TheState.com: Home and Garden

Those '50s ranch homes are finally getting some architectural respect

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:36 EST

The ranch houses where baby boomers grew up, and the 1950s and '60s fast-food joints that the boomers frequented, are finally getting some respect.

More and more, the buildings of the era are being perceived as historical structures worthy of national attention and preservation.

"The pendulum is swinging from demolition to preservation," says Michael Allen, president of ModernStl, which has about 200 members who admire the style known as Mid-Century Modern.

"That sort of network did not exist before," Allen said.

Not everyone is enamored of the look. Others say economic development trumps saving the structures.

Nothing says love like a home-cooked meal

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:43 EST

On Valentine's Day, is that electricity we feel in the air?

Nope, just tension.

Now is when new loves and old marrieds knock themselves silly trying to think of how to show their affection. Results of a national survey may - or may not - help: While the top "want," at 57 percent, is dinner in a nice restaurant, 38 percent say they would swoon over a home-cooked meal.

Has home cooking become novel enough to pass for romantic effort?

That sentiment is more likely for single Americans who live alone. At more than 31 million, they make up 27 percent of households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's up from 17 percent of singles who lived alone in 1970.

Ask Angie: Advantages and disadvantages of artificial turf

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:08 EST

Dear Angie:

I have three Cocker Spaniels who like to go potty on the grass, so I want to change my lawn in my backyard from grass to artificial grass. What are the advantages or disadvantages of artificial turf? What is the best material to put down and how do I go about finding the most reliable company?

Paula H., Phoenix

Dear Paula:

With the growth in popularity of artificial turf, there are a variety of products and suppliers available and because it can be a significant investment, it's important to do your homework before you commit.

Hot Property: Aniston buys Bel-Air house

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:08 EST

Leading lady Jennifer Aniston has bought a midcentury house in Bel-Air that was listed at $24.9 million.

The seller was former Maguire Properties Chief Executive Robert F. Maguire III, who restored the 8,500-square-foot house designed by A. Quincy Jones and built in 1965. The sales price has not yet appeared on the public record.

Set on a 3-acre-plus promontory with unobstructed ocean and city views, the house features an open floor plan, walls of glass, a bar, a projection room, a wine cellar, four bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms. The grounds include a guesthouse, swimming pool and vineyards.

Aniston, who turned 43 on Saturday, made a name for herself on television for her Emmy-winning role on "Friends" (1994-2004). She starred last year in "Just Go With It" and "Horrible Bosses," and found time to sell her Beverly Hills estate for $35 million. Her film "Wanderlust" is due out this month.

Maguire founded his company in 1965, took it public in 2003 and left day-to-day operations in 2008. The Los Angeles office landlord is now called MPG Office Trust.

Planting a garden? What's your rush?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:06 EST

"Slow Gardening: A No-Stress Philosophy for All Senses and Seasons" By Felder Rushing (Chelsea Green)

What it is: "Slow Gardening: A No-Stress Philosophy for All Senses and Seasons" is iconoclast gardener-author Felder Rushing's slow-paced, all-purpose guide to living the slow life in the garden. In Rushing's world view, to garden slowly is to garden richly, mining for depth of meaning and whatever brings you - not your neighbor across the picket fence - the purest, most exhilarating joy. While he's plenty philosophical, Rushing generously throws in plenty of how-to's: from how to slow down to how to get the most oomph out of your backyard waterfall.

What makes it armchair-worthy: This is not a book that leaps out and shakes you by the lapels. It works its thought-provoking ways without drumroll or cymbal crash. But as you read along, you begin to survey your own gardening style with an eye toward savoring the labors, the delights, the time it takes to watch a sapling grow into a tree that shades your afternoon lemonade. He invites contemplation, for mulling over such revolutionary ideas as ditching noisy garden tools, or sitting in your garden even when it's raining or dark outside. "Get personal with your weather," Rushing implores. And, above all else, he encourages you to share your garden with a child - your own or someone else's.

One fine line: "Slow Gardening has deep roots, because gardening has always been a process, a collaboration between humans and nature, and not something you can go out and buy. The passage of time is central: Planting a little tree is just a beginning."

