Keurig K-Cup Brewing System

I was at a friend’s house (Hi, Cindy!) and she has a Keurig K-Cup Brewing System.  I’d never seen one in action and fell in love. 

You can get all sorts of wonderful flavors and brands:  Toffee, Vanilla, Mocha, Hazelnut, apple cider, Newman’s Own, Tully’s, Emeril’s.  PLUS, you can get various teas, too – Twinings, Celestial Seasonings, even Swiss Miss hot chocolate!  Over 200 varieties!  That’s an astonishing number of choices.  This coffeemaker is THE coolest thing EVER!

Now, I want one for my birthday – although we’d also use it for the office.

Which makes complete sense, because we’ll often have a couple clients who want coffee in the middle of the afternoon, which means I make a small pot of coffee, ½ of which goes down the sink later. 

Personally, I don’t want coffee in the afternoons, I want tea, which means I have to run upstairs every time I want another cuppa and wait for the water to boil (or run water through the coffeemaker, hoping that no clients will want coffee that day).  Meaning I’m not at my desk and the phone will invariably ring and I pick it up and have to go back downstairs to find the answer to their question. 

Actually, shhh, I sometimes want tea in the mornings! 

But, I’ve since discovered that the K-Cups are not easily recyclable, so now I’m having second thoughts.  I can’t in good conscience use those cups unless I can figure out a way to make them more ‘green’ (no offense, Cindy).

The plastic cups, themselves, are a ‘5’, meaning that some recycling places will take them but I can’t put them in my recycling bin for the city pick-up service.  I’d have to drive for 20-30 minutes to the closest recycling center…that’s adding a recycling point but taking away a carbon-footprint point on my ‘green’ scale.  And the little cap isn’t recyclable so it goes in the trash.  On the plus side, taking the cups apart means you can compost the coffee or tea, so there’s another point in my favor, except that I don’t yet compost, so its actually still a negative point on the scale.

In doing a little research, I’ve discovered that an entire niche business has sprung up which provides new caps for the used cups (3 brands popped up during an internet search) and reusable filters instead of the K-cups – tiny versions of the ones you can get for your regular coffeemaker. 

The new caps are put on the used cups after you’ve thoroughly washed (taking up precious water-points) and dried, then you fill the cups with coffee and pop on a cap.

www.My-Kap.com

Supposedly, you can get up to 10 uses before you need to toss the cup and use a new one.

It’s not like Keurig is ignoring the problem.  They have a page about this on their website.  They are working to find a way to make the K-Cups more easily recyclable but that isn’t, umm, easy.  The problem lies in keeping the coffee fresh and dry and the cup strong enough to handle the process that the coffee machine puts it through. 

Keurig even has a link to a site that will tell you where the closest recycling center is that will take the ‘5’ cups, which is a thoughtful thing to do. 

Keurig’s next single cup coffeemaker, Vue, will have coffee pods that are less trouble, they say.  The Vue is a slightly different product (although they’d probably use a stronger word that ‘slightly’) and the coffee pods are not interchangeable with the K-Cup Brewing System pods.  You can make stronger, hotter beverages and even add frothe.  I like that its an easier name to type;  Vue  vs K-Cup Brewing System.

Keurig's soon-to-be-released 'Vue'

I tried to find info about the Nestle’ espresso maker Nespresso, but their website wasn’t as informative.  There are similar re-capping solutions for their coffee capsules, too.  Someone mentioned that they have a program for companies where they take back the used coffee pods and recycle what can be.  I couldn’t find that info on their website, though.

There are other single cup coffee makers and here is an article at Popular Mechanics which rates a few of them:  http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/single-serve-coffeemaker-showd 

One of them was scary – it uses a nitrous-oxide (N2O) cartridge! 

Mypressi Twist has a N2O cartridge in the handle

What am I going to do?  I love the versatility of the Keurig machine but, I dunno yet if I can justify it.

What do you think about this?  Help me decide

Sand?  Certainly!  Dry?  Definitely!  Hot?  April through Oct, most assuredly!  But, absolutely not boring.   

Yeah, yeah,Yosemite is a beautiful place…all green and waterfall-y, lots of trees and meadows and, darn it, people.  You can hardly see the landscape for the masses of people.  I don’t really like to go there anymore, it’s so crowded.

And, yes, the beach is beautiful…the sunsets, the sandpipers scurrying along the waves, the dead sea lions washed up on the shore,  the seagulls pooping on my head.  Seriously though, I am more at peace along the beach or a river than anywhere else.

But the desert, too, has a stark beauty all its own.  You just have to look closely.  It has a deeper kind of beauty that grows on you. 

We like to visit the desert in the winter months – partly because we can count on it being warmer there than where we live, partly because there are no hordes of people milling about and partly because of its unique qualities.  Its T-shirt weather during the day but it gets very cold at night, so layering up is the name of the game. 

