What’s the deal?

We’re having a dilemma. The winter sale at IKEA® Woodbridge, our previous run destination, ends January 19. The Charlotte IKEA® opens February 18, we will be going then regardless of what happens in January.

It’s over 2 hours less roundtrip travel time to go to Charlotte than to Woodbridge. Which means it’s greener, because it’s less gas, and less time on the road burning it. We’re less than 2 months away from putting that efficiency factor on our side. But the sale will also be over. There will always be another sale.

So. You tell us: do we make one last run to Woodbridge? Or do we hold out for Charlotte?

[polldaddy poll="1235105"]

With all the pieces & parts that go into building a good kitchen, it’s nice to be able to get cabinets & appliances in one place. It’s also nice to know that with the built-in models like ovens and range hood, the cabinets will fit them. What else is good about IKEA® appliances?

• affordability: ranging in price from $100 to $1,950 for cooktops, ranges, range hoods, built-in ovens, dishwashers, microwaves, & refrigerators
• finishes: stainless steel, white, and anthracite (black-ish)
• serviceability: Whirlpool, the maker of the appliances in partnership with IKEA®, also services them
• warranties:
  • there is a 25 year limited warranty on AKURUM frames & fronts, RATIONELL & PERFEKT shelves, inserts & components for the cabinet systems, and on the freestanding BRAVAD & VARDE series
  • there is a 10 year limited warranty on all kitchen faucets except the LAGAN faucet

How about the current drawbacks?

• only the dishwashers have Energy Star Qualifications
• appliances are not covered under the 25 year limited warranty. It’s worth asking the store where the purchase is made whether warranties are available for your specific order.

Whirlpool?

With the exception of ranges (not cooktops) and refrigerators, Consumer Reports consistently ranks Whirlpool appliances within the top 10, and in many cases in the top 5 listings in reliability. A word of caution regarding Energy Star compliance: read the fine print.

Answer:

Basically it boils down to price and convenience of bundling kitchen components for purchase and delivery. You definitely can’t beat the price. For specialty appliances, like counter-depth refrigerators, for example, it’s probably better to buy independently.

For 10 years, our holiday decor has included this 10′ fiberglass ladder. It has many benefits:

• it’s paid for itself many times over in equivalent live trees
• no needles to clean up
• no watering necessary
• plenty of room for gifts
• no ladder needed to help get the lights & ornaments on & off
• it serves year round assistive use for smoke alarm battery replacement, and for window & ceiling fan cleaning

It’s not complete without a wreath

Hanging on the door to the left of the ladder is our wreath – a tire I blew out myself. Yep, that’s a Michelin, that I put about 2,000 too many miles on. So in it’s now multi-year second life, it, too is part of our green decor. What? It has a bow. Better for that battery cable to corrode in our living room than the landfill.

From our unconventional but greenly decorated home to yours, very happy holiday wishes.

Hey gang, we’ve just released our IKEA® run dates for 2009!

We opted out of a January run for a variety of reasons. Mainly because everyone will be recovering from holiday insanity and expenditure, and because Charlotte comes online in mid February, which is good news for all of us.  We get back quicker, and can more easily do an interim run in emergencies. Not to mention no more Richmond gauntlet. YAY.

Many thanks!

Thank you very, very much to everyone who made 2008 a success for both our runner service and for expanding our assembly, installation, and especially our design services. May you enjoy it for many years to come.

Here’s to 2009! Cheers!

A good friend of mine who works at Colonial Williamsburg makes his own holiday wreaths & garland every year. He’s won the blue ribbon for 2 years in a row. (Congrats!) I never would’ve thought there would be so much color from dried natural ingredients.  To put it all together, he uses hot glue for everything but the gum ball garlands, which are drilled and strung on wire. Here’s what he uses:

• Saw tooth oak leaves
• dried lemon slices
• peach pits
• catalpa pods (Monkey/indian cigars)
• Sweet gum seed pods (Gum balls)
• Yarrow
• white and blue globe ameranth

Cool that natural decor is again modern, green-wise. Even if in a traditional setting.

SAS turns on their new solar power farm

From the Department of Useful Tools:

This morning I set up my account with HourVille, a tool that lets you buy or sell any service by the hour. Pretty slick – you can pay me directly to my PayPal account, and you can see my availability on my booking schedule.

Book Me!

I only have my design service detailed out so far, but you can hire me to:

• design your kitchen around you, not the Joneses (whether it’s IKEA® or not)
• help put together your IKEA® kitchen order
• assemble and install your IKEA® kitchen order
• review design ideas you may have on the back burner

We’re proud to announce that we are now a BBB Accredited Business through BBB in Raleigh. A BBB reliability report on Eco-modernism can now be viewed by clicking the BBB logo on our site.

Aside from being listed  BBB, we’re a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is partner in all design projects we do. No games, no smoke and mirrors, no posing, just WYSIWYG. It’s your project, that’s how we see it. We offer our design expertise, and get you the information you need to make good decisions.

Good news!

We’re going the extra mile to green all of our IKEA® cabinet installations by sealing them after assembly and before installation. Sealing does a couple of things:

• prevents outgassing of formaldehyde, ammonia, acetone, exempt solvents and odor masking agents used in particle board and plywood products
• waterproofs exposed particle board edges – this is especially critical in kitchen base cabinets, and in any cabinets installed in a moist environment

Additionally, Safecoat® itself has eliminated toxic ingredients that contribute to indoor air pollution, including solvents, heavy metals, and chemical residuals. They’ve been around over 25 years, too.

Green: It’s a continuum, not black or white

Greening building products (or anything, really) is not as simple as it sounds. There are many combinations of what can be done to make a design project environmentally lightweight.  In this case, the manufacturing process of the material itself may not be entirely green. But the local manufacturing of it *is* green, as is the transport in biodiesel vehicles, both of which IKEA® incorporates into its business operation.

By sealing IKEA® cabinet products with Safecoat®, we take it the last mile so you don’t have to. Being healthy and being modern can happily coexist.

Fresh off the wires!

We just got word that the IKEA® store in Charlotte will open February 18 at 9:00am. We may be more ecstatic than anyone else, since those trips to DC & back in a day were getting very long, especially with our increased order volume and kitchen design service requests.  We will announce our run dates for 2009 soon, so stay tuned!

The Charlotte location will shave 2 hours off our runner trips, so we can bring it back to Raleigh quicker.  Here are some store stats:

• 365,000 SF on 25 acre site off I-85 & City Boulevard ( Exit 54, if I remember correctly)
• 400-employee store will be Ikea’s first in the Carolinas and 36th in the United States
• it will stock 10,000 items
• it will have 49 room settings
• 350 seat restaurant, and more!