on the end of college and start making plans for an adulthood that includes my boyfriend, I find myself with a case of cold feet. We're talking about buying a house together, and I'm surprised that 23-year-old-me looks like she's going straight from college into settling down. It's a much straighter path than I expected to take!

Am I crazy for not cramming in as much sex, drugs, and travel before I start owing money to the bank and dropping sprogs? Can I still have an exciting, quirky life with all that grown up stuff to deal with?

Thank you in advance, I am really struggling with this.
I look forward to hearing your ever inspiring, educated and friendly responses.

Peace out! - Sinéad

Hi Sinéad! Okay, I think I got this.

No, you are not crazy. Yes, you can still have an exciting life. Marching to the beat of your own drum doesn't equate to running wild down the streets and throwing all caution to the wind. Being a grown up is about committing to things you want to accomplish, and carrying out the responsibilities required to work toward your goals.

Sometimes goals come into conflict with each other, and you have to weigh how to handle that friction. For instance, it may take some work to be an adventurous, world-traveling offbeat mama, or to pull off living in a home that floats or uses no paper goods — and I mean NO PAPER GOODS. It will usually take a little noodling to figure out how to make your life work in conjunction with your goals, but that's kind of exactly what an offbeatling is: someone who places non-traditional values among her highest priorities.

Restoring old stereoware is my new habit — but I often get stuck on the plastic knobs, some of which have gotten gnarly and faded. I'm here to find out what my options are to save these little doodads.

I have two dogs and they seem capable of tearing through any and every dog toy made by man. The big one has a very strong jaw that can power through the toughest of toys and the little one has small needle-like teeth that penetrate through everything. Help me, Homies!

Our home needs a new roof. It's been asphalt shingling, and it's fine, but if I can manage to keep it in budget I'd much rather use a greener material. Or even just a cheaper material. Or something that looks nice! Really, I guess I want to jazz my roof UP!

I want to paint our front door a BIG bright color, but my partner's got reservations. Some help from the community would really help us make a decision about this.

People who have owned a car, but decided to get rid of it: what was the transition like? What do you do if you have an emergency or need to run to the store in the middle of the night? How do you haul large stuff around? And most importantly: do you regret the decision… or do you love it?

I run a business from my home, and I often have to meet with clients and collaborators. I've been meeting in coffee shops, but I want to make a change: some meetings require lots of materials or even room to spread out drawings and papers, and I hate lugging this stuff around and then splaying out my work in a cafe. However, I want to make sure I'm projecting a professional persona even when I greet a client at my front door and lead them through the living room to my office. My house is fine — it's neat, though doesn't have a ton of furniture. It just feels strange to invite people to see where I live AND work.

Am I silly to worry about this? Is there anything you can suggest to allay my twinge of weirdness about mixing business and personal worlds?

What with recent events in the news about Foxconn, the Chinese company that produces gadgets for Apple, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and others, I've started to sit down and wonder if I really want to be purchasing products that were made by people living and working in poor conditions. But I need tech. What do I do?