I came across this little gem while searching for a client. I am a huge fan of Craftsman style homes. I love their elegance and attention to detail. Ideally if I can the fund I would go victorian but realistically a Craftsman is more in my immediate means. Click on the link below to check out these pictures there insane. This home have been kept in amazing condition.
The seller is a 5th generation San Diegan, whose respect for the heritage of t
Rancho del Rey is one of the biggest energy suckers among the subdivisions of Chula Vista.
Blame a big part of that on poor insulation, fixtures that take too long to heat water, and home designs (circa ’80s and ’90s) that trap in excess cold or heat.
The community’s energy issues made it an ideal candidate for a pilot program that encourages people to get energy upgrades with the help of rebates so they can save money in the long-run, said Jeremy Hutman, a grant manager for BetterBuilding Neighborhood Program. The larger initiative aims to make communities across the U.S., including California, more green.
To promote the new initiative in Chula Vista, the Center for Sustainable Energy is holding a free block party Saturday at the Rancho del Rey community. There, people will learn about cash rebates of up to $4,000 and discounts from certain contractors for energy upgrades to their homes.
The program is open to Chula Vista residents, who also can get matching rebates of up to $4,000 and low-interest loans from the city of Chula Vista’s Home Upgrade Carbon Downgrade program.
Saturday’s function runs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Rancho del Rey’s cul-de-sac of Espuelas Court near Camino Espuelas and Bayona Loop off North Rancho Del Rey Parkway.
Attendees will get a chance to speak to energy experts and guided tours of a home featuring energy-efficiency upgrades, including duct work, energy-saving lighting and better insulation.
The Chula Vista program is among four local initiatives funded through the BetterBuilding. Hutman said 2,200 upgrades will be done in San Diego County through May 2013 with that $4 million of funding.
I found this article on a blog called “Historic Home Blog”. I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it. Click Here
Whether it’s a cozy urban bungalow or a rambling Georgian mansion, renovating old houses is one of the best things homeowners can do for the environment. Not only are they preserving the cultural heritage and craftsmanship of a bygone era, they’re eliminating the environmental impact of constructing a new house. As preservation architect Carl Elefante of Quinn Evans Architects in Washington, D.C., puts it, “The greenest building is the one you don’t build.”But sustainable historic preservation can be tricky, as anyone knows who has tried insulating a drafty Victorian without destroying original plaster walls or leaded windows. Renovating an old house usually entails some sacrifice of the original structure to create a healthy, energy-efficient environment — but not as much as you might think.RELEARNING OLD LESSONS
Much of what we think of as modern green design was taken for granted a century ago, when most homes were built with local and recycled materials, reflective roofs, permeable walkways, operable windows, proximity to public transportation and natural-energy heating sources. “Greenbuilding is nothing new. We’re just relearning old lessons,” says Walter Sedovic, a New York architect who specializes in both historic preservation and sustainable design, and is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.
Alas, what works for building new green homes doesn’t always work for renovating historic ones. Preservationists complain that sustainable design advocates often promote new building at the expense of preservation and adaptive reuse. Even the term “sustainable building” seems to refer to new construction. “In most of the English-speaking world, historic preservation is called ‘heritage conservation,’ so there’s a direct parallel with resource and environmental conservation,” points out Mike Jackson, chief architect of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Many traditional materials and assemblies are not acknowledged by current greenbuilding standards. “Timber, for example, is considered inconsistent and prone to insect damage by today’s standards, but it’s actually far more resilient alone than with steel added [as braces and connectors], which makes it rigid,” Sedovic explains. “Buildings need to move with the seasons.”
Likewise, lime mortar and old bricks are softer, less consistent and more malleable than modern cement and bricks, qualities that have allowed old buildings to survive, Sedovic says, even through hurricanes. “There is a fallacy that stronger is better,” he says, “but with historic buildings, the ‘weakness’ of traditional materials is better suited to last for centuries.”
