RE/MAX of Boulder, Inc. Offers Four Mile Fire Assistance

The Boulder Valley Community and RE/MAX of Boulder, Inc. have banded together to help with the devastating aftermath of the Four Mile Fire which burned 165 homes.  Please contact your RE/MAX Realtor (or Broker/Owner Tom Kalinski 303.441.5620 Email Tom) to obtain contacts of trusted architects, contractors, attorneys, lenders, insurance agents, material suppliers, demolition/deconstruction companies or assistance with navigating the County Building and Planning Department.

Rental Properties available from RE/MAX of Boulder:
1. 1240 Cedar, Apartment Building 12 vacant 2 bedroom units, $1300-$1400 mth - Bill Allen 303.441.5690
2. Boulder - 4 bedroom / 3 bath home $3200 mth - on market to Dec. - Dave Osborne 720.566.2681
3. 487 Rifle Way Broomfield new home $2000 - Ted or Carolyn Manzanares 303.666.8115
4. 135 Stone Canyon, Lyons $800 mtn , 3 bedroom, 2 bath, all appliances - Dan Sidall 303.918.8400
5. 3140 29th 4 bedroom, 4 bath, office $2300 - Chad St. Onge 303.895.7190
6.1667 Zamia, 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhome $2000 - Ed Schultz 720.495.3889
7.AGR Building- Niwot and Front Range -  Lisa Jacobs 720-375-1092

(Rental questions can also be directed to Todd Ulrich Property Management RE/MAX of Boulder 303.441.5672 or cell 303.5645.4762)

Other websites with rentals:
PGRentals 

Upcoming Community Meetings Boulder Green Building Guild: 
Location: East Boulder Senior Center
Dates: Thursday September 23 - 7-9  pm and
Sunday October 3 - 1-6 pm

Clinic seeks to provide affordable acupuncture in a group setting

Jen Alberti and Caroline Adams took starkly different paths to get there, but they both ended up in the same place: helping people from all economic backgrounds heal with acupuncture.

The women are partners in Left Hand Community Acupuncture in Lafayette, offering acupuncture on a sliding payment scale in an environment in which people know they are not alone in their pain and discomfort.

Joining forces
Jen, from Quincy, Mass., just outside of Boston, has been a believer in acupuncture to treat her chronic seasonal allergies. She knew she wanted to provide the same relief to others and came to Boulder with her partner, Greg Williamson, to finish her degree at Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder. The couple fell in love with Colorado and the mountains and decided to make it their home. “I feel like we’re a lot more active here,” Jen says, noting she and Greg didn’t have access to hiking trails and couldn’t bike to work in Boston. “I think it’s great.”

A native and lifelong resident of Colorado, Caroline became interested in health care after touring the Boulder Massage School in 2000. At the time, she was working as a librarian – researching engineering issues, but became dissatisfied with her job. She wanted to do something more fulfilling to help others. “I thought hard about (massage therapy), but the idea of being with someone and not talking to them seemed really odd to me,” she says. The mother of two – Zoe, 7, and Charlie, 5 – attended an open house at Southwest Acupuncture College after being laid off in 2004 and “got hooked.”

Knowing she wanted to offer community acupuncture and needed a partner, Caroline asked Jen to join her after observing not only Jen’s dependability and punctuality, but her compassion and knowledge. “I just knew from her character in school that she was someone I’d like to work with,” she says of Jen.

The women opened Left Hand in Lafayette in May because it was one area of Boulder County that didn’t have community acupuncture services. They are growing their practice to serve patients from the other area towns such as Erie, Louisville and Superior.

A community of healing
Community acupuncture means patients are not led to a private room where they get undressed and don a robe before undergoing an all-over body treatment. Instead, several patients may receive treatment at a time in the same room where Jen and Caroline focus on the elbows to the hands and the knees to the feet. So all most patients have to do is roll up their sleeves and pant legs.

The room is filled with white noise and music, and Caroline and Jen speak quietly and discreetly with each patient about their issues before beginning treatment. The patients usually respect the need to do the same, Caroline says.

