Last week we posted about a couple of different modern door options that were available. This week I got an email from April telling me about Crestviews DIY door lite kits. If you are lucky like April and already have a solid slab front door, making it Mid Century just got a whole lot more affordable. Instead of replacing the entire door, you can just add the window panes to make it look like a Crestview door. You can choose from any of their retro door designs, or come up with your own custom design. Kits start at $179 which is way cheaper than you could ever get a new door for. Installation looks pretty easy (video after the jump) and you get the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. If you are not the handy type (or are unlucky like me and don't have a plain slab door) and still want a Crestview door, check out their "showroom specials" that start at $800.
While you're checking out Crestview doors, make sure you look at their totally amazing door-o-vision that lets you see different doors on your own house.
We started the week off with affordable modern doors, and we are ending it that way too. Shannnon Walker was mentioned in Monday's post as an affordable alternative to some of the more expensive "modern" doors available. New to the door industry, Shannon created a orange and stainless door for their modern bungalow remodel. Since then she has been designing and selling doors to people looking for a less expensive alternative. Most prices range between $800 and $1,200 depending on the number of windows. She is working on a website (doorplay.net) but it isn't ready yet. In the meantime, check out her blog.
I have a friend here in Salt Lake City that has the same vision of modern that I do. He thinks that the prices being charged for the majority of stuff are way overpriced. Where we differ is that he actually has the skills and the resources to do something about it. He recently started playing around with making some contemporary doors. In an effort to avoid just copying someone else style, he has been playing around with mounting a 1" piece of glass perpendicular to the door surface. I took a look at this door last week, and it looks amazing. The one in this photo is actually an interior door, but they also had an exterior door in the works. While talking about exterior doors, we both wondered. What do most people feel is affordable for a modern exterior door? Give us some feedback in the poll below. Also what do you think of the door? Hate it? Love it? Come on we can take it.
I have to admit that in the past I have been less than optimistic about modern prefab houses. Very few of them end up being priced at less than $200 a square foot. To me $100 a square foot is the magic number to try and hit before you can really claim it's "affordable". The 100k house is proving that it can be done with fairly typical building practices and a little creativity. So where does that leave prefab? Well not everyone has given up on it like I have, and the NY Times had an interesting article about a prefab modern home built in the Los Angeles area for $125 a square foot. The home shows some obvious influence from the Eames Case Study home and shows that using prefab techniques to achieve an affordable modern home might still be a possibility.
NY Times Article "Prefab, High-Concept and Green"
Via TreeHugger
Grassrootsmodern reader Baz just purchased a fantastic Mid-Century Modern home in Indianapolis, and in classic GRM spirit has already launched into the demolition. He is documenting the whole thing over at Atomicindy.blogspot.com He is making some great progress in helping restore the home to it's former glory. One thing that he was looking to bring back to it's old glory were the exterior lights. With a little help from some friends, he was able to run across Remcraft lighting, which has a whole line of Mid-Century Modern lighting. They have some great swedish modern bullet lights and cylinder bullet lights for a fairly reasonable price. Both come in single or double, and make for some great Mid-Century Modern exterior lighting.
Last week was the start of West Coast Green, a yearly conference on green building design and construction. There were lots of big names there like David Suzuki, Sarah Susanka, and Al Gore. Perhaps one of the most significant things to happen this year was the showing of the SG Blocks container house. Constructed of used Shipping containers, the house was erected on sight in just four hours and 47 minutes. In following with the theme of the conference, the home was thoroughly green throughout with FSC certified woods, solar panels etc. Besides the amazing rate at which the home was built, I was amazed at the stated per square foot price of $150, which includes "all the bells and whistles". If that number is true, then this shipping container home is truly an amazing combination of aesthetics and affordability. I would love to see if the interior is as well designed as the exterior.
