Why choose ecofriendly paint?
Traditional paint products are made with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that release toxins into the air as the paint dries, potentially causing health problems and damage to the environment. Some people also experience headaches and dizziness when using traditional paint. The federal government already regulates VOCs in paint, but the new ecofriendly paint products on the market go a step further with reduced levels of VOCs.

What is the difference between low VOC and zero VOC?
Paint that is labeled “low VOC” contains less than 50 grams per liter, while those labeled “zero VOC” or “VOC free” claim to have no measurable VOCs at all.

Devine Color, an offshoot of Valspar, offers zero-VOC paint in a wide range of colors. The claim is that this paint is so thick, you need only one coat. The website provides lots of color choosing tips and some gorgeous ready-to-go palettes that make decorating a breeze.

Cost: $59.95 per gallon

 

2. The Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Company has been mixing up real milk paints in a range of rich colors for more than 30 years. Their paint is completely nontoxic, VOC free and safe for use on children’s items. And yes, it is actually made with milk.

The original formula was meant for use on porous surfaces (like unfinished wood or masonry), but the company recently began offering a version that works for walls. It does take a bit of extra work, as the paint comes in powder form and you must mix it up yourself, but nothing else compares in terms of green credentials.
Cost: $45.95 per gallon

 

3. Benjamin Moore, the powerhouse of the paint industry, now offers two green options: Aura, a low-VOC premium paint, and Natura, which is zero VOC and has a short drying time to boot. Big bonus: The entire staggeringly large range of Benjamin Moore colors is available in either ecofriendly option.

When I was pregnant we used Benjamin Moore’s Natura line to repaint most rooms in our house, and I can attest to the fact it is virtually odor free and dries fast. The coverage was good, but not as amazing as the next on our list, C2 Paint.

Cost: $54.99 (Natura), $65.99 (Aura) per gallon

 

4. C2 Paint is one of my favorite independent paint companies. It uses artist-grade pigments to create colors that are superrich. And with names like Artichoke Heart, Voodoo and Slinky, they can install the urge to come up with a whole new scheme for your space. In addition to the regular line is low-VOC paint available in all the C2 colors.

When we bought our house, the kitchen was painted a shockingly bright persimmon orange, which I thought would be a nightmare to cover. Lo and behold, a single coat of C2’s puddinglike paint in Quahog (a warm gray) and all traces of the old color were gone.

Cost: $54.99 per gallon

 

5. Yolo Colorhouse is a small company that offers zero-VOC paints in a limited but gorgeous range of nature-inspired colors. Priced around $35 per gallon, they’re much more affordable than many of the other green options.

Bonus: Yolo Colorhouse paints are now available at Home Depot, so you may be able to have it shipped to your local store for free.

Cost: $35.95 per gallon

 

Summer is around the corner, and the outdoor world is beckoning. What better way to enhance outdoor living than with a cool new structure in the backyard? Whether you dream of lounging in a hammock in your own bug proof pavilion, hosting friends for the weekend in a revamped vintage Airstream or getting away from it all in a rustic writer’s cabin, these 10 ideas for outbuildings are here to get your creative wheels turning. Just imagine the possibilities.

 

 

 

 

Hobbit house. Why not have a pint-size, hobbit-style playhouse in the backyard? This one is actually large enough for adults and kids to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gypsy caravan. Add a curved roof, a Dutch door and a lucky horseshoe, and suddenly that basic shed has been transformed into something utterly charming. Use it as a spot to take your afternoon tea, or set up a mini art or writing studio inside.

 

 

 

 

 

Screened pavilion. Even better than a screened-in porch, a screened pavilion is like having a summer house in your backyard. String up a hammock and put a game table inside, and relax all evening, immersed in the ambience of the summer night … without bug bites.

Cliff May’s innovative ranch home designs give him a place of honor in the residential hall of fame.  May’s modern homes epitomize the indoor-outdoor lifestyle characteristic of the American Dream, fusing the open plan/open living philosophy with the traditional ranch house. He introduced comfort and convenience into postwar ’50s homes, from motorized skylights and bathroom vanity cabinets to single-lever faucets and whole-house intercoms. Starting in the 1930s, the modern ranch house took the country by storm, migrating from California to Arizona, and Cliff May was the chief proponent of this style. His long, low designs managed to be both modern and traditional, celebrating a casually elegant, indoor-outdoor lifestyle, and drawing inspiration from California’s Spanish Mexican ranchos while embracing the latest technological gadgetry. With their low profile, large carports and garages, patios, and expansive horizontality, May’s modern ranch houses became synonymous with the nascent California lifestyle and were enthusiastically promoted by the popular Sunset magazine throughout the U.S. He personally designed and built more than 1,000 homes and commercial buildings, and over 18,000 designs are attributed to his office, including the Robert Mondavi Winery and the offices of Sunset.