By providing treatment in a community versus private environment, Jen and Caroline are able to keep costs down and provide acupuncture on a sliding scale, making it available to a wider section of the population.

“We’re set up for people who normally couldn’t afford $70 a treatment,” Jen says. A treatment at costs between $20 and $45, “which brings this medicine to so many more people who couldn’t afford it otherwise.”

Effectiveness in differences 
The partners both attained their master’s degree from Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, and they are both Nationally Board Certified and hold Master’s of Science in Oriental Medicine.

Both women practice a Japanese form of acupuncture that focuses on gentle needling techniques. However, Caroline says Jen’s experience makes her more effective with sports injuries, while Caroline is more of an internist. Jen says the beauty with acupuncture is any style of treatment results in the patient’s improvement.

However, Caroline says Jen’s experience makes her more effective with sports injuries, while Caroline is more of an internist. Both women practice a Japanese form of acupuncture that focuses on gentle needling techniques, though Jen’s internship work with Charles Chace makes her style somewhat different than Caroline’s. Jen says the beauty with acupuncture is any style of treatment results in the patient’s improvement.

Caroline took three semesters of Chinese at the University of Colorado as well as Asian art history and Buddhism classes, giving her a fondness for and insight into the culture of the Orient that helps her as an acupuncturist.

“There’s definitely a different mindset between Asia and the West,” she says. “It’s hard to come at Japanese and Chinese medicine from the West with an open mind. I was able to adopt that more readily.”

Left Hand Community Acupuncture is located in Old Town Lafayette at 409 S. Public Road, at the northwest corner of Public Road and Emma Street. Call (720) 248-8626 or e-mail info@LeftHandacu.com. Visit http://www.lefthandacu.com/ for more information.

The size of the American dream is shrinking

Perhaps Americans are finally learning that bigger isn’t always better – especially when it comes to home size.

The U.S. Census Bureau American Housing Survey reports that the median new home size fell to 2,135 square feet in 2009 after reaching more than 2,300 square feet earlier in the decade.

Apparently home buyers are cutting back on options as well as size, asking for multi-use rooms instead of rooms devoted to single purposes, according to CNNMoney.com. The most common number of bedrooms in today’s new home is three – half of a home’s total number of rooms. The average number of bathrooms in today’s new home is two or more, and they aren’t as big as they once were.

However, Americans may give up size but they are not giving up certain appliances: 90 percent of new homes are built with central air conditioning already installed, and 63 percent of all homes now have AC. That’s a significant increase compared with only 52 percent of owner-occupied homes – nonrental properties or second homes – that boasted of central air 10 years ago. More than 75 percent of all homes now have dishwashers, up from 65 percent in 2000.

The survey also showed that of the more than 76 million owner-occupied homes in 2009, 63 million were traditional detached, single-family residences. And many more homeowners live in the suburbs than in cities.

Home to two universities, Boulder No. 1 college destination

Boulder topped the American Institute for Economic Research’s 2010-2011 College Destinations Index, a quantitative ranking of the 75 best towns and cities to live in if you’re a college student, for small cities with populations between 250,000 and 1 million. Boulder is home to the University of Colorado as well as Naropa University.

AIER chose the locations from an analysis of the 222 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with college student populations of 15,000 or more based on data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Science Foundation.

Fort Collins, home to Colorado State University, came in at No. 10 while Denver came in 12th on the list of major metros with populations greater than 2.5 million. San Francisco took the top slot on that list. Denver boasts of University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, Regis University, Colorado School of Mines, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and several community colleges and for-profit schools.

The CDI analyzes the areas in which the schools are located, including the overall academic environment, quality of life, such as cost of living and arts and leisure activities, and professional opportunities, according to AIER.

“Deciding what school to attend should involve more than what the school itself has to offer,” says Keming Liang, AIER’s lead researcher on the project. “Where to attend college is just as important, because like the colleges themselves, the towns and cities in which they are located vary widely in the opportunities they offer students and recent graduates.”

