Over the weekend we were able to get the rest of the painting done, and install our white rubber flooring. We purchased our flooring from Big D flooring, the local Roppe distributer. While there is nothing really unusual about rubber flooring, they looked at me really weird when I asked for it in snow white. A quick call into Roppe confirmed that we were doing something a little out of the ordinary. They said that they had never done a floor tile in snow white before. While I have a hard time believing that, I do know that the floor turned out nice. Some of the seams turned out a little more visible than I had hoped for, but we haven't given it a good cleaning yet, so it may improve. The install went pretty good. It basically consisted of spreading down some glue with a notched trowel and then setting the tiles in place. To finish things off I rolled the whole floor with a 100 lb floor roller. The bad news is that I was too tight with my measuring, and we ended up 3 tiles short. Luckily all the tile under the cabinetry is in place, so it won't hold us up at all.
Rubber flooring available from your local Roppe dealer for $6 a square foot plus install.
The kid approves.
I've been working on a little side project for a while now, and after a lot of procrastination I am finally calling it ready for the public. UtahModern.org is a community based website dedicated to modern living in Utah. While it does have it's own blog featuring local shopping, architecture, art, homes, events and classifieds the real point of the website is to grow Utah's modern loving community. You can sign up for your own UtahModern blog like ModFab.UtahModern.org or just join to create your own profile to be able to connect with locals with similar taste as yours. While it's just in it's infancy now I have some big plans for the site.
Head on over to UtahModern and let me know what you think.
As we get closer to actually putting our kitchen back together, the accessories are starting to roll in. One of the first things that we bought for our new kitchen was a sink. In our old home we had a large single bowel kitchen sink that we loved. Since our little family is still growing, one of the criteria's for a kitchen sink for us is that it has to be large enough that we can give a baby a bath in it. Our new sink made by Vigo fits the bill perfectly both for style and functionality. We found it on overstock for $449, which is a fair amount of money, but a huge deal compared to the Franke sink that it is copying which retails for a shocking $1,800. Upon receiving it, we are super impressed with the quality of it. The 16 gauge 304 stainless is padded and undercoated to keep the noise down, and the overall look is great.
Vigo Zero Radius Sink Available from overstock for $449
Ryan is a guy after my own heart. His kitchen remodel involved tearing down a couple walls before putting it all back together again. The ASTRAKT red really brings some nice color into the kitchen.
We tore down two walls to open the kitchen to the dining room and living room and moved the sink from the wall where the refrigerator is. Ikea Abstrakt cabinets in red were chosen to bring the color into the room instead of through paint. To save on costs we installed laminate countertops and purchased all of the appliances (Thermador and Bosch) from a discounted retailer. The backsplash are bamboo pulp tiles from Inhabit and the lights over the island are from CB2. The main idea of the remodel was to provide more countertop space as well as room for storage.
Approx price: $8,500
The second entry to day should be no surprise for regular Grassrootsmodern readers. The entire construction of Salt Lake's affordable modern home "Lucy Ave" was blogged about here. I have actually had a chance to see this kitchen in person, and it is beautiful. In case you missed it the first time, here is a little more info from Jacob.
Our primary money savings is attributable to the cabinets. Ikea as we all know are a great value and make modern an affordable option. We chose the Abstrakt to try to give our kitchen a more minimal look. Anything else would have been too busy as we do not have any symmetry in our kitchen. We were also able to get a special deal on appliances. We were able to get higher end appliances for the price of what ordinary appliances would have cost. We also did not spend much on countertops. Countertops are probably the most expensive material in most homes. We may upgrade them later but for now the laminate is just fine. We chose a black granite sink that was about $275.00 and has held up very well. Doing it mostly myself also saved a lot of money too.
Approx cost: $10,000
Before After
We have two Salt Lake City entries today. The first is a great bungalow update on a budget. A little fresh paint and countertops give this kitchen a whole new look for not a lot of money. They are currently trying to choose between rubber floors or natural linoleum.
While our kitchen isn't quite finished yet, I figured I'd throw it into the ring anyway. We bought a 1920's bungalow with some really nice original woodwork throughout the living and dining room. The kitchen, however, was in serious trouble. It was ugly and non-functional. There wasn't enough storage, counter space or even a place for a fridge. Because of this and our very small budget, my focus was on making it a usable kitchen with some modern touches. I did all the work myself, including the plumbing and electrical upgrades. Since we couldn't afford to replace them, we painted the original cabinets and added some inexpensive unfinished oak ones to match, moving the sink and creating more work space. New dishwasher and appliances, counter tops and hardware really livened up the space. The cost estimate includes what we are planning on spending on the much needed floor. We are currently torn between a natural linoleum and rubber tiles.
