Hopefully you have been following the 100k house blog where chad has been working on building a modern, green home in Philly for 100k. I have been crossing my fingers hoping they would meet their budget, and so far they are right on track. In a twist of events Chad will actually be keeping the home for himself instead of selling it, but they do have another project that is for sale, the 120k house. The actual sell prices is 250k, the difference being the cost of the land and the fact that they still have to make some sort of profit on the thing. That’s still an amazing price for a modern, platinum certified home in Philly. If you are interested, or know someone who is, head over to the 100k house website for more details.

120k house

Check out the for sale video after the jump.

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I haven’t done a lot of reupholstering over the years, but I have looked into it. One thing that always surprised me was just how expensive good fabric can be. Luckily Modern Fabrics is here to change that. By reclaiming fabric cuttings from factory floors they are able to accomplish two things. First they prevent all the usable fabric from just getting thrown away, and second they are able to resale beautiful fabrics at a fraction of the normal cost. With choices from Knoll, Maharam, Architex and many more you are sure to find some good stuff. I am now seriously thinking about getting some of this for the free couch I found a couple of weeks ago. I have seen prices as low as $15 a yard, which is a smoking good deal.

Check out more fabrics at Modern Fabric.

Some of my favorite toys when I was a kid were the ones I could build things with, and the bigger the better. Offi has a great little system for your little builder, the YooDo. In all honesty, you could probably make your own YooDo kit if you had access to a refrigerator box, but for those that are less motivated you can now pick a set up for sale from Design Public for $29. Each set includes 16 pieces;

• 4 ea: 26″ x 15″ large U panel
• 4 ea: 20″ x 8″ small U panel
• 4 ea: 9″ x 15″ large connector
• 4 ea: 6″ x 3-1/2″ small trapezoid

Add a little imagination, and your kid will have a great little space station or modern crib to play with their buddies. Perhaps the best part of all is when they are all worn out and mangled you can just recycle them since they are made of heavy duty cardboard.

Available from Design Public for $29.

I’m always surprised by the wide range of products that Umbra has, everything from wallpaper to furniture to accessories. While I think that their real strength is in their accessories new pieces like this Mimosa Side Table with storage show that their furnishing are pretty good as well. Made of sustainable acacia wood, the Mimosa is a simple table that features a built in magazine rack. A clever little table with a clean design, the Mimosa is 17″ x 17″ x 14″ and is priced at $94. If you like the look, make sure you check out the whole Mimosa family of furniture (the coffee table is pretty nice too).

Available from Umbra for $94.

I have been seeing more and more solar panel as I walk around neighborhoods lately, and often times I wonder if it would be practical to put one on my house. The other day I stumbled across RoofRay, a great resource for calculating your solar potential. It uses the familiar google map interface and lets you draw the size of solar panel you want on your roof. It calculates your solar potential based on panel size, slope, and the direction it is pointing. Unfortunately for us it confirmed some of my suspicions. For us to do a large (really large) panel on our roof it would cost $50,000 and take 30 years to save us enough money to pay for it. It makes me wonder if there are any similar resources for wind turbines?
Check your solar potential at RoofRay.

I’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t the cheapest water pitcher on the market. While the $85 price tag may be hard to swallow, there is no doubt in my mind that it looks $50 better than my old Brita water pitcher. The clear glass pitcher uses Iouseki stones come from the mountains in Kanazawa, the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast. In addition to the stones the pitcher uses Binchotan charcoal to filter your water. The combination of the two leave it pure and mineral fortified. The charcole and stone filtration system can last up to six months, and save all those plastic filters from going to the landfill. Oh, and did I mention it’s absolutely beautiful?

Available from DWR for $85.

Just the other day I was watching a TED talk about wind energy, and thinking about the huge potential that it has for small scale applications like residential homes. I was wondering what it would take to throw a small turbine on my roof. Would it be ugly? Would it be expensive? Today I come across a story that design giant Philippe Starck has beat me to the punch. He has designed a small attractive wind turbine that can create up to 80% of a homes electricity. The price is expected to be between $800 - $1,200, which is way more affordable than solar. I looks like it may not be available for a while, but it definitely looks like a winner.

See the New York Times story “And Now, to Try and Catch the Wind”

I’m always trying to think of great recycled materials that could be used for making affordable modern furniture and lighting. While cardboard doesn’t seem like the most likely medium to create great lighting, the folks over at Graypants are out to show that it absolutely works. Using salvaged cardboard they sculpt beautiful modern lights that have a wonderful natural glow to them. You can purchase their wonderful lights from Velocity Art and Design in either a hard wired or plugged version with prices starting around $135, which is pretty reasonable. Of course if you are feeling a little more daring, and have access to some scrap cardboard then the possibilities are endless.

Available from Velocity Art and Design starting at $135

Via Shelterific

Water is something that we can’t live without. I have always been surprised that an entire market has been created around selling something that is almost free. For those water snobs only a bottled water like Voss will do, but then there is the rest of us. Plastic water bottles have gotten a bad rap lately, which has helped out companies that make non plastic water bottles like Sigg. Well there is a new kid on the block, and they are here to show that not only can a plastic water bottle be healthy and environmentally responsible, it can look amazing too. The Kor One Hydration Vessel is a new water bottle which will be available soon. It’s BPA free, wide mouthed, and absolutely sexy. At $29 they aren’t cheap, but if you stopped buying bottled water and just filtered your own at home it would not only be better for the environment, but cheaper overall.
More pics after the jump.

Available in August from Kor for $29

Via Coolhunting.
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Our new house has a much bigger yard than we are used to, and luckily for us it comes with all sorts of birds. There are some old bird feeders that are left behind from the previous owner, but we are in need of some new ones. Most of the ones that I like are way too expensive, so I think that eventually I will just make my own. I did run across these plastic birdfeeders from DWR that are a pretty good deal. For $25 you get three bird feeders (red, black and clear) and a pack of insect flavored bird seek. While insect flavored birdseed doesn’t sound too good, I do like the simplicity of the feeders. Plus if you ever decided to get rid of them, they are recyclable.
Popoutz bird-feeders available from DWR for $25