 You’ll drive over the crest of the mountain and you can see the valley sprawling before you, all browns and scrub brush and far off in the distance your eyes pick out a glint from the white roofs at Stove Pipe Wells.  Get out of your car and wait a bit to let your eyes adjust to the subtleties and you’ll begin to see the wild variations in the cliffs, the mountains, the rocks.  You can see sand dunes that rise almost 100 feet right in the middle of the valley.

Death Valley isn’t boring.  There are hikes in narrow canyons of slick marble, you can scramble up dryfalls (we were making an attempt to continue past the official end of the hike and I was half-way up the dryfall when 2 ten-year old boys ran up.  They said that the other side of the fall was easier and proceeded to show me how very much easier it is when you’re 10!). 

Wander along volcanic craters, experience the surreal landscape of the enormous salt flats, visit historic Scotty’s Castle, see the mysterious sliding rocks at The Racetrack…, check out the charcoal kilns.  There are old borax works, abandoned mines, the Rhyolite ghost town. 

Take water with you everywhere and make sure your car is gassed up and you won’t be at a loss for things to do.  There are 3 hotels in the Valley  – Swimming Pools!  Tennis!  Golf! – lots of tent or RV camping spaces (about 800), 4 restaurants, 2 convenience stores, 3 bars, 1 gas station, an airstrip, bicycle and jeep rentals, you can go out on your own or rent-an-adventure from various outfits – we even saw paragliders!  And, thank heaven, there are even bathrooms out in the middle of nowhere.

An hour outside the park is Beatty, NV, with a few hotels (Stagecoach Inn, Motel 6, Desert Inn) and the Armagosa Hotel at Death Valley Junction is historic and pretty funky, its owner is the famed ballerina Marta Beckett…she’s 87 and still puts on a show every Sunday.

http://www.amargosa-opera-house.com/

We went to Death Valley a couple weeks ago & there were people from all over the world…Australia,England, Japan,Mexico,Canada. 

Sidenote:  We were invited by Coco, our Denny’s waitress (not a lot of breakfast places in Beatty, NV) to a NYE’s party at a local bar where a live band was playing and EVERYthing.   The Tracy Barns Band – country flavor with a large repertoire of popular standards.  Thankfully, they were actually good musicians!

You have to like driving to like wandering around Death Valley, cuz there’s a LOT of wide, open space there – 3.4 million acres!  And many of the longer drives are recommended for high-clearance vehicles (hence the popularity of the jeep rentals), but there are plenty of drives for regular sedans and even RVs.

There’s a place where an underground stream comes to the surface and becomes home to pickleweed and tiny pupfish (they are so energetic, like puppies, according to the guy that discovered them).  It finally runs out of energy and melts back into the sand…

  We discovered another oasis on the map – it’s the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, actually outside the Park, between Beatty and Death Valley Junction – where there are 30 streams and seeps (doesn’t quite qualify as running water) which feed the many species of birds, fish, animals and plants that thrive there.  There used to be farms in the area, but they dwindled away and now it’s mostly the Refuge with a few private homesteads peppered around. 

Its here that we got to drive through a washout!  In a gully!  I was very excited, I had to get out of the car and make Rick drive through slowly so I could get pictures of us Driving!  through the Water!  in a gully!  Wow…is my live so dull? 

Dust everywhere!  Here’s the back of our car…especially after driving the gravel roads up to the trailheads.

As I said before, the beauty of Death Valley isn’t as obvious as it is at the beach.  Look more closely and you’ll find tiny berries, a riot of color (the variations don’t show up as well on the limited color-wheel of a computer monitor), unique formations – sand dunes, natural rock bridge, a canyon of marble, hills of bold red, bright gold and even aqua. 

I heard someone say that the average hotel stay in the Valley is 1 night.  1 night!  Are you kidding!  You can’t stay less than 3 days and if you have a truck or 4-wheel-drive, then stay another day at least, maybe 2.  There are 3 things we’d have liked to do but didn’t have the vehicle for – The Racetrack (where rocks leave tracks in the sand – how do they do that?), Titus canyon and the kilns.

Visit Death Valley, it’s a fascinating place

It IS beautiful...

In my line of work as a Landscape Designer I get this question quite a lot lately.

Yes, Artificial Turf has improved a lot and it is the solution for very specific applications but on the whole I would say that artificial turf should not be used to replace the average lawn. 

Here is why:

-  Artificial turf is costly (3 times the cost of natural grass)

-  It is installed in the same manner as Interlocking Pavingstone which is laid on 6-8″ of base rock and sand compacted in place making it paving rather than “turf”

-   And lastly it is hot.

Seriously hot! Photo from U of Arkansas

(Here’s a link to an interesting article I found on the University of Arkansas website about using artificial turf for sports fields: http://turf.uark.edu/turfhelp/archives/021109.html ).