Not only am I just finding out that there are plans underway for a huge Frank Gehry designed mixed residential/commercial project here in Utah, but Frank Gehry himself was here a couple of days ago to show the plans for the project and answer any questions that the public had. It's obvious that the Gehry designed project is going to shake up Utah architecture quite a bit, which has some people concerned. Personally I have to agree with Gehry when he said
There's been a lot of stuff around here that I wouldn't call great architecture at this point, but I think if we do something special, other people might step up to the plate and it might up the ante,
I have had a couple of people as me about how I was able to wire up our industrial outdoor lighting so that it comes on automatically at night and goes off in the morning. At first we thought about making it motion activated like our old one, but the reality is that we would probably prefer to have a porch light on all night regardless of any motion in the area. We were able to find a cheap photocell that activates the light fixture in low light conditions. The trick was finding one that would fit nicely in the waterproof junction box that came with our light. The one we settled on is pictured above, and was available at our local hardware store for around $8. They are commonly used for outdoor pole lights. I was able to find it online at farm-home.com, but I am sure there are other places that have it as well. To attach it to the fixture you simply unscrew one of the access holes in the junction box (we used the top one) and insert the photocell. It has a rubber foam gasket to keep it water tight. The only two downsides to the $8 trick is that photocell usually only last around 5 years, and they can only control incandescent lights.
We used to have two big spotlights on a motion sensor on our garage. Over the last month or so the motion sensor has gotten progressively worse until it was almost non functional. This weekend we finally got around to replacing the whole light fixture. We found these nice weather tight industrial lights in the "barn section" of Sutherlands, a local hardware store. We ended up buying one for the front of the house, and one for our back porch. I love the look of them, and love the $18 price tag even more. The one in the front we added a little bit of hardware to make it turn on and off automatically depending on the amount of daylight. Needless to say, we are quite happy to be rid of the two huge, non-functional spotlights.
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.
While prefab just doesn't seem like it's cutting the proverbial mustard for houses, it may have a chance with dog houses. This great design by Jason Valalik is creating some good buzz around the internet, and for good reason. The design is nice and clean, and the materials, a mix of hardie board and Ipe, are great for standing up to a lot of abuse. The design is simple enough that assembly would be easy. So far I don't think he has a kit for sale, but stay tuned.
Even though we just bought a house, I still try and keep a pulse on what's for sale here in Salt Lake City. While homes with modern/contemporary exteriors are still few and far between, there are more and more available with clean modern interiors. A good example is my friend Mark's house. His family is building a new (super modern) home and selling their old house. It's in a great neighborhood, and while it doesn't look like much from the outside, they have done some great work on the inside. For more details on price, square footage, and more photos, check it out on zillow.
House for Sale on Zillow.
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.
Here at Grassrootsmodern we are big fans of mid-century modern design and also big fans of Curbly. So you can imagine when the two come together we are all over it. Chris Job made a great how to video on making a mid-century modern style birdhouse. The video is great (watch it after the jump) and along with the article over at Curbly it's got great instructions on how to make your own. He does use some slightly more advanced woodworking techniques (dado's) but points out that they are not really necessary. This would be a great weekend project.
Check out the article over at Curbly.
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.
Well I guess it was inevitable. It seems that I have an affinity to knocking walls down. Last week while my wife was gone on vacation I decided it was a perfect time to redefine some spaces in our house. This picture is just a sneak preview, I'll go over the whole story as soon as I get all my pictures together. Needless to say it was a huge dusty mess, and my wife was very glad that she wasn't around.
I fully realize that the term "affordable" means different things to different people. I have always wanted to build a modern home in Salt Lake. We got a taste of it with our last addition and we vow that we will build again one day. The hard part is finding a lot in a good neighborhood and then still having any money left over for construction. If $450K is affordable, or even doable for you, here is a good opportunity. My friend had a great 3,000 square foot home designed by Jesperson Design, and had a great lot in Cottonwood Heights. Plans fell through and now the lot is up for sale for $279K. For that price it comes with the plans for the home (renderings shown above). Total cost should come in right around $450K for everything. That works out to be around $140 a square foot, which is really not bad for a modern home in a good neighborhood.
