Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

On most weekends, you will find me strolling with my daughter on early Saturday mornings in Hermann Park. The park offers a lot to us residents of Houston. The Miller Outdoor Theatre, the zoo, the natural history museum, a jogging track, a playground, and a golf course. Saturday mornings are fun. Brides and quinceiras are posing in their dresses by the fountains. My daughter waddles over to imitate their poses. She was really engrossed in the female body builder wearing a red cocktail dress. The poses were surreal to me. It is fun to go over to the lake to watch the elderly Russians play backgammon. They think that I am Russian, so I just say “Da, Da” (which happens to be my favorite art form too.

Hermann Park was donated by the Hermann family as a place for the Germans here in Houston to have a place to end their parades at. At that time the park was considered to be outside of town. Now we think of it as being almost a central park. From picnic ground for parading Germans to today, the park has undergone some dramatic changes. My special space is the park within a park: the Japanese Garden. The plants are ones that are more at home in Texas, than Japan, but the trails provide evocative views. On Saturday mornings, you find the young ladies there for their photographs, so the area is quiet. Except once, we had to cheer for the poor groom whose fiancee made him hold her in a dipping position till the shot was perfect. What stamina. When I went one afternoon, I found lovers in the sun, and people reading on the benches. It was nice to laze about.

For a true nature's walk, I go to the Arboretum. Since I could drive, I have been heading there on a frequent basis. However, I have found little parks no bigger than a city block, or just a path way along a bayou that fit the bill for a brief dip into nature. Most neighborhood parks are just playgrounds, and most builders offer this fare. I am finding more hidden parks in neighborhoods that are left in a natural state with a simple trail cut through it. Many parks like this will be found close to or on one of our many bayous. My suggestion to you is to explore your area, and you may just find such a treasure.

I am sure that my parent's were giving me certain phrases as advice over and over again, but one tidbit from my mother keeps recurring to me now. It is not that the others were not memorable, but I have a tendency to remember actions more than words, but in this case, the phrase comes back. “ It is easy to go to an extreme, but moderation is the way to go.”

Vague enough to apply to a host of topics, but concrete enough for me to recall. I remember when President Bush took office with the claim that the parties will work together. That claim has not come to fruition. I am sure that all of the candidates will be promising the same, particularly since the polls show that is what the public wants. Honest reasoning has gone out of our political thinking, in favor of pleasing a special interest or two. Personally, I believe in the capacity of the American people to do the right thing once a valid argument is presented to them.

I started to look at my local government. Yesterday I read an article that detailed Houston's growth, and why it would continue, whereas other cities have been stagnating. One point was the fact that Houston lightly limits planning and development of our communities. In a way, this fact was reinforced by our mayor yesterday in a comment about a new ordinance permitting electric fences. He did not express an opinion for or against it, but he did say that the city is loath to prohibit the homeowner from doing with his property what he desires.

I think of David Macauly's book Underground. It was an elegant argument in pictures of what happens beneath our cities due to the lack of planning. I wonder if the same principle could be applied to the edifices above ground. Some of the city's step lightly approach has left some uneasy neighbors. Loud clubs keep some residents awake at night. It turns out that they could use a regulation about permits to serve alcoholic beverages near schools to shut down these establishments, but the process takes over a year to accomplish. In one subdivision, as the residents combated one club, they found another opening. How did the club go around the law about being so close to a school? Simple, the told the state that they were not breaking any local ordinances, so the state issued the license to serve alcohol.

Although I want to see the rights of homeowners upheld, as well as business owners, I imagine that there must be a better balance between our desires and needs as a community. I have seen some home businesses, which truly disrupt a neighborhood. However, I know of others that have benefited their neighbors.

One of the more interesting discussion that I took part in recently was about urban farming. I wanted to see a more reasoned approach by the city to providing groceries to poorer neighborhoods, along with better land use. A gentleman stood up to shout that we environmentalists were ruining life for all. It had not occurred to me that anyone participating in the discussion was proposing an ardent environmental agenda or that we were prohibiting him or others from using their land as they wished. However, I offer this as an example of how we have gone to extremes in our discussions of what they community could be. Any talk of environmental concern illicits a harsh response, but this should be part of our discussion too.

Moderation is the key.

Real Estate professionals are a passionate people. We work 24/7 to help our clients, but our passions take us to new places. For some, we find outlets for our passions in causes and charities. I think that the best of my peers have always exhibited this desire. You will find professionals concerned about the environment, their communities, habitat for humanity, or another charity which gives back to the community. I give this as a prelude to explain this post.

I have donated can goods to the Food Bank in Houston for some time now, and last year I started to volunteer there. I had asked my son what would he like to do to give back to the community. I said it could be anything he wanted to do. He wanted to work at the Food Bank, so off we went to work in the repack room (children cannot volunteer in the warehouse). It was a great experience for him. Since then I have continued to go and help out in anyway that I can. You will find me there most weeks. It is a truly wonderful cause that needs your help.

On the weekend of February 2 and 3, there will be volunteers out in the grocery stores to encourage you to buy some goods to donate. Dry goods, canned goods, or items in a plastic bottle are accepted. You can make it easy on yourself by purchasing a pre-packed bag to donate. Stop by a table, and you might find me.

The Food Bank plays an important role in our community. It provides goods to food pantries as well as to other outlets to make a meal available to those in need. It is not just the poor or homeless that need this help. On many occasion, it could be a family struggling with the monthly bills just this one time. The only qualification you need to meet for help from the food bank is to show up, so please remember to stop by a grocery store that has one of those red barrels to donate. Thank you!