Merleau Blue salvia offers garden excitement

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

Round flowers seem to dominate in the world of gardening, but it is the spiky blooms of a plant like the Merleau Blue salvia that grab the attention of friends and family. In addition to giving us the spiky texture that creates excitement, they also offer us some of the best choices in the treasured blue color.

Merleau Blue is an award winning hybrid Salvia x superba that has earned high praises across the country - and rightly so. It is perennial over a wide area of the country from zones 5 to 9. It is rather compact, reaching 18 inches tall and just as wide.

Though a little shorter than other varieties, you'll find that it makes a great cut flower for the vase. In fact as you cut those flowers you'll notice you are actually enhancing the bloom production. The flowers are also a favorite of bees, hummingbirds and several butterflies.

It has a lot of attributes that a lot of gardeners don't think about. Besides being drought tolerant it offers resistance to both deer and rabbits. With deadheading and a little supplemental watering you'll find it blooming until early fall.

Select a site in full sun for best flower performance. Fortunately, this salvia is tolerant of wide varieties in soil pH. From this standpoint, anyone can grow it. However, like all salvias, they prefer good drainage, especially if you want a return from winter. For this reason I suggest raised beds loosened with organic matter, even a little sand.

He'll use it one of these days

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:06 EST

Chef Eric Greenspan and his fiancee, Jamie Molever, share the kitchen of the future.

More accurately, the kitchen of their future. In the present, it gets used just about never.

"This was the first apartment that I even looked at the kitchen," says Greenspan, the chef at the Foundry on Melrose and the Roof on Wilshire, in the boutique Hotel Wilshire. In previous places, his feeling toward the kitchen was: "Who cares?"

This time, he cares. He and Molever are getting married this spring in Palm Springs, Calif., and they plan to have children. When they do, they plan for the kitchen to be a center of their home.

So two years ago, when they moved into the apartment just south of Melrose, they made sure the kitchen would suit. What Greenspan likes is the plentiful granite counter space, including a bar that looks into the dining area, counters on both sides of the stove and the double stainless steel sink.

Your Place: More about dampness in home near shore

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

In a recent column, a newly minted Jersey Shore homeowner asked for help making his damp abode drier.

He said he'd been told that building code mandated that the vapor barrier be up against the floor over the crawl space, but the 2-year-old solid oak flooring was beginning to curl because of moisture.

This came from Stone Harbor builder/contractor Gene Richards in response:

"We built 60 ranch-style condos at the Shore with crawl spaces. Vapor-shield insulation, not paperback, was used in the floor-joist system. The plastic vapor barrier on the sand floor never lets the crawl space dry out.

"A contractor can install a plastic, vinyl shield on the existing joist and remove the ground cover. Also, closing the venting system in the winter and opening it in the summer helps."

Edible landscaping takes food plants beyond bounds of vegetable patch

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

Food plants have jumped the fence from the kitchen garden.

They're making their way into the landscape, doing double duty as both food sources and things of beauty.

It's a movement called edible landscaping, and there's good reason for it, advocates say. Edible landscaping encourages and simplifies local food production, with all its health and environmental benefits.

The idea behind edible landscaping is that fruits, vegetables and other edible plants can be intermingled with ornamental plants such as shrubs and flowers. Often edibles can be used in place of more common landscape plants - rhubarb instead of hostas, perhaps, or a fruit tree instead of a maple.

"I think it opens up a whole new territory for people who don't consider themselves gardeners" or don't like the look of a traditional vegetable garden, said Jonathan Hull, co-founder of the not-for-profit organization Green Triangle. The Cleveland-area organization promotes permaculture, an ecological system that stresses living in harmony with nature.

Home and garden news and notes

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

WHAT'S NEW: SMOKE DETECTOR CALLS 911

A new smoke alarm not only alerts you to a fire, but also summons emergency crews.

The Direct Connect 911 Smoke Detector alerts a central station whenever smoke is detected. The station in turn calls the fire department and notifies additional contacts by phone or email. A manual shut-off button lets you alert the emergency operators to a false alarm.

The central station also notifies you when the detector's two-year batteries run low or the unit fails a weekly self-check.

