100K House

Here’s a great blog about a small firm in Phillie who are designing and building a house to come in at less than 100K in construction costs that will be LEED certified.  The house is 1000 sf.  Its a terrific idea and the site is filled with interesting tidbits, like this discussion about how many square feet are really needed, why square feet per person has grown so much since the 1950s, and how people get by with less; and this one which discusses passive cooling and other techniques, and whether a house in Philadelphia really needs an A/C system.  I look forward to perusing this site at length.

Hack’em Sack’em

I spent a good chunk of yesterday putting together a version of this great de-cluttering hack to hide our modem, router, and a number of related cables that had been snaking like jungle vines in our living room.  I should have taken a before picture.  Maybe  I’ll post the  after in a little while.

Our twist on the hack was to mount the pegboard in an unused drawer in a sideboard table.  We turned the drawer upside down and affixed the board using small bolts with wingnuts.   Our pegboard is much smaller than is shown in these examples, due to the size of the drawer, but we have fewer component to deal with, as there is no computer involved.

I found the idea on a site called ikea hacker that presents photos, stories, and how-to’s of how people around the world have run in new directions with off-the-shelf ikea products.  I love this stuff–people are amazingly creative.  I wonder how large a portion of Ikea’s revenue these things account for.  Probably not much.