Plasma TVs as energy guzzlers? The average household, measured in greenhouse gas emissions? Allison Arieff, editor in chief of dwell, throws out some interesting numbers and facts about the average American home and the state of planet Earth. The December/January issue focuses on sustainable design and features five fascinating, eco-conscious homes (four are in the U.S.), including one belonging to the recycling coordinator for the city of Ann Arbor, Mich. The house isn’t the tin can cottage you might imagine — but a Modernist collage of cubelike volumes, clad in steel and reclaimed wood. Dubbed the SunHome by the family, the house’s “whole being is predicated on its relationship to the sun” — and to a 75-year-old magnolia tree that stood in the way of construction, but would not be torn down. . . . THAT’S A CLEVER IDEA: inserting restaurant-style, steam-table pans into kitchen drawers as way to store flour and sugar, for those who love to bake. And: for those who have an especially narrow bathroom, making a recess in a wall (one that’s not full of plumbing or wiring) to create a niche for towel bars. Fine Homebuilding Kitchens & Baths (an annual special issue, on newsstands through April 2006) is a candy store of great ideas, big and small. Among the larger features in the issue, the one on “cooking up” an office in the kitchen is especially good. . . . THE WINTER/SPRING 2006 ISSUE of Chicago Consumers’ CHECKBOOK rates local plumbing firms, carpet cleaners and housecleaning services (among other things) and finds significant cases of buyer beware. The magazine found Chicago-area plumbers charging anywhere from $175 to $514 to install a garbage disposer and housecleaners charging $59 to $110 to do a once-a-week cleaning of a two-story house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. . . . REAL SIMPLE is on the move in a big way. The blockbuster lifestyle magazine gives birth to a PBS show in January and to a line of its own branded products. A handful of Real Simple cleaning products made by Casabella of New York (many of them multitalented, including a microfiber dusting wand that stores inside the handle of an angled broom) will premiere at Target stores at the end of January. And later in the year, Target also will be first to get the new collection of Real Simple home organization and stationery products. . . . AND SPEAKING OF being on the move, no one’s kicking up more steam than Martha Stewart. Word’s out she’s launching a new, younger-focused lifestyle magazine sometime midyear. The folks at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia aren’t talking — for now. But here’s what we know: It will be targeted to 30-somethings. Lifestyle includes design, entertainment, travel and fashion, as well as home coverage. And the name Blueprint is being tossed around. More to come.
———-