Approx cost: $2,400
This whole week I am blogging over at Design Sponge. I'm so excited because Grace at Design Sponge has been such an inspiration for me over the years, as well as a great resource for affordable goodies. At first I couldn't even think about what I could share with her readers, since she is much more of a design expert than I. After a lot of pondering I though I would share the story of our remodel at our last house. So if you aren't familiar with the story, or just want a quick recap, make sure you check out my guest blog all week at Design Sponge.
Thanks Grace for the opportunity to share!
With the increasing pressure of the economic downturn, Ikea is doing their best to help you keep a couple extra dollars in your pockets. It seems like I have noticed an increase in sales and freebies that they have been offering lately, all of which could potentially save you some good loot. Their big kitchen sale starts this Saturday, and runs through Nov 11th. It includes 10% off for any kitchen purchase over $2,500 and up to 20% off if you bundle it with some appliances. If you're not in the market for a kitchen you can at least stop by this weekend at Ikea Draper for a buy one get one free cinnamon bun or frozen yogurt (coupon included after the jump). Also free breakfasts are still available on Sunday mornings through the 26th of Oct.
Ikea Draper website.
Adam Price is at it again, with another art inspired 337 Project aimed at bring the community together. This time he is working in conjunction with the Neighborhood House, a non-profit organization that provides child daycare and and adult day services to the Salt Lake Community. This installation includes art from several Utah artist on some large garage doors next to the Neighborhood house. The Urban Gallery will be unveiled this Friday as part of "A Night of Art on the West Side" tour which also includes other art installations in the valley.
337 PROJECT’S URBAN GALLERY @ Neighborhood House, 1050 W. 500 South, Friday Oct. 3, 6 p.m.
337 Project Website
Neighborhood House Website
SL Weekly article
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,
Check out more details at the G Code Properties.
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.
While this isn't an original Saarinen tulip chairs and table set, this retro table and chair combo does have a wonderful vintage look to it. The set includes a table approx. 45" long, 35" deep and 29" tall and 5 chairs. Overall it looks like they are all in pretty good shape, and at an asking price of $200 they probably won't last too long.
Available from SLC Craigslist for $200.
It seems like Ikea is all about the three day sales lately. We were out of town for the last labor day sale, but some friends were nice enough to pick up a cheap POANG for us. This weekend is another three day extravaganza. If you were ever wanting to pick up a BILLY bookcase, now is your chance. They are $30 off normal price. The SATER leather sofa is on sale to for $299 which seems like an insanely good deal on a decent sofa. Oh, and did I mention they have free breakfast?
Check out more deals at the Ikea Draper website.
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'm off to Diamond Rental to pick up a floor sander this morning. I've never actually refinished any floors before, but I have talked to plenty of people that have so I figure it can't be too hard. I hope to get them all sanded today and get our natural oil stain on. Tomorrow I will be putting on the protective finish.
If everything goes as planned I will be posting on Monday about our newly refinished hardwood floors.
Wish me luck!
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
I put in some serious late night hours on monday night getting everything clean and today they started work on our flooring. It is a product called Miracote which is a polymer of some sort. This is poured over the gypcrete and becomes the final floor. We tried to choose a color that would look like the most like natural concrete. They are applying three coats total. This will give the interior of the home a nearly finished look. These photos show it as it is drying and the finished product will be much more consistent than what you see here.
As you can see we have functional stairs, finally! Stairs are so much better than ladders. For tread material we used o.s.b. that will get a sanding and a heavy varnish. Benchmark came and finished all of the cedar siding and it looks awesome. They also built our front and back porches and the driveway and sidewalks were poured. We are making great progress. We should be almost entirely finished next week and moving in shortly.
I thought it might be nice to show some of the details we have been working on lately. We are starting to install light fixtures, switches and outlets. We have selected all of our light fixtures and a few are shown here. It has been hard to make final decisions even on simple things like can-light trim. We are quite happy with our light fixtures in general and feel like we spent the minimum price for lights that we really like. The only fixture we spent more than $100.00 on was the front exterior light and it is our favorite. Shown to the left are some other finish details (click to enlarge). I promised somebody a long time ago that I would show a photo of our window trim detail. There is actually no trim whatsoever but just the metal sheetrock edging that fits in to a small slit in the window jamb. A small bead of caulk will be placed where the window and metal meet. Then the metal edging will be painted the wall color. Also shown is one of the steel brackets that hold our beams together. These were custom fabricated out of a metal similar to the stairs. This will later be varnished to prevent rust.
Jacob
