Home sweet home. (editor's desk).(Brief Article)(Editorial)

When you rent an old house, the desire to correct the previous occupants' inability to foresee your decorative tastes becomes as irresistible as that other universal urge: changing someone else's prose.

These two imperatives give rise to the house painter and the magazine editor, respectively. In their own ways, both are paid to lay it on thick.

As the new editor of Better Nutrition, I find myself living outside Richmond, Va., in a house leased solely for the convenience of my two Labrador retrievers. The place needs some fixing. For one thing, the last tenants painted the guest room maroon. I'm sure it was a color that pleased them, though it makes me feel boxed in. The initial coat of white I brushed over it turned the walls into something resembling raspberry-swirl yogurt. A second white coat will be ...