Jim Smith is best known for his weekly "Real Estate Today" column published on the Real Estate page of The Denver every Saturday and in 24 metro area weekly newspapers the following Wednesday or Thursday. Individual articles are also published at http://RealEstateToday.substack.com. Over a decade of the columns are archived at www.JimSmithColumns.com.
Every summer, Golden Real Estate gets a “showcase” booth at one of the farmers markets held in downtown Golden, and Saturday, June 17th, is our date this year.
Bring your questions about real estate, or simply come to say “hello.” We’ll have our laptops online so we can even help you look at homes and set up an MLS email alert matching your search criteria.
You’ll get to enter a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to a Golden restaurant. And bring your reusable bags — Golden’s is one of Denver’s top-rated farmers markets!
We’ll be there from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market is in the parking lot next to the Public Library on 10th Street in downtown Golden.
Kathy, who lives in downtown Golden, joined our brokerage this week. We’re no longer an all-male brokerage!
She was born and raised in Wheat Ridge. With her degree in Geology and Earth Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her career with the U.S. Forest Service in geophysics, she relocated often, which gave her the opportunity to renovate houses and historic commercial buildings, and also to design and build new homes. Her passion for real estate led Kathy to become a real estate broker, and she loves helping people navigate the buying and selling process in the local Golden market.
Kathy settled in Golden five years ago and had a home built in the 9th Street historic district. She is active in the community, where she volunteers with her friend Judy Denison (who I featured recently) at the International Rescue Committee. She also serves on the City of Golden’s Historic Preservation Board.
Welcome aboard, Kathy! We’re excited to have you on our team!
This home at 1004 4th Street is truly one-of-a-kind. There are magnificent views of North and South Table Mountain from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the main level. It was just listed for $1,995,000. You are within walking distance to downtown Golden with its famous shops and restaurants. This is a 4-BR, 4-bath home on a corner lot. The wide-open main level floor plan is great for entertaining, or just appreciating the fabulous views and staying cozy near the gas fireplace. The state-of-the-art kitchen is a chef’s delight. It has a 6-burner stove with an additional griddle and double oven. The refrigerator is oversized, and there is a walk-in pantry. The primary suite has a spa-like feel with a walk-in steam shower with 3 shower heads. There are 2 sinks with quartz counter, a soaking tub an extra-large walk-in closet. The upper level has two bedrooms, and a tiled 3/4 bath. Outside the bedrooms, there is a wide-open bonus area with desks, bookshelves and fantastic views. Above the 2nd floor a rooftop office/reading room that opens to a private roof-top deck. The lower level could be used as a mother-in-law living space with its extra-large bedroom with a walk-in closet, large living area with a wet bar, and its own private patio. Included is a one-year builder warranty. Take the narrated video tour and find more details and still photos at www.NorthGoldenHome.com, then come to David Dlugasch’s open house this Saturday, June 17th, 11 am to 2 pm. Or call him at 303-908-4835 to set a private showing.
Because of their higher fossil fuel costs, other countries are far ahead of the United States in the adoption of home electrification, including for heating. The United Kingdom is one of them, and The Guardian recently reported on a survey of 2,500 UK households that made that switch. I’m not aware of a similar survey here, where there may not be enough heat pump households to do a proper survey.
HVAC contractors here in America have been slow to offer or recommend the replacement of gas forced air and gas boiler heating systems with heat pumps, mostly because they are unfamiliar with them. When a homeowner needs to replace their current HVAC system, the vendor who has been servicing their system is most likely to recommend replacing it with a “newer, more efficient” model. So far, I have found only one company which installs and services both traditional gas-fueled heating systems and electric heat pump systems — always recommending the latter. That company, which I have mentioned previously, is Sensible Heating & Cooling, 720-876-7166.
The survey of more than 2,500 domestic heat pump owners and more than 1,000 domestic gas boiler owners in England, Scotland and Wales over the last winter is thought to be the largest investigation into how households have responded to date….
Households have been slow to take up government vouchers worth £5,000 to help cover the cost of replacing a gas boiler with a new heat pump. Slightly more than a third of the scheme’s grants were taken up in the last financial year.