 These are the top 3 complaints from folks getting bids or installing these products. For me the problem is the fact that Artificial Turf is not an environmentally friendly product.  Carpeting the earth destroys the biomass and living organisms in the soil leaving not an ecosystem but an inert area. The picture below shows the Carbon and Nitrogen cycles, basically how the earth (soil) interacts with the Sun, air and living organisms to keep a balance in the atmosphere so that we can actually breathe.  Not to mention grow living things to feast on!

 (Basically, carpeting your yard renders it a wasteland…)

 (Artificial Turf does not break down organic matter like the microorganisms do in soil – yeah, this means what you think it does…bird poop, spit, food, and worse, sits on the turf – ewww… which can cause infection to those using it.)

 Planting areas i.e. natural lawn, ground covers or mulch also act as drainage fields around our homes catching and absorbing water before it runs off into the sewer and then down into the bay.  The dilution of the salinity of the bay over time changes the whole ecosystem of that area as well.  Artificial Turf does have very tiny holes that allow for percolation of water, however, as with any type of paving most of the water runs off the surface.

(New ordinances in many areas require that all water runoff be retained on the property, not allowed to drain to the street and the City sewer system, so you should consider that when installing artificial turf.  You’ll be required to make sure the water runoff goes into a drywell or landscaped area.)

Areas that I have used Artificial Turf that worked out quite well are poorly drained, dark and small spaces.  Most of these projects were for Townhomes or Condo areas where having a tiny lawn on a north facing site made a muddy pit incapable of growing normal turf. The clients in these cases had small children and needed a bit of play space for them. 

(Here is a YouTube video on how to install artificial turf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJSMQmoQJHU )

Sport areas are normally also the first choice for Artificial Turf because it is even, does not wear down easily and can be fitted to the specifications of the sport and client.

Saving water is a needed and important aspect of our future but using Artificial Turf to replace your front lawn is not the solution. As time goes by and the product fades and becomes an icky color it will invariably be removed to be sent to the landfill with all the other un-recyclable products.

 Turn instead to a water-conserving garden that will enhance your home rather than detracting from it. Most of these landscapes act as an environment that is friendly to birds, butterflies and other wildlife while naturally percolating water down to the ground water.

From Lois' portfolio

 

...also by Lois

(If you decide to install artificial turf after all, check each brand and installer out carefully.  Seams can rupture, the carpet can stretch, tufts unravel and shed, UV rays can cause the plastic to break down.  Some products even have a high lead content!  A quality product and installation will help your artificial lawn last longer.)

For more info on Lois Miller, visit her website at www.loismillergardendesign.com  She does marvelous designs for huge budgets and tiny ones.

...and another one by Lois

The house of your dreams...

When you put an offer on a home and the offer is accepted, the fun begins. 

Flurries of paperwork , phone calls and emails whirl from this person to that person, from agent to buyer to agent to seller to loan officer to underwriter to appraiser to underwriter to buyer to loan officer to buyer to loan officer to buyer to loan officer to appraiser to loan officer to buyer…well, you get the idea.  Its a maelstrom of documentation and questions and signatures.

Now, pretend you have offered $500,000 on a house that had a list price of $500,000 (I’m not going to cover all the possibilities here with bids, short sales and the like, just a straightforward purchase offer on a straightforward house).

You have the 20% down payment in the bank ($100,000) and you have a very nice credit score so you qualify for a loan with a low interest rate, lucky you.

The bank gives you money, whee!

The loan paperwork is going through without a hitch and then, oh, no!  The appraisal comes back with a house value of $480,000, not the $500,000 you offered on the house. 

What now?

The bank isn’t going to fund a loan for $400,000 (purchase price -  20% down).  They are only willing to fund a loan for $384,000 (house value – 20% down payment).

You’ll be presented with a choice.  You can either let the transaction fall through (TFT) or you can make up the difference between the purchase price of $500,000 and the amount the mortgage company will fund, $384,000.

If you decide to move forward with the purchase, you must cough up an extra $20,000 on top of your down payment of $96,000.  Well, actually, you must come up with an extra $16,000 since your down payment is $4k less…get that?  Everything is a moving target – well, exCEPT the amount the bank will fund!

The bank's preferred direction of money flow...

How does this happen and what can you do to prevent it?

It happens because so many properties are being sold at basement prices (sidenote:  Department stores used to move products to the basement when prices were significantly reduced.  They weren’t going to sacrifice precious 1st floor space with cut-rate stuff). 

Bargain basement saleSaleSALE!

Basement prices, short-sales (meaning that the list price is less than the loan amount owed) or REOs (Real Estate Owned = owned by the bank) combined with a smaller pool of buyers able to qualify means that sellers are taking what they can and getting out, some with just the shirts on their backs and lucky to have that.

Maybe not even a shirt...

There isn’t a foolproof way to ensure your offer is the appraised value of the property.  There’s no guarantee of anything, but a savvy Real Estate Agent will understand the history of sales in your neighborhood and what the market is doing.

