It's a rebate program from Sub-Zero Wolf

Despite my numerous dalliances with other appliance brands, Sub-Zero and Wolf will always be my heart's desire when it comes to refrigeration and cooking appliances. They set the standard in the luxury appliance category and whether it's spoken or unspoken, they are who everybody else is competing against.

In keeping with the times (or maybe it's a sign of the end times) Sub-Zero and Wolf is running a rebate program worth up to $2500 through 30 September 2010.

How it works is fairly simple. Purchase a full-size built-in, integrated or Pro 48 refrigerator from Sub Zero and any size range, any size wall oven and any size rangetop or cooktop from Wolf and you'll get $1,000 in an instant rebate.

Then, buy up to six more Wolf or Sub-Zero products and get $250 in instant savings for each purchase for a maximum additional rebate of $1500. So in a fully-equipped Sub-Zero Wolf kitchen the maximum rebate available is $2500. The details on this offer are available on Sub-Zero and Wolf's website here.

Now that's what I call a throne room

Check out these bath fixtures from Florida's own Jemal Wright.

See the whole collection at Jemal Wright. What do you think? Is bathroom bling a good thing?

Would you ever?

I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.

from Modani

More Not So Big Solutions For Your Home

Sarah Susanka sits in a place of honor in my personal pantheon. I'm not kidding when I credit her with the inspiration to embark on my career. She and Marc Vassallos released Not So Big Remodeling last year and I covered it pretty thoroughly here, here and here. That last here is an interview I did her last year. I'm not one for being star struck, but I lack words to describe the thrill it was to pick up the phone and call a woman who looms so large in my psyche.

So here we are a year later and Sarah has another new book. More Not So Big Solutions for Your Home hit the shelves last Tuesday, though I've had a review copy for about three weeks. The new book is a collection of articles she's written for Taunton Publishing's Inspired House and Fine Homebuilding.

A year ago, she and I had a wide-ranging conversation and we talked a lot about the state of housing in the US. I asked her what she though would be the fate of people who were currently stuck in poorly-built, soul-less McMansions now that the housing market had collapsed. She thought for a moment and said that how to "humanize" a McMansion was definitely a topic for another book

Well, that other book is here and in the course of More Not So Big Solutions' 154 pages, she offers guidance and advice on how to imply a ceiling in a room that's too tall, how to unify an interior with horizontal trim and where to put the TV among many other topics she covers in this wide-ranging and practical book.

She spends some chapters addressing how to design a kitchen island, a guest bedroom and a functional laundry room. She discusses how to pick wall colors, how to squeeze in a half bath and where to put the smoke detectors. Every point she makes is illustrated with Sarah's own renderings, some of which I'm re-printing here. What's not represented by a rendering is covered by the lush photography Taunton Press and the Not So Big books are famous for.

All of this advice is written in the calm, clear cadence she uses when she speaks. Everything, and I mean everything, is an opportunity in her world and that's an infectious perspective. You can see Sarah's entire collection of essays, books, videos, blogs and forums on the Not So Big House website.

If you're looking for some guidance on how to adjust the scale of your home or just some encouragement to make your home look like it's yours, More Not So Big Solutions for Your Home is a perfect addition to your library.

Life's too short for boring lawn chairs

Well there's no chance of boredom here.

This is a series of outdoor polystyrene chairs called The Queen of Love. They were designed by Graziano Moro and Renato Pigatti for SAW. They are designed in Biella, made in Bergamo and so far as I can tell, unavailable outside of Europe.

Pardon the bad pun but who's ready to go for Baroque this summer?