When house-hunting in Silicon Valley, it’s good to take note of how clear the windows are.  Sometimes when a dual pane window appears wet or foggy, it’s not just a matter of the sprinklers hitting it, but instead could be a failure of the vacuum seal. If that’s the case, the window may no longer be as energy efficient and certainly will not be as attractive as intended.

There are some window repair professionals who claim that they can de-fog windows with condensation (the common belief is that foggy windows must always be replaced).  What many consumers do not know when purchasing dual pane windows is that many of them will fail, unlike the single pane windows they are replacing. (The Old House Authority site says 30% of the time, a replacement window will be replaced within 10 years. It also advises that “More heat is typically lost though your roof and un-insulated walls than through your windows. Adding just 3 and 1/2 inches of insulation in your attic can save more energy than replacing your windows.”)

Seal failure of dual pane window

Many of my home buyer clients for Los Gatos, Almaden, Cambrian and San Jose insist upon having dual pane windows in their future house or townhouse.  Before assuming that any brand is OK, though, do some research to learn about the windows’ failure rate and how long the warranty on them will be.  Dual pane windows look great and do save a little energy, but if you have to replace one third of them within ten years, it won’t be a bargain at all.

In the middle of the last century, the Santa Clara Valley was bursting with vineyards, fruit and nut orchards, and groves of citrus trees. The mild climate and all of these beautiful blossoms mile after mile warranted the nickname, “The Valley of Hearts Delight“. Most of it was, of course, unpaved.  Following the end of World War II, the agricultural land began giving way to housing and industry, later more housing and high tech in particular, and Silicon Valley was born. And, to quote a song, “they paved paradise”.

Water can be somewhat scarce here at times – the sub tropical climate means mild temps and just enough rain, about 20″ per year for most of the San Jose area, but more as you get closer to the Monterey Bay and Pacific Ocean.  When we do get rain, where does it go? In the days of big agriculture, most of it found its way back into the drinking water: it was absorbed by the soil, and then it filtered down into the underground streams.  Wells tapped into this water source and the water was used for drinking, cooking, bathing, watering the crops and more.  Now, though, much of the valley is paved.  Water runs to gutters, and they lead directly to the bay, skipping the aquifers and also skipping the filtering process that the soil provides.  As you might imagine, this can screw things up a bit.

One solution is to create more places for the runoff water to get back into the soil and meander back to the aquifer.  The City of Cupertino has vegetated swales for just that purpose behind the library and city buildings, and a large sign explains why the landscaping looks the way it does (a dirt strip with a sunken section in the middle, but landscaped).  This is not uncommon in many parts of the US – I have seen it all over the east coast and the southern states – but a little less common here.  A great idea, I hope it catches and becomes more typical. Kudos to Cupertino for working to improve the local ecosystem and water quality! We need to do more for water reclamation. If it gets all the way to the bay, it cannot be drunk any more, but from the aquifer it can. So many reasons why we should be diverting water away from pavement and gutters and onto soil!

After taking note of this a week or two ago, I did some searching online and found a 2006 article by the Cupertino Courier (now owned by the San Jose Mercury News) about this same effort. It’s a well written piece and if you want to learn more, read on over at the archive:
http://mytown.mercurynews.com/archives/cupertinocourier/20060201/cu-news1.shtml

If a house or other building is going to be fumigated or tented for termites (or other pests), certain things must be done for the tent to go on and to effectively seal the structure.  We call that “fume prep” work or “fumigation prep” work. It is sometimes included in the cost of the fumigation, and sometimes not – so if this work is being done at your property, be sure to ask if it’s part of the bid!  If it’s not included, there are companies that can be hired to do these jobs if you do not want to or cannot do them yourself. (If you need one in Silicon Valley, please email me and I can give you a name or two.)

Anything which obstructs being able to enclose the home or building must be cut back, disconnected or removed.  For instance:

• fences or gates which touch the building must have a few slats or sections removed so the tent can be placed next to the house
• bushes, hedges, trees and other plants which are adjacent to the house must be trimmed back or pulled away as much as possible – at least 12″ from the structure (if trees are touching it, they must be trimmed)
• any other structure such as a trellis or deck must either be included with the fumigation or separated from the house so that a tent can go between it and the house
• downspouts connected to French drains must be disconnected at the ground
• loose gravel, tanbark or mulch needs to be raked back or removed at least 12″
• any stored items up against the building must be removed (more…)

Keeping up with the latest trends in home decor and remodeling is a bit like painting the Golden Gate Bridge: by the time you’re done, you need to do it all over again.  Styles change, tastes change.  How often do you really want to remodel and update your hardware, light fixtures, floor coverings – to say nothing of kitchens and bathrooms?  If these items are functional and you like them, there’s no reason to change.  Then again, if you’re going to sell your home and want to maximize the return, it might be worth it to do some updating.

