One of the key's to keeping your house looking good, is being able to keep everything organized in it's proper place. My wife and I have been looking for a while now for a good place to put our kitchen sponge. This Lattice Caddy by Umbra is a simple yet effective way of cleaning up your sink clutter. Made of stainless steel wire and mesh, this caddy should fit any standard or double sink, as long as it is not an undermount sink like ours. At $11 it's a fairly inexpensive way to tackle some of that kitchen clutter. Since it won't work with our sink, I think that we might have to resort to keeping our sponge out of view in a Rationell pull out basket from Ikea. Available from Umbra for $11.

The Ribbons and Boughs Plate set is the newest addition from Working Class Studio. This set of four 14" x 8" plates features an integrated print of an abstract tree and foliage. The fact that they are made of melamine makes them not only affordable, but great for daily use, or even picnics since you don't have to worry about them breaking like you would a nice ceramic. Perhaps the only downside is that they are not microwavable. Available from Elsewares for $48.

As one of my favorite artists, and a sponsor of Grassrootsmodern, I keep a pretty close eye on Avalisa. I knew she had been working on some new prints, and it looks like they have finally made it to her website. Her Animal Patterns series takes silhouettes of different animals and repeats them in a pattern that is quite visually soothing. As with all of her artwork, each print is available in different sizes, and different colors. Some of the animal patterns are even available as a zoomed in version such as this Cool Deer Pattern Zoom shown here. Prices are as usual quite reasonable. Available from Avalisa from $59 up.

Our Brown Blue Float print in our nursery.

Last week, on Thursday morning, Benchmark was able to finally get the siding finished. It turned out to be a lot more labor intensive than everyone had expected, but it looks just as good as I had hoped. Brady Roofing also came over and finished the cap that goes around the top of the wall. I have been very impressed with them. I called them Tuesday afternoon to see how quick they could get it done, and they had a couple guys on it Wednesday morning. They finished up Thursday just before the appraiser came. I haven't heard the final number of what it appraised for, but I should find out today. I thought I would give the contact info for Brady Roofing since they don't have a website yet.

Brady Roofing Dymon B. Brady 2032 Farm Ridge Rd. Salt Lake City UT 84118 801-487-5151 Fax: 801-487-0796 dbrady@bradyroofing.net

I love the look of bent plywood chairs, and I am always looking for used ones at a good price. Last year I found these 4 old school chairs with built in desks at a local secondhand store. They were asking just $5 each, so of course I couldn't resist. I figured it would be easy enough to transform them into a regular chair. It took a grinder, a lot of sanding and refinishing and a little black spray paint but we finally finished them a couple of weeks ago. One of the things that impresses me the most is just how sturdy these little guys are built compared to most of the cheap bentwood stuff you come across these days. If they can withstand years of school kids abusing them, I'm sure they will last forever in our house.

Click "continue reading" to see the finished picture.

The last two weeks we have been scrambling to get all the loose ends tied up on our house. I mentioned before that our construction loan closed last thursday. We now have ten days to get a new mortgage to pay off our construction loan. Six months ago our estimated appraisal at the end of our project was $195K. Since then house prices have gone up, so we are getting it reappraised in hopes we can hit $215k which would give us 20% equity in our house. Last tuesday I spent the whole day putting in more laminate flooring in the old part of our house. We had covered the radiant tubing with a temporary floor, so I had to rip that all up and put down a new underlayment and then the laminate. We used the same Ikea Tundra in the maple finish. This time I bought the $10 Ikea installation kit, and it made all the difference in the world. All in all it turned out pretty nice. Ikea Tundra laminate flooring $1.29 square foot.

I have featured items from Motif Modern Living before. Their slogan is "Modern Style, Modest Price" and I have to admit that they have a pretty good selection of affordable modern housewares that I haven't seen elsewhere. Take for example this Single Flower Duvet and Sham. For only $79 you can get a queen sized duvet cover and two pillow shams. That's a great price! They are made of 210 thread count 100% cotton. My only wish is that they had different colors or patterns at that same price. I'm not quite sure I could cover my entire bed in mustard yellow. Available from Motif Modern Living for $79.

