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I was creating some graphic headers for this site and realized that I had just made a whole bunch of pictures of entropy in action. I could do a complicated discussion of the second law of thermodynamics, but you can read that here if you’re interested. From our real world perspective, entropy is iron rusting, roofs sagging, paint peeling, and all the other signals that what was once orderly is becoming chaotic. The effects of gravity, rain, freezing, and other natural processes are at work on our buildings from the day they are completed. We only need to do a few things well to keep our shelters functioning well. Here’s your short list of absolutely positively should do tasks.

Stay Dry. It’s a simple command. Harder to do than it sounds, however, since nature is hard at work trying to sneak water into your building systems. Rain, flood, groundwater, low house elevation, and high winds work on bad shingles, missing ridges, clogged gutters, improper flashing, leaking doors and windows, bad weatherstripping, ineffective corner trim, bad building paper installation, and I’m just getting started with the external threats. Actually, that’s almost a complete list, but most of your major water problems are going to start with something in the first half dozen items. What’s illustrated very clearly in this photo is a roof with half the shingles missing. When the rain starts falling directly on your plywood, you are looking at some serious entropy, baby. I’d rather have a blue tarp than a shingle-less roof.

This sad structure is missing more than one window. The roof could be in perfect condition, but open windows are going to let in the rain and once that starts, it’s not gonna be good. What happens is that the wall and the floors both start to suffer expansion and contraction and materials like wallboard (sheetrock) and cheap trim materials start to decay almost immediately. It doesn’t take very long before structural damage to wall studs, floor joists, and subfloor materials starts to happen.

This is a great example of a floor and wall framing intersection that has suffered a catastrophic amount of water damage. Click on the image (or any image on this blog) for a large image of rot that’s beyond repair. Water did this. It does it all the time. Stay Dry!

One of the saddest things we experience in the real estate business is a building collapse due to the inability of heirs to make decisions on maintenance issues. There are frequently urgent needs for roof repairs that were deferred during the final years before someone passes. Some heirs want to sell and others may want to fix and others just don’t know and before anyone notices, the building has already fallen into complete ruin. Everybody loses when that happens, so if you find yourself arguing about what to do with Grandma’s house some day, just remember entropy and get the blue tarps ready.

I headed up to Occidental where I needed to get pictures of some of the Italian style family restaurants for an article Wild Jane is writing on the main sonoma.net site. I made sure to get photos of both the Union Hotel and the classic Howard’s Cafe two blocks up the street. The Union Hotel is a whole complex of buildings including a pizzeria, saloon, ballroom, and a residence at the end of the street. I had mentioned a few posts back how gates can be used as inviting features within a longer property divider. This mixed residental and commercial fence is a useful reminder that in a town with busy restaurants and saloons, the good citizens living next door probably want some peace and quiet.

There isn’t a residential break apart from the driveway in this long fence. It’s a fairly elegant “stay out” sign. There is, of course, a pretty gate into the restaurant’s courtyard and a driveway gate for the residence.

Howard’s Cafe is a beautifully converted residence with great original detailing on the lower and upper covered porches and eaves. It’s a lovely spot and one of my favorite breakfast hangouts on Sunday when I can get away. If you get a chance to stop by, have a look at the detailing on the upper porch beam where they echo the post-top detailing in the middle of the span. It’s a nice touch that you absolutely won’t see in production building today. Of course, you’re not there just to look at the architecture. The food really is great.

The builders also created a very intricate detail at the eaves that’s a little busy for my taste, but it’s certainly a great example of what pattern books, the power saw and an abundance of wood made possible. Sort of like desktop publishing in 1986…too many fonts, colors, and styles, but hey, see what I can do.

The Potter Schoolhouse in Bodega is one of the few remaining buildings from Alfred Hitchcock’s filming of “The Birds”. It’s been a schoolhouse, bed and breakfast, and private residence. I’m a fan of the simple symmetry of the building with the round-top windows, corner columns, and octagonal tower. It’s a timeless building without the gingerbread of a Queen Anne or the stripped down plainness of the Craftsman style. There are a couple of other buildings in Bodega that I really like.

This simple residence features dramatic yellow painted quoins which are elements that were traditionally used to imitate how stone walls meet at corners. These wooden quoins are common in buildings of the late 1800’s and appear in everything from a Italianate to a Queen Anne to this plainer example. One of my favorite fixers on North St in Healdsburg shares this detail.

The final gem on my trip was this attractive two story, two porch farmhouse behind a white picket fence. The eaves, porches, and windows all have nice detailing that is highlighted by the simple horizonal siding. The relatively steep, hipped roof and arched windows make this a good example of an Italianate style building. Just outside the picket fence is this old weathered sign which probably proclaimed this as an inn or commercial establishment. Now it’s a great example of the forces of nature on human construction.

