Green Dreams

I have been dealing with sleep issues lately so I have been particularly interested in 'greening" the bedroom. As one of the many people who suffer from sleep apnea in this country, I am always interested in making the most out of the sleep I do get. Thankfully, I will have new equipment in the next week or so and my husband will be quite gateful that he can sleep undisturbed again!

The bedrooms are always of concern to buyers, especially the master bedroom or, any mor, the master suite. They seem to be getting larger and more complex as we sleep both less hours and less soundly.

As any of you know who may have had sleep issues,one of the recommendations is that you do nothing in bed or the bedroom other than sleep...no television, no reading, no paperwork--I've even gotten email from people who were in bed with their trusty laptop....Our bedrooms house entertainment centers, exercise equipment and the library of reading we meant to catch up on. All of these things simply add more activity rather than restfulness and they are dust catchers that help pollute the bedroom air. I even saw a recent study that said we should not sleep in the same rom with our cell phones because we don't sleep as well when they are in the same room. Put the charger in the office or on the kitchen counter next to the coffee pot but get it off the nightstand!

Natural organic cotton and bamboo sheets and pillow cases are now widely available. Natural floor coverings are a good thing to use in bedrooms--tile, wood, cotton, wool, bamboo,cork, Stores like Bed Bath & Beyond and Crate and Barrel are a good bet and many items can even be found at places like JC Penney or Target.

The first matress maker in the USA to receive GreenGuard certification for its mattresses, certifying that they meet low VOC emmisions standards is Lifekind. They offer a variety of other bedding products as well at http://www.lifekind.com

Sweet dreams.

Foreclosure anyone????

Okay, It really can happen to anyone. I know I did a post aboout this before but somehow we never think it can happen to the rich and famous--OK, Neverland doesn't count....ANYTHING can happen if you are talking about Michael Jackson.

This is really kind of sad but brings home the point. I know it is a matter of scale and those of us who work with a lot of first time home buyers and working class families can sometimes be less than sympathetic when it is a multi million dollar mansion that is going into foreclosure--but ED MCMAHON???? All those years of late night television and the Publisher's Clearing House giveaways have not kept him out of the foreclosure mess. Like so many other people with even less resources a medical problem made him unable to work for months resulting in his going into default on his mortgage. Granted, his is bigger than a lot of other people's It is still sad to think that an also 85 year old man is in danger of losing his home.

http://www.latimes.com/la-fi-mcmahon4-2008jun04,0,4963138.story If you read the story, you will see that there are some unusual factors here. I particularly like the argument that the house being so close to Brittany Spears house makes it harder to sell.....probably not nearly as hard as the mold problem! 

Albuquerque Prescription for Health

Albuquerque is a regular contender on the list of healthiest cities in the US. Some of the reason has to do with our clean air, which is no longer as clean as it used to be as the city and its industry grow and expand but also because of the efforts ofthe city to promoe healthy lifestyles.

The city fleet has a majority of its vehicles running on natural gas, E85 and biodiesel. Many of the buses have bike racks on the front so commuters can bike part of the way or if your biking destination is far enough away that you would need to drive to it - going mountain biking in the Petroglyphs if you live in the North east Heights  for example.

Here is a new program the city has created to encourage people to get out and walk (or roll) around their neighborhoods.

Get Up and Get Moving!

The Albuquerque Prescription Trails Pilot Program provides prescriptions for walking and wheelchair rolling and a walking guide that suggests routes in our community.

The world's Best Clients

I had a remarkable experience last week. I have Buyer clients with whom I spent close to a year helping them find a home here in Albuquerque. They moved from the east coast almost a year and a half ago. I have kept in touch with them regularly.

Last week I got a call from the wife to tell me that she had picked up a lyer on her way to work for an Open House that was coming up on the weekend. It looked like a very nice house and it was a FSBO--she did not know if I could get the listing but she thought that I might have a buyer for it--a nice Craftsman style bungalow completely remodeled downtown within walking distance of state office buildings (which is why she had they flyer having walked past it on her way to work).

This particular one did not work out but these clients have given me a referral which turned into a sale and one which produced both a sale and a new Realtor whom I was able to sponsor into EXIT REALTY.

Now, if I just had 3 or 4 more of these kind of clients......

