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.

Check out this craigslist ad for questions, or leave a comment below.

If you haven't checked out materialicious lately, now is a good time to get over there. The place just keeps on getting better. They recently went through a redesign of their website (we used to have the same off the shelf template) and it is looking really good. In addition I have noticed that they have a new contributer over there as well. Greg La Vardera the Architect and brain child behind LaMiDesign.com, one of the few resources for modern stock plans. is now posting as well as Justin. The result is even more great architecture and information than ever. Definitely worth checking it out!Materialicious

LaMiDesign

I have had quite a few people ask for details about how we did our bases without baseboard. First off let me say that it is completely different if you are talking new construction. New construction is easy, they make a 1/2" trim piece that keeps the drywall floated off the floor. For our house, I simply used a 6" drywall taping knife and smoothed the wall out to the floor. There were areas where I probably added as much as 1/2" of mud to the base to try and cover the floor boards. As long as you take it up smooth for a foot or so you don't really pick up on the added thickness. We were lucky that on all our doorways the wood casing came all the way to the corner. You really can't make a corner out of drywall. For existing construction, one of the problems is that your finished floor doesn't always go completely to the wall. There were plenty of area's in our house that were like this. In the process of mudding they got filled in, and I simply sanded them flush and finished over them when I finished the floor. It really isn't too noticeable. I did worry a little about how the base would hold up over time, but I figured it would be cheap to repair if I ever needed to fix it. To sum it all up, it's not perfectly clean everywhere, but I still think it looks a lot better than having base. Price wise it cost less than $50 to do 800 square feet, but a LOT of sanding and mudding. More pictures below.

There is nothing new about stock plans. While there are not a lot of modern ones out there, they do exist. What is new about these modern stock plans from FreeGreen is the price. They're 100% free. Yep, crazy as it sounds they are hoping that what they are not making off of selling the plans, they will make money off advertising and specifying certain green manufactures. While I haven't personally looked at what you get for free, the feedback that I have heard is that the quality and completeness is actually quite good. Currently the only modern design is this Suburban Loft shown, which is a 2,000 square foot 2 bedroom 2 bathroom home complete with rooftop garden. If additional customization is needed, FreeGreen can provide that for an additional price. Free modern stock home plans available from FreeGreen. Via Inhabitat.

Here is a good example of how to make a small space seem much larger.

I've been a big fan of Ready Made for awhile now, but have never really gotten around to subscribing. Truth is, I'm too much of a cheap skate and I am always looking to get things for free. I was active on their forums for a while, but that didn't quite cut it for me. Well it looks like I just got my way. Ready Made now has a completely digital version online, and it's completely free. I can handle that price. What's more, the online software is actually quite nice. I have had some digital subscriptions before through Zino, and whatever Ready Made is using seems to be a big improvement over those. This month there is a great article on Prefab Within Reach that looks at several prefab projects from $6,000 and up. Definitely worth checking out.Check out the online free version of Ready Made here.

Local readers probably already caught wind of this; a seven story condo made of orange shipping containers dubbed "City Center Lofts" is planned for construction in downtown Salt Lake City. I've always been interested in shipping container construction for it's affordability, and I am eager to see if in this project it will transfer that affordability to the end user. My guess is probably not. Still with radiant heat expansive windows and a great downtown location, this could still be one cool place to live. More than anything it's interesting to see modern architecture and design become more accepted in such a conservative state. The container building is designer by container pro Adam Kalkin, and backed financially by Adam Price, a lawyer and developer.For more information check out the article in the Salt Lake Tribune City Center Lofts Website

Before I get into our new home I wanted to point out another great Mid Century Modern home remodel that is in Salt Lake. The Rockhouse Remodel documents the extensive remodeling of a great Mid Century Modern home in the Olympus Cove area. I found it through another great local blog, YourHeartOut. When I first looked at some of the pictures, I almost couldn't believe that such a great home even existed in Salt Lake. It turns out that there are quite a few nice MCM homes in the Olympus Cove area, which is where our new home is. While our new place is not even close to as cool as the Rockhouse, it's at least good to know that we will be in good company.Check out the progress of the remodel at Rockhouseremodel.com.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we were thinking about selling our home. Even though we had just barely finished it, it seems that the grass is always greener.... We put it on Craigslist and had a really great response. We ended up having a open house a couple of days later, and had a good crowd show up. Some were just there to see our pad, but one was looking to buy. It turns out that three days after putting it on Craigslist we had a verbal offer. Since neither the buyer or myself were using a realtor it took us a little bit to work out some of the kinks, but as of last Friday we officially no longer own the home. Although it will be hard to leave such a wonderful house we still feel good about it. Initially we set out to see if a Modern styled home could be had on a common mans income, and I think that we proved with enough hard work and persistence it can. The new owner is an architect and really appreciates what we've done, which makes it all a little easier to swallow. In a turn of irony the home that we wanted to buy went under contract before we could snatch it. Luckily things worked out that we were able to find another great home in an amazing neighborhood. It is a vintage 50's grandma's home just waiting for some tasteful updating. That means that there will be plenty of DIY affordable modern remodeling posts to come.

Modernism is no new kid on the block. In fact many of the classics were built decades ago and now the years are taking their toll. Some are falling into neglect or are being threatened with demolition. Luckily the World Monuments Fund along with Knoll have step up to the plate to help preserve modern architecture. In order to help out they have a combination of design solutions to help save modern buildings scheduled for destruction, financial assistance for selected modern projects that are endangered, education for the public, and the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize which goes to the designer or firm that does the most to preserve Modern Design. Check out more info at the World Monuments Fund website.

