SanJoseGreenHome.com

Who threw this monkey wrench in here?

You might have been reading or hearing all sorts of conflicting news about our market.  Prices are up, prices are down, inventory is up, foreclosures are down… Trali wali, trali wali as some say in Eastern Europe. 

Forgive the media, they generalize too much and often pick the more negative side of the story.  Then they lick that bone like a golden retriever after a day’s out in the field. 

The word is out that there are 3 monkey wrenches that may derail our slowly recovering real estate market.  

First, the expiring homebuyer’s tax credit. It’s been credited with getting a lot of buyers into the market that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. It goes bye bye in spring.

Second, foreclosures.  They continue to rise because many homeowners in financial distress are simply making the decision to walk away from their homes.  Sometimes getting rid of debt can be as easy as that.

Third wrench is the low interest rates are taking a train to Canada as well.  They’re low now in large part due to Federal Reserve purchases of mortgage-backed securities.  Those purchases are due to stop near the end of March. This move will likely cause interest rates to turn upward. 

So what do you think?  Is it possible that these three factors coming together at roughly the same time could create a perfect storm and throw our fragile real estate market into (more…)

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Hello, is anyone home?

“There’s a sound outside the front door… And I know it’s just the wind… But it makes her snuggle up just a little bit closer… And it starts things happening again… 

Steamy windows — zero visibility… Steamy windows — coming from the body heat… Steamy windows –  Steamy windows.“ 

No, this is not a new poem conjured up by a drunk Realtor over the weekend, it’s a Tina Turner song .  Remember it?  Actually, if you’ve heard it enough times it will spontaneously start playing in your mind upon the sight of steamy windows.  That’s what happened to me while walking the neighborhood the other night.  I noticed very steamy windows of the house, just dripping with moisture.  Now if it was just a bedroom window, then hey, good for them, right?  Normally, that steam will be gone in 15 minutes anyways.  But when you see this in the living room window, candles lit, fireplace burning, pot cooking you can’t help not to wonder – how can they possibly enjoy breathing that stuff?   

Actually, it seems that with all the focus on energy efficiency many times we miss the most important issue of it all – Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).  Not only it directly affects our health, we can not have a truly green home without addressing the air that we breathe inside.  

EPA says our homes are actually packed with pollutants.  Some pollutants cause health problems such as (more…)

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Do you ever find yourself so deeply entrenched in your beliefs that you miss a bigger picture?  It’s safe to say we all do.  Recently, I had a chance to speak with a lovely lady who had purchased a fantastically green home.  The house had all the latest in green building like engineered lumber, sustainable materials, non-toxic finishes and many other bells and whistles.  You can imagine that my eyes sparkled like a five year old’s at a sight of an ice-cream truck.  Meeting her filled me with much excitement.  

My first questions obviously were:  “So how do you like it?  Does it feel good to have a low carbon footprint?  Don’t you just love your solar water heater?”  I was expecting to hear something profound like: ”Wow, we love the fact how much less wood was used to construct this house, how much stronger it is because of engineered lumber, how low the heating bills were,” you know…, the standard stuff that we greenies get jazzed up about.  But you know what her answer was? “It’s nice; we love the quality of the floors and are very comfortable here.”  

My jaw dropped.  “What?” uninvited but silent thoughts started creeping in, “She’s got to be kidding… this home should be like a Lincoln monument for green building and all she cares about is bamboo floors… For the sake of the planet, what’s wrong with her!?”  

Needless to say, this was puzzling as hell but on the way back home it dawned on me (more…)

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Not sure how you are going to react to this but when I saw the below image and realized what’s going on I was shocked.  And not by electricity but by the fact how much of it is wasted on the way to our homes.  

Take a look yourself at the illustration below produced by the National Academy of Sciences.  It shows how out of every 100 units of electricity produced by a coal energy plant only 2 is used to light a table lamp that is illuminating your keyboard and that cup of tea.  The rest of the 98% is lost at the power plant, transportation, and heat.

PG&E claims the main source of energy for Bay Area homes is nuclear and natural gas but how much are these plants more efficient than coal?  Chime in if you know in the comments.  Let’s just really hope the efficiency is exponentially higher.

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Credit: Texture from ~diAnNa~, Inspired by this pre-made background by ~vallendesterstock

So Mary, how does it grow?  With wisely planted trees and shrubs, and many sunny days without rain in a row.  It’s called water-wise gardening my friends. 

