by jennae on May 28, 2009

The news has been reverberating throughout the green building and design community since yesterday, but it still hit me like a sledgehammer when I found out this morning. Michelle Kaufmann, known as the queen of green prefab architecture, has been forced to close up shop due to the crappy state of the economy. I have featured her work before — her mkPURE sink is made of concrete and recycled porcelain. What I never wrote about, much to my regret, is her beautiful green, pre-fab homes. My husband I spent a lot of time at her firm’s website going through the floor plans and planning our life in one of her homes. I’m not kidding. We had it picked out and were just waiting for our financial situation to catch up to our dreams. :: READ THE FULL POST
I’ve always coveted a modern, stainless steel fireplace. Not that traditional brick and stacked stone fireplaces aren’t beautiful. They’re just not me. So if and when I ever decide to get one, I’m happy to hear from the team over at Alternative Consumer that EcoSmart fireplaces now qualify for federal tax credits for energy efficiency. Any consumer in the U.S. who purchases (or has purchased) an EcoSmart fireplace between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2010 can receive a tax credit of 30% of the purchase price up to $1500. Sounds like a win/win situation to me! You get a beautiful, energy-efficient, clean-burning fireplace, and you get a decent chunk of your money back. Learn more about the tax credit here. :: READ THE FULL POST