I think it is generally accepted that Ikea designs and produces some pretty good looking affordable modern furniture. The question is, can that same knack for affordable and modern transfer over to architecture? Ikea would like to think so, and has been working diligently to make pre-fab townhouses and apartments for middle income families. Dubbed BoKlok for "smart living" these prefab units go up as quick as 16 weeks start to finish and cost around $260,000 for a two bedroom townhouse. While those numbers don't sound too bad, I have to admit I thought that architecturally they would look a little nicer. What do you think? Via Treehugger More info here at the BoKlock UK site.

I have featured quite a few different sites that sell vinyl wall art before. Most of them are pretty similar on pricing, and the biggest difference is the selection of designs. DVider is no different in that aspect. They do have a nice selection of wall stickers (I especially like the nature series) and prices start at around $25 which is typical. What I was impressed with was their room dividers. They sell modular kits that are available in different configurations. They are basic pole mounted white canvas sections, but the hardware makes for a very clean installation. When combined with some of their wall art, they make for an impressive little wall divider. Prices start at around $363 for a small 4x6 divider, and while that's not cheap it's a lot easier than building a wall and looks better than hanging an old sheet. Available from DVider.

If you haven't already checked out Slow Home, your missing out. I first heard about it from my parents, who are quite active with the Slow Foods movement with their creamery and handmade artisan cheeses. It seems slow home is an idea that follows a lot of the elements of slow food. The idea behind the website is that too much architecture is mass produced, wasteful, and made without much thought to the user. It focuses on those people who are looking to change all of that and design well thought out spaces that are individualized and concious of the environment. Besides just being a great idea, the website has some great features. It is of course a blog, but it also has a folio section that catalogues different people, projects and products that are useful for the slow home movement. It even has a slow home tv section with all sorts of video clips.

Check it out and let us know your favorite find on Slow Home.

I came across this post at Materialicious yesterday and it reminded me of when we were doing our Hardie Board rainscreen, We had originally bought a chop saw with a hardie blade to do all of our cuts, but it turned out to be a lot more dusty and less accurate than a good pair of power shears like the ones in the picture. Apparently Fine Homebuilding did an entire article on fiber cement tools, and the best way to work with this great affordable material. Unfortunately I don't have a subscription, so I can't access the whole article.Are there any other Fine Homebuilding subscribers out there? Is it worth it?

Via Materialicious

The Wee house isn't exactly a newcomer in the prefab game. In fact, it is one of the first modern prefab houses that I ever heard of being built. What is new is their website. They have given it a pretty thorough redesign since I last visited. They have a gallery of several different Wee houses that have been built already. They also have good floor plans and 3d models of different Wee configurations. What I like best about the site though, is that they make the pricing easy to find. So many prefab sites never really publish the pricing and you can never tell if its a good deal or not. This 1148 square foot X configuration would cost me between $159 - $174 thousand dollars in Utah, not including land and site work. That is about $140 square foot, which really isn't bad considering it includes the shell with roof, windows, flooring, cabinetry, electrical, lighting and plumbing. For more information check out Weehouse.com

The Wee house isn't exactly a newcomer in the prefab game. In fact, it is one of the first modern prefab houses that I ever heard of being built. What is new is their website. They have given it a pretty thorough redesign since I last visited. They have a gallery of several different Wee houses that have been built already. They also have good floor plans and 3d models of different Wee configurations. What I like best about the site though, is that they make the pricing easy to find. So many prefab sites never really publish the pricing and you can never tell if its a good deal or not. This 1148 square foot X configuration would cost me between $159 - $174 thousand dollars in Utah, not including land and site work. That is about $140 square foot, which really isn't bad considering it includes the shell with roof, windows, flooring, cabinetry, electrical, lighting and plumbing. For more information check out Weehouse.com

When we were first looking into making an ofuro, one of the things we considered was pouring one out of concrete. The good thing about concrete is that the material is cheap, and with a little hard work it lends itself well to the DIY approach. We quickly bagged the idea because there is no possible way our floor could support the weight. This morning I stumbled across an old post on Apartment Therapy with a gorgeous DIY bathroom built for under 3k which includes a concrete ofuro. The soaking tub only cost about $200 according to the owner splat girl. She did mention that it was a lot of work though. Check out her flicker photo set and the Apartment Therapy post.

With our construction updates settling down some of you may be feeling a absence of affordable modern construction conversation. Luckily Grassrootsmodern isn't the only site out there determined to build an affordable modern home. The folks over at 100khouse.com are determined to build a house in Philly for under 100k. Sounds ambitious, but if you consider a thousand square foot home at 100 square foot it starts to sound pretty doable. They are currently in the design phase, but it looks like they are well on their way to meeting their goal. Check out 100khouse.com

I'm starting to think that blogging and construction runs in the family. Holy Cows is a blog run by my Mom and step-dad that documents their artisan cheesemaking business Rockhill Creamery. More recently they have also been blogging about the construction of their newest aging room. The aging room was designed and built by my step-dad, and even the die hard modernist in me can appreciate the clean rustic style of the little building. It is also quite affordable, as much of it is made from salvaged material. It will house the majority of their wonderful handmade cheeses just below ground in perfect cave like conditions. If you haven't been lucky enough to try their cheese, stop by their online store and check it out.