With springtime’s sunny arrival, we are reminded of why we chose to settle in Marin County. While other parts of the country are still grappling with extreme weather, we are happy watching the birds and bees enjoying the newly blossoming trees or stealing away for a warm beach day at Stinson.

No neighborhood better exemplifies the beauty of spring in Marin than the Sycamore Park area of Mill Valley. With its tree-lined streets and proximity to everything in Mill Valley, it’s common to see families walking to the nearby parks, restaurants and stores or riders heading for the trails of Mt. Tam or the bike path and beyond. This neighborhood’s many charms explain the relatively low turnover rate and high demand for homes in this area.

A recent listing of mine demonstrates the desirability of living in the Sycamore Park area; centrally located, you can easily walk to the schools, the community center, the stores and downtown’s shops and restaurants. As you can see from the virtual tour, this home has large level lawns, a deck and patio to enjoy the sunny warmth. The remodeled kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms maintain the home’s understated charm while satisfying modern tastes. As a bonus, there is an extra studio unit with a kitchen and bathroom that can be rented for income or used for an aupair or in-law unit (or for a happy teenager). If you are interested in seeing how good life can get, come take a look.

With spring in the air in Marin, now is the time to get your garden planted.

We love to garden; not only is it environmentally friendly by reducing your food miles, but it is a great excuse to get outdoors to enjoy the return of nice weather. There are tons of reasons to start a garden. Here are just a few, to quote a favorite gardener: “The pleasures of gardening are many - getting outdoors, exercising, putting your hands in soil, growing things, and the special pride of accomplishment that comes with the harvest. Many gardeners want to experience the feeling of being self-sufficient or at least partly so, and to have some control over what they eat, particularly to have fresh, wholesome food without any additives or preservatives. All of these are good reasons for gardening.”

While you can garden year round in Marin (and many are now moving toward edible landscaping, an offshoot of permaculture) this time of year kicks things into high gear with the stronger sun hours of spring, summer and fall. If you haven’t planted a garden before, now is a good time to start and there are lots of classes or seminars available if you need some help. You can spend as much time as you want or you can put in very little and still reap some nice rewards.

A great place to start is with a reputable seed seller. Our favorite is Botanical Interests and when you buy from them portions of the seed sales will be donated to non-profits and school gardens. Whether you do it for the birds, bees, or butterflies, or just for some quality time outdoors, start your garden today.

When thinking about easy ways to cut down on our carbon footprint, travel shoots to the top of the list since it is so carbon-intensive. Driving a fuel-efficient car is a good start and driving sensibly also helps. Even better, eliminating car trips by carefully planning your outings (how many times a week do you visit the grocery store?) or walking, biking and carpooling whenever possible can make a big difference.

But what about vacation planning? Why not plan the occasional vacation in our own backyard, eliminating the carbon-intensive air travel associated with most vacations? Locals often forget about vacationing in the paradise that we may take for granted. Marin County’s unparalleled natural beauty and hundreds of acres of protected open space give you lots of options to explore. A beach house at Stinson or a bed and breakfast in West Marin can feel a million miles away with less wear and tear on the environment, while also keeping your dollars local.

If you need a bit more distance from home, a beach vacation to Santa Cruz, Monterey or Big Sur is only hours away. Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains are also a short car trip away.

Vacationing closer to home is win-win: better for the environment, the local economy, your sanity and your pocketbook.

While most of the world has come to some agreement that climate change/global warming is being caused by humans and that it could cause huge problems for our continued existence, as we have known it, on planet Earth, solutions have been harder for the world and the politicians to agree upon.

One easy solution that is hard to argue with is to reduce our consumption patterns. It’s common sense that the more we buy and consume, the more natural resources will need to be used and the more energy will be expended adding to our global warming problems.

A simple and healthy place to start is by reducing our meat consumption and buying locally-grown, organic produce (see this blog too). Factory farming is highly dependent on fossil fuels to run the machinery; to create the fertilizers and pesticides used while farming; and to process, package and deliver their wares thousands of miles away. If you buy from local farmers at your farmer’s market or through a CSA (community supported agriculture), you will reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to feed you while also getting a fresher, healthier meal. Then you too can join the locavore revolution.

