ZipToGreen: How To Reduce Your Home Energy Use
Re-Nest
How’d you like a planning tool lets you create a personal action plan for reducing home energy, thereby saving money and doing a little to help save the planet? For free. Sounds nice, eh? Well, we might have just that with ZipToGreen, a new site that offers greening recommendations, including costs, incentives and a personal calendar to schedule it all out.

Before & Afters of 2009
Centsational Girl
A quick, photo-heavy recap of 30 of this wonderful blogger’s favorite around-the-house upgrade and overhaul projects from 2009. A salvaged dresser, some thrift-store chairs, a bathtub update, a fireplace makeover and more. You’re sure to get some inspiration from this one.

Taking Design to Bed: 6 Beds that Will Rock Your World
CalFinder
These beds will almost certainly change the way you think about the piece of furniture on which you sleep. A couple of these beds are a bit on the wild side, but many are certainly reasonable to put in a bedroom near you.

Solar Energy at Home
HomeIntel
If you like the idea of solar energy but don’t know where to start, this article has some good suggestions. Try an electronic book reader that runs on solar energy, or perhaps some outdoor lawn lamps. Every little bit counts, after all.

Photo courtesy of Centsational Girl

We love blogging! One of the best things about this new adventure is reading other home blogs and learning about what people are saying. We hope that our posts have led you to some new favorites, as well.

On that note, please go check out The Homies (great name!) from Apartment Therapy. It’s an awards program for the best home blogs. We look forward to reading these blogs and learning new things and we hope that you do, too!

Best Green Home Resources: Our Go-To List for Renovations
Re-Nest
The great blog for green homes, Re-Nest, has put together our list of resources — including great Web sites, books, architects, designers and stores — for people looking to renovate green. And as always, the site’s readers offer more suggestions in the comments section.

Kitchen Designs Around the World
CalFinder blog
Jennifer writes, “Let’s travel the globe, if only for a moment, and see what other nations are up to in kitchen design. Every culture has something to inspire new ideas for a room that garners much of our attention.” She offers a peak into kitchens from France, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Scotland, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain.

Warm, Mid-century Modern Living Room makeover
HGTV.com
“Think mid-century modern style is uninviting? See how one couple warms up their mid-century style in the living room with the help of host Karen McAloon from Find Your Style.” Check the before and after photo in our post here, and read more at HGTV.com.

Hot colors for 2010
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Apparently green might be the “it” color for the year ahead. This article offers insights from a variety of designers and other color gurus. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration for your next paint job or linen purchase.

Photos courtesy of HGTV.com

Incredible Textured Kitchen Countertops
CalFinder
According to CalFinder, “Cosentino North America has quarried and extracted semi-precious stones like amethyst, jasper, quartz and more… And their commitment to green manufacturing is impressive: Cosentino’s ECO line uses 75% post-consumer/industrial recycled materials, including mirrors, porcelain, stone scraps and glass bottles.” And they look great.

Before & After: Kati’s dining room + Dominique’s hall
Design*Sponge
Some inspiration for great, creative paint jobs. Take a room from OK to awesome with a clever idea and some good weekend work. Be sure to scroll down to see the photos of Dominique’s staircase.

First-Class Cabins
Dwell
“From the familiar log model to Swiss chalets and Swedish friggebods, cabins are the simplest of structures, made from local materials in forms that respond to climatic and cultural needs. However, these no-frills wilderness escapes no longer require giving up modern comforts and aesthetics. Today’s cabins synthesize traditional typology with present-day design know-how and allow architectural explorations in a way traditional homes rarely do. Here we highlight five modern retreats that might give you cabin fever of a different sort.”

House with Enclosed Internal Garden
DigsDigs
This is direct from the “eye candy” category: We’re sharing it mostly because this house looks amazing. Most homes with gardens put them on the outside, but this house is built around a garden. And it’s stunning.

We’ve come across some cool advances in the green world, so let’s get stepping (that’s a little pun — you’ll get it in just a second).

Energy-generating pavement: An untapped renewable?
Greenbeat
Pavegen is a “slab of concrete that harnesses kinetic energy whenever it is stepped on.” The energy, created by the small amount of flexibility in the material, is either stored in batteries or transmitted to streetlights and other electronics located nearby. Based on some of the company’s number-crunching, five units of Pavegen pavement can be enough to power the lights at a bus stop all night.

Green Roofs Are Changing the Way Architects Design Buildings
Inhabitat
Until recently, green roofs have just gone about their work, providing valuable benefits like keeping buildings cool in summer and warm in winter and reducing the urban “heat island” effect. But now, they’ve become a bit more commonplace, and they’re changing the way architects design buildings. This report from Inhabitat shines some light on this green trend.

The New NIMBY-Defeating Wind Turbine
CleanTechnica
Have you heard the term NIMBY? It means “not in my backyard,” as in, “No, don’t put the city’s new landfill in our neck of the woods” or “I don’t want you putting that big, ugly windmill right in front of my nice lake view!” Well, a design team The Power Collective has designed a wind turbine that can power your home without irking your local NIMBY types. Pictured at right, it’s designed to fit nearly seamlessly within the shape and flow of your roof while still catching about as much wind as other mid-size turbines.

The humble pumpkin is a food that belongs to fall. When the weather turns, Grandma’s recipe for pumpkin soup makes an appearance and many pumpkins fall under the knife in pursuit of the perfect Halloween carving. It’s a versatile vegetable, suitable for eating and decorating.