Our rainscreen siding has been a slow and tedious process. So far we are almost 4 days into it, and we are probably about 3/4 of the way done. Thanks to family and friends, we were able to get a bunch of it done this last Friday and Saturday. We hope it will all be done by today, or Tuesday. I have to admit though, that despite all the hard work, it's worth it. The look it gives the house is very distinct, and it really sets the tone for the whole addition. For those who have asked about some of the details, read on for a short explanation of exactly what we are doing and why.

The concept of a rainscreen is not a new one, although it has been utilized much more frequently in modern architecture in recent years. The basic idea is that you start with your exterior surface, and then add your waterproof layer. In our case we wrapped the whole house in Tyvec, and followed that with a layer of 15 pound building paper. We just used the building paper as a layer to black the house out, and not so much for it's waterproofing. To that layer you nail furring strips that will hold your final cladding away from the house. We used 1/2" pressure treated plywood that was ripped into 2/1/2" strips and then painted black. For our project we mounted the furring strip every 16" so we would be screwing into studs. Remember your furring strip layout will determine you screw pattern and your joints. Last you attach your cladding. I have seen some beautiful Ipe rainscreens, but since we were on a budget we went with hardie board. We actually used a 7 1/4" Hardie lap siding mounted with a 1/4" reveal between them. To make our reveals consistent we ripped down some 1/4 masonite to set between the siding as we mounted them. We found the best thing for cutting the Hardie siding was a pair of power sheers. Lastly for screws, we used a #10 pan head self tapping stainless steel screws with a square drive head. They were 1 1/2" in length. We got them online from McFeelys for about $450 for 4,000. Thats a lot of details, but hopefully that answers some questions for some of you. There haven't really been a lot of rainscreen applications that I know of that have been around for 15-20 years, so how it holds up is still to be seen.

More info about rainscreens here and here.

After a couple of delays we finally started putting up the siding yesterday. We ended up going with a dark grey called Iron Grey, and I absolutely love it. I was a little worried that it would be too "drama", but I think it's going to work out just fine. Benchmark Renovation is doing the rainscreen with the help of Bob who usually does aluminum siding. Despite the slow start, things are pretty much going the way they should. The pressure is on to get the house finished since the six months for our construction loan is up. We made our last draw to cover the cost of the siding yesterday, and now we have 10 days to refinance everything. That means that we need to get our home appraised again so obviously it needs to be finished.

Bob the siding guy .

For any locals looking for a house, make sure you check out this one. Owned by Mike of Struck Design this home is a great example of how you can take a traditional Sugarhouse Bungalow and put a modern twist on it. I have always loved homes with exposed brick wall inside like this one. There is just something about them that connects them to their roots. Mike and his wife have done a beautiful job on this home. It is for sale by owner, and the asking price is $286,900 which considering the location is a pretty good price. Check out more pictures and all the details here.

Who says that Etsy is just for those that are trying to become well known. Joe Futschik of Jef Designs has an etsy shop where he sells these lovely votive candle pods. They are created from the byproducts of the legna lamp, the pod votive adheres to the principles of jefdesigns: clean, minimal, and organically modern. Just like his Legna Lamps, they are all hand made, and can be ordered in teak, zebrawood, rosewood, or bamboo veneers. Joe encourages using LED tealights instead of the traditional candle, and he is even offering 1 free LED tealight to the first 30 orders. Available at the Jef Designs Etsy shop for $15.

Sean Finocchio is not only one of the nicest guys I've met in a while, he also is a very talented artist. Living in LA and trying to make a living as an artist he has turned to the streets. He photographs streets, markets, alleys, liquor stores and turns the otherwise ordinary photos into creatively wonderful graphics. Everything is vector based so no detail is lost when the cityscapes are enlarged into four foot prints. I love the colors that he chooses and his composition that can turn an everyday street into modern art. I was particulary smitton with the hughes print, and Sean was nice enough to send one my way. I was impressed with the quality print signed and numbered complete with letter of authenticity. Its true that original art is always an investment, but its nice to know you are supporting a good guy like Sean. Available from 33 Stewart for $250.

