Nicole Bailey

Celebrated Green Multi-Family Housing Development
Studio Unit $199,000

Green building features radiant heating
No VOC paints
Recycled building materials
FSC Certified wood
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Like any early adapter, people are paying more for their Green Certified homes than your average run of the mill resale home. The new gadgets, like solar panels and underground catchments for rain water storage just cost more because they aren't part of "regular" homes.

Think about the I-Phone. People that waited in line for their new phone at around $400, when only three months later it was reduced to $300, without fanfare. As an early adopter in green home technology, the sooner we all embrace living "greener," the sooner pricing will come in line.

I work closely with a builder, Chris Avant, Canyon Construction, who has recently completed two LEED Platinum remodels, one here in Oakland, and the other in Moraga, where his corporate office is housed. Avant worked with the founder of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,) David Gottfried and his wife Sara to create one of the greenest homes in America, right here in Rockridge. David and Sara wanted to capture their greywater in order to re-use it for landscape watering, they installed solar panels and even created a home office for David in the backyard to make their green home a reality, they had to downsize and learned even more about the value of good design.

David and Sara have the resources to showcase their environmental stewardship in their home, but what about other people? More and more, Green Building is quality building, using the most durable materials, that won't have to be replaced, having the most energy efficient appliances and sealing up a home against the effects of weather, keeping cold air out, and warm air in. Green homes are healthy homes, places where indoor air quality is not adversely effected by inexpensive (smelly) carpets or noxious paint fumes.

The past of Green Home Design in California, has been predominately taken on by the wealthy, and it is a thrill to see it filtering down to ordinary folk.

Wondering about the resale value of your green improvements?

In Seattle, Washington where existing data for green home resale value has been tracked for 2008, on average the green single family home was 16.7% of total sales. The green home was 25% smaller and sold for 4% higher value in 18% less time... but the catch here is that dollars per square foot, the green home outperformed the non-green home by 37% in dollars per square foot. Now that is something to consider!

Long before I was in real estate and before I understood what I now consider the horrible loss of ancient buildings, I have dreamed of renovating an old barn for my home.

My idea was an open living space with a stone hearth built into the center of it. Unstructured rooms would mean that the kitchen flowed into the family/dining room and the bedrooms I had planned, would be in lofts on either end of the building, joined by long halls that connected the lofts on each side, overlooking the living space. Lining the halls I planned built in bookshelves and a cozy chair for curling up with a good book. The loss in privacy, I calculated, would be more than be made up for with by creativity the open space would allow.

Since then, I have read about the alarming rate at which these dilapidated buildings have been struck down in favor of something new, that doesn't need retrofitting. The New York Times article I Googled today, said, "No farm, no barn," and unfortunately that seems to be the case. Where farms have made way for development, the old outbuildings have been struck from the landscape. I am still hoping to do my barn renovation, but I am crossing my fingers that there will be a barn left to renovate.

A colleague of mine Chris Avant from Canyon Construction has done just this type of renovation with the Moraga Barn, in Moraga California, built in 1914. Having the distinction of being the oldest building in Moraga, it served as a train station, an hotel and a bar. Today it is the headquarters of Canyon Construction and through the renovation it was planned and designed to achieve LEED Platinum Rating.

The Moraga Barn uses renewable energy, salvaged materials, offerers state of the art water efficiency, provides heating and cooling efficiency, and features low and no VOC products in the interior to improve indoor air quality for it's end users. With it's original footprint, The Barn looks much the same as it had when it was new, but provides another generation of users an ideal work and play space. The owner, Chris Avant, has plans to house a wine bar in the ground floor with his offices upstairs.

For more information about Canyon Construction visit their Website.

I stopped into Pottery Barn today. I do like to keep track of what that behemoth is up to, as the trends radiate outward and impact everything from home staging to clothing design.

The new Benjamin Moore paint color chips are out and interestingly, the focus is on white, every shade. I love paint color names, Lychee, Frostine, Mascarpone, Vapor (one that I use a lot) and Steam. Half the deck is devoted to the new whites.

I am asking myself if this a recessionary move, to tone down those frolicking greens and blues of last spring or just trying to clear out the clutter a bit, or more to the point, the noise of the nightly news cycle and the worry that it creates. Cheer yourself with a new coat of paint and forget about Dow 6,000.

Mark's Paints at 40th and Telegraph in Oakland can color match with their Aura no VOC paint line.

The Elmwood Neighborhood of Berkeley










The Elmwood is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Berkeley. Easy to find, at the major intersection of College Avenue and Ashby, or Highway 13, parking is the only problem you'll find. Drive north on College, past the main row of shops into the neighborhood a bit, and you may find street parking, but watch out for street cleaning day!

My son and I had an afternoon off on a rainy Saturday and meandered through the shops. I had never walked into The Tree House and loved the mix of products carried there. We bought Elliot another Sigg, with the hopes that this one won't roll into the storm drain like the last one.