Southern Oregon this Appraiser's perspective

I bought mine yesterday and had to come back today to pick it up in my truck. I got a little lost because I thought it was closer to the fairgrounds on Hwy 199. In fact the “Discount Price” Christmas Tree Lot is on the corner of Henderson and Hwy 199. Henderson is the street after Tussey if you’re headed toward Redwood Avenue.

You’ll see the sign for Henderson’s Line Up and the White Christmas Lights before you see the street sign if the weather is like today (drizzly).

What you won’t miss after you get to the lot is the fabulous array of Noble Fir Christmas Trees. In our house – if it isn’t a Noble Fir it isn’t a Christmas Tree. Every year we sort through all the different kinds of trees that other folks like to find the best Noble Fir. Unfortunately our price range tops out at about $30 and since Nobles are more difficult to come by (they grow at a higher elevation that typically has snow on the ground this time of year) we are usually stuck with the short ones. You can see that there are still plenty of different sizes to choose from. I think this year I got one that is about 6’….for ONLY $14.99.

So when I got there today to pick up my tree the Tree Man smiled at me and said – “I could have sold your tree last night”. This is one of the things I like about Oregon; most folks don’t pull any punches. I laughed as I walked toward where I had last seen My Tree and said, “Then it’s a good thing I paid you for it, isn’t it?”

I noticed that the trees were beginning to thin out as we continued to banter back and forth about how business was. I bought my tree at about 2:30p yesterday and he told me he sold 30 trees last night alone. As a matter of fact I texted a friend today – the one who introduced me to the lot last year (Agent Andi of Redd McCarty Realtors) and she was at the lot buying a tree that very minute!!!

Let me tell you why these trees are walking off the lot in droves. They last forever!!!! At our house we have a rule that the Christmas Tree has to come down by Valentine’s Day. We initially made the rule because I was afraid that the dried out Christmas Tree would become a fire hazard. Last year I bought mine from this lot right after Thanksgiving. When we took the tree down in February this year there was hardly a needle on the floor. In other words it still wasn’t completely dried out.

Wishing for you and yours the very merriest of Holiday Seasons.

When John Mafrici of Park Place Mortgage invited me to the Rogue Valley Habitat for Humanity  stakeholder Annual Event in October at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford, I thought it sounded like a good opportunity to start off the holiday season. Even though I'm out and about quite a bit appraising and driving the comps, I'm usually not chatting it up with other folks.

The lobby was packed for a rainy night - one of the first of the season - and I got signed in and headed for the food. Helena Darling fine catering provided a splendid array of spreads and breads and savories to keep me busy while I gandered at the rest of the "stakeholders". I decided Lemonade would be the wisest choice for beverage given the nature of the affair, and was pleasantly surprised at the nicely tangy, not too sweet offering. While I schmoozed I learned about ReStore a new and used Building Materials facility where 100% of the net profits support Habitat for Humanity. If you're anything like me - the Hardware Store is "my store" - you too can do your part and support Habitat for Humanity by purchasing new and used building and home materials at bargain prices.

Eventually we were ushered into the auditorium to watch and listen to the playlet depicting the life of one family as they apply for, are selected, and help build their Habitat for Humanity home. As an appraiser I've seen my share of substandard housing, and get excited about making sure homes for everyone are safe and habitable - not just a moldly, poorly insulated, rat infested roof over ones head.

I say all of this to say that the topper of the evening for me was the Helena Darling dessert table as I headed out the door. Among the miriad pastries and gooey sweets were small squarish cups of ....pear milkshake, or smoothie. It was so good I couldn't stop at one and ran home to try my hand at my own miserable rendition (I'm thinking Helena didn't use Tofu in her blend). A gourmet chef I am not, but my tastebuds know a good thing when they come in contact with it, and believe you me I have an eye out for the next opportunity to sample of this caterer's fare.

50+ of us loaded onto the two school buses headed for our first stop on the Ashland Green and Solar Home Tour sponsored in part by the City of Ashland. We had 5 homes to view in as many hours. From the schedule it looked like there would be a wide range of applications to look at and I was excited.

The first home was an Earth Advantage and LEED certified home built by Dorris Construction and designed by Carlos Delgado and implemented a full array of green and sustainable components. The 2-story with basement executive view home started with a fully insulated slab foundation, Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) walls, and was topped off by Structural Insulated Roof Panels (SIPs), and a 2.2kW grid connect solar system as supplemental power. High efficiency Energy Star electronics, appliances and lighting throughout, a drain back solar water heater and tankless gas water heater backup, along with a demand controlled hot water recirculation system make this home a Net Zero when it comes to its energy usage.

