A study of 51 homes released this week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found a strong association between homes with Chinese-made drywall and levels corrosive hydrogen sulfide, which gives off a smell similar to rotten eggs.

It was the largest investigation ever taken on by the CPSC, costing $3.5 million and involving 15% of the staff, according to the CPSC.

If you're a fan of disaster movies (and who isn't?) you already know that being in front of an oncoming tsunami wave is never a good thing. And, yet, for many renters around the U.S., this is exactly the position they are now in.

"We're at the front end of that wave...Are we concerned? Absolutely," Raphael Bostic, of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, tells the Washington Post.

By one recent estimate, as many as 75 percent of multifamily buildings could have problems refinancing, says the paper. Already, the number of foreclosures against multifamily rental and co-op homes is up in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other large urban settings, and also in smaller cities and towns such as Des Moines, Iowa and Lexington, North Carolina.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that a record number of loans -- one in seven -- is delinquent, up from one in 10 a year ago.

Today's numbers also show that one in 22 families in the U.S. is in the process of losing their home, up from one in 34 a year ago. Based on these figures, we are now on track for 2.9 million foreclosure starts in this year alone.

The lenders' trade association is quick to blame this worsening trend on higher unemployment levels. But that ignores the fact that reckless lending precipitated the economic crisis and prolongs it each day with every new foreclosure, which forces down surrounding property values.

The proof, they say, is in the pudding. Maybe it ought to be in the foreclosure rate?

Yes, I know we are being told on Sunday morning power-breakfast talk shows that the nation's economy is improving. But the latest survey on the delinquency rate for mortgage loans from the Mortgage Bankers Association would seem to indicate otherwise.

You can read the report itself for the hard numbers, but, the bottom line is, the delinquency rate has now broken the record set just this past quarter.

• Many of you will have carpet cleaners and other strangers in to help spruce up the house for the holidays.
• You or you children may be hosting parties attended by people you only casually know.
• Many of you will travel overnight, leaving your home vacant.
• You'll be piling new, alluring presents under the tree, and burglars like presents, too.
• Schools will be on holiday, leaving teens with lots of free time.
• December nights are the longest of the year.
• The UPS and FedEx people may be delivering boxes of goodies to your door.
• You may be hosting overnight guests unfamiliar with your security system.

This is the last of a five-part series about how the writer and her husband, Charlie, tackled a major overhaul of their home and the pitfalls they faced along the way. To read the first installment click here.

The workers are gone, the dumpster was picked up, and we are touching up the stain and paint. Now that things are finished, we are so glad that we put in the quality finishes and the extra touches we wanted. The total cost was around $55,000 -- twice as much as we had originally planned.

The investment is definitely worth it. Now we have new plumbing throughout the house, updated electrical, refinished floors, and a state-of-the-art kitchen -- all upgrades that are bound to boost the value of our home if we ever decide to sell.