Among the criterion AIER used to rank college cities:

• Student Concentration: number of college students per 1,000 residents

• Student Diversity: percentage of all students holding foreign passports

• Research Capacity: academic R&D expenditures per capita

• Degree Attainment: percent of the 25-34 year old population with college degrees

• Cost of Living: based upon average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment

• Arts and Leisure: number of cultural and entertainment venues per 100,000 residents

• City Accessibility: percentage of workers over age 16 who commute on foot or by public transportation or bicycle

• Creative Class: percentage of residents working in the arts, education, knowledge industries, science and engineering, management and other fields

• Earning Potential: income per capita

• Entrepreneurial Activity: net annual increase in total number of business establishments per 100,000 residents

• Brain Gain/Drain: year-over-year ratio of college-educated population living in the area

• Unemployment rate.

Here’s a look at the top 10 College Destination Index cities:

Look for these hidden health hazards in older homes

Home ownership is a big part of the American dream, but it’s also the big American responsibility. Here are some hidden issues to look for in the home you are considering buying or that you’re already living in, courtesy of Associated Content:

1. Clogged dryer exhaust ducts. Regular vacuuming of the dryer’s exhaust will help prevent the lint from catching fire. Dryer lint can also accumulate and possibly ignite in the exhaust ducting under the floors or behind the walls. Use a DIY dryer duct cleaning kit remove lint those hard-to-reach ducts.

2. Dirty chimneys. If you want to avoid your chimney flue exploding in flames, clean it out at least once a year. If the creosote is allowed to build up, a single floating ember could cause an explosion.

3. Mice droppings. When cleaning up mice droppings, wear latex gloves and a HEPA face mask and wet down the flooring before cleaning to avoid Hantavirus. This deadly disease is breathed in while cleaning up after the rodents.

4. Water heaters. Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees to avoid accidental burns, especially of younger children, and lower energy costs.

5. Lead paint. If your home was built before the 1970s, check with your city's hazardous waste office first to learn the safe way to prep an old house for a new paint job to avoid environmental and health hazards.

6. Radon gas. One out of 15 homes in the United States has high levels of cancer-causing radioactive Radon gas, which originates from the uranium found naturally in the soil. Test for Radon with a DIY testing kit but call in a professional to fix any problems you find.

7. Bad DIY wiring. A home inspection by a certified inspector will catch a not-to-code wiring job and other unsafe DIY improvements in an older house.

8. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide – an odorless, colorless and flammable gas poisonous to humans and their pets – can build up from a faulty gas furnace or oven, a camp stove or even a chimney. Fixing the escape of CO gas into your home is a job for the professionals, but a home owner can install CO alarms throughout the home to protect its occupants.

9. Icicle buildup on the eaves. Melting icicles can drop from the eaves of a house and injure unfortunate souls who are standing around. Avoid injury from icicles by knocking them off with a shovel.

10. Squirrels. Attic dwelling squirrels love to nibble away at all the electrical insulation, which increases the risk of home fires. Check the roof and eaves periodically for signs of gnawing by critters, and then repair open areas with steel mesh after the squirrel has been trapped.

Boulder real estate sales remain flat in August

Real estate activity in Boulder County in August remained in line with July’s, showing just a slight improvement.

Despite the drop in sales the last two months in comparison with the spring and early summer months, sales remain ahead of what they were the previous year: 3,324 single-family homes sold in Boulder between Aug. 1, 2009, and July 31, 2010, compared with 3,041 the previous year. And 1,228 condo/townhomes sold Aug. 1, 2009, through July 31, 2010, compared with 1,184 the previous year.

A total of 267 single-family homes and 75 Boulder County condos/townhomes sold in August, compared with 303 and 110, respectively, in August 2010. July saw 258 single-family home sales and 74 condos/townhome sales.

Some Boulder communities’ average home sales prices gained ground in August – 10.8 percent in Louisville, 7.1 percent in Lafayette and 0.8 percent in Boulder – but some continued to drop (a 7.7 percent decrease in Broomfield). Erie saw a 13.3 percent increase and Superior a 9.5 percent increase in their median sales price in August, while the communities of Boulder, Broomfield and Lafayette all saw small decreases.

Inventory of homes on the market also remained fairly steady from July to August, though some areas including Boulder and the mountains saw a reduction of more than 25 in single-family homes for sale.