Keep ‘em Crossed

Next weekend we launch the new & hopefully improved Eco-modernism.com site. Navigation will be much more organized in terms of which way folks want to go when they arrive. Not to worry, the beloved blog will still be here, it will just look different.

Back in November we wrote about a new linear drain product from Quickdrain. It’s a narrow slotted drain that can be installed along one side of a shower or pool, eliminating the need for multiple floor slopes. It’s much faster to install, can handle a large amount of drainage and the top is removable for easy cleaning.  And it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Congrats!

This week I got a note from Josef at Quickdrain – their linear drain won best product in 2009 for KBIS!

They’ll be at booth B556 in Atlanta May 1 – 3.

Where our fundraising efforts went

Back in February of this year, an event was held worldwide to raise money and awareness about the lack of access to clean water in sub-Saharan Africa.  The event was called Twestival, and 100% of the funds raised went to charity:water.

I got a note today that the first Twestival funded drilling successfully hit clean water at a depth of 176 feet in a remote Ethiopian village called Mai Nebri:

More than 10,000 individual donors contributed just shy of $250,000 – enough for 50 villages and 12,500 people to get clean water. As always, 100% of the money will fund water projects.

Like so many in this harsh region, Mai Nebri’s women and children walk more than 5 hours every day for unsafe water. Some of the women had deformed backbones from carrying 40 pounds of water. A hyena attack recently claimed the life of a child on her way to the water hole at 4 a.m., and waterborne diseases like bilharzia and diarrhea are common. Many of the girls here don’t get a chance to attend school and instead have to fetch water.

What’s different?

Humanitarian efforts happen all the time. What’s different about Twestival is that it was 100% volunteer organized in less than a month (via twitter), AND we can actually see where our dollars are going!

This is the first of 4 days of video of the first installation of a well & pump to people who desperately need it. When I fast once a week, I keep people like the ones in these villages in mind. We live unbelievably comfortable lives by comparison.
Want to help?

$20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years. Pretty different from bank & insurance giant bailouts, huh?

Yes and No

We’ve all heard it: the hell that is wallpaper removal in the great little house your friends just bought. Not to mention how stupefyingly hideous some of the patterns have been.

How OLD is that wallpaper?

Really old. We’re talking 1400′s in Europe. It turns out wallpaper is a several-centuries-old decorating technique created as an alternative to tapestries usually only owned by the very rich. It was a way to have some color & interest on the wall, as well as act as an insulator.

Originally wallpapers were created with stenciling using wood block prints or hand painted, or a technique called flocking, from the Encyclopedia Britannica entry:

flocking, a process whereby powdered wool or metallic powders were scattered over paper on which the design had been drawn with a slow-drying adhesive or varnish. The oldest existing example of flocked wallpaper comes from Worcester and was created in approximately 1680.

Machine printed wallpaper didn’t show up until 1840, and over 400 million rolls were sold during the roaring 20′s. It wasn’t until the 1980′s that it fell out of favor, as the modernist movement viewed “embellishment” negatively. The PC term for it today is “wallcovering” & includes all kinds of digital image applications and textures.

Back to the question.

While I personally prefer the flexibility and ease of updating using paint, wallcoverings are not quite as incorrigible as they were in the early years. Correctly applied, by priming and / or sizing the wall prior to installing the material, it *can* be removed somewhat less painfully. And there are plenty of modern pattern & texture options.

HR 875: Food Safety Modernization Act

A bill called HR 875 was introduced recently to address food safety issues in our food supply chains.  The last link in those chains is our grocery stores.  Given the increasing trend toward growing our own food, there has been some misconceptions about how the bill applies to folks who have a small backyard garden, or container gardens.

Just the facts, ma’am

The always wonderful Eat.Drink.Better. blog has a great article by Derek Markham which debunks 5 myths surrounding the HR 875 bill, & clarifies its main purpose. From the article:

Myth: H.R. 875 “makes it illegal to grow your own garden” and would result in the “criminalization of the backyard gardener.”

Fact: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens.  This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.

Speaking of myths: “We’re not an agrarian society anymore!”

That’s what I overheard an elitist designer say last year at a cocktail party. I disagree, and I think the separation of our lives from where our food comes from has been a significant detriment to our quality of life, our health, and the health of the planet.

We *should* re-embrace gardening & farming – in an adapted smaller scale way. Like small gardens sprinkled everywhere. So the big bad HR 875 bill won’t impede that practice – keep on rolling with those gardening plans, be they community, container, or backyard.

Thanks to Greg Hyer of LinkingRaleigh.com for the entrepreneur spotlight feature yesterday! It’s a Q&A on Eco-modernism, quick snapshot of what we do & why.

Q. How does Eco-modernism give back to the community? A. …On our renovation projects, we do our best to keep demolished items out of the landfill by donating to Habitat for Humanity or other reuse centers. We try to use products that are fabricated within 300 miles of the Triangle.

We act as advocates for being aware of how we affect the environment and our own health.  If you eat at home, you know what you’re eating. If you buy locally grown food, you’re reducing the impact of transporting it.

If you have a good kitchen to cook in, you’re more likely to use it, to the benefit of your own health and the Earth’s.

My niche is specializing in modern style kitchen designs that work for people without costing a fortune. Throw in a little humor and it makes a potentially stressful process easier & more fun.  Here’s a sneak peek at our new logo.