If nothing else remotely comparable to the property you want has sold for $500,000, and you really, really, really want that house, then you need to have a reserve of cash in case the appraisal comes back for less than the purchase offer.  

Your house...as viewed by the appraiser.

Your agent can review sold prices of similar properties and recommend what your offer should be.  If the offer is countered at a higher price and you don’t have the green to make up the difference, then don’t accept the counteroffer.  Let everyone move on with their lives without tying up their hopes.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect way to ensure everything goes smoothly.  In some areas the market is moving down and down at the moment, so its possible that the appraisal from even 3 months ago won’t fly today.

Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top don’t make an offer that uses every dime you have!  You won’t have any wiggle room if the you-know-what hits the fan.

Don't expect to be saved by a quick trip to Vegas. When they say 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas', they're talking about your money, too!

Save more money than you need for the down payment.  You’ll have all sorts of unexpected costs associated with the house purchase, you know – taxes, fees, reports, repairs, whatever – plus you might want to change out some things before you move in – faucets, paint, carpet, landscaping, who knows.  You need a slush fund.  Don’t look at your bank account as the down payment fund.  Look at it as your down-payment-PLUS-fund.

There is no guarantee that a deal can be saved if the appraisal comes in too low, but its better be forewarned and anticipate what can happen.

Sometimes a counter-offer can come in that asks the buyers to pay for things that are many times paid for by the seller because the seller is just that close to the bone and doesn’t have the money to throw into the pot to get the house sold.

You gonna sell that heirloom jewelry?

Or what happens when the mortgage company says ‘No, you can’t buy this house as-is, you must put in a new potty or window or roof or take off the front porch because it was done without permits and I said so!’  Seriously, all those things can happen.

And, yes, a $$ shortfall can happen when you go get a construction loan, too.  As the market declines, your equity declines and the bank wants to see that you have more invested in the project and asks you to pitch in $20k of your hard-earned money and, dagnabit!, that was the money you were using to reroof the house after putting on the addition…what now?  You’ll have to cut back somewhere.  Either in finishes (granite?  no, how about formica) or in reducing the size of the addition, or even doing some of the work yourself.

No house is worth going to jail for!

Does this happen?  Absolutely!  We have a client reducing their addition size right now.  Of course, we also have a client who increased the size of their project!  Happy day!  We need more clients in THAT predicament!

So, save more moolah than you think you’ll need and expect surprises.

Good luck and may all your surprises be pleasant ones

Cute original front with no hint of the mongo addition behind it.

We’ve had a couple calls recently from people who made the same mistake.  They each purchased a property without enough research.

One guy, let’s call him Clint, meet with Rick to discuss plans to demo the house and build a new custom home.  No can do, buddy, you live in a historic neighborhood where houses must maintain their historic integrity – at least from the front.   Meaning that Clint can do a huge addition to the back of the house, but he must keep the front of the house looking as cute as it did the day it was built.  Surprise!  He was so disappointed.

Rendering showing the 1700sf addition. Plus the software lets us zoom in and all around, cool.

The 2nd guy, his name is, um, Wagner, he bought his property at an auction and called to ask about the existing plans for a new house.  Turns out that the Planning Application has expired and he has to start almost from scratch to get approval to build a new home.  He didn’t ever call the City to ask about this property.  Its gonna cost him an extra tens of thousands of dollars and, maybe 6-9 extra months of mortgage payments to get this approval.

Please pay attention!  If you are buying property, do a little research before signing your name on the dotted line!  Go down to the City or County and ask to talk to a Planner about the property.  Some cities will even allow you to find out about permit history for the property online. 

Don’t expect your real estate agent to do this on your behalf, its not her job.  Find out if a property is viable for the type of project you have in mind.  The ultimate responsibility is yours.  You can sue anyone you want, but you’ll still be the one with ‘FAIL’ stamped on your forehead. 

You know, the one with the shelves from floor to ceiling and one of those cool ladders that swings all around the room on a track in the floor, with cushy leather chairs and warm throws.  Maybe a fireplace and a wetbar hidden in a large armoir.   A huge picture window overlooking the meadow and the great danes racing after each other around the splendid dogwood tree.

Oh, wait, that’s not my dream anymore.  I just want a shack on the beach and an e-Reader!

ahhhhh www.morguefile.com

So, we got a passel of boxes out of storage and I put on my hardest of hearts and tossed book after book into boxes for the yard sale.  I’m never going to read those romance novels that someone gave me, never going to finish that Shelley Winters biography (interesting as it was), I stopped reading those silly ”The Cat Who…” books (shiver).  All those damsel in distress books are so repetitive and I feel like I’m reading the same novel over and over with different locations and descriptions for the heroine (plus how many different ways can you describe someone’s ‘throbbing member’, for crying out loud!).  One book had a woman who was cute as a button (or else she’s ravishingly beautiful but, endearingly, she has no clue how adorable she is) with naturally curly hair that grew out dark and then, surprise, turned blonde all on its own.  She didn’t have dark roots, no, its was simply the way it grew out – and nobody ‘understood’ her…snark…

I love to read but I don’t need to keep those books that were my faves in high school – Alastair MacLean and Dick Francis, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein.  There are so many new books to be read, I can’t keep all the old ones. Plus, books that have been around for 30 years tend to smell like…dusty old books… pewww.