See our listing at
1716 San Remo Drive
A Cliff May design.
Listed at $2,795,000

After a buying binge that helped drive the housing recovery, big investors are being forced to rethink the home-rental business.
With bargains less plentiful, executives are slowing property purchases and turning their focus to generating steady income from tenants.
A spike in home prices over the past two years was quicker and more striking than many expected, squeezing returns and raising concerns about the industry’s growth prospects.
Small investors long have bought and sold homes. But two years ago when companies such as private-equity giant Blackstone Group BX +2.68% LP got into the business, backers said it could emerge as an asset class rivaling publicly owned apartment-rental companies, which own over 600,000 units and have a stock-market value of $88 billion.
The companies jumped into distressed markets, buying foreclosed properties and other homes at depressed prices with plans to fix them up, rent them and eventually sell at a profit. But buyers have slowed their pace after acquiring roughly 140,000 homes worth about $20 billion.
The reason: the unexpectedly sharp recovery in the price of homes over the past two years. In housing markets hardest hit by the bust—places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and much of Southern California—prices have risen as much as 55% off their postcrash lows. Nationally, prices are up 11.4% in the past two years, according to Zillow Inc.
“The distressed wave has largely passed,” said Jonathan Gray, head of real estate for New York-based Blackstone, which has spent $8.6 billion on some 45,000 homes and is the biggest player in the sector.
At the peak of its buying in July 2013, Blackstone was spending about $140 million a week on homes; now it is spending roughly $30 million to $40 million. “We didn’t anticipate prices going up 20% a year,” Mr. Gray said.

Rising prices have forced many investors to accept lower returns than they originally had projected in certain markets, or to buy homes in new cities where the price appreciation has been less rapid. Two years ago, investors could buy in Sunbelt markets such as Phoenix and Las Vegas for gross yields that were in the 15% range, according to Green Street Advisors. That has fallen to around 10%, often lower.
Many investors have decided to hold onto homes for longer than they originally expected because a larger proportion of investor returns is coming from rent instead of the home’s rising value.
“The initial investment thesis was to invest in these homes, make a nice return on the way, and be positioned to sell them for a nice profit,” said Gary Beasley, co-CEO of Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust, one of four public companies in the business. “As we got into it in the first year or two, it became clear that it might be more valuable to hold onto these homes in the long term, and really treat them like a scattered-site apartment building.”
A recent Morgan Stanley report found that buy-to-rent investors have bought about $400 million worth of homes a month in the first few months of 2014, down from about $520 million a month last year.
Investor demand has cooled for stock in the four rental-home companies that went public to fund their expansion. Only American Homes 4 Rent has a stock trading above its IPO price.
Paul Puryear, director of real-estate research for Raymond James & Associates, said investors have been cool to the stocks in part because home-price growth has leveled off, and because the industry still hasn’t grown to a critical mass. “There are too many skeptics in the market,” he said.
Industry executives say there is plenty of money to be made from renting. They say more households became renters after the downturn because of the high rate of foreclosure and the inability or unwillingness of many to buy.
Indeed, apartment rents have been steadily rising for 17 quarters, according to real-estate data firm Reis Inc. REIS +0.73% They are now 11% higher than they were in late 2009 when they hit their postcrash low, Reis says.
Irvine, Calif.-based American Property Group’s search for yield in the Midwest is paying off, according to its CEO, Saman Shams. Recent acquisitions include a three-bedroom house with a big front yard on North Cherry Lake Lane in Indianapolis. About a month ago, the company paid $67,000 for the home and is spending $15,000 on renovations.
The plan is to rent the house for $1,150 a month. After costs, this will produce just under $10,000 in net income, or an annual net yield of 11.2%, much higher than the 5% to 7% net yields most investors are getting in other markets. “We’re holding these homes for the long term,” Mr. Shams said.
Analysts say the growth of the industry will depend in large part on whether investors can continue to get the better of traditional buyers. Investors have had an advantage in many markets because they have been able to pay cash and close quickly.
But that could change if the economy improves and mortgages get easier to obtain. Individuals may be able to outbid investors because they can get lower interest rates and aren’t as concerned about rate of return.