The smoke detector communicates by the cellular network but doesn't require the owner to have a cell-phone plan. Nor does it need to be connected to a building's electricity, Internet, phone system or existing security network.

Try houseplants as gifts for Valentine's Day and beyond

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

Why give fresh flowers for Valentine's Day, only to know they will soon die. Instead, give an easy-care houseplant that keeps on living and giving.

Costa Farms, which grows indoor and outdoor plants for specialty retail sales, recommends these five houseplants for year-round enjoyment. You can get Costa Farms' "Growing Style" free app for your iPad or Android free at www.growingstylemag.com.

You'll find these and other sweet houseplants at a garden center near you.

Anthurium

Anthuriums are subtropical favorites with varieties growing in such diverse areas as South America and the Pacific. They are perfect as cut flowers or as potted plants in varying sizes. They are popular around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter. To get them to flower continuously, place in a filtered light location and fertilize during the growing season. The plant should be kept clean of all yellow or decaying leaves.

Home economics: Saving power costs in the house

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11 EST

Winter has been relatively mild and virtually snow-free so far in many regions. That's helped take the chill off utility costs. In fact, the people who monitor such things say electric bills are down, especially in areas like the mid-Atlantic.

But there's a way to cut costs even more, though it may not be immediately obvious:

Slay the vampires.

"Vampire power," also known as "standby power," is electricity consumed by electronic devices and appliances even when they are switched off or in standby mode. Their external power supplies - typically, little black cubes with two teeth (the plugs) - "suck" electricity, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has measured standby power in hundreds of devices.

"Americans have an increasing number of devices that get plugged in and charged up," said Ronnie Kweller, spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy in Washington, D.C.

The case of the pooping cat

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:07 EST

On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the case of Duke the Cat, described by his alleged victim "as the smartest cat that I've ever seen," ended up in Seattle Municipal Court.

The 11-year-old longhair - well, actually, his owner, Victoria Adair - was found guilty of allowing Duke to damage the next-door Ballard, Wash., property owned by Mark Simpson. The fine was $109.

That damage, according to Simpson, an architect, was from Duke's considerable and relentless pooping.

In a statement to Seattle Animal Control, the architect says he and his wife, Joanne Simpson, in 2009 bought a dilapidated Ballard home on Northwest 61st Street as an investment. They hired contractors to turn it into a duplex.

During the remodel, the architect says, because of Duke's poop, "Workers were sickened from the stink."

Storms may have killed off many stink bugs

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:07 EST

The combined fury of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee may have drowned much of the region's stink bug population, but scientists are still hesitant to say that homeowners will see fewer of them when the weather warms.

Scientists say something caused a substantial decline in the number of the bugs last fall before they hunkered down in the region's attics and closets. Perhaps it was due to natural predators or an unknown parasite. Just as likely, they say, it was the deluge that began just before Labor Day and lasted through September.

"We suspect it was heavy rain because of the regional effect on them," said Tracy Leskey, research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The population is substantially lower, but we don't know the reason definitely."

From Aug. 31 through September, the Middle-Atlantic region received more than 16 inches of wind-driven rain, four times the average for the period.

"That knocked bugs off trees and crops and it probably drowned a large number of them," said Jerry Burst, a pest management and vegetable specialist at the University of Maryland's Central Maryland Research and Education Center in Upper Marlboro. "That contributed to the decline."

Ask Angie: Heating two-story homes

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:32 EST

Dear Angie:

I recently purchased my first two-story home. I love it, except now it's cold outside and I'm having a heating issue. When the furnace is on, the upstairs gets very warm, while the first floor and basement remain somewhat chilly. I know heat rises, so this might be a dumb question, but what can I do to help even out the heat in the house? If I close some of the vents upstairs would that redirect some of that heat downstairs? Could it be an insulation issue? The house seems well-insulated in the attic and there don't seem to be any drafts around windows and doors?

Joe P., Plainfield, Ind.

Dear Joe:

Unfortunately, for many owners of two-story homes, varying heat loss or heat gain is a common problem.