Bunch of old books, ripe for recycling...

Those sci fi’s I treasured as a youth?  Yes, I kept a couple of those by Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, you can still find relevance in them.  They are being turned into movies even now…Blade Runner was one, original title “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”  Another is I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov.  He really was insightful.  Sci fi movies and books still reference his ideas in them.  And another is Total Recall, which is being re-made at this very moment.  That was originally a book by Phillip K. Dick – “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”.

www.imdb.com

I read an old classic sci fi last fall and I had to work at putting myself mentally back in the old days before cell phones, when computers were the size of your living room and when you actually had to go to a library to look up stuff.  It was awkward.

Other items I’d been saving for years were scrutinized.  Am I ever going to make another pineapple raisin jello salad? Nope, so I don’t need the jello mold.  What about that wok?  OK, I kept the wok.  But what about those holiday platters? Cheap stuff, yard sale material definitely.  The multitude of candlesticks?  Gone!  Coffee mugs?  Gone!  Drinking glasses? Gone!  Vases, sugar/creamer set, cookbooks, doo-hickeys and thingamajigs, gone, Gone and GONE!

I wish I had another week to go through more stuff in the basement!  I’m on a roll!

Back to the books.  At the very, very end of the day on Sunday – we’d packed up all of the non-books and were taking a break before tackling those heavy boxes and a man came by (we get quite a few people wanting to peek into boxes as we’re loading the remnants of the day into the truck to take to the Salvation Army). 

He was dressed in clean pants and a white T-shirt and long scraggly hair with huge gray whiskers (sidenote:  the word ‘sideburns’ comes from Ambrose Burnside, businessman, governor, US Senator, Army General, known for his unusual facial hair – ‘burnsides’ became ‘sideburns’ over the years.)  

Portrait by Mathew Brady

Based on our conversation, he seemed ‘simple’, if you know what I mean.  He politely asked what we were selling and what was the purpose of our yard sale.  We explained it was a fundraiser for our best friend, Kathee, Stroke Survivor (deep voice with lots of reverb and echo).  I told him to feel free to look at the books, since they were all that was left.  There were a lot of books, 50 or more.

He asked what sorts of authors we had and I told him we had mystery, sci fi, romance, fiction, non-fiction and on and on.  He and I ended up talking about favorite authors.  He seemed a very sweet man and took 1 book by each of several different authors that he liked (he didn’t want to be a hog about it) and even took 2 books by new authors he’d never heard of because, as he said, ‘its good to try different authors to see if you like them’. 

He ended up with 2 bags of books and asked what the price was.  I said everything was 1/2 off so the price was $1 for all of them (I would have given them to him – we were going to take them to the Salvation Army, after all.  But I felt he didn’t want charity).  He said with a glint in his eye ‘Oh, I think that’s a bit steep for these books.’   Then he solemnly assured me that he was just kidding. 

You know, conversations like that happen with each yard sale we have.  We met 2 prospectors – yes, they prospect for gold.  1 guy had about 12 claims and was purchasing a couple more – he explained what he looks for and he carries his equipment on the top of his van, pointing to his van across the street.  He even wore a  t-shirt with the name of his prospecting club.  There are clubs for everything!  Here’s one for gold prospecting:  http://www.goldgold.com/

Not just working with a pie tin in a crick... www.goldgold.com

The old-fashioned way... www.goldgold.com

Ernie Golding bought a couple frames that have multiple spaces for pictures in them – like a collage.  He is in charge of the pictures for his ‘old-timer’ baseball club.   Old-timers who played pro baseball, that is.  And he’s so enthusiastic about it, loves his job.  He was president in 1983 and they just celebrated their 70th year -  The San Francisco Baseball Old Timers Association.  Our old frames were going to display photos of their events and members.  From trash to treasure.  You can find a video of their celebratory lunch here on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aHJjZdotiw

Some people race in and out of the place and others take their time, willing to talk and share why they love a particular piece.  Like the elderly cancer survivor with a walker who wanted the lap desk – we joked with her about how her son was so good to be helping carry the stuff she bought.  He was ‘back in the will’ she said, with a smile.  The young woman who bought the vintage hats (you want to see some fascinating hats – go here: wwwdorotheasclosetvintage.com  ). 

Hats like this. www.dorotheasclosetvintage.com

 There was a cutie pie who bought my old 1992 black booties and a vintage pair of black gloves with little scallops at the hem.  A woman who takes stuffed animals to Mexico as prizes for kids’ bingo games.  A lady whose back hurts her all the time, she wanted the chair massage pad.  The teacher bought kids books for setting up her reading corner and sheets to cover tables at a science station.  A preschool teacher was decorating her room like a jungle – she got a huge stuffed giraffe and ‘The Jungle Book’. 