I’ve bemoaned the loss of stone and brick as building materials due to earthquakes. We end up with a lot of faux walls where a thin stone veneer is glued to concrete block or even wood framing. This Freestone property has always had one of the most beautiful wooden fences in Sonoma County. They are in the process of adding a stone entrance to the property and we can see the solution for an earthquake resistant stone wall.

If you look carefully at the large image you get from clicking on the thumbnail, you’ll see that the stone being used here is real, and almost half a foot thick. You’ll see the reinforcing steel emerging from the earthquake resistant reinforced concrete block wall that becomes the bond that ties the rock and concrete block together. It’s not cheap to build this way, but it’s the only way to get an authentic stone wall that will pass building codes and remain standing when the next big one rumbles by. I tip my hat to the V bar C folks for doing it right, and for keeping that beautiful fence intact.

One other facet of the changing face of Sonoma County emerged when I was taking a picture of the wooden fence. If you look carefully at the upper right corner of the image (click to enlarge), just past the stump-sliced V bar C sign, you’ll see some of the most westerly grapevines in Sonoma County marching down the hillside. Ten years ago this would have been considered outside the range of grape growing climate. Now it’s home to the lovely Pinot Noir.

Twin Valley, home of the Macmurray Ranch used to have the most wonderful trimmed redwoods. The underside of the trees along the fence line of their western pasture used to be groomed as crisply as a golf course green…just upside down. It was the cows, of course, reaching as high as they could to nibble on the emerging green redwood needles. I’m embarassed to say it, but it took me longer than it should have to see the cause and effect relationship. As I was driving through Freestone today I noticed this willow tree with an equally crisp bottom trim job. Alert observers will see not just the standing cow, but her partner in inverted mowing laying down on the job.

Freestone is a charming hamlet. Osmosis Spa, an inn, a great bakery, a rhododendron nursery across the road, and a classic general store are a few of the businesses here where the road to Occidental intercepts the Bodega Highway. There’s also the world’s most over-built foundation. I’m not sure how this came to be, but I’ve never seen a water tank with such a forest of massive timbers holding it up. It would make an interesting challenge at Berkeley’s school of engineering to see if they could figure out just how much this foundation could hold.

My first significant earthquake came while I was sitting on an under-construction deck in Berkeley. The deck, still unbraced, stood still while the house it was attached to swayed pretty vigorously. It was an interesting demonstration of Newton’s Law that a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. That same earthquake that couldn’t twitch my deck was strong enough to move parts of California a few inches North and knock down stone walls.

Structural engineers have studied earthquakes and their effect on structures and can make just about any building designed today both safe and durable in an earthquake. Sadly, some of our most beautiful building materials are terrible choices for earthquake country. I did a quick walking tour around Railroad Square in Santa Rosa today and was admiring the many older buildings that featured stone and brick. The Hotel La Rose is a beautiful stone building of three stories that was built of locally quarried basalt in 1907, a year after the big quake in San Francisco that also knocked down much of Santa Rosa. Just around the corner from the hotel is the Jacobs building. Lots of tenants have occupied this building and Capri, one of our favorite Italian restaurants, was on the ground floor. We still miss Luigi.

The clinker brick facade of this Railroad Square landmark has a wonderfully authentic color and rustic feel and that isn’t achievable with stucco, wood, or any of the faux masonry products that get glued onto the exteriors of buildings today. So the answer to the question, “Why do earthquakes suck” has to be that they deny us some of the traditional architectural materials that have been around for millenia. It’s still possible to design with brick appearance as the JC parking lot attests, but that’s a public works job with a mega budget. For the average residential and commercial builder, real stone and real brick are expensive ornamentation devoid of any structural significance. Thanks a lot, earthquakes…

I posted recently about two lovely entrances in the Russian River town of Guerneville. I wanted to broaden my rustic selections to include two urban entrances in Healdsburg near the famed Healdsburg Plaza. Both of these are on Center Street half a block down from the Oakville Grocery. The first entry is a classic American white picket fence. The Saggio Hills office features extra detailing on the pickets including a routed groove down the center and well shaped tips. The entrance itself has double swinging gates, usually left open to invite people inside. The gate is tree shaded with a hint of roof feeling, echoing the full arbor we saw on the rustic wooden Guerneville gate. The pickets repeat the vertical railing on the porch as a strong architectural element. If Saggio Hills executes as well on their high end development as they have on their downtown office, it will be a welcome addition to Healdsburg’s resort reputation.

The Barn Diva walking entrance features a thick, square-cornered stone wall entry capped by plants flanking either side. Unlike the continuous hedge in the stone wall from the Armstrong Woods area, these accent plants highlight the entry, but don’t block the view of the restaurant or courtyard from passersby. The wall is a comfortable height for seated privacy in the courtyard, but isn’t a visual barrier to the doors and windows of the restaurant. There is an iron gate that is closed in this photo, and the restaurant was closed as well. The gate serves as a convenient way to indicate the availability of service. Menus and hours of operation are posted on the wall along the sidewalk for the convenience of the public.