It sounds as if the Bay Area may finally get the relief that many in the real estate and home loan businesses have long been hoping for: a dramatic increase in the conforming (non-jumbo) loan limit. Currently, the conforming loan limit is $417,000 and anything above that is considered jumbo. The proposal in Congress would raise the conforming limit to $729,750 in high-cost real estate markets, like Marin County and other parts of the Bay Area. Right now conforming loans are about 1.5 percentage points below jumbo rates (typical conforming loan with no points is about 5.875 vs. typical jumbo loan with no points at about 7.375) which could mean a drop of $720 in the monthly mortgage payment, or $260,447 over the 30 year life of the loan. Granted, this would be a temporary relief measure, possibly one year, but it will allow current homeowners to lock in better rates; it will allow prospective home buyers a bit more financial flexibility; and it will stimulate the market for home sellers because of buyers’ new flexibility. The bill still needs the approval of the full House and the Senate but there seems to be bipartisan support to move forward quickly on it. Stay tuned.

You’ve probably heard from doctors, yoga instructors, your mom and others that you should drink lots of water every day [8-10 glasses daily] for your health. In fact, some argue that chronic dehydration is to blame for many common ailments (see Maybe the best medicine isn’t medicine). By and large, most of us have heeded the message, bypassed the high-fructose corn syrup sweetened sodas, juices and iced teas and dutifully chosen bottled water instead. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that beverage manufacturers, looking to capitalize on this phenomenon and cut their losses on the downturn in sweetened drink purchases, have spent billions on their marketing budgets to get you to skip tap water (which tastes at least as good as the much more expensive bottled water) in favor of individual plastic bottles of water which may or may not be recyclable. Some estimates put the number of plastic beverage bottles used in the USA every five minutes at about 2 million (to get some idea of what that looks like, take a look at this art project, scroll down to the third piece). Many of those bottles end up in the waste stream, landfill or in the Texas-sized plastic blob in the middle of the Pacific, even when they are “recycled.”

Ironically, when we purchase bottled water instead of filling up at our tap, we pay much, much more (pennies for a gallon from your tap vs. $5+ per gallon when purchased individually) for equal or lesser quality water. Worse still, we contribute to global warming because of the tremendous amount of resources that go into manufacturing of the plastic bottles (a petroleum product) and the transportation to get the bottles to the stores and then to your home or office. (See also, these other good reasons.) Not to mention, the possibility that plastic might not be so good for you to eat and drink from. See this notice too.

So what’s the sensible thing to do? Drink your own tap water. Worried about the quality? Use a water filter, from a simple Brita water pitcher to a sink-mounted water filter. Get a stainless steel bottle to take your water with you. It’ll be good for you and the world.

NASA recently declared 2007 to be the second warmest year on record, since record-keeping of such info began. (See NASA site).

The 8 warmest years have occurred since 1998 and the 14 warmest years have occurred since 1990.

While there are still some people quibbling about potential causes and what it means for the planet, it’s hard to argue that things are warming up and that our carbon footprint has an effect on it. (Calculate yours)

Since the world that we know and love could be drastically changed by a warming globe (See why global warming is a big problem), what better time to make a pledge to live more sustainably and to practice green living. As my kids are learning in school, why not start with the 5 Rs (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot/compost). These simple steps can be incorporated into the daily routine and they can help with global warming.

Rethink-think about simple changes in your consumption patterns that can add up like using cloth napkins over paper or buying more bulk items and less individually wrapped products.

Reduce-reduce the number of things that are consumed by thinking about whether you really need something before purchasing. Often times we can rent, borrow, share or get by without many of our purchases.

Reuse-whenever you reuse you spread the world’s resources a little farther.

Recycle-most have gotten the message on this one but it still helps to think about it before throwing something in the garbage as we are able to recycle more and more kinds of paper, plastic, cardboard and metal.

Rot/compost-most people seem to hesitate on this one because of fear of the unknown but food waste is one of the largest contributors to our landfills and it is one of the easiest to divert from the wastestream. Composting can be as simple as building a box from 2 x 4s and depositing your organic waste (generally, anything that came from the ground or garden) in it. When it turns to compost, you can use it in the garden or on the lawn or do nothing with it. Many stores now carry composting receptacles, like Smith and Hawken or local hardware stores. If you don’t want to compost at home, you can collect it from your kitchen and add it to your green can.

For more about consumption and its effects on the world, please see:
The Story of Stuff

More information to come!