As the temperatures start to drop outside, many of us turn our attention to our furnaces. If we are lucky firing up the old beast will put a smile on our face, but for some of us the results are less than satisfactory. Thus starts the search for the perfect space heater. If you are going for efficiency, I’m a huge fan of the oil filled radiator style heaters. If you are looking for style, you can’t beat the plus minus zero space heater. Like most products from plus minus zero, it manages to make an ordinary everyday object look like a piece of art. They should be available later this fall, and are priced around $140.
Via Apartment Therapy

I’ve got to be honest with you. I have never owned a piggy bank in my whole life, but I have always wanted one. LA resident Pamela Barsky brings us these great piggy banks that have been cast from a mid-century mold and hand-glazed for an authentic 1950s feel. Each bank has a rubber cork at the bottom so you don’t have to break the bank when you are looking for some funds. They even start your collection off by sending each bank with some coins inside to get you started.

Available at Elsewares for $28.

A lot got done Friday! We had plumbers and metal workers at the house all day long. They are both nearly done and will both be back on monday to finish up. Tuesday we have our final inspection. Premier Metal Works did an awesome job fabricating our railings for the stairs, porches and roof top patios. They have been working hard to get their job wrapped up in time for our final inspection. The guys at In-Line Plumbing worked all day today getting our finish plumbing done. We got all of our appliances installed today as well. We are very happy with the appliances we chose. We went with the Jenn Air “Pro Style” series. We were lucky to get a fantastic price on them. We would not have been able to afford them otherwise. Our kitchen is nearly done and it is turning out pretty much as planned. The Ikea cabinetry is the “Abstrakt” series. They are a high-gloss white finish. The blue pictured here is just a protective film that we will remove once construction is complete. We would not have stayed within budget without Ikea in town. Our total kitchen cost including appliances is under 10k! The house should be ready for us to move in by the end of next week!
-Jacob
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Many of you may have been excited to find out about Design Public’s outlet, only to be disappointed to learn it was exclusively for bay area folk. Well it looks like the tides are turning. For a limited time (Nov 1st 2007 to be exact) they are not only shipping nationwide, but shipping is free for orders over $50! So if there is something that you have had your eye on, but just haven’t got around to ordering, now is the time. Most items are priced 20-40% off of their original retail price.

I try not to stray to far from my chosen theme of modern affordable here at Grassrootsmodern, but somethings are just too important, like Finding Grace. Finding Grace is a book that was recently published to raise awareness of America’s homeless problem. It was photographed by my friends father and the book contains beautiful portraits of homeless people and families from all over the United States. Included with some photos is a short story about the photographers encounter with that individual. The book not only aims to raise awareness about homelessness to those that buy it, but to help spread the word to everyone. For each copy sold proceeds go to the Finding Grace Homeless initiative, which was set up to increase awareness of homeless issues across the country. And did I mention that it was carbon neutral book?

Find out more about the book at http://findinggracehomeless.org

Buy your copy from Earth Aware editions for $55.

Even though we have done a lot of work in our kitchen, it’s still not complete yet. We managed to relocate the sink and rip out most of the old cabinetry and put in new Ikea cabinetry on the opposite wall. We have been waiting to finish the last leg of cabinetry and ditch our old electric stove for a gas cooktop and built in oven. In looking for a good affordable yet stylish gas stovetop we were delighted to find the Bosch line at Lowes. Not only does Bosch make some of the more stylish stovetops out there, but the prices were way lower than any others.
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I came across this great post about how to make a DIY bentwood lamp today at How 2 point oh. The whole project was done for around $30 as far as I can tell. You can read all the juicy detail on the original post, but the basics are like this;
Start with a piece of acrylic, use a heat gun to bend it into the shape that you want, get some glue on birch veneer and stick it on. Last add some LED lighting across the top, and you’re done!
Looks like a great little project.

Check out How 2 point oh for other great hacks and projects.

It has been a long time since the last update and a lot has happened. We finally got our metal panel installed and we
are very happy with the results. We had some difficulty getting the right color and we ended up settling for our second
choice. It couldn’t have worked out any better. The color we ended up with blends in seamlessly with the windows and
creates a beautiful, dark, monolithic effect. We ended up using a company be the name of Double T siding. They have
been quite quick and reasonable to work with. They will finish on Saturday which is only about five days start to finish.
Alta tile came to do the tile in the bathrooms and did a beautiful job.
Benchmark came and built an incredible front fence, fences are the norm in the neighborhood and we felt a little out of
place without one. Watch for more photos of the fence in the future. Now we just need finish plumbing, heat and railings
and we will be ready for a final inspection.
-Jacob

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I have had several reader write-ins lately about the fabulous Home Hero Fire Extinguisher. This fire extinguisher has all the bells and whistles that you would expect to find in a fire extinguisher plus something you wouldn’t, stylish design. It has a ergonomic shape for easy one handed use, and a modern look that will fit into about any decor. The idea is to create a product that looks nice enough that you can actually leave it in a place that will be easily accessible, not buried in the back of a cupboard underneath your tupperware collection. They also have a 2 in 1 smoke and carbon monoxide detector that connect wirelessly to other Home Hero smoke detectors. This creates a system similar to hard wired smoke detectors where if one goes off, they all go off.

Fire extinguishers are available exclusively at Home Depot for around $30.

Thanks for the tips!
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Tonight is the night. The winner of the People’s Design Award will be announced at 10:00 PM EST on their website, or if you are in New York you can go to the gala. For those of you like myself who aren’t even close to NYC, Target and Cooper-Hewitt have teamed up to provide free admission to art museums all over the country. Check the map to see if there is one near you. If you just want to browse good design from the comfort of your computer you can look at all of this years nominees here.