Below you will find the latest activity directly from the Multiple Listing Service. We are highlighting Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and Santa Monica. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Brentwood Single Family Home Sales
Total Sold Dollar Volume:$    46,438,350
Average Selling Price:$     3,572,180
Average List Price:$     3,640,999
Avg Sales Price/Avg. List Price: 98.1%
Median Price:$     2,575,000
Average Days on Market:78
Number of Listings Sold:13

Santa Monica Single Family Home Sales
Total Sold Dollar Volume:$    55,100,812
Average Selling Price:$     2,755,040
Average List Price:$     2,705,900
Avg Sales Price/Avg. List Price:101.8%
Median Price:$     2,225,000
Average Days on Market:47
Number of Listings Sold:20

Pacific Palisades Single Family Home Sales
Total Sold Dollar Volume:$    85,613,480
Average Selling Price:$     3,567,228
Average List Price:$     3,638,666
Avg Sales Price/Avg. List Price: 98.0%
Median Price:$     2,472,500
Average Days on Market:68
Number of Listings Sold:24

 

The following  edibles are good choices if you’re just getting started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Radishes. Radishes may be one of the easiest edibles to grow. With some popular varieties, you can start eating the tops (as you thin out your plantings) within two weeks and start harvesting in three weeks. You can plant successively from early spring until summer approaches, then start planting again come fall.

2. Carrots. Long and orange may be the familiar look, but today’s carrots come in a range of colors, from white to purple, and a range of shapes, from long and narrow to short and plump. Like radishes, they give you almost instant gratification when it comes to harvesting, as you generally can start pulling them to eat in a month or so. More than most other edibles, they do require loose, clod- and stone-free soil to maintain their shape.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Salad greens. Growing your own salad greens is remarkably easy, and these are among the few edibles that do best in partial shade when it’s warm. Lettuce especially can get bitter in hot weather, even if you grow the newer varieties that have been bred to resist bolting. Start with some of the loose-leafed varieties of lettuce and mix in other greens, such as arugula, chicory, chervil and spinach, for a home-grown salad mix.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Herbs. Most of our favorite herbs are also the easiest edibles to grow. Some, like mint, are almost impossible not to grow — plant some in the ground and you’ll be pulling up mint all over your garden. Most herbs do best with full sun and little to regular water, and many, such as thyme, do double duty as ground covers. Plant them in a formal herb garden, mix with other edibles or grow in any type of planter or box.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Strawberries. The taste of freshly picked strawberries is reason enough to grow them. Add to that their versatility in terms of varieties for almost all climates and their adaptability to any number of containers, including hanging ones, and you have a plant that can work for almost any gardener. Most gardeners treat them as short-lived perennials, meaning you’ll still have lush foliage after the fruiting season is over. While the list of possible problems might seem daunting, most gardeners find that strawberries are reliable and fairly trouble free (except for keeping birds out).

 

 

 

 

 

6. Beans. Beans are an edible-garden staple, and snap beans are the most popular type of bean to grow. Choose from bush beans, which produce an earlier crop while staying lower to the ground, or vining beans, the familiar climbing varieties that will climb up almost anything they can wrap their tendrils around. Once you’ve mastered these, you can branch out to dry beans, lima beans, scarlet runner beans, fava beans and even soybeans.

 

 

 

 

7. Tomatoes. For many gardeners it’s really not an edible garden without a tomato or two. Though you may hear all sorts of stories about possible problems, from whiteflies to scary-sounding diseases, the fact that tomatoes are probably the most popular edible to grow should encourage you. The key is to find the varieties that do well in your climate. The good news is that there are so many varieties now readily available, from heirlooms to disease-resistant hybrids, so you can easily find something that works for you.

8. Chard. “Easy to grow” defines Swiss chard. It grows well from seed, prefers cooler weather (but can handle a fair amount of summer heat) and can be harvested approximately 60 days after the first seeds were planted while still continuing to produce, even through winter in warm-winter climates. Grow it separately or mix it with other edibles and even ornamentals, especially if you’re growing one of the colorful Bright Lights chards.

 

The bunkhouse, which sleeps 24 people and has its own showers, can be rented for $1,000 a night. ‘People who love it here are often people who spent time in their childhoods at camps like this,’ says Ms. Surratt. ‘But also hipsters who want to immerse themselves in a different era.’

The interior of the tree house. The camp’s rustic-chic style has been profiled in several design publications and blogs. Three luxury product brands, which Ms. Surratt declined to name, have licensed the camp name and plan to release products based on its aesthetic in 2015, she said.  The dining area of the lodge. Camp Wandawega doesn’t offer food or other services; campers bring and prepare their own food and share cleanup dutie.

Though the camp offers accommodations so rustic the owners require renters to read a ‘Manifesto of Low Expectations’ before booking, Camp Wandawega was included last year in Travel & Leisure’s World’s Greatest Hotels book. Here is a sleeping tent.