Going for the green in a historic home is, in many ways, the antithesis of achieving the solar-paneled modern house. Green preservation is all about invisible sustainability. “People want to say, ‘Aha! That’s the sustainable house, right there!’” says Sedovic. “But when it comes to a green historic home, what you will see is not something readily identifiable, just a traditional building doing what it was originally designed to do.”
HERITAGE ZONES
When undertaking a restoration project, it helps to divide the home into three levels of historic value, or heritage, according to Jackson. “Most important in terms of preservation is the front, the part visible to the world, and historical features just inside the front door like the fireplace, pocket doors and ceiling medallions,” he says. Original windows and exterior surfaces in this zone should be preserved if at all possible.
The sides and back of a house are considered a secondary zone, where materials like siding and windows are replaceable if necessary. The third zone is the part of the house that is invisible to the outside world, such as basements and attics, where alterations don’t affect the home’s historic appearance.
As long as it works aesthetically with the rest of the house, a kitchen can usually be updated without destroying heritage. “If you’re looking at a house built in 1900 with a kitchen from the 1970s, that history was already altered,” says Jackson. “People tend to remodel kitchens every 15 years, and the cycle is getting shorter. What you do with the kitchen is a modern question, not an authenticity question.”
Trying to make a home energy efficient is where preservation and green design objectives typically clash. But lighting and heating upgrades often can be done with minimal damage to historic features if major alterations take place in attics and basements, the least visible zone. Also, if there is sufficient space between lathe and frame, you can pump foam or cellulose insulation into the chambers behind plaster walls.
“With historic homes, the biggest issue is with windows and walls,” says Stephen Farneth, a principal at the Architectural Resources Group in San Francisco. “How do you insulate the wall assembly if the interior finishes are really outstanding? Sometimes we don’t. We find other ways of conserving energy.”
Insulating in that third zone, especially the attic and basement, should be the first step of any green restoration. Pay particular attention to the sill plate, the point where the frame meets the foundation, a notoriously leaky point in old houses. Use caulk and expanding foam where possible.
An energy audit by a utility company or energy contractor can help pinpoint trouble spots using infrared photography and/or a blower door test, in which a powerful fan device is set up in an exterior doorway to create a strong draft inside the house, making it easy to identify air leaks in the building envelope. “Owners of historic homes can cut 25 to 35 percent off their heating bills by doing an energy audit, then insulating attic and basement,” says Jim Cavallo, an energy auditor and associate editor of Home Energy magazine. Cavallo notes that he charges between $350 and $500 for an energy audit, depending on house size.
MYTHS ABOUT WINDOWS
Leaded and stained glass windows are integral to the character of an old house. Unfortunately, they are frequently as drafty as they are charming. Replacing them with vinyl or aluminum windows can drastically change the appearance of a historic house, but many people assume this is the only solution. Everyone knows double-glazed panes beat leaky, century-old singles, right?
Actually, the draft has only partly to do with glass. “At least half the problem is in the way the window meets the sash and wall structure,” says Sedovic. “Often, manufacturers’ claims of efficiency are actually a measure of the glass, not the window unit. As a result, poor choices are made relative to the expense and aggravation of doing window replacements.”
Preservationists sometimes suggest installing storm windows on the interior in order to maintain the outer appearance of original windows facing the street. However, replacement windows have pushed storm windows out of the marketplace, so you might have to look beyond your local home improvement store to find good ones.
Wooden storm windows such as the storm-and-screen combination sold by Marvin Windows and Doors are effective and authentic-looking. Less expensive options include weather-stripping and insulating wood frames with spray insulation, and reglazing panes. In general, restored wood windows look better, last longer and add more to the resale value of a historic home than vinyl or aluminum replacements.
Roofs on old houses can often be worse energy eaters than windows. “On a lot of old houses, the walls and windows are proportionally overwhelmed by the size, character and performance of the roof,” says Elefante. “In that case, don’t tear the windows out. Address the condition of the roof.”
