In a recent search for news in the world of apartment living, I stumbled across a contest in Manchester, England that awarded some lucky bloke a furnished, rent-free, luxury apartment for a year. James Gilhooly, I envy you. But it made me wonder about another apartment giveaway contest that took place last year a lot closer to home here in New York.

Local clothing retailer Daffy's (think T.J. Maxx with an especially eclectic European label fetish) had a competition to find the most worthy shopper to be a tenant in an apartment building where the $7,000 per month rent would be decreased to a much more affordable $700 for a year. And this wasn't a nondescript apartment building for which people were baring their souls on in a 30-second video submission- this was for a building designed by Rogers Marvel in the West Village. Passersby know this building for its extremely triangular and highly voyeuristic glass façade.

So after a little Googling, I found the winner - Kimberly Dawn Neumann. Out of sheer curiosity and seething jealousy (yes, I entered the contest), I called her up to see how things are in her glass tower. And it's no surprise to find that the Broadway performer-fitness instructor-writer is living it up in style while she has ownership of the furnished two-bedroom, two-bath apartment.

Raised in Pasadena, biologist Thomas Juhasz tells us his favorite spots in town, plus how to get landscaping you love to help balance the natural ecosystem.

Name, Age, Occupation: Thomas Juhasz, 27, Endangered Species Biologist

Abode: 2-bedroom duplex

How long have you lived in Pasadena? I grew up in Pasadena, so about 24 years.

Mayor Bloomberg held a competition for Android and iPhone mobile apps to help New Yorker become, in the words of the contest, "more transparent, more accessible, and more accountable." The winner won a cool $20,000 and lunch with the mayor.

Check out these winning apps and download one or more of them ...

In 2005, New York design trickster Rob Price-working under the collective name Thwart Design-released a series of designs called Design Without Reach. The idea was to mock the then-excruciatingly popular Design Within Reach line of mid-century modernist furniture (the store has since fallen into financial trouble along with, oh, the rest of the universe).

Design Without Reach was playful without being snotty: George Nelson's iconic ball lamp was reimagined as a series of Tootsie Roll pops; Marcel Breuer's famous chair was redone out of tape and paper clips. The point was simple - Design Within Reach wasn't all that in reach, and neither was mid-century design. The closest counterfeit we could have, then had to be somehow funny, witty, a riff.

Cut to five long and recession-heavy years later, and Bruno Bornsztein, the publisher behind Curbly.com, an online DIY community that posts everything from "Top 10 Uses For Coffee Grounds" to "Clean Like a Maid!", has just released a book-available online for a $9.99 download or in print for $18.00-called Make It! Mid-Century Modern (or MCM, for short.) In it are instructions for creating your very own Mid-Century Modern (sorry, MCM) standbys like a Charles and Ray Eames coathook, a Calder mobile, and that very same Nelson lamp that Price made out of lollipops. Here, though, it's a little more serious, a little less tounge-in-cheek.

Los Feliz has, among other things, charming streets, great restaurants, bars and Griffith Park. So if you move into this charming 1922 rental apartment at 3943 De Longpre Ave. all that will be in your neighborhood – at a great price!

Plus, the unit has been on the market for a few months, so maybe you negotiate it down, too?

Here's the scoop...

The talented and beautiful Scarlett Johansson has a stellar career, hunky husband, and a debut album called "Anywhere I Lay My Head." Oh, and a gorgeous 1931 Spanish-style mansion. What could possibly be missing from Sco Jo's charmed life?

Umm.... a reason for listing the home for sale at a huge loss?

That's right: Scarlett purchased the lovely home back in May, 2007 for $7 million. According to the Real Estalker, she extensively renovated the home with new windows, doors, and even solar power-generated electricity. As you can see from these photos, this Hollywood Hills beaut features a sunny atrium, chef's kitchen and period-style kitchen with new, high-end appliances. So why the new price tag of just $4.995 million?

Even movie stars are unlikely to happily part ways with a cool $2 million, and in Scarlett's case, it wouldn't be the first time she sold at a loss....

Home sweet gosh-darn home! Look at this place. It's one hell of the sweet rental. This 2 bedroom, 1 bath, lower-portion of a house looks like it's straight out of the Main Street USA Fourth of July parade at Disneyland. Look at it. You'd expect a pie to be cooling on the windowsill and a lemonade stand set up right in the front yard as a potato sack race takes place amongst the neighbors. Is that a perfectly manicured green lawn I see?

Instead of this quiet little hamlet being situated in Mayberry, it's
located smack in the middle of the hipster-heaven of Los Feliz - all for the reasonable price tag of $1,500.

Read on to find out the skinny about this sweet rental.....

Jennifer Aniston, tabloid darling, is probably happy to land on the pages of credible design magazine Architectural Digest, instead. The reason for the spread? Not some new insight into her relationship with Brad Pitt, it was to show the world her gorgeous, Beverly Hills home. Built in 1970, it took Aniston and her craftspeople two and a half years to renovate.

She's nicknamed her home "Owana," the Hawaiian word for "extended family."

Do you prefer the cool side of the pillow? Or are you constantly freezing while your partner complains of being too hot? The world's first heating and cooling mattress, called the ChiliBed, may be the answer. It debuted last week at the World Market Center Las Vegas.

The temperature-controlled natural foam mattress is made entirely of soy. Unlike most mattresses, the ChiliBed allows you to enjoy bed temperatures of 48-118 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, its environmentally friendly in two ways: first, its natural construction without chemical off-gassing, and secondly, it reduces utility load and costs associated with heating or cooling your bedroom.

Perhaps the mattress is out of your budget. Worry not! You can still be enjoy Chili technology - a more budget-friendly mattress pad cover called the ChiliPad is also available.

Interestingly, the inventor, Todd Youngblood, is the nephew of the man credited with inventing the water bed in the 1960s. We spoke to him about the ChiliPad...

Holy mama: this sweet rental gives you more bang for your buck. You get a 1-bedroom, 1-bath duplex for just $1,050. You can barely get a shoebox-sized hovel in New York for that price. Here in L.A., near USC you get your own private Idaho, with a delightful front and backyard; situated close to school for all you Trojans out there. Did we mention it has a beautiful garden? Well it does.

This sweet rental has all the charms of small town living right in the middle of one of the largest cities in the U.S.