Incentives, not dictates, will spur energy conservation

As the child of Depression-era parents who still save bits of string, used gift wrap and the plastic trays from candy boxes, I too am emotionally incapable of seeing things go to waste.

This confounding compulsion to conserve goes well beyond the usual household flotsam. When I'm dining out, not only do I feel guilt at leaving food on my plate, I also feel bad when the stranger at the next table leaves half his steak dinner to be thrown out.

I'm always annoying my wife by turning off lights, because in the back of my mind I imagine how much oil, gas or coal is being burned to keep that bulb lighted for no reason. Likewise, I shower under a relative trickle of hot water because it bothers me to think of all that hard-won energy pouring down the drain. I also keep the temperature setting on my water heater so low that I can shower with only the hot water faucet turned on.

As an admitted basket case in compulsive conservation, though, I feel entitled to say that I'm getting pretty sick and tired of having the government tell me exactly how, what and where I'm supposed to conserve.

I've got nothing against well-crafted energy-efficiency regulations, such as California's Title 24, which for the most part leaves designers plenty of latitude provided they meet an overall energy budget. On the other hand, some government micromanagers just want to issue marching orders. For example, earlier this year, a California congresswoman introduced a bill that would effectively ban the sale of all incandescent bulbs by 2012.

However well-meaning this edict might be, it utterly fails to harness the power of self-interest that, for instance, a well-designed tax credit might. Instead, it simply breeds popular resentment and widespread attempts at circumvention. Rest assured, it wouldn't be long before people were buying cases of 100-watt bulbs out of the back of vans.

Enlightened self-interest is a far better motivator than laws that attempt to dictate a social conscience. Hence, I have to trust that the mindless consumerism that's overtaken the U.S. in the last couple of decades will eventually be reversed by the same old-fashioned capitalist forces that created it.

There is already a glimmering of this trend. For example, as photovoltaic panels continue inching their way toward economic viability, more and more of us are looking into their use -- not because we're pious but because we'd love not to be dependent on our local utility. Ditto for the idea of owning a hybrid car that keeps us slightly less in thrall to our well-fed friends at the oil companies.

Such developments, modest though they are, make me believe that all Americans will eventually see the economic sense, if not the philosophical beauty, of cherishing everything Mother Nature gives us. Not because some law demands it, but because we'd be crazy not to.

Arrol Gellner is an architect with more than 25 years' experience in residential and commercial architecture.

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source: latimes.com

Asbestos ceilings aren't automatically hazardous

Question: I have not had a good night's sleep since reading about asbestos. We've lived in our home for 30 years and have popcorn ceilings. After all these years, is it too late to have them removed, or are we already doomed? Some companies offer asbestos testing if you send them a sample, but is it safe for us to remove the sample ourselves?



Answer: You are not doomed. The belief that small or periodic exposure to asbestos fibers poses a major health risk has no factual basis. The connection between asbestos exposure and respiratory disease involves those who worked with asbestos materials on a daily basis, as manufacturers or installers. Heavy exposure to airborne asbestos fibers can cause lung cancer and other severe respiratory diseases, such as mesothelioma. But the mere presence of asbestos ceiling texture is not a cause for worry or alarm.

The drilling of holes in acoustic ceilings should be avoided unless proper precautions are taken, but the fact that you once made a few holes in your ceiling should not be remembered as the moment when your fate was sealed.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber, commonly found in certain rock formations. It has been used in numerous manufactured materials for more than 100 years. Common asbestos-containing products include automobile brake linings, fireproofing in high-rise buildings, air-duct insulation and a long list of residential building materials such as floor tiles, asphalt roof shingles, drywall joint compound, and acoustic ceiling texture -- commonly known as "popcorn" ceilings.

In the early 1970s, the gradual elimination of asbestos from many products began, but there was never an absolute ban on asbestos products. In the case of textured ceilings, the manufacture of acoustic material containing asbestos was prohibited in 1978, but the sale and installation of existing supplies were allowed to continue. Therefore, many homes that were built through the mid-1980s had asbestos ceilings.

Asbestos ceilings are often removed in ways that are illegal and potentially hazardous because of misinformation among tradespeople.

To determine whether your ceilings contain asbestos, testing by a certified lab is necessary. You can hire a professional to take the samples, or you can take them yourself. Precautions should be taken to avoid the release of airborne fibers. The material should be wetted, and a HEPA-type face mask (available at hardware stores) should be worn. A minimum of three samples should be taken from various rooms because asbestos content in acoustic ceilings may not be uniformly distributed.