Affordable ABQ Green

For anyone thinking about moving to the Land of Enchantment, I have good news for you. Albuquerque is a city working hard to be green (I think the mayor is trying to get into a competition with Rocky Anderson up in Salt Lake City). Check out http://cabq.gov/sustainability One of the great things about it is that the public transportation continues to improve with frequent busees (even equipped with bicycle racks on some routes) the expansion of the RailRunner light rail train which will eventually extend from Belen in the south through Albuquerque up to Santa Fe in the north.

Most exciting for me as an EcoBroker is the fact that there are over 2,000 EnergyStar certified homes in Albuquerque. I checked this afternoon and there were 40 of them on the market at VERY AFFORDABLE PRICES.

How affordable? Try between $125,000 and $210,000. Green, eco-friendly building does not have to be expensive. These homes are mostly three bedroom two bath family homes in planned developments in  conveniently located neighborhoods. The secret to accomplishing this? There is none. It is just the result of a builder who made a committment to build to this standard and does it because it is the right thing to do and because it is profitable. Building this way can actually reduce both time and labor costs. We all know that the more you buy of something the less it costs you per item with bulk rates so if you are buying enough insulation, EnergyStar rated appliances and windows and doors and HVAC systems to build 200-500 houses at a time, your overall cost is not going to be grater than other builders who are building conventionally. If you want to know how this particular builder ot started down the energy efficiency path, here is a link to the Department of Energy Building America program that tells  about it. http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america/pdfs/hot-dry_mixed-dry_bpg/38360_casestudyb_vol2_sept05.pdf

I do residential resale so I am not promoting them because I work for them or even have any of their homes listed but because I think this is the type of housing we need a lot more of. One of the ways to lower our dependence on fossil fuels, foreign or domestic, is to use less of the stuff. The technologhy exists to do that easily and comfortably. These homes use at least 15 to 30 percent less energy than standard homes with the occupants not changing their habits at all (except fiddling with the thermostat is a no-no).  This is not rocket science...it may, however be the science we need.

1968 revisited?

 I went to a meet-up group today at one of our two remaining independent bookstores. There is a group that meets there every Saturday afternoon to knit and/or crochet. In the course of the conversation one of the other group members who is the same age as I am made a comment about how the last time she had been really interested in simple living, and doing things like knitting and spinning her own yarn (which how the conversation got started--someone is taking a spinning and weaving class) was "back in the 60's when we were hippies"...

Well, she and I were probably the only ones who really qualified for that category since the one other person present in our age bracket (Boomers and older) was definitely and emphatically NOT a hippie and no one else in the group was born before 1975. It made me reflect, though on what she was saying. Perhaps it is just 20/20 hindsight with a dose of maturity tossed in for seasoning, but the core values and beliefs of that time seem to be regenerating in full blown mainstream ways.

Recycling, alternative fuels (more about that in another post--growing grain to fuel vehicles rather than feed people is NOT an acceptable solution to the end of cheap oil....at some point you just have learn to use less of the stuff)organic farming and gardening, low or no toxic paints, walking and cycling as well as using public transportation as a means of primary transportation....these are all ideas I was well acquainted with "back in the day"....

I wrote in a previous post about NYC being one of the greenest cities and that being in large part because people live in small apartments in multi-unit buildings. It is also in part because the walk a lot and use mass transit a lot. If one of the most cosmopolitan, sophisticated cities in the world can also be one of the greenest, there is no reason, given the political will to make it so, the rest of our cities can't follow suit. Same ideas, maybe a different point of view.

Oh, yeah, I'm knitting with only natural fibers--wool, cotton, silk and alpaca so far and recycled fiber too rayon and cotton--and I've begun spinning with a hand spindle--the really old fashioned way!

Why I like Relocation Buyers

  I've decided I love working with relocation buyers. Usually, they are looking because they really need to buy now. The actually listen when you explain things to them about the town or neighborhood--unless they have lived in the area before and then they want to know what is the same and what has changed. For me, they have been a great source of referrals. 90% of referrals I have gotten have come from buyers whom I represented when they moved to the area.

The other thing I like about relocation buyers is that I get to learn a lot about where they have come from, which is often useful when I have someone else relocating from the same area. Since I love working online, it makes relocation clients a good match as well since a lot of our contact and many times a lot of the transaction is done that way too.