This morning I found my neighbor in a dilemma. How do you stuff another bag of garbage in an already full can? I told her to throw it into mine. She notices that my can is only a quarter full. Where you out of town, comes the inquiry. No, this is normal for most weeks. I see that other residents have overflowing cans, and one man is pulling out his normal two cans. I wonder if people consider the cost of garbage. In Houston, as I imagine is the case in many cities, we pay for our garbage service through our water bill. I know that many homeowners forget this fact, so the expense of the waste removal is hidden from us in a way.

I wonder exactly how much of this refuse could be recycled. Quite a bit, I think. On the weeks that recycling comes, most of my fellows do not place anything out. A wasted resource that my city wishes to use. The mayor has a campaign to encourage recycling. Along the lines of the amount of trash, I remember that we Americans account for 40% of the items purchased in the world. With this mornings report of tumbling markets worldwide due to concerns over our consumer spending, you can see why the credit market is so important to the economy.

Alright, let me add one more random thought to tie together these threads to make my case. Whenever I taught a class involving financial management to the managers at a firm where I worked, I started off by paraphrasing a quote from Aristotle. (Sorry, it has been so long that I do not know the exact quote now, but it is from Nichomachaen Ethics). He said that wealth is not created by simply accumulating or increasing the money coming into your household, but in conjunction with the amount of money going out of your household. Is more garbage a sign of poverty? Well, that would be hard to argue, but I may make the point that it is. Since much of that waste was paid for by credit. Moreover, some of this waste might not be necessary.

Let us set recycling to the side. I wish to provide you with two examples. At lunch this past Saturday, the owner of restaurant comes to my table as I am finishing my meal. We know each other slightly, and he wants my opinion on a concern of his. He starts speaking to me in German, so his other guests cannot understand. He asks what is it with these Americans and food? After I ask a few questions, the problem is this: he provides a plate of food at a reasonable price. He does not provide large portions, but he serves the same meal for lunch and dinner, and his plates probably have more food than a typical lunch, but less than a typical dinner. He claims that he throws half of his food out the door into the garbage. I look around to see that most people do not finish there plate as I do, and what is left is considered to insignificant for a take home box. I start to think that a portion of food that we buy for home use suffers the same fate. I am not going to rummage through the bins to find out, but look at your own to see if this is true. An article I read last week sheds light on a fascinating situation involving the homeless in New York City. Many used books are collected by the homeless from the trash to be sold for cash at a bookstore. The anthropologists conducting the research on the homeless society found that many can earn good money. A valuable set of first editions brought $1000 into one man's pocket. I cannot fathom why someone would throw that collection away, but such stories come about all too often.

If you are a first time homeowner, you can find your finances strained by your new home. Rooms to decorate, as well as a garden, is just one area of expense. What about those repairs that were done by a landlord? Now you have the joy of paying for these issues. May I suggest that you practice trash can economics? Or should I call it a trash can budget? Each week plan out that you will not fill your trash can up with packaging or unwanted items. Give usable items to charity (garage sales do not really produce much income for the work involved, and in Houston, you are only allowed two a year). Figure out ways to continually reduce the amount of trash you produced. Money saved could go into a fund for home repairs. Build up at least $5000 in such a fund. You never can tell what might need to be fixed, and maybe it will not be covered by insurance. Each week save on the money going out, and place the money kept into a savings plan.

You may be thinking that this is the oddest budgeting plan that you have heard about, and why would a real estate inspector be suggesting it. An inspector's job is to provide you with information. This information may just be on the condition of the home, but could I not offer a little more. The plan is weird, but this unusual method could make you think about what is happening in your home, and how you could save money.

Do you love to have guest over for dinner? Or do you love big family get togethers? I know it is not a function that everyone likes to have in their home, but most of us end up with at least one such event occurring in our home. Personally, I enjoy such feasts, and I love to cook. Having my children and all of the nieces and nephews run around is wonderful. Being able to have the time to catch up with family and friends about the scenes and occurrences in their daily lives is a pleasure. I prefer these dinners to speaking over the phone.

One year my old house was full to the brim, and my sister-in-laws wanted to help in the kitchen. Now understand, this is my domain. My wife can cook, but she prefers that this joy should befall her only once a year. In kindergarten, my son asked the teacher if mothers really do cook after hearing a book being read about a mom in a kitchen. The scene that follows was enacted out before I became an inspector, so now I know better. At the time, I knew my kitchen. I never had any disasters, because I was aware of what could happen with my equipment. I was called away form my lair, prompting my helpful sisters-in law to pounce in to help.

Deciding that the large brisket that I had been preparing in the oven was ready, my one relative decided to remove it. At this time, the kids decided to run into the kitchen to discover what they would be eating for dinner. She sees the children about to knock her over, so she sets the pan down on the oven door. I should clarify that this was a stand alone unit, and it was not secured to the wall. The weight of the pan caused the range to tip over, along with the beans and rice in large pots on top. I saw what was happening from the other side of the kitchen, so I ran to prevent everything from falling over onto the kids. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

I use this story with my clients often to demonstrate the importance of the anti-tip device. I can honestly write that on most homes (probably 95% of them), I will not find such a device, or it is improperly installed. On some new construction, I will find it lying underneath the range. In Texas, we are required to report on this device according to our standards of practice, but so many people think that I am being fussy for bringing this up on a report. True, while I have been at the range, this has never happened to me, and it might not happen to you, but I think it better to be safe, considering you never know what might happen.