However, the survey, which was undertaken by Eunomia Research and Consulting, found that 81% of households were as satisfied or more satisfied with heat pumps compared with previous heating systems, including gas boilers, electric heating, or oil and LPG boilers….
On running costs, which is another key area of concern for households considering a heat pump, the survey found that two-thirds of heat pump owners and 59% of gas boiler owners were satisfied even without extensive energy efficiency upgrades….
“The government should now have the confidence to move forward quickly with its proposal to.… streamline out-of-date planning rules to make it easier and cheaper for everyone to make the switch to cleaner, safer and more efficient heating with a heat pump,” [said Clem Cowton, director of external affairs for Octopus Energy, a local energy supplier.]
Since 2007, the use of coal for electricity generation has generally been in decline, while the use of renewables has been on the rise. Electricity generation from nuclear had remained relatively flat over the last two decades but has experienced a slight decline in recent years. In 2022, net generation of electricity from renewables reached 0.91 billion megawatt-hours, topping both coal and nuclear (0.83 and 0.77 billion megawatt-hours, respectively). In 2022, renewables accounted for about 21% of all net generation of electricity.
Notes:
Renewable sources of power include wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal energy. “Other” category includes petroleum liquids, petroleum coke, batteries, chemicals, hydrogen, pitch, purchased steam, sulfur, miscellaneous technologies, and electricity generated from non-renewable waste.
Electricity net generation is the amount of gross electricity a generator produces minus the electricity used to operate the power plant.
Cohousing is an intentional, collaborative neighborhood that combines private homes with shared indoor and outdoor spaces designed to support an active and interdependent community life.
Here in Jefferson County and Denver, we have several successful cohousing communities, including Harmony Village, a 27-unit townhome community in Golden, and Hearthstone Cohousing, a 33-unit townhome community built on the former Elitch Gardens site in northwest Denver. Both communities have common houses for group meals and other community activities. The common houses also have guest apartments that members can rent for visiting guests.
Cohousing communities like these are self-managed. Members pitch in to help with community chores. Typically, everyone knows each other by name. It’s all about being in community.
That doesn’t interest most people, but if it interests you, you can join Women in Sustainability and CohoUSon June 14th, 5 to 8 pm at Hearthstone Cohousing’s common house, 4700 W. 37th Ave., Denver, for a discussion and networking event. Attendees can take a tour of the complex starting at 5pm. At 6:30pm, there will be a short talk from CohoUS executive director Trish Becker-Hafnor, followed by a discussion of what it means to live in a cohousing community, myths about cohousing, and how cohousing benefits the environment.
I wrote about cohousing in my Dec. 29 column, which you can read at www.JimSmithColumns.com.
We have two tools for making you a market expert in your neighborhood. First we can send you a Neighborhood Market Analysis. Second, we can set you up to receive an MLS Email Alert when a home in your neighborhood is coming soon, active, goes under contract, or closes. Send your request to Jim@GoldenRealEstate.com.
Remodeled in 2016 and again in 2020, this home at 3 Meadowbrook Road is located on a 0.61-acre lot in the quiet Ridge View neighborhood at the end of a cul-de-sac and just steps from Lee Gulch Trail with access to the High Line Canal trail. Chuck Brown just listed it for $1,589,000. This expansive light-filled home has five bedrooms and four baths, an open floor plan and a chef’s kitchen. The stainless steel 6-burner Thermador range with double oven and the Thermador refrigerator complement the dramatic 12’x4’ island, making food prep and hosting a breeze. The tranquil primary suite features an extraordinary newly remodeled bathroom which includes radiant floor heating, marble vanities and floors, custom wood cabinetry, and many other features too numerous to mention. Additional amenities include a professional grade wired and wireless internet, Sonos system throughout, and home theater. The backyard features expansive park-like grounds with a covered patio perfect for entertaining. The newly remodeled garage accommodates two cars, and has a lighted workbench, cabinets, wall storage, EV charger, epoxy flooring and ceiling-mounted storage racks. View the narrated video tour below, then visit www.LittletonHome.info, where there are lots of magazine-quality photos and a second video tour of the home technology features of this home. Then come to the open house on Saturday, June 10th, from 11am to 2pm.