Even a small roof can have a big impact. An experiment on a couple blocks of Philadelphia row houses a few years ago found that black tar on the flat roofs was absorbing sun and heating up the upper floors. Replacing the tar with a reflective silver coating not only reduced temperatures inside the houses but in the surrounding neighborhood as well.
A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
Along with their aesthetic value, original materials also contain significant “embodied energy,” an environmental benefit destroyed by modern replacements. “You need to look at the fundamental quality of the materials — whether plaster walls, slate roofs, copper gutters or wood windows — and understand they have lasted a long time and will continue to last if treated reasonably well,” Sedovic says. “If a window has to be replaced in three to 10 years, how does that compare to something that’s been in place for 50 to 100? It’s important to look at the cost long-term.”
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of hard evidence to help owners of historic homes, who are contemplating “improvements” such as replacement windows, make the right decisions. “It’s hard to make a comparative discussion between the benefits of a historic casement vs. replacing it,” Sedovic admits, “because there is almost no data available.”
That may be about to change. Interest in sustainable building has led to experiments in green historic home renovation around the country. In Chicago, for example, the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association (HCBA) gathered a team of preservation and greenbuilding experts and began renovating abandoned 1920s brick homes five years ago, with the idea of sharing the results with local homeowners. Where possible, original exteriors, windows and walls are preserved and paired with various modern and efficient energy systems.
This partial insulation ended up being more cost-effective than the $10,000 geothermal system installed in a bungalow down the street.
Annette Conti, executive director of the HCBA, says she expects better results with a geothermal system the HCBA will install in a larger historic home this year. “The larger the house, the better geothermal works,” she notes. “Every project will be slightly different because every home is different and its energy use is different.”
Conti, whose background is in historic preservation, plans to focus on the issue of windows this year. “It alters an old house so much to lose the interesting old window styles,” she says. “The best compromise we’ve come up with is to save the windows on the front of the house and use [replacement] vinyl ones on the sides. Now we get to test it over the next 20 years and compare the performance of historic to vinyl windows.”
Likewise, the Green Building Program of the Office of Sustainable Development in Portland, Ore., is helping local owners of historic homes renovate responsibly. Since winters are relatively mild in Portland, insulating old houses is less of an issue than in Chicago.
Many preservationists say regional initiatives like these may be the key to preserving old homes in a sustainable way. After all, climates and conservation issues differ dramatically from one region to the next.
“What’s important in New England is very different from what’s important in Tucson, where water conservation is a big issue,” says Jackson.
One point is certain: American homes are getting older and we have to find ways to make them work effectively.
“Many people are intoxicated with the new,” says Elefante. “But step outside and look around. Everything out there has already been built. We can’t just find solutions in the cool stuff built last year. We have to find solutions to the stuff that’s already there. Tearing it all down and starting over — that’s just not a good solution.”
This was a quote from the Secretary at HUD (Housing and Urban Development).
I think it’s very unlikely that we see a significant further decline. I think the real question is when will we start to see sustainable increases? Some think it will be as early as the end of the summer or this fall, others think it will be next year. And I wish I had a crystal ball on that. My sense, though, is in the long run it’s a good time to buy, whether it’s five months away or a year away, to see sustainable increases.
–HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, being interviewed by Candy Crowley, anchor at CNN. Crowley asked Donovan if he believes the market has “bottomed out.”
Its positive thinking and hopefully we will see a substantial upswing in home values. I have been reading quotes like these for a while and we have had a couple of up tics follow closely but a couple down tics in home vaules. Either way its nice to hear hear others being optimistic about our house market. For example…..
Ranked on a scale of 1-9, with 1 being “abysmal” and 9 being “excellent,” San Diego scored 5.63, compared with 5.04 in last year’s report.
Washington ranked first, but its 7.01 score in investment was still below “excellent.”