31" tall! www.nextag.com

Each of these people had interesting stories to tell about what they were shopping for and why.  It makes the yard sale so much more than sitting out in our yard with cr*p we don’t want anymore on tables for weirdos to pick through.  It becomes more about us as a community.  Especially when people paid more than the asking price or told us to keep the change – helping us help Kathee, Stroke Survivor (deep voice, reverb and echo).

We get so used to coming home from work and getting into the house without saying a word to anyone else (except, maybe, for that gesture you made at that rude driver) we forget the pleasure to be had in simple contact with our neighbors.  Neighbors used to hang out over the back fence talking about kids and laundry and work and tools.  Anymore, we have an extra privacy trellis on top of our fence so our nosy neighbors don’t peek at us.  And the sound of the kids playing in the Slip-n-Slide gives us a headache.

Ah, those carefree summer days...

How many of us hold block parties in the summertime?  Neighborhood cookie exchanges at Christmas?  Sharing a lawnmower, borrowing a cup of sugar?  You help me build my fence and I’ll help you pave your walkway.  Does that still happen?

I think I hijacked my own post.

Tell you what, next time you see your neighbor, give her a wave.  Run out of sugar?  Go next door to borrow a cup, then go back with a dozen of those cookies you baked.  Noticed that your neighbor’s yard is overgrown?  Mow it for them.  Take the first step and see what develops.  Tell me what happens.

Oh, btw, we raised over $900 in 3 yard sales.  Not too shabby 

I love Adirondak chairs!

 I was reading an article in the AARP mag (yes, AARP, no cracks, pls.) about an idea called Village To Village Network – VtV.  Its about bringing back the neighborly support that used to exist when our commutes weren’t 90 minutes long and we didn’t drop onto the couch wearily and immediately turn on the TV when we got home from work.  We sat on front porches and waved at our neighbors…and actually spoke to them sometimes, imagine that.

VtV takes the concept  past the borrowing-a-cup-of-sugar-from-your-neighbor concept.  They recruit volunteers within a specific geographical area to support elderly folk by driving them to the store, providing help with their computers, shoveling snow from the sidewalk or even simply changing a lightbulb in a ceiling fixture.  All those things that Seniors find more and more difficult to do as their (our) bodies age, sometimes these chores are the difference between an Elder being able to stay in his or her own home or having to move to a place for Seniors.

And VtV takes it a step further with the idea that we can all benefit from being a part of a village.  You can fix a dryer and I can help someone go grocery shopping.  One person can teach cooking and someone else can fix a porch railing.  You volunteer to help someone and further down the line, someone will help you with something you need.  And you don’t necessarily have to be over 60 to benefit.  There are younger people involved in these villages, too.

Though, its not about bartering your services (1 points for changing a lightbulb vs 5 points for fixing a lawnmower), its more about becoming involved with a community of people in your area – there are events bringing members together, from birdwatching tours to potlucks – with the ‘village’ network also providing lists of vetted service providers and discounts for local businesses.

http://www.vtvnetwork.org  has info about the village concept and if you click on ‘village maps’ you can see if there’s one in your area.  There are many more than I thought there’d be, some are still in the development phase.

Hope she's not going to paint a sad-eyed clown...

Its a great idea.  The Beacon Hill Village, http://wwwbeaconhillvillage.org has written a book about starting a village, called ” The Village Concept:  A Founders’ Manual” with tips and a how-to guide.

If you have a parent who could benefit from being a part of a village, look and see if there’s one nearby.  It has resources to help keep Seniors living as independently as possible.  I wouldn’t want to move to a nursing home merely because I couldn’t change that lightbulb!

Of course, we don’t have to officially join a village in order to be in one.  Look around you, you have a village right now.  Maybe its your church family, your circle of friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, or a blending of all those.  We can help each other in small ways or in big ones and helping others – giving back, if you will –  makes us feel good, too ;-)

You'll need a ladder when this light burns out.

www.imdb.com

 You know that movie ‘Bucket List?’  Where Jack Nickelson’s character has a life-threatening disease and he creates a list of things he wants to accomplish before he kicks the bucket, hence the name of the movie.

 There are even websites devoted to helping you create and move through the items on your bucket list, being encouraged and sharing your experiences.  Here’s one:  http://www.reaperlist.com/?gclid=CJa-gpXam6oCFQFUgwodGFwuxg  and here’s another one:  http://bucketlist.org/  There are many more!

 But, what do I call a list of things I want to STOP doing before I kick the bucket?

 My mom was telling me how she had improved her health (and lost a lot of weight) by making a list of things she needed to change and tackling them 1 at a time.

 She’s told me this before but, for some reason, it made an impression on me finally.  So, I’m sharing this with you.

It doesn’t have to be a big thing to make the list.