Did you know an average Bay Area home uses almost 80% of its total potable water for simply watering the lawn and plants?  What would you say if you found out you can have a glorious looking landscape by spilling a drop instead of a bucket to water it?  Just imagine the water savings and your water bill at the end of the month.  In fact, read on and I’ll tell you where you can get a $1000 rebate for going water-wise! 

Don’t be afraid, “sustainable” landscaping doesn’t mean rocks and once a year blooming cactus. By understanding our climate zone, soil type, sun and shade conditions, and the water requirements of your site, you can have lush and beautiful garden if you practice some fundamental principles of water conservation. 

Why Landscape to Conserve Water? 

Drought is a part of the natural weather cycle of the West. Even though we have been able to import water from other areas, our population is rapidly outgrowing existing water supplies. In the years ahead, water conservation and water-wise landscaping will need to become a part of every westerner’s lifestyle. 

Use water conserving plants: The key is to choose plants that are (more…)

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In a market where hardly anyone is building green in San Jose, this newly constructed house in Milpitas area stands as a monument of energy efficiency and inspiration.  

It is about 35% more energy efficient than a standard home and prides itself on green elements like engineered lumber, radiant barrier roof, solar water heater, energy star furnace, extra thick insulation, excellent indoor air quality and much more.  

Come with us on a video tour and discover for yourself what makes this property truly unique.

This beauty is a five year project by Green Earth Construction, a Milpitas based and family run company.  Sylvia Leung and her husband had a vision to go green 15 years ago and are finally able to marvel at the fruits of their labor.  In addition to what you’ve seen on the video, keep in mind that the home is wired for solar and if one decided to invest into solar panels, one’s utility bills for the most part of the year could be virtually zero.  Now that’s a good number, isn’t it? 

Building green normally commands higher costs so perhaps the most pleasant detail about this home is that when considering a dollar per square foot basis, the home is priced comparably to a 25 year old home.  If you like more details, you can find all the info under Featured Listings on http://GreenHomeParter.com.  Feel free to contact me directly with any questions. 

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Have you heard about the many rebates, incentives and tax credits available for you now or in the near future?  It’s been all over the media, and you might have heard about it from the President himself – Energy Efficiency in our homes is critical for a sustainable, healthy and fruitful future. In fact he called it “sexy.”  Way to go Mr. President! 

According to a memo by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board,

 “There are 100 million homes in America, and energy-saving measures like insulation, caulking, and heating and cooling system upgrades can reduce household energy consumption by 10 percent to 40 percent.” One little problem… Who’s really going to cough up all this hard earned cash these days to make their homes more “green”? 

Now, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of DIY projects for homeowner to get started on, i.e. programmable thermostats, smart power strips, CFL lighting, low-flow shower heads and faucets etc. but, to attack more than these items and gain greater energy reductions typically requires professional services; and it’s not cheap to retrofit a home. 

For example, some of the services that are typical of a home retrofit would require (more…)

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Homes in Mexico built from garage doors salvaged from Bay Area and LA. Photo is a courtesy of The Reuse People. http://thereusepeople.org/

You’ve heard the saying: “One man’s trash is another one’s treasure.”  Nothing can be more true when speaking about the actual parts of your house.  We reuse and recycle things like plastic to paper without giving it a thought so why should it be any different when it comes to our home?  Various parts and systems of the house can be often reused in other properties and often re-purposed for building homes for the less affluent ones in Bay Area or even across the border.  Amazingly, deconstruction can even be more cost effective than plain demolition. 

The questions abound… If you are tearing down an old home or a part of it do you demolish or deconstruct?  Do you take it to a landfill or would you rather have someone else enjoy your “trash” as their treasure?  What’s more cost effective and what’s more reasonable for the environment?  Most people believe plain old demolition is the way to go but hold your horses; you may be up for a surprise.  

Salvaging means deconstructing the house piece by piece to keep the materials and systems in tact.  The advantages can be enormous: 

• Salvaging saves embodied energy – the energy that was used in the work of making a product. This lifecycle of each product includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacturing, assembly, installation, disassembly, etc. 
• Salvaging can actually improve a standard of living – allows low income members of society to buy materials at a fraction of the cost.   This can really mean the difference between a straw barn or a functional house, like in the case of homes in (more…)

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