New Listing: 3-Unit Edwardian near Glen Park

I'm back!! My buyers have been keeping me busy (a good thing); just successfully closed a 14 day escrow (great team work!) and I have two new listings hitting the market-this is one of them.

Now it's off to the Farmer's market to soak up the rays and indulge in a bit of delicious organic produce. Have a great day!!

Eco-Friendly Driveway

Considering a new driveway? There are lots of options available ranging from stamped concrete, to brick, to pavers, to permeable.

We went the route of a pebble driveway to replace the concrete driveway for a few reasons. It was economical, fast to install and permeable thereby reducing runoff & pollutants entering our storm drains.

My understanding is that storm runoff is one of biggest pollutants of our waterways. I'm in full support of making choices which will offset our impact on the environment.

Our initial thought was to install porous concrete pavers which have openings that can be filled with gravel or grass. We then decided on decomposed granite for the ease of installation and maintenance. It is also available in a few colors.

It's been two plus years and we've been really happy with the result. There is no worry about future cracking and settling as there is with a concrete driveway. No worries about staining either since we can move around or rake the gravel.

The drawback is the occasional required sweeping of stray pieces that end up on the path way or sidewalk and the difficulty in walking to the car in heels. Stray pieces can end up in the house on our wood floors if shoes aren't properly wiped at the door, but our floors have been getting a fair amount of abuse from two active dogs. It's a house well cared for and well lived in!

Blocking an unattractive view without blocking the light

I love this solution!! We live on a busy street and didn't want the view of cars and pedestrians nor did we want to feel like fish in a fish bowl when the drapes were open. This window is also huge at 12 feet across and drapes faded quickly due to southern exposure.

Problem solved with the installation of a window film. It is available in a few patterns including our first choice of a rice paper type of pattern. This product is great!! It lets in lots of light while providing privacy. It also allows the window to be unobstructed with curtains and curtain rods making the room seem more expansive.

In the evening there is a really cool kaleidoscope effect with the backdrop of car lights reflecting off the window, making the bamboo cast a moving shadow across the window.

This product is also quite reasonable & comparable to buying a nice set of drapes. Our installer, Steve Clark with Window Innovations was great and also able to accommodate our request of making a small cut out in the lower left portion of the window so that our kitties wouldn't miss out on watching foot traffic and birds landing on our bamboo.

I'm happy to provide a referral if needed!

I've been bamboozled!!!

I'll start off by saying that I've been addicted to bamboo for several years. It's amazingly beautiful, fast growing, and creates a calming sound when wind passes through the leaves.

My favorites are black bamboo, Bory Leopard & Giant Timber bamboo. These are all runners which spread rapidly and have given the plant a bad reputation as being invasive. Don't get me wrong, bamboo can be invasive if the correct measures aren't taken which is containment, containment, containment.

I've planted bamboo at three homes. Twice in the ground and once in raised beds. A word of advice, the raised bed method is the easier method (especially depending on soil type) since the bamboo is in an elevated planter box & it's a lot easier going up then digging down into soil 24+ inches to install 20+ mil plastic barrier, which is the alternative method of containment.

What a complete pain it is to install this barrier. I'm not getting any younger & shoveling and digging into our hard clay soil has definitely wrecked my back!!! At our current home, I was feeling especially ambitious and planted twelve 15 gallon containers of bamboo!

I managed to install this barrier around three bamboo plantings & then gave up. My mistake was in waiting a good year to have the two 15 foot sections of bamboo contained with the barrier. I hired this job out which was money well spent (especially since it was a birthday gift from my generous spouse who was concerned about our bamboo migrating to our neighbors yards).

It did manage to break free prior to containment and travel to one neighbors yard which I did eradicate.

We've been now living the good life for a couple of years, confident that our containment systems have been keeping our bamboo in line. Or so we thought.....