One of the most common lumber products used by home builders is OSB, which stands for Oriented Strand Board. It is not to be confused with particle board, which is basically sawdust and resin. With its limited structural strength, particle board is used primarily in furniture, cabinetry and countertops, typically under Formica.
OSB is a structural replacement for plywood, and is used extensively by builders for roof, wall and floor sheathing. It is also used in manufactured floor joists and is the skin material for structural insulated panels (SIPs).
Www.Naturallywood.comexplains that OSB “is made from wood strands 8 to 15 centimeters long. It uses the whole tree and makes use of crooked, knotty and deformed trees that would otherwise go unused.” Although that’s an economical use of waste timber, OSB is not as sustainable as the product invented by Plantd, an Oxford, NC, startup which won the “Most Innovative Startup” award from the National Association of Home Builders at this year’s International Builders Show (IBS) in Las Vegas.
What the company invented was an OSB substitute made from a proprietary grass that grows to 20 feet tall in a single season, drawing CO2 out of the atmosphere far quicker than trees do. The company claims that 14,000 acres of grass plantations can produce as much material as 400,000 acres of managed timber lands. These qualities make Plantd’s grass a superior crop for addressing climate change, which was the original objective of the company’s founders. “At Plantd,” says the company’s press release, “we are leading a shift to materials made from renewable grass and building the factory of the future to ensure atmospheric carbon captured in the field is locked away inside the walls and floors of new homes.” Here’s a great 10-minute video: https://youtu.be/tzuuEFemVDY
With $10 million in venture capital, the company will manufacture its “carbon negative building materials” in a former cigarette factory. Moreover, the farmers who previously grew tobacco will now be growing the grass needed by the factory, helping the local economy recover from the closing of the cigarette factory.
The company has been getting lots of national press, which you can read at www.PlantdMaterials.com.
Plantd is now constructing the first of its automated, modular, all-electric production lines at its new facility, with a target to open within the next 12 months, according to the May 3rd press release.
Here’s an excerpt from the website’s home page: “Throughout history, civilizations have advanced at the speed of material innovation. Timber, steel, and concrete enabled remarkable progress, but today they are the problem, not the solution. Continuing to build with these materials accelerates climate change and promises to impede progress by threatening our future on this planet. We see a world built from grass. A world where buildings no longer cause climate change but are central to the solution. Where they are stronger, more durable, and more affordable.”
Plantd’s founders, left to right: Josh Dorfman, CEO; Nathan Silvernail, COO; and Huade Tan, CTO. The latter two were formerly engineers at SpaceX.
The website claims that their product will be stronger, lighter, more moisture resistant, carbon negative, and will cost the same as regular OSB.
Plantd’s panels have just two ingredients: the perennial grass plus a small amount of resin (with the formaldehyde reacted out before reaches Plantd’s factory). This creates a low-VOC product with fewer chemical additives compared to other products, according to Plantd.
Every piece of real estate has both a mailing address and a legal description. The latter needs to be cited in MLS listings and on the deeds recorded with each County Clerk & Recorder.
Most listing agents copy the full legal description which they find on Realist, the property records section of the MLS. However, in the case of property located in a subdivision, that information contains way more than the legal description. Here is an example of a Golden home’s legal description as shown on Realist:
SECTION 28 TOWNSHIP 03 RANGE 70 QTR SW SUBDIVISION CD 108795 SUBDIVISION NAME CANYON POINT VILLAS FLG NO 2 BLOCK LOT 0001 SIZE: 1379 TRACT VALUE: .032
Because this property is in a subdivision which is itself recorded with the County, the true legal description is simply the name of the subdivision plus the block and lot number. In the above example, there is no block number, so the legal description is simply the following:
CANYON POINT VILLAS FLG NO 2, LOT 1. That’s all that would appear on the deed recorded by the Jefferson County Clerk & Recorder.
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