The average American kitchen is remodeled about every 17 years (sorry, I don’t recall where I read that) – that’s long enough to jump from one trend to the next, one set of materials or colors to the next.  If you wait long enough, certain themes actually come “full circle”, not unlike clothes!

To make a point:  in the mid 70s, brushed brass was in, and many if not most homes built then in the San Jose, Silicon Valley area were made with brushed brass doorknobs, hinges, drawer pulls, doorbells, you name it.  That trend moved to gold, brushed stainless steel and now – full circle – back to brass! Ditto that with colors.  “Earth tones” were all the rage in the 70s (olive green, deep brown, tan) and as things moved through the cycles (with a whole lot of white in between), the earth tones have come back again.

Some colors make more infrequent appearances, such as lemon yellow, lime green, bubble gum pink, baby blue….

Let’s just take a look at bathrooms and kitchens for this discussion about colors, materials and being in style. (more…)

When I show homes in and around San Jose, often I will see things that my buyers don’t recognize and I will take that as an opportunity to educate them on some of the components of a house, townhouse or condo.  (The strangest question along these lines I ever got was when a Silicon Valley first time home buyer had never noticed or recognized antennae on houses before and wondered what they were!)

A whole house fan is a more affordable way to cool down a residence. How does it work?  In the evening, when the outside air temperature is lower than the indoors temps, windows are opened and the whole house fan is turned on for about 15 minutes.  The fan sucks all of the hot air out of the house and discharges it outside.  Since the windows, and maybe doors, are open, this vacuum sucks in the cooler night air.

This is a lot cheaper than air conditioning to install and also to run. According to one whole house fan installation website “installing a Whole House Fan is approximately 25% the cost of installing an air conditioning system and approximately 10% the cost to run.”

Alternatively, of course, if you do not want to have A/C, or if you don’t want to run the air conditioning every time it’s a little too warm, you can pull out fans for the windows and doors in your home and run them in the evenings to pull in the cooler night air.  But the whole house fan is easy and convenient – you simply turn a switch on and off – and is considered a very nice home improvement.

Whole house fans have been gaining in popularity across all types of markets, even among luxury homes, since they are more energy efficient and eco-friendly than air conditioning.  The only thing you might not know that’s important to understand upfront is that when it’s running, the noise is very loud.  Luckily it only goes for a few minutes – a perfect opportunity to step out onto your back porch and enjoy the cool evening air while it runs.

When you purchase a house on a corner lot, you may not realize that most likely there will be additional requirements of you regarding your landscaping compared to other properties which are not on the corner.  This is because corner lots need to provide a “line of sight” so drivers of cars can see what’s ahead should they round the corner.

In most parts of Silicon Valley (San Jose, Los Gatos and elsewhere), in the setback area of a corner lot you will not be allowed to have fences or landscaping that are more than 3′ tall – with the possible exception of a tree in which the branches really only fan out at a height of 7-8′ or more.

For properties which are not on a corner, drivers don’t really need to see through the property to get visibility on the road ahead, so the landscaping rules are much less restrictive.

These rules are not often or uniformly enforced from what I can tell, but you never know when a code compliance officer might show up with the requirement that you thin out or remove some landscaping or fencework, so keep that in mind if you buy a house on a corner lot that is heavily landscaped too close to the street.  Also, check with your own municipality (Campbell, Santa Clara, the county if not in an incorporated area, etc.) to see the residential real estate codes which apply in your specific property’s case.

I’m going to ask you something personal…regarding your bathroom habits.  Is your toilet low flow?

If your house was built before 1994, soon your toilets will need to be “low flow”.  So too will your shower heads and faucets.

In 2010, a bill was passed in California (SB 407 Padilla) requiring all homes (all residential properties) built prior to 1994 be retrofitted with low flow devices when remodeled as of 2014.  If not remodeled, the change still must take place by 2017 for all residences built prior to 1994.

So if you are updating your kitchen, wet bar, or bathroom any time soon, remember: low flow’s the way to go!

For those selling, it should not come as a surprise that this will mean another disclosure to make (whether or not the retrofitting has been done).