My good friends mentioned to me some time ago that they were looking for a platform bed. They are West Elm junkies and have an nice modern style going on in their house, so I quickly offered to build one for them. Just a couple of weeks ago, they had an anniversary coming up, and I had an opportunity to build one as a surprise. They wanted something similar to the West Elm Low Platform Bed but slightly different dimensions. We ended up making it out of walnut (my new favorite wood) and it turned out really nice. We made it a little chunkier than the Low Platform. It sits at 10″ high overall instead of 5″, and it is a couple inches shorter too.

Price of materials $280.

Detail pics after the jump.

Comments? Post them here.

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I was getting pretty bored of the old website, so I took the opportunity today to make some changes that I have been wanting to make. First off I finally made the switch over to the newest version of wordpress (the blogging software I use). I had been using a pretty old version, so things from the back end are much nicer now. I also updated the look of the website. Let me know what you think about it in the forums. Speaking of forums, I also got rid of the old software I was using and converted it all over to Vanilla, which is a lovely forum software. It’s a little different, but once you get used to it, a lot nicer. If you have any problems with logging in, let me know.

Take a second to head over to the forums and let me know about what you think.

Ohh, and as far as affordability goes, its all open source. Viva la open source baby!

I’ve added a poll to the right, asking what direction I should take the website. I have always had a bigger vision than just another blog, but as a grassroots supporter, I think that the movement should be of the people, for the people. I am trying to make this site the best it can be, so tell me where you want it to go! Rest assured, no matter what happens, I will continue to blog the same as before.

Please take the time to vote, it takes just a second and it helps a lot. We get over 700 unique readers here a day, so I expect some good feedback!

In the meantime, I’ll keep this post on top as a reminder.

A while ago I posted some pics of some cabinetry I had done for a friend. I am still not finished (need to do some drawers) but he did finally get the top on, and it really tied it all together nicely. The countertop is a honed absolute-black granite. Its a beautiful slab, and looks great on top of the cabinets I built. His whole house is turning out really nice. One of these days I need to get over there and take a bunch more pictures. It truly is a great model of an affordable modern home. It’s in a transitional neighborhood, and the lot is a little small, but he paid well under $100 k for the home. I think his goal is to have it all done for around $120 k, which he should do pretty easy.

Well after several weeks of waiting, we finally started to make some more progress in the bathroom. For a little background, check out this post about our ofuro tub plans. I’ll give more details about the tub later.
We finally decided on a tub filler for our ofuro. We ended up going with the Danze Parma, mostly because it fit our style, and more importantly, our budget. That doesn’t mean of course that it was really affordable. It ended up being right around $300, which seems like a lot of money until you see what the other options are.
Before we could put our ofuro tub in, we had to rip out the old shower and tub. It turned out to be a pretty easy job with only one big surprise. The wall below the window was mostly rotted out from water damage. Luckily we plan on replacing that whole window, and so we will need to frame out that section of the wall again anyway.
Getting the ofuro in place was fairly straight forward. It was a lot lighter than the other tub. I lined the two side walls with dura rock, so we will be ready to tile them soon. We were kind of nervous that our boiler and water heater would have a hard time filling the huge tub. I think we figured it was over 100 gallons pretty easy. To our pleasant surprise, our boiler did just fine. The tub accommodates two people quite comfortably. My wife and I spent about an hour soaking in it the first night it was done.
We also had our mirror delivered finally, which makes the bathroom feel a lot bigger. Check out the pics after the jump to see what I mean.

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I always like to support the little guys, and to be honest, that is part of the appeal of this hand bag from Queen Bee Creations. Made in Portland Oregon, this simple modern bag is just the thing to tote around and stuff full of all your daily goodies. The Truckette is constructed of high-quality waterproof vinyl, has two front pockets underneath flap, an additional layer of vinyl on bottom of bag for reinforcement, adjustable heavy duty seat belt webbing strap, and a silver velvet lined flap that closes with two snaps.

If you are in a family way, make sure you check out Queen Bee’s kid line called Chickpea Baby, where she has a similarly styled diaper bag.

Available from Buy Olympia for $58.

I wanted to take a moment today to give props to some local SLC guys that are doing some wonderful work. The company is called Cre-8-ive Tension, and they specialize in modern home furnishings, and make some very beautiful and very affordable modern furniture. One of my favorites is the bench shown, which is made of maple plywood stacked vertically so the grain is showing. I have seen it in person, and the quality is really wonderful. It’s great to see a local company focused on affordable modern furniture. This line from their about page sums it all up:

Our goal is to continue to create reasonably priced, quality furniture that can be enjoyed by its users.

Sounds a lot like the purpose of this website.

Tension bench is available from cre-8-ive tension for $275.

This is my last post about the Outdoor Retailers Expo, tomorrow back to my normal content.

Eton, makers of stylish audio devices, has recently teamed up with the American Red Cross to make the perfect emergency radio. Available in several different configurations, all their radios boost AM/FM radio, with your choice of Short Wave or NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and TV/VHF (for listing to local TV stations). They include a hand crank to charge the radios internal Ni-MH battery pack, and three AA batteries for other devices, as well as a cell phone charger. In addition the radio includes a LED light and flashing red strobe light. All this packed into a small 6″ x 6″ x 2″ radio in a stylish white case. Emergency preparedness has never looked so good.

Available from Eton from $50-$60.

It’s pretty hard to get someone excited about something like coolers. At a show as big as the Outdoor Retailers Expo, it’s even harder to get someone walking by your cooler booth to do a double take, and come back to check out your cooler. But that is exactly what happened. Yeti, is making some of the nicest looking extreme coolers I have ever seen. The design, especially on the smaller 16 quart model shown, is minimalistic and clean. I love the big stainless steel handle that doubles for a latch. The hinges are all super strong, so you won’t ever have to worry about them breaking. I am hoping to be able to get a hold of one so I can see just how well they actually hold their ice. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know.
If you are interested in purchasing, check out their website at http://yeticoolers.com

Of all the things I saw at the Outdoor Retailers Expo, I think that this was the one that hit me the most with the feeling “Why didn’t I think of that”. Very simple idea, cheap, and super cool. The Firefly by Guyot Designs is a waterproof LED light that fits into the lid of any Nalgene sized bottle. When filled with water and tipped upside down, you now have turned your water bottle into a lantern. I saw one at the show, and it was very impressive. I am sure they don’t put out a ton of light, but I dare you to find a more compact lantern.

Available from Guyot Designs for $21.

They also have a very nice shorty insulated bottle for $20.