Farther down the road is a driveway for Barn Diva accented by a taller iron gate, more appropriate to vehicles than people. The gate is set into the same thick stone wall but is large enough to physically block access to people and vehicles. Behind the gate you can see the vertical landscape elements that pick up the vertical siding on the architecturally interesting Barn Diva building.

Both of these entrances serve commercial establishments well. They are open and inviting when required, and closeable, but not intimidating, when their businesses aren’t open. All of the entrances we’ve looked at feature smart planting to emphasize “doorness” in their walls with plant materials that include flowers, hedge materials, and trees. Let me know if you see a great entrance in your neighborhood.

Every property has an entrance. They aren’t always distinctive or even structural, but houses all have a transition between public space and the private space that exists on the other side of the property line. I enjoy wonderfully designed and built structures, so I’m biased in favor of architectural solutions. This fence and gate in Guerneville is a beautiful example of an entrance that’s suited to the surroundings.

The property is surrounded by redwoods and hills. The wisteria and natural wood are perfect materials to accent the green hills and the redwoods that define Guerneville and much of the Russian River area. The wonderfully detailed and carefully constructed arbor over the gate creates an enlosed space that’s a welcome human scale. At the same time, the horizontal elements provide an elevated plant support that will let the wisteria blossoms hang beautifully at eye level in the spring.

This entrance is just a short distance away from the redwood fence and gate and also strongly defines an entrance. The strong horizontal lines of the wall are reinforced by the carefully pruned hedges. The horizontals are emphasized again by the inner hedge that simultaneously screens the house from view and guides the traffic to either side. On either side of the entrance, stone pillars topped with lanterns clearly mark the transition between wall and entry. Stone walls are a classic symbol of permanence and security and we intuitively understand this house is important simply by the existence of the stone walls and carefully maintained hedge.

The entrance is further enhanced by a (edited to hide the number) beautiful bronze house number embedded in the wall. The size and detail speak to pride of ownership and address. The mix of materials in this image reminds me of the elements of dwelling and civilization that date to the earliest of human cities. This wall and entrance could have been built in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Greece and would have sheltered an important house then as well.

Congratulations to Levi Leipheimer for his third place finish in this year’s Tour de France. Levi’s a home town guy and we’re all proud of his tremendous effort and success in the world’s toughest race. It turns out that Levi rides twice a week on Pine Flat Road east of Healdsburg. Pine Flat runs from near the Jimtown store in the Alexander Valley all the way to the ridge that overlooks the Geyser’s geothermal fields. This riding article compares the climb up Pine Flat Road to Col de la Pierre Saint-Martin, Stage 16, July 25 (8.9 miles, 2,414-foot vertical, 5.2% average). I have never tried a ride like that, so I couldn’t say anything about the difficulty. I could, however, comment on the beautiful views from the top of the mountains near the geysers, and the beautiful scenes in Mayacamas Mountains Audubon Sanctuary, a 1,400 acre preserve.

If you are interested in country property and decide to follow Levi’s path up the hill, there are a couple of interesting parcels that Eric Drew from Healdsburg Sotheby’s Inernational Realty has available today.

5745 Pine Flat Rd is just a few minutes from Jim Town Store near the beginning of Pine Flat Road. It is a 52 ac home site for $1.45M (with water and perc) with a storage/workshop and an abandoned olive orchard. For a big photo gallery, please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/ericdrew/5745PineFlatRd

The second intriguing land value is just under a square mile of property near the end of Levi’s training ride. It’s 620 acres on Pine Flat Rd about 25 minutes from Jim Town Store and about 30 min to Healdsburg. This very large parcel made up of seven separate AP numbers is priced at $1,595,000. It includes a hunting cabin, good springs, and electricity supplied by the Geysers. I’ve got a nice 4 MB pdf file about this property that I’m happy to send if you drop me an email. The thing to keep in mind about this land is the spectacular views and privacy. It takes a good half an hour to get here, but the road is paved all the way. This is remote, but not inaccessible.

I also want to let you know that for Healdsburg’s 150th birthday celebration a few weeks ago, Daniel Drew reprinted a historic book about a trip to the Geysers in around 1870. It’s a fascinating account of the times and the Geysers when they were one of the natural wonders of the world. I’ll be happy to send you a copy if you ask for one.

Healdsburg has a great collection of Victorians downtown. Matheson St, a main artery to the Healdsburg plaza, has both modest and large examples of what are often called painted ladies. Martin Humphrey’s current listing is an interesting opportunity since it includes not just a Victorian with classically good bones, but five extra units on the .43 acre lot. I want to talk about TIC (Tenants in Common) in a future posting, but Martin has some ideas about how this property could be structured for either multiple ownership, or a single owner who fixes the Victorian to live in and uses the five other units for rental income. In any case, have a look at the show and give me a call if you’d like to see this gem.