If the lab report confirms that you have asbestos, removal is not necessary. What matters is that you avoid damage to the material. A common approach is to encapsulate the surface with paint. Those who elect removal should have the work done by a licensed asbestos abatement contractor.

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source: latimes.com

Investment bankers asked to pledge cash to foreclosure bailout

WASHINGTON -- The so-called super rich will boost their holiday spending this year by up to 67%, according to Elite Traveler magazine.

Those with a household net worth of $10 million-plus will spend more on jewelry, electronics, villa rentals and yacht charters. One of the hottest items on these shopping lists is "jet cards," which, at $40,000 a pop, entitle recipients to 10 hours of flight time aboard private airplanes.

But this is giving, not giving back. So, the bigger question is: Will the millionaires who run the nation's largest investment banks donate their holiday bonuses to keep some people from losing their homes to foreclosure?

That's what they are being asked to do by a coalition of community groups that want the top-five investment banks -- Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns -- to pledge this year's bonuses to a national foreclosure-prevention fund.

The activists, including the National Training and Information Center and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, blame the banks for orchestrating the sub-prime-lending debacle that has led to record-high foreclosure rates.

"The trail of money and greed leads straight to Wall Street," says NTIC board member Inez Killingsworth of Cleveland.

The five banks handed out a record $36 billion in bonuses during the 2006 holiday season, and the community groups expect more big rewards this year. But the activists want some of that money to be directed to a fund that would provide immediate relief to owners in default and in danger of foreclosure.

"Wall Street must do the right thing and forgo their lavish bonuses to help families save their homes," says Killingsworth of the NTIC, which is a network of community organizations in 10 states. "It's time to clean up this mess."

Community activists aren't the only ones who point the finger of blame directly at Wall Street. Milwaukee-based mortgage market analyst Jon Holm says, "Wall Street bandits barged in on the gravy train and robbed all the passengers blind."

For what it's worth, Holm also castigates the "greed and gambling mentality that pervades society" for helping to create the crash of 2007. He maintains that flipping houses or mortgages is the same as playing the lottery.

"This whole process of turning a home into an investment vehicle is what has to stop," the analyst says. "A home is shelter for a family. If you want income from real estate, buy a house or apartment and collect rents. Buying and selling homes as a commodity and using free money to do so has no economic value for society. It's just a bubble."



WaMu focuses on brokers, fine print

Washington Mutual, one of the country's largest lenders, is now requiring evidence that borrowers fully understand terms of their loans and know exactly how much they'll pay loan brokers for their services. Brokers help borrowers with their paperwork and to find a product, but it is lenders who actually fund the loans and, therefore, have the last word.

Under WaMu's new policy with regard to brokers, it now wants proof that, early in the application process, borrowers have been told the key terms of the loans they are requesting. That includes not just the loan amount and length of the mortgage but also whether the interest rate and payments may change and whether the loan calls for a prepayment penalty if it is paid off sometime during its first few years.

Brokers taking their clients to WaMu must disclose the total compensation they will be paid by their clients, including broker points, administrative and processing fees and back-end fees -- charges paid to the broker by the lender at closing for bringing in borrowers who are paying more than the going interest rate.

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source: latimes.com

A full reserve fund is recommended but not mandatory

Question: Our homeowners association's president received a reserve fund study and, based on it, says that recent legislation mandates that ours be "fully funded." He is asking for a vote on a special assessment to fully fund our reserve account.

The property manager is unaware of any new legislation and says that the study is simply a recommendation.

Has there been a change in the Davis-Stirling Act since June 2006 regarding reserve funds, and if so, must reserve accounts be fully funded?



Answer: Reserve reports and studies are only recommendations. There is no new legislation on this topic.

Before voting on this, the owners should demand the board substantiate its actions and the special assessment. Most guidelines for special assessments may be found in the association's governing documents and throughout Civil Code Sections 1350 to 1378.

The Davis-Stirling Act does not require that a reserve account be established, but on Jan. 1, 2007, disclosures mandating distribution of an "Assessment and Reserve Funding Disclosure Summary Form" became required. This form is located in the Civil Code Section 1365.2.5.

It says, "The amount of reserves needed to be accumulated for a component at a given time shall be computed as the current cost of replacement or repair multiplied by the number of years the component has been in service divided by the useful life of the component. This shall not be construed to require the board to fund reserves in accordance with this calculation."

That statutory disclosure does not mean the association must have or create a reserve account. Whether your association should have a reserve fund is a decision for the titleholders to make. If the owners in your association, as in many others in California, decide to forgo accumulating money in a reserve account and choose instead to assess for repairs as needed, that can be an equally prudent policy.