The top 10 markets and their scores on the 1-9 scale for 2011, ULI says, are:
IN THE mid 1880s many of the more noted styles of Victorian architecture began to be built in San Diego. Lacy Queen Anne tower houses, tall narrow stick style, and classic Italianates dressed up the drab, dusty landscape of the outpost city.
Plush, architect-designed mansions and simple pattern-book houses alike are examples of the craftsmanship of the late nineteenth century builders. The 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia introduced to the American public methods of mass produced houses. Innovative new methods including pre-cut wood, new framing procedures, and machinery that produced the wooden decorations embellishing the houses made mass production possible.
Spindles, brackets, fishscale shingles, stained glass, decorative chimneys, and other ornamentation are some of the identifying features of Victorian architecture. They give the houses a whimsical, frivolous appearance – as if to say they should not be taken too seriously. Multicolored paint jobs added to the lighthearted effect.
The pattern-book houses were often built from plans published in the New York Scientific American Architects and Builders Edition and the California Architect and Building News. These publications gave numerous details for features such as millwork and doors, and provided house plans and specifications in each issue.
Shortly after the turn of the century, architectural taste changed to a simpler clean-lined style. The gingerbread ornamentation was then looked upon with disfavor, and many of the houses were remodeled and covered with asbestos shingles or stucco to try to hide their cluttered, overdressed appearance. Drab shingle-color paint covered the once-bright exteriors.
As San Diego began to grow, once-fashionable neighborhoods gradually fell into decay. The facades of their houses likewise began to chip and fade with age. Many of them were torn down since they were now thought to be “old fashioned.” The land was needed for freeways, apartment houses, and the like. Original residents of the neighborhoods moved to newer, more desirable areas.
After the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, some people began to realize that perhaps San Diego‘s Victorian houses were worth saving. The chipped paint and sagging porches began to disappear, signaling a return of pride of ownership. Economic necessity began to dictate that remodeling older houses was often more feasible than building new ones. A resurgence of nostalgia made these houses desirable once again.
Many of San Diego‘s Victorian houses, originally built to be single-family residences and some rentals, are now serving as apartment houses and office buildings; one is a charming bed and breakfast house. A book called Timeless Treasures: San Diego’s Victorian Heritage was written to honor these houses and their owners for their restoration efforts and to record the images on film before too many more are demolished. By preserving these houses, a piece of San Diego history will have been saved.
THE BUSHYHEAD HOUSE was built in 1887 for use as a rental house and was formerly located at 232 Cedar Street—it is now in San Diego‘s Heritage Park in Old Town. Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead, the builder, was descended from a Cherokee Indian mother whose son was given the name “Bushyhead” because of his full head of hair. Thereafter, it remained the family’s surname.
THE LONG-WATERMAN HOUSE, 2408 First Avenue, is a Queen Anne style Victorian. The first owner of the house was John Long who headed the Coronado Fruit Package Company. Mrs. Long drowned shortly after they moved in and the house was then purchased in 1891 by Robert Whitney Waterman, seventeenth Governor of California, for $17,000. Today it is the headquarters for Parker Industries.
THE HAYWARD-PATTERSON house at Twenty-Second and Broadway was built in 1887 by Albert M. Hayward, captain of the yacht San Diego. The house was next owned by Francis Elliot Patterson, a professional photographer who owned a Fifth Avenue camera store.
THE GRANDIER HOUSE, at 3620 Front Street was constructed for Mrs. Frank Grandier, a native of Switzerland who was active in local government and founded the San Diego Daily Transcript newspaper. It was later owned by Richard Benbough, brother of an early San Diego mayor.
THE TIMKEN HOUSE, built in 1888, is a late Victorian style, Queen Anne, with Georgian influence. The house was designed by the prominent architects Comstock and Trotsche and is located at 2508 First Avenue. The Timkens were prominent San Diego citizens involved in real estate and the fine arts. The house has been a private residence since 1965.