Last week, low and behold we're doing another yard project, replacing a magnolia tree that has never quite thrived in it's current location (perhaps the clay soil has been retaining too much water?) with a lemon tree which tend to be fairly hardy. As I'm digging down, I locate a fairly substantial tangle of bamboo roots which have wrapped around the perimeter of the magnolia plant roots!!!!! Yikes!!! Is this is a fluke or has my black bamboo, which is planted about twenty feet from the magnolia tree, broken free of it's barrier?


Oh Lucy, you have some esplainin' to do!!! I followed the instructions carefully as provided by my bamboo resource when installing the barrier. Please, please tell me it's a fluke; an errant hardy runner, for my back can't take any more digging in this impossibly hard clay.

All I can say is I've been bamboozled. Lured in by the beauty of bamboo and the promises made by the nursery. For now on, it's either raised beds for new plantings or sticking with the clumpers which don't need containment.

For now, it's going to be a cross my fingers approach and periodic checking of the liners. I'm hopeful that this was a fluke since the roots seemed to be brittle & dried out.

Meanwhile, as can be seen from the before and after photos, the bamboo has been doing a beautiful job of growing vigorously and screening out the neighboring house which looks into our yard.

Thinking about going solar?

With energy costs on the rise and an increasing awareness of environmentally friendly products and technology, solar systems are becoming a worthwhile investment, especially since there are rebates available to help offset the cost.

The technology is now more efficient (depending on the system, it is possible to sell surplus energy to your utility company) & incredibly streamlined with low profile roof lines which nicely incorporate solar roof tiles.

Doesn't that look more appealing than the solar systems of the 70's which not only had young technology issues but were eyesores, with bulky tanks and huge elevated panels?

It's exciting that eco-friendly products have made so many advances in the last several years, combining functionality with aesthetics with social responsibility.

An excerpt from California Association of Realtors:

The California Solar Initiative "Go Solar, California!" has established the goal of creating 3,000 megawatts of new solar-powered electricity by 2017, or enough to power 1 million homes. This program will allocate $3.3 billion to businesses, homeowners, and builders who qualify for rebates and incentives if they install solar systems on their homes or commercial buildings. The California Energy Commission funds solar electricity systems on new homes; the California Public Utilities Commission funds solar electricity systems on existing businesses and homes.

For more information, visit http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/.

http://www.recycleworks.org/greenbuilding/gbg_renewable_power.html

As with any home improvement project, I always recommend getting 2-3 estimates as well as doing a bit of homework on the various options available. There are several companies in the Bay Area who specialize in installing solar systems.

It's definitely on my to do list.

Cool Finds!!!

It was a good week for great finds!! This fabulous cabinet is from Craigslist-purchased at a reasonable & negotiated $500. It was missing a piece of glass in one of the doors which was fairly easy to replace, especially since I recruited my father-in-law's expertise.

Meanwhile, the space between the two sconces needed "something". A bit of research on Apartment Therapy brought us to Timeless Treasures in S.F. This is a great store which has a little bit of everything ranging from vintage finds to stationary to candles and soap. It took a solid hour to sort through the various letters & come up with the right combination of size, font, and color. The staff gal was sooooo patient with us, climbing up and down the ladder a few times to pull letters off the wall.

At last, we had the right combination after arranging 30+ letters.

A final stop to the S.F. Flower Mart rounded out the day where we found two fern embossed ceramic vases in the A & C style for a reasonable $13 & $16.

We're enjoying our transformed dining room!!

Cute Burlingame Rental

New Rental!!!! This is an adorable 2 bedroom, 1 bath home for rent in highly desirable Burlingame.

Features include:

Freshly painted exterior and interior in a warm, neutral palette.
Eat-in kitchen w/ gas stove
living room w/ fireplace
washer & dryer off kitchen
large, sunny yard (rent includes gardener for the front yard)
1 car garage & extra long driveway for additional parking

Garage has adjacent work shop & storage shed.

Walk to Burlingame Avenue for shopping and dining. Easy access to freeway 101; a short commute to San Francisco or San Jose.

One-year lease, first months rent, security deposit equal to a months rent, and clear credit report to move in.

Suggested rent: $2,500/month