The term "fully funded" is an oxymoron because until the actual cost of the repair or replacement is known and takes place, "fully funded" can only be an estimate. The Davis-Stirling Act provides no legal definition for "fully funded" or a mandate to "fully fund" any reserve account.

Funding a reserve account means that money collected to repair or replace a major component be approximately the amount needed at the time the repair or replacement takes place. Such accounts are typically collected over the estimated useful life of the component. For example, if a roof is estimated to last 20 years and would cost $100,000 to replace at the end of that projected life span, the association might collect $5,000 per year for those 20 years.

Even though the law states that the board can't spend funds designated as reserve funds for any purpose other than the repair for which the fund was established, there are no penalties if boards violate this law.

Boards "may authorize the temporary transfer of moneys from a reserve account to the association's general operating fund to meet short-term cash flow requirements or other expenses, if the board has provided notice of the intent to consider the transfer in a notice of meeting," according to Civil Code Section 1363.05.9.

Note that money collected by the association for deposit into a reserve account does not entitle the titleholder to a personal tax deduction. When the homeowner sells, the money cannot be reclaimed and, in essence, becomes a gift to the association.

There are arguments for and against reserve funds, and some covenants, conditions and restrictions require the association to establish a reserve account but others do not. In either case, accountability and the overseeing of reserve fund accounts are a topic of concern at many associations.

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source: latimes.com

Does he also drive a hard bargain?

If there is one thing actor Frankie Muniz likes as much as driving a professional race car, it's dealing in real estate.

At 22, he already has bought and sold several houses.


When he was 19, he wound up with two houses in the same Westside neighborhood because he couldn't wait to sell one home before buying another with a fingerprint-recognition front door -- a feature that sounds like something straight out of his "Agent Cody Banks" spy films.

Now the former star of the sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle" is dabbling in the market again. He has listed his home in the Sunset Strip area at close to $3.9 million. Muniz has owned it since January 2006.

The traditional-style 1941 home was "completely upgraded," according to the Multiple Listing Service. The one-story house has five bedrooms and four bathrooms in just under 2,000 square feet. The master-bedroom suite has a pitched ceiling with skylights, two walk-in closets and an infinity tub. There's also a deck with city views. Other features are a basement, a breakfast nook, a pool and a spa.

Muniz took a break from acting in 2006 to become a race-car driver but recently appeared in an episode of the CBS drama "Criminal Minds" and is in the film "My Sexiest Year," which had its world premiere in October at New York's Hamptons International Film Festival. Muniz began collecting race cars before he could drive.

Making like stones and rolling out of Malibu

Romance novelist Leigh Court and her husband, rock 'n' roll tour director-producer Timm Woolley, have put their 11-acre Malibu estate on the market at close to $3 million.

Woolley, who just wrapped up a two-year Rolling Stones world tour, and Court, both from the United Kingdom, are planning to move to Orlando, Fla., for family reasons, their spokesman said.

Their Malibu estate has three bedrooms in 3,500-plus square feet. There also is a family room that could function as a second master suite with two additional bedrooms. The home has sweeping ocean and mountain views, a media room and a gated center courtyard with a water feature.

The upper level has a large deck with views from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to the Channel Islands. Each bedroom has a view of Surfrider Beach and the Malibu Pier.

Cormac and Wailani O'Herlihy have the listing at Pritchett-Rapf & Associates in Malibu.

Beverly Hills a fit for exercise guru

M.J. Diebold wanted to bring her Kiss Your Age Goodbye program to Beverly Hills from her base in Louisville, Ky., so she bought a house behind Neiman Marcus for close to $3 million.

Diebold stayed for several months at the Beverly Hills Hotel while she established her diet-and-exercise program and has become so enamored with the landmark that she plans to paint her new home in the same pink and green colors.

Her villa, a pied-à-terre, has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in a shade under 3,000 square feet. The contemporary Mediterranean, built in 1926, has a two-level family room, a pool and a swimsuit changing room in the garage.

Diebold's website is at www.kissyouragegoodbye.com.

Drew Mandile and Brooke Knapp, both of Sotheby's International Realty in Beverly Hills, represented Diebold in buying.

Trapezoidal pool, Hollywood square

A John Woolf-designed home in the Hollywood Hills has come on the market at nearly $3 million.

The Hollywood Regency-style house was once owned by comedian Paul Lynde.

The villa, built in 1926, has three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms, wood-paneled ceilings, parquet floors, French windows and a trapezoidal pool along with a John Woolf signature pergola.

Other features are a media room with built-in bookcases; an updated, eat-in kitchen; a gated motor court; and a guesthouse.

In addition to his extensive Broadway, film and television credits, the actor long occupied the center square on "The Hollywood Squares."

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source: latimes.com