Taking Classic Design and Making it Green
I posted a video I found on youtube a while ago about a family who converted their 100 year old Vitorian home into an green home. This is a follow up story about that same family now having completed their whole home renovations. They have successfully made their Victorian Home NET ZERO. So with a lot of planning and a little love these wonderful old home are getting a second if not third chance.
You will find that most bungalows are built in specific sections of a town or city. Their owners would sit on the porch after a hard days work to rest and talk with neighbors and friends. Bungalows have great porches.
The American Craftsman bungalow typified the common styles of the American Arts and Crafts movement, with common features to include low-pitch roof lines on a gabled or hipped roof; deeply overhanging eaves; exposed rafters or decorative brackets under the eaves; and a front porch beneath an extension of the main roof.
Chicago Bungalows are typically built of brick and have one and a half stories. The primary difference between a Chicago bungalow and others is that the roof gables are parallel rather than perpendicular to the street. Chicago bungalows are relatively narrow, an average of only 20 feet wide.
The California Bungalow was a widely popular 1 1/2 story variation on the bungalow in America from 1910 to 1925.
Milwaukee Bungalows: Many older houses in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are bungalows similar to those of the Arts and Crafts style like Chicago’s, but usually with the roof gables perpendicular to the street. Milwaukee bungalows tend to have white stucco on the lower portion of the exterior.
Detroit Bungalows: Also built during the Arts and Crafts movement, Detroit bungalows were constructed using local building materials.
Ranch Bungalows: Ranch bungalows are designed with bedrooms on one side and the living areas on the other. The attached garage, if present, is located on the living area side.
Raised bungalows: Raised bungalows have a basement that is partially above ground allowing for natural lighting in the lower level. Foyers are usually located at ground level half-way between the floors. Garage entrances are normally at basement level.
Airplane Bungalows: Variations of craftsman style home plans include the “Airplane” bungalow which has a much smaller area on its second floor that appears to “pop out”. Centered on the structure with windows on all sides it has a view much like that of a cockpit of an airplane. An LA company introduced a Japanese-pagoda roof-line inspired style at one time and called it an “aeroplane bungalow.”
You might note that bungalows do not have attics. This allows for the distinctive roof line which is normally quite low. Natural materials like wooden shingles and clapboard are used for siding. Cobblestones and brick are normally used for the exterior walls, porch columns and chimneys.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a point and credit system developed in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is designed to promote energy efficient and environmentally friendly practices in construction and renovation projects. This set of standards is part of an incentive program that offers grant funding and tax breaks for those buildings which qualify for LEED certification. San Diego business owners who want to participate can start the process by contacting any qualified consultants.
LEED Certification Represents Best Practices
Before you get started, you should know that the LEED system is not a minimal building standard. This is a set of incrementally higher benchmarks which are preferred (but not forced upon) a builder or developer. Participation is voluntary. There are four levels of certification:
Many government buildings have already gone through the certification process – especially in California. The private sector is quickly adapting too. Certification is generally done by an industry professional who is a trained expert in the LEED system. The accreditation process must be overseen by this approved third party – you can’t do it alone.
The Green Building Council issues the LEED certification in a three step process:
Points can be added for “greening” the interior of an office building, not just the exterior structure. Ratings can be influenced by such factors as the type of carpet and paint you use and whether renewable resources are selected for furnishings.
Keep Your Existing LEED Points and Add Even More
Are you already participating in the LEED program? Be aware that any time you make alterations in your work environment this can impact your ability to continue meeting LEED certification requirements. San Diego buildings that are certified are subject to compliance verification and follow-up to ensure that subsequent changes are in line with green objectives.
So, the next time you upgrade or renovate your offices, make sure you take this into account. This is actually a perfect time to increase your certification level – wouldn’t it be great to go for platinum? We would love to help you achieve this goal.
If you owned a solar power system that generated more electricity than you used, and those surplus solar electrons were sent to the grid for use by your neighbors, don’t you think your utility should pay you for that electricity? We think so.