Sanford Design and Renovation are making their mark -as demonstrated by the next home - with simple and affordable Energy Star and Earth Advantage certified homes. The hydronically heated slab along with ductless heating and air conditioning by All About Air

allows the typical market participant to be a part of energy conservation without any extra effort. The Listing Broker knows much more about how you can finished this home just the way you like it. Email Emily Zook now and ask her for a link to the listing. This was one of two houses on the tour that employed advanced framing techniques which in this case optimized the effects of recycled fiberglass insulation and air sealing details.

The next house on the tour was impressive because of the story that went along with the solar power and hot water retrofit. The owner had an option a couple of years ago to either invest money in bonds or into a solar power and hot water upgrade in her home. You guessed it, she chose to invest in her home. By her account she has lowered her monthly utility bill by ¾ and will continue to enjoy the tax credits for another 4 or 5 years. She admitted that this simple change in lifestyle has caused her to want to see how low she can get her power bill. The solar system by Electron Connection, Inc includes a single storage tank with both a heat exchanger and back-up electric element in it installed in an under stair closet.

The 20 panel 3.8kW grid can be remotely monitored and provides information about power generated and power used. Additionally the homeowner installed a low water use landscape and irrigation system that even supplies a healthy vegetable patch.

Our next stop was the N. Mountain Park in Ashland where a representative from the Oregon Department of Energy provided pamphlets about Energy Tax Credits available through the state of Oregon for both businesses and residents. Who knew that the cost of heating an average home with a geothermal Heat Pump is 6 times cheaper than with a 65% efficient Propane furnace!!

For the most part I think of energy conservation as "not using" what I don't need, but the next example on the tour demonstrated the act of conserving by right-sizing the home for the use. Did you know that the average American home today is 2,500 square feet? That’s twice what the typical home was in the 1980’s.

This one bedroom, one bath dwelling designed by Anna Bjernfalk is an Earth Advantage and Energy Star certified home with an insulated concrete slab floor and kiln-dried pre-fabricated walls by Pacific Wall Systems to minimize waste. A ductless HVAC system and a basic bathroom fan on a timer are combined to provide more than adequate ventilation for a 672 square foot home with 50+ people inside. Landscape with limited turf and pervious hardscapes finish off this neat and tidy package.

Our final tour stop gave me a greater appreciation for the City of Ashland. This craftsman style straw bale home was constructed inside the historic district of downtown Ashland. It fits comfortably into the surrounding neighborhood of 2-story circa 1910 to 1920’s homes.

John David Duffie designed this gem around a Tulikivi soapstone stove with non-load bearing locally sourced barley straw bales on a hybrid convective air slab (solar slab) foundation. The science behind this house is incredible, but more impressive was being in it. The dual flush toilets were my favorite after years of “Yellow mellow, Brown down” toileting. I have to say though I was also impressed by the picture of the wastewater heat recovery system that captures heat from the shower waste water to pre-heat the water going into the tankless gas water heater.

I came away from the tour a better appraiser. Not because defending a comparison of roof vented cooling to ductless HVAC is going to be any easier, but because I recognized that ultimately it is the lifestyle choice that is valued by the green / sustainable market participant, not necessarily the individual components.

The day I visited the Oregon Vortex, I was driving comps on Sardine Creek Rd. As I turned onto the road from Hwy 99 I remembered that I'd been wanting to visit the House of Mystery located on the vortex, and decided after I finished my photographs of recent sales in the area I would stop and see what all the commotion was about.

Thank goodness I was working, because I had my camera with me and took photographs as we went along....otherwise this phenomenon (there is really no other way to describe it) is hard to believe. 

This (above) is me on the far left with my fellow tourists. I'm always heads above everyone else and was always at the end of the line in school. No matter what you're seeing when you look at what we're standing on - it's a level platform. Notice how my eyes are about even with the hairline of the fellow next to me.

This is much more like what I'm used to it looking like. You can see clearly that my eyes are now even with the top of the same fellow's head. By the end of the tour I'd seen so many of these strange height-shifting, body warping phenomena all I could say was Whoa!

The house of mystery is behind us. It is sitting very near the center of the vortex. I can't tell you what to expect when you go inside, but I can tell you that one of the women on our tour was VERY strongly influenced by the phenomenon when she stood near the center of the vortex and had to move away from the center to regain her bearings.

The history lesson was fun, I loved being part of a live science experiment, and will look for an opportunity to go back again and see if the vortex behaves the same way the next time I go back.