Arraignment for suspect in Calif. serial slayings is continued

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:12 EST

Monday's arraignment for Itzcoatl Ocampo, an ex-Marine suspected of stabbing half a dozen people to death, was continued to March 16.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas had announced Friday that Ocampo is a suspect in a double murder because of a "significant" DNA link between an item of clothing taken from Ocampo's home and DNA from the Oct. 25 Yorba Linda crime scene where Raquel Estrada, 53, and her son Juan Herrera, 34, were fatally stabbed.

"I think what this says about him is he's a vicious killer," Rackauckas said Monday.

Ocampo was alert in a Santa Ana courtroom and responded to a judge's commands. He had dark circles under his eyes and gazed at his family, whom he hadn't seen since his arrest.

"The only concern he is having right now besides what's going on is being able to see his family," said Randall Longwith, Ocampo's attorney. Ocampo has not seen his family in person since his arrest.

Hot property: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie sell Malibu house to Ellen De Generes

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:09 EST

LOS ANGELES - In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The 4,088-square-foot house, built in 1962, features walls of glass, dark bamboo flooring, three fireplaces, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with a tennis court, a lap pool and beach access.

Pitt, 48, starred last year in the Oscar-nominated "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life." He will star in the upcoming "Cogan's Trade" and "World War Z."

Jolie, 36, won an Oscar for her supporting role in "Girl, Interrupted" (1999) and was nominated as best actress for "Changeling" (2008). She is the writer and director of the Bosnian war film "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011).

DeGeneres, 53, has hosted the talk show bearing her first name since 2003. She listed her Beverly Hills compound for sale last year at $49 million and recently reduced the asking price on her 26-acre equestrian property in Thousand Oaks to $14.9 million.

DNA key in homeless-killings case

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:31 EST

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A "significant DNA link" convinced prosecutors Friday to drop charges against a man accused of murdering his mother and older brother last October and instead has connected suspected serial killer Itzcoatl Ocampo to the crimes.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas at a hastily called evening news conference said that Eder Herrera, 24, would be released from Orange County Jail and that two additional murder charges would be filed on Monday against Ocampo.

The former Marine, 23, is already accused of fatally stabbing four homeless men in northern Orange County, part of a weeks-long stabbing spree that began days before Christmas and ended only with his arrest on Jan. 13. One victim was stabbed more than 60 times.

Rackauckas noted similarities between the deaths of the homeless men and the Oct. 25 slayings of Raquel Estrada, 53, and her older son, Juan Herrera, 34, at their Yorba Linda home. Estrada, for example, was stabbed more than 30 times while Herrera had more than 60 wounds.

He also said DNA found on items taken from Ocampo's Yorba Linda home matched a profile from the double homicide.

U.N. investigator aids homeless cause in Sacramento

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:26 EST

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In 2009, they caught Oprah Winfrey's attention.

Last year, they were featured in a lengthy article in Harpers magazine.

Now a small but vocal band of homeless people fighting for the right for a legal campground in Sacramento has scored an international coup. A special investigator for the United Nations, following a visit last year with Sacramento's homeless campers, is appealing to Mayor Kevin Johnson to provide them with proper sanitation and drinking water.

Johnson had yet to formally reply to the investigator's letter as of late Friday.

"Sacramento is now being judged by the entire community of nations as having failed its human rights obligations to its own citizens," said Colin Bailey, staff attorney at Legal Services of Northern California, which has represented the ragtag group of homeless people who are active in the Safe Ground movement. "If that doesn't motivate the city to move forward, then I do not know what will."

Energy mythbusting: The truth about those energy-saving tips

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:07 EST

You've read the energy-saving tips. You've armed yourself with caulk. You're ready to do some serious damage to your gas and electric bills.

Not so fast.

Some common recommendations for cutting energy use don't save as much as we're led to believe, said Michael Blasnik, a building-science consultant from the Boston area. Blasnik analyzes and evaluates energy efficiency claims, and he's found that some widely cited savings don't hold up to scrutiny.

"A lot of things have really not been evaluated. ... It's remarkable how little research has been done on what really saves energy," Blasnik said.

He's out to change that. In an effort to figure out what really works, he's done analysis that includes studying the utility bills of homeowners who participate in home weatherization programs and comparing their savings to the expectations offered by such sources as government agencies, utility companies and, yes, newspaper articles.