Last week we posted about a couple of different modern door options that were available. This week I got an email from April telling me about Crestviews DIY door lite kits. If you are lucky like April and already have a solid slab front door, making it Mid Century just got a whole lot more affordable. Instead of replacing the entire door, you can just add the window panes to make it look like a Crestview door. You can choose from any of their retro door designs, or come up with your own custom design. Kits start at $179 which is way cheaper than you could ever get a new door for. Installation looks pretty easy (video after the jump) and you get the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. If you are not the handy type (or are unlucky like me and don't have a plain slab door) and still want a Crestview door, check out their "showroom specials" that start at $800.
While you're checking out Crestview doors, make sure you look at their totally amazing door-o-vision that lets you see different doors on your own house.
I have a friend here in Salt Lake City that has the same vision of modern that I do. He thinks that the prices being charged for the majority of stuff are way overpriced. Where we differ is that he actually has the skills and the resources to do something about it. He recently started playing around with making some contemporary doors. In an effort to avoid just copying someone else style, he has been playing around with mounting a 1" piece of glass perpendicular to the door surface. I took a look at this door last week, and it looks amazing. The one in this photo is actually an interior door, but they also had an exterior door in the works. While talking about exterior doors, we both wondered. What do most people feel is affordable for a modern exterior door? Give us some feedback in the poll below. Also what do you think of the door? Hate it? Love it? Come on we can take it.
I have to admit that in the past I have been less than optimistic about modern prefab houses. Very few of them end up being priced at less than $200 a square foot. To me $100 a square foot is the magic number to try and hit before you can really claim it's "affordable". The 100k house is proving that it can be done with fairly typical building practices and a little creativity. So where does that leave prefab? Well not everyone has given up on it like I have, and the NY Times had an interesting article about a prefab modern home built in the Los Angeles area for $125 a square foot. The home shows some obvious influence from the Eames Case Study home and shows that using prefab techniques to achieve an affordable modern home might still be a possibility.
Grassrootsmodern reader Baz just purchased a fantastic Mid-Century Modern home in Indianapolis, and in classic GRM spirit has already launched into the demolition. He is documenting the whole thing over at 
Last week was the start of West Coast Green, a yearly conference on green building design and construction. There were lots of big names there like David Suzuki, Sarah Susanka, and Al Gore. Perhaps one of the most significant things to happen this year was the showing of the 
Not only am I just finding out that there are plans underway for a huge Frank Gehry designed mixed residential/commercial project here in Utah, but Frank Gehry himself was here a couple of days ago to show the plans for the project and answer any questions that the public had. It's obvious that the Gehry designed project is going to shake up Utah architecture quite a bit, which has some people concerned. Personally I have to agree with Gehry when he said
I have had a couple of people as me about how I was able to wire up 
We used to have two big spotlights on a motion sensor on our garage. Over the last month or so the motion sensor has gotten progressively worse until it was almost non functional. This weekend we finally got around to replacing the whole light fixture. We found these nice 
Hopefully you have been following the 
I found this fence over at 
While prefab just doesn't seem like it's cutting the proverbial mustard for houses, it may have a chance with dog houses. This great design by 
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 
Here at Grassrootsmodern we are big fans of mid-century modern design and also big fans of Curbly. So you can imagine when the two come together we are all over it. Chris Job made a great how to video on 
Some beautiful eye candy to check out. The 
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.
Well I guess it was inevitable. It seems that I have an affinity to knocking walls down. Last week while my wife was gone on vacation I decided it was a perfect time to redefine some spaces in our house. This picture is just a sneak preview, I'll go over the whole story as soon as I get all my pictures together. Needless to say it was a huge dusty mess, and my wife was very glad that she wasn't around. 