 My list includes making exercise a regular thing and cutting sugar from my coffee. 

 Rick and I bought bicycles and now ride 3x a week around the neighborhood or on local bike trails.  Any vacation (or business trip) involves hiking or biking or something that’s not just taking in the local museums and scenery.

Coyote Creek South

 Last week I used Splenda in my coffee instead of sugar.  I’d tried to do that before but it never lasted past 1 day – this time, I did it all week and it was no big deal.  Why Splenda?  Because that’s what Rick’s doctor recommended – he has Diabetes.

 What’s next on my list?  I don’t know, I didn’t expect Splenda to kick sugar so quickly!  I’ve been thinking about big things I need to change and I want to break them into smaller parts so I can actually succeed. 

 One thing I did do, actually before I began creating an opposite-of-bucket-list was curb my cursing…yeah, I’m a potty mouth.  I have been since 8^th grade.  It’s not easy because sometimes those words are actually the most expressive in a given situation.  Saying ‘oh, dear’ all the time just doesn’t have the same cache’, you know?

 Back to my un-bucket list…

 Habits I need to break

–       laziness (gardening, filing, laundry, mending)  I was thinking about this post while I was watering the plants.  I emptied the watering can and still had a few plants to water.  I looked at them, thinking ‘can they last another day or so?’  WHILE I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS POST, for cryin’ out loud!

–       snacking (stress-, depression-, happiness-, boredom-)

–       snarkiness.  If you can’t say something nice about someone, come sit next to me!  I’ve actually thought about creating a snarky anonymous blog where I could give in to my spiritual gift of sarcastic bitch.  But, Rick warns that it might not alleviate my sarcastic tendencies but will rather make me much better at it – and I’m already pretty darn good.

–       errand avoidance  – I hate grocery shopping, hate going to the dry cleaner, hate running by the bank.  I had parked in the lot for Nob Hill grocery store in order to retrieve a sign after an Open House the other day.  I looked up at the Nob Hill sign and remembered that I needed to buy milk.  That’s it, just milk.  I thought, no, maybe I can get by another day.  I’m actually IN the parking lot for Nob Hill and I’m trying to figure out a way to NOT go buy the milk.  Reason won out over avoidance and I bought the milk.  Then I’m driving home all proud of myself, like it’s a major accomplishment…

I hate being out of milk... www.morguefile.com

Those are the biggies.  Putting them in writing helps me develop the baby steps I need to tackle each one.

 Other things that can be on an un-bucket list:

unbelievable! www.uglyhousephotos.com

-        deferred maintenance on your house.  Maybe some of those things are expensive to do (like repairing/replacing our historic house’ windows) but some of them probably aren’t, like fixing a porch step or replacing a window screen, fixing a leaky faucet.

-        thank-you notes.  A lost art, yet such a meaningful gesture.  You have 2 weeks from the time you receive a gift to write the thank you note – get to it.

I use these... www.islandheritage.com

-        turn signals on your car.  Yes, your car has them!

-        recycling – even if your town doesn’t have a convenient weekly pickup.  Find a local recycler and begin with SOMEthing – be it soda cans or water bottles or paper or aluminum.  Start small, but start.

 I know I can do the things on my turn-over-the-bucket-list because I was able to stop getting drunk back when I was in my mid-20s.  Although I still want to drink and do sometimes, I don’t make a habit of it – I say ‘no’  more often than I say ‘yes’.

 So, why is it so easy not to drink that Kahlua (last night and the night before) when I can’t turn down the pretzels? 

 I dunno.  But, I’m tackling it one thing at a time.  Join me

When looking up the information for the property we discovered that the information that the Multiple Listing Service pulled from the County of Santa Clara County records had the wrong Zone for the property.  The correct Zone for the property is not Commercial (which, for a residential property, has its own issues). 

Its zoned R1-D.  The D stands for Design Review.  Meaning that this house cannot be simply torn down and a new one built in its place.

The house is in a historic part of town and changes to the structure will have to go through the Planning Department and, likely, have a Public Hearing regarding any project proposed by the owner.

Why is the zoning information wrong?  Who knows?  Could have been a simple clerical error years ago – our 4 bedroom house was listed as a 3 bedroom when we bought it, but it had always been a 4 bedroom! 

Why allow office buildings to encroach into a neighborhood?

The ‘commercial’ zone (actually Zoned O for Office)  takes a jog around 2 properties, this particular one and the one next to it and then jumps back to include the property at the corner.  And there is a office building next door.

Ultimately, it comes down to you, as the Buyer of the property, confirming information provided.  You don’t want to be surprised by something like this, that’s for sure.

Looking to buy a house?  Call the Planning Department and find out what the Zone is and what the rules are related to that Zone.  Some Cities/Counties have the information online, but many don’t.

Ask questions like: 

-What is the definition of the Zone?  Agriculture, Rural, Rural-Residential, Design Review, Hillside Design Review, Commercial, Multi-Family, PD are just some of the possibilities and each of these has its own process and rules associated with it.