On top of all that, I can wear my sweatshirt and jeans if I want! It's the Southwest so I can usually get away with "dressy" jeans anyway--you have to live out here to understand that I guess. If you need a reference, think Governor Bill Richardson in every photo you have ever seen of him when he was not wearing a suit.......

EnergyStar rated Homes

It's Earth Day 2008. Clearly, we need to make it at least Earth month but I guess we will take what we can get in terms of focusing people's attention. I was astounded to read about the lake in Greenland that disappeared in 90 minutes. The entire lake drained through the glacial ice in about ninety minutes and at the highest flow was moving as fast as Niagra Falls. This is SCIENCE magazine, folks, not the National Enquirer. www.sciencemag.org

What can we do to encourage our clients to consider sustainable living when we are working wit them? One of the most effective we all know is to show them what's in it for them. Most buyers are familiar with the EnergyStar rating and know that it means that appliances and products like windows given this rating are more energy efficient than products without this rating. What they most understand is that more energy efficiency means money saved on energy bills for them.

The Department of Energy Building America program supports the research and development of energy efficient buildings. http://www.buildingamerica.gov/

To earn the ENERGY STAR, a home must meet guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC), and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20-30% more efficient than standard homes. Any home three stories or less can earn the ENERGY STAR label if it has been verified to meet EPA's guidelines, including: single family, attached, and low-rise multi-family homes; manufactured homes; systems-built homes (e.g., SIP, ICF, or modular construction); log homes, concrete homes; and even existing retrofitted homes. According to the EnergyStar site, these homes can save a homeowner between $200 and $400 per hear in heating, cooling and water heating costs. They also often require less maintenance and repair which creates even larger savings when compared to other homes.

You can find a list of EnergyStar rated homebuilders and locations of homes they have built by state at www.energystar.govClick on the link and find your state to see who the builders are and what city the homes are in as well as the name of the subdivision in which they are located. These are not necessarily high end homes. Those of you who know me, know that this is my soapbox moment. Green can be quite affordable. the largest EnergyStar builder in my area builds most of their homes in the 150k to 250k range.

These techniques are ot rocket science. They need not be expensive. Being simple and creative may be what we really need.

How to dress green

Okay, here is one for the casual fans among us and the fashion mavens too. Same TIME magazine article as the last tips:

1. Wear "vintage" clothing. What they suggest is not just hitting the Goodwill (although there are those among us who love to do just that) but also to donate your clothes to organizations like homeless shelters or take them to resale shops who deal in "professional" clothes. Besides reducing the amount of materials used to produce new garments, it turns out that cotton accounts for less than 3% of the land farmed globally, but about a quarter of the pesticides.....And giving clothes to people like the homeless or battered women's shelters is just a good thing to do besides the recycling aspect of it.

The best part of this one was the other way to get rid of old clothes and get new ones---throw a closet party--invite friends over and everyone brings a few items to trade.

2. Okay, this one is primarily for the gentlemen. It seems that in 2005 Japanese "salarymen" swapped their trademark dark blue business suits for open collars and light tropical colors as part of the government's effort to save energy by keeping it's office temperatures at 82 degrees throughout the summer. In one summr of not wearing suits and ties Japan cut an estimated 79,000 TONS of co2.  Casual Friday everyday, all summer? Hey, if any of you work in companies with large offices or have been in a hotel you know that the suits and ties are to help keep people warm because air conditioning is frigid! 82 might be a bit much but most folks can be pretty comfortable anywhere between 72 and 80.

Take a Right Turn

  Okay, this is amazing even to me, a dyed in the wool tree hugger! I was cleaning out some old articlea and I ran across aa April, 2007 issue of TIME MAGAZINE that had a feature story about things we can do to make a difference in Global warming.....I am not making this up--it is the April 9, 2007 issue with the penguin on the cover.

  UPS (yes, the guys in the brown truck) announced in 2004 that it's drivers would avoid making left turns. It turns out that they figured out they could reduce CO2 emissions and save millions of dollars in fuel costs.  They have saved  A THOUSAND METRIC TONS in metro New York City since January. A software program actually maps out customized routes for every driver to minimize left turns because the time spent idling while waiting to turn left against oncoming traffic burns so much fuel and costs millions of dollars every year.

Does someone know how to program my GPS to do that????