Sheetrock work began a few days ago. This is usually the mid-point in home construction. Since we have very little finish work required, i.e. no window or door trim, we feel like we are well past the mid-point. Sheetrock will wrap up tomorrow and preliminary steel posts for the stairs will be installed later this week. Doors were installed just before sheetrock. Garth found an awesome set of interior doors at a great price, less than $200.00 each! The remainder of the radiant system will be installed and the gypcrete floors will all be done by the end of next.It took some time and negotiation but we finally have a solid game plan for the stairs (thanks to Kenner for the coordination). We are going with a clear varnish on the steel instead of paint. We chose square tubes and stainless steel cable for the railings. Greg with Premier Metal Works is constructing the stairs and rooftop railings. For anyone wondering we chose the Kohler Purist series faucets for the upper floor bathrooms. For the first floor powder room we chose a "Vattern" compact cabinet/sink/faucet combo from Ikea.

We were just sitting around on Saturday, not doing much of anything, when I decided to see if there was anything good on craigslist. I came across a post for free sod, and it was only about two hours old. It was a first come first serve deal so I drove by to see if there was any left. Originally there was about 3,000 square feet, enough to do our back yard several times. When I did my drive by the majority of it was still there, unfortunately I had taken the car, and not the Discovery. I hurried home and got the Disco, and was able to get in one good sized load, and a second small one before it was all gone. It ended up making a pretty good sized patch of grass in our back yard, and best of all, it was free. Thats the best kind of affordable!

The siding installation on our house is going to be quite a bit different than what most people in the area are used to doing. Because of that we have had a hard time getting anyone lined up to do it. I had several people come over to quote the job, and then never heard from them again. Luckily we were able to get Benchmark Renovation back over here as they have experience with a rainscreen siding installation. The siding was supposed to be here by now, but there were some problems with the shipment. Hopefully it will get here soon. More details coming soon.

It's been a while since I have put any updates about our house. For the most part, things have been moving pretty slow for the past month and a half. We did manage to bring in some extra top soil to level our back yard out. I was able to find a place locally that would deliver 12 yards of topsoil for $190. That is a great bargain. If you don't know how much 12 yards is, look at the size of the dump truck bed compared to me. The whole thing was full of nice fresh dirt. At first I was worried I would have way to much dirt, but amazingly enough it took all 12 yards to level out our back yard the way we wanted it. Stay tuned for more news on the house, things are starting to move again!

It seems like wall graphics are all the craze these days, and while I think there are a lot of pretty good looking ones out there, I can't help but think that they would just look tacky in my house. Beearo has a slightly different angle on the whole wall decal market. Instead of making them out of brightly colored vinyl and plastic, they use teak and walnut veneers instead. The result is something that is just as stimulating to the eye, but perhaps a little more grown up. Their kits include all the components you need to create your own wall art, but since there are lots of small pieces, the final design is up to you. Prices are more expensive than their synthetic little brothers, but if you are looking for something a bit more enduring it may be worth it for you. I would love to try these in our house. Beearo Wall graaphics, prices starting at $25.

I have always loved urban outfitters for their well designed products and affordable prices. That is why I was excited to see these great stacking plates and bowls in the sale section of their website. They come in an array of muted pastel colors, (my wife says the colors remind her of a beach ball) my favorite of which is the white. The thing that really makes these dishes so great is the nice fat lip. Not only does it look great, but it makes stacking that much easier.

On sale at Urban Outfitters starting at $2.99 each

After some furious decision making we came up with a stucco color that we are very happy with. With a lot of help from Stephanie & Kenner we all decided that "Red Oxide" would be the color of choice. We had to deviate from the standard catalog colors and choose a color from regular paint chips. We are glad we didn't settle for mediocrity on this one. The stucco catalogs seem to only have varying versions of beige. We also decided on a "fine" texture which was executed well in our opinion. We also have some more stair hardware installed and drywall is well underway. Also If anyone out there knows of any good kitchen and bath faucets please share. -jacob

We did not find out ahead of time the sex of our baby, but wanted to have the room mostly completed before the birth. We wanted a simple, modern baby room that complimented the rest of our home. The furniture is from www.milliondollarbaby.com and with the help of my aunt we designed the bedding and roman shade with fabric from www.tonicliving.com. Once our daughter arrived we added the chick pictures from www.avalisa.com and her name to accent the walls. The mod bear on the rocking chair is from www.pier1.com. The most time consuming item was the rocking chair. After reviewing many posts from this site and searching the web we ended up with an inexpensive one from www.overstock.com. We hope you love our unique room that only cost about $1200.00 – Yes modern can be affordable. And as you can see our daughter is already enjoying her reading corner! - Eric, Darcy, & Gwenivere

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