-What are the setbacks (front, back, each side)?

-What is the allowed Floor Area Ratio?  This is the allowed ratio of house to land.  For instance, a 1000sf house on a 6000sf lot has an FAR of 16.6%  Some cities include the garage in the square footage and some don’t.  Some include the porch and some don’t.

-What is the allowed Lot Coverage?  This is the combined square footage of all buildings on the lot divided by the square footage of the land.

-Is there a height limit?

-Is there a limit to the number of buildings on the property?

-Can there be a Secondary Dwelling?

You have a responsibility to do your own legwork when you’re buying a house.  Sometimes information that seems concrete is wrong and its no one’s fault.  Get in detective mode, you’ll be glad you did

I have an idea!

So, what’s the big deal about incandescent lights?!?  Why is everyone so against them?

There is a tiny wire (filament) inside the bulb that is heated up with an electric current until it glows.  Heated up!  And its very inefficient, isn’t it.  Haven’t you burned your fingers removing a bulb before it cooled down?  It’s HOT! 

The heat is all the wasted energy that’s generated by the filament.  Heat from a lightbulb – that’s how the Easy Bake Oven worked when I was a kid…and its still for sale today from Hasbro.  It uses the heat from a light bulb to bake cookies and such. 

for sale on eBay! Vintage Kenner Easy-Bake Oven

With each incandescent light in your house, you are generating heat.  90% of the energy generated by a light bulb is HEAT!  That is amazingly inefficient. Edison created the light bulb 131 years ago.  131 years ago!  Even his heirs say its time for a change.

Photo from www.about.com

 Don’t be afraid to use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFB) or LED lights (light emitting diodes) or even incandescent Halogen bulbs.  They make fluorescent bulbs in different light spectrums so you can different degrees of warm or cool light.  I’ve seen 4 different ‘colored’ bulbs.  These colors are generated at a particular Kelvin (K) temperature .  And they don’t flicker so maddeningly like they used to.

You’ll have to get used to looking for ‘lumens’ rather than ‘watts’ when finding the right bulb. 

The Lighting Facts Label required to be put on these products will provide info on energy effectiveness to will help you figure out which bulb to buy.  It’s very straightforward.  I found this example on the Department of Energy (DOE) website.

New Lighting Facts blurb on product packaging

The DOE even has info on understanding lumens vs watts:   http://www.energysavers.gov/pdfs/lumens_placard.pdf  (the page is a draft)

Watts = energy consumed

Lumens = light given, more lumens = more light

The following info came from the DOE also:

The brightness, or lumen levels, of the lights in your home may vary widely, so here’s a rule of thumb:

• To replace a 100-watt incandescent bulb, look for a bulb that gives you about 1600 lumens. If you want something dimmer, go for less lumens; if you prefer brighter light, look for more lumens.
• Replace a 75W bulb with an energy-saving bulb that gives you about 1100 lumens
• Replace a 60W bulb with an energy-saving bulb that gives you about 800 lumens
• Replace a 40W bulb with an energy-saving bulb that gives you about 450 lumens

—end of DOE info

Just wouldn't look the same with a curly CFL would it... www.thewondrous.com

Energy requirements for remodels and custom homes have been developed which often require them to have fluorescent lighting fixtures (depending on the room and lightswitch used – of course, nothing is cut and dry!).  Unfortunately, the choices for these aren’t as many or as varied as for the old incandescent fixtures.  But, in order to legally comply with the new energy codes, you might have to buy a fluorescent fixture.  It’s getting better, though.  Lower cost choices are becoming more and more available.

 We were so excited to find LED fixtures for the outside of the house we built a couple years ago.  We needed a bunch of outside lights (at least 10) and wanted them to be as energy efficient as possible without costing us $200 a fixture.  We were lucky, because a local big box store started carrying nice ones in the style we needed.

LED diodes www.wikipedia.com

CFLs www.ge.com (we bring good things to light!)

One example of a halogen bulb www.lightingfx.com

According to the DOE, replacing 15 incandescent bulbs will only save you about $50 a year BUT, you’ll also save on your energy bill since you won’t also be creating all that excess heat.  Lighting accounts for about 10% of home energy use.

 Naturally, I’m not exactly practicing what I’m preaching – I just looked up and realized that my desk lamp has 2 incandescent bulbs in it.  The lamp on the other side of the room has 1 curly fluorescent bulb and 1 incandescent bulb…doofus me!

I've no idea which bulbs are used here, but I love this lamp! www.frankbuchwald.de

I’ll be changing those out…but, I wonder, is it overall more or less efficient to just toss an incandescent bulb before it expires? 

P.S.  Site for Californians to find the closest place to drop off all sorts of things to be recycled – from batteries to computers, including CFLs  http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/

For those of you outside of CA, try a simple web search using ‘CFL recycle’ or somesuch.