There are lots of pumpkin soup recipes out there. An Easy Recipe has a guide to choosing your pumpkin soup recipe. Try Googling ”pumpkin soup” to pull up delicious results from the Food Network to the Mayo Clinic.

Don’t forget that great American classic, pumpkin pie! Try this recipe for a new twist on an old classic.

Since it is almost Halloween, pumpkin’s main use is carving. It’s easy to get a good jack o’ lantern. eHow has a simple step-by-step guide. And if you would really like to get creative, take a look at this slideshow of ideas, courtesy of Martha Stewart.

And don’t forget to visit your local pumpkin patch for a dose of fall fun and supporting your local pumpkin growers!

We spend a lot of time around beautifully designed products, and we spent a fair amount of time browsing the Web for inspiration for this blog, too. So we come across a lot of eye candy: photos of gorgeous work worth sharing with all of you. Today’s post is a quick round-up of some nice visuals we’ve seen recently.

Feel free to share some eye candy of your own in the comments section — your own projects, some photos you found online, anything.

A bright, airy design, tons of windows with gorgeous views, high ceilings, and a stellar location make this luxury villa (is there such a thing as a non-luxury villa?) a true work of art.

Speaking of luxury villas, when you have a stunning view, why not put it good use, right? Windows for walls is a good start.

Perhaps you’d expect some funky, modernist home design to be found in West Hollywood, but that doesn’t make these photos any less stunning. Bright green on the interior and bold shapes on the exterior make this home stand out in any neighborhood.

Don’t have stunning views or funky architecture to show off? Why not just draw some? It’s probably way less expensive than the gorgeous property, and it’d make for a better conversation piece, too!

Photos courtesy of Julia Palmer Design, Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects, AI Architects and Charlotte Mann.

There’s a chill in the air. The cool salads and chilled soups of summer are gone and it is time for the warm flavors of fall to take their place.

Apartment Therapy points out that with home canning, you can eat local all year long, including the foods from your own garden (how local is that?). There are lots of great resources on the Internet, as well as cookbooks, to get you started on your home canning projects. Make sure you check out our take on making freezer jam.

‘Tis the season for tomatoes, and no one wants to let these fall beauties go to waste. Columbus Underground offers three great ideas for preserving them: dry, freeze or make homemade ketchup.

Beyond canning, there are some ways to stretch summer fruits and vegetables. Thrifty Fun has some unique thoughts, such as: add them to bread. They suggest fruits for a sweet yet savory treat. Vegetables like olives would also work well. You could also take fresh mashed-up berries and put them in ice cube trays for an unexpected treat in a drink. Or there’s always the old smoothie standby. Fruits, vegetables…there’s almost no limit as to what tastes good in a smoothie!

The New York Times recently announced that Gourmet Magazine will be closing. The grande dame of food publications has had a long and venerable history of showcasing the best of the gourmet world. There are lots of other wonderful food publications, both in print and online, but we must salute Gourmet for always showcasing culinary genius and innovation. It will be missed!

Photo courtesy of ulterior epicure on Flickr.

Floating house, solar-powered “microhouses,” new kitchen products and ideas for “bump-out additions” — plus we squeeze in a little Brad Pitt. Read on for today’s link love post.

What are you reading this week? Anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment below!

Brad Pitt Unveils Flood-Surviving Float House for Make It Right Foundation
Inhabitat
The Make It Right New Orleans Foundation, founded by Brad Pitt, has unveiled its most recent project: a floating house designed by Morphosis Architects. As Inhabitat writes, “In case of flooding, the home can literally break away from it’s moorings and rise up up to 12 feet on two guideposts. It won’t float away, but it will act as a raft and provide the family with enough battery power to allow them to survive for up to three days until help arrives.”

Solar-Powered MicroHouse
Curbly
We’re fans of doing great things with tiny spaces, so we like to see this nice little off-the-grid, solar-powered home. It’s only 100 square feet, but think of the freedom! And it’s nice-looking, too.

New Kitchen Products
The Kitchen Designer
Certified kitchen designer Susan Serra offers her thoughts on a handful of new kitchen products, including a sleek faucet, stylish lighting fixtures, some knee- and back-friendly floor mats, and a ready-for-primetime ice maker. Be sure to stay tuned to her blog for more great kitchen design and decor advice.

Bump-Out Additions — Small Spaces, Big Impact
Remodeling Guy
The Remodeling Guy offers some thought-starters on what a little bump-out addition can do for your home. In part, he writes: “It’s really kind of amazing how much of a difference a space like this can make. The uses are only as limited as your imagination! Here are a few ideas: More cabinet or seating space in a kitchen, a light filled breakfast nook, a window seat in a bedroom or office, a small little corner to paint or do crafts. The list could just go on and on. What would you use it for?”

Down in the Low Country of South Carolina, there’s a beautiful house that looks as if it has seen a lot of Low Country days. However, it is actually a new house, built by Helga Lilley of Gorgeous Green Home Design in Okatie, S.C.

The house is called Oldfield, and it is also Lilley’s home. The house’s traditional look hides its very modern credentials. It was designed to make maximum efficient use of daylight and fit the lifestyle of the occupants. Oldfield also is a green house and achieved EarthCraft House™ Platinum Certification.

One unusual aspect of this house is that it is located in a hurricane zone and therefore must use windows and doors that can help protect it against the storms. Oldfield uses StormPlus products from Marvin to create a beautiful, energy-efficient look that will still meet building code requirements.

Oldfield combines the best of the past and present for a home with Low Country style and green sensibilities.