AB 920 (Huffman), the Solar Surplus Power bill, is inherently about creating fairness within California’s solar market and about spurring ever greater consumer interest in investing in solar power bringing with it important environmental and economic benefits to the state.
Thanks in large part to the support and vision of Governor Schwarzenegger and the California State Legislature, California is a world leader in developing and promoting solar power. Our Million Solar Roofs Initiative is one of the biggest and boldest solar initiatives in the world.
The road to a million solar roofs, however, is long. While the state saw tremendous growth in solar last year, California has to go from today’s 50,000 solar roofs to 1,000,000 by 2016. To achieve this feat, California must remove all barriers for consumers wanting to invest in solar energy and more deeply penetrate the consumer driven market for solar power.
PROVIDES GREATER FAIRNESS FOR CONSUMERS BY REQUIRING WHOLESALE COMPENSATION FOR SURPLUS POWER: Today’s solar system owners “lose” surplus electricity at the end of each year, essentially giving it away for free to their utility, even though the utility can turn around and sell that electricity at the full bundled retail rate to other utility customers. This “give away” is a barrier for many Californians wanting to go solar. We estimate that over 500 Californians are generating surplus power each year and giving that power to their utility without compensation.1 AB 920 would require the PUC, through a rulemaking procedure, to determine the appropriate wholesale rate.
REMOVES PERVERSE INCENTIVE FOR CONSUMERS TO WASTE ELECTRICITY: By giving solar system owners fair compensation for the surplus electricity they generate above and beyond their own on-site electricity needs, AB 920 removes a perverse incentive for solar system owners to waste electricity so as not to give any way or “lose” any to the utility. Furthermore, AB 920 would encourage greater efficiency and conservation at home and at a solar business;
ALLOWS UTILITIES TO COUNT PURCHASED SURPLUS POWER TOWARD RPS REQUIREMENTS: To encourage utility support of solar power and to reward those utilities that do the most to support roof-top solar installations, AB 920 would allow the utility to count the amount of electricity purchased by the utility through this surplus power program toward their annual renewable portfolio standard goals.
In short, AB 920 is a simple, no-brainer bill that will help remove unnecessary barriers to solar power in California, help encourage greater conservation and efficiency and provide fairness for both the consumer and the utility company within today’s growing solar market.
For more information on this bill and how it may affect you click here
From San Diego Union Tribune
Home prices and sales in San Diego County fell in May from one year ago, following the same downward trend seen throughout Southern California, which remained in record-low sales territory last month.
Numbers from DataQuick Information Systems show May’s median price for all sales in San Diego was $324,500, down 4.6 percent from last year but up 0.9 percent from April. Sales fell 20.4 percent in May from a year ago to 3,087 and dropped 5.8 percent from April.
Looking at the six major counties in Southern California, prices remained at their three-year low and prices continued to slide year-over-year for the 11th straight month, DataQuick researchers said.
San Diego County had the steepest year-over-year sales drop among the six counties in the company’s monthly analysis. Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties saw drops in the 18 percent range.
San Diego’s price drop year-over-year was the lowest among the Southern California counties. Los Angeles’s home prices fell the most, at 7.2 percent.
Thoughts with Pat:
This update may came as a surprise to a lot of you. The news can sometimes confuse and mislead people into thinking that we as individuals are up, down, going to die etc. With so much happening in the US and World economic markets these days it only seems natural that housing prices would ride the same roller coaster ride. Take a deep breathe and look around you. Your still alive, your still working, don’t get caught up in the day to day retardness that the news and stat companies throw at you. Its all how you look at it. Don’t look at this down turn as a negative that the world is ending, instead look at it as an amazing time for you to get into a home that you could not have afforded 5 years ago. The San Diego and California Markets are in SALE mode!! My recommendation is go find your agent and get out there and look at whats on Sale right now, you are going to be surprised at what is now affordable to you.