Directly across from the Coal Creek trail, and just a few steps from the new Louisville Community Park, this is a very affordable and exclusive building lot.

This location is truly special. Nestled among several new homes, you can have the chance to build your dream home in one of America’s most liveable cities. If you haven’t heard, several national magazines have named Louisville Colorado one the best places to live. Money magazine is planning a new look at Louisville to consider it again for this great honor.

Now you can get in early. Why buy a run down older home and then struggle with remodeling or demolition?

I’ve consulted with local architects, and local builders to bring you a turn-key solution if you want it. Great local professionals are on stand-by for you to make this an easy and fulfilling step towards the perfect house for you. I even have a professional landscaper ready to implement the perfect natural retreat for you!

Call, text or email me today to learn more, and let’s get you started. Buying this vacant lot in the heart of one of America’s highest ranked ‘best place to live’ cities is a great first step.

-Zachary Epps, full-time professional Realtor® and EcoBroker® at RE/MAX Alliance Boulder

Rafael’s idea of the perfect client, as he told it to me recently, is one that appreciates and respects nature. His vision is to work closely with his clients to help them enhance the beauty of the natural environment. He said he loves to create spaces of natural refuge for them. With his staff at RBM, Rafael helps each of his clients get the precise results they want.

One of the ways he makes sure to enhance the natural landscape is to utilize only those plants that are approved by the Horticulture society of Colorado. I can see where this makes good sense. It also fits well with Rafael’s background. That’s because Rafael isn’t just some guy who picked up a shovel and decided one day he could do landscaping. He has a master’s degree in Horticulture from Bath University in England.

Rafael grew up spending numerous hours with his father on the family ranch in Mexico. While his siblings weren’t especially hip to the idea of hanging out on the ranch (perhaps they thought they’d be put to work?), Rafael cherished spending time outdoors. He loved his time spent with nature, and this led him to discover Bath England. Bath is a world renowned center of influence for gardening and horticulture which made it a logical choice for his next step towards a career that connected him with his love of nature.

Rafael does many types of work; landscape, hardscape, waterscape and xeriscape. He’s completed over 200 landscape solutions for people in the Boulder area. His business is also very comprehensive. He can help you with an entire landscape solution for your whole property, or simply provide a regular lawn cutting service. He recently installed an irrigation system in the Superior area, and he’s done numerous patios, driveways and walkways… he’s even been called in to ‘fix’ what others have done to help clients realize their true dreams for their outdoor living experience.

I want you to know about Rafael for another reason. Many times when I’m helping people find the right new home to buy, they are discouraged by the lack of landscape design, or in many cases, the lack of any landscape at all, when they are looking at houses. I encourage you to consider that just like paint and carpet, landscape can be replaced or improved. You’ll get the results you want if you consult with a professional when improving anything at your home. Landscape and hardscape are easy to fix if you choose the right person.

Call, Text or email me, for a personal introduction to an outstanding professional landscaper: Rafael Gonzales.

-Zachary Epps, full-time professional Realtor® and EcoBroker® at RE/MAX Alliance Boulder

If you’re inclined to look at your home and ask yourself, “what can I do to improve the energy efficiency of this place?” then it may be time for an energy audit.

I took the time to meet with Eric Van Orden from Standard Renewable Energy recently, and we did an energy audit of my home to get a sense for where I could improve efficiency.

The audit included a blower-door test, and the use of an infrared hand-held device to find out where I had leaks and insulation problems.

The Newlands neighborhood is one of the most highly sought-after areas by home buyers in Boulder these days. It’s been a mecca for remodeling and rebuilding as property values soared in the 1990’s.

Values continue to remain strong in Boulder overall, and Newlands is one of a few choice neighborhoods that has continued to hold on to values extremely well. Supply and demand in action again, no doubt.
With easy access to downtown, Vics, Marie’s, and all the other great amenities of central Boulder, including the North Boulder Recreation Center, Community Gardens, the new Casey Middle School, Pearl Street, and of course, all the trails and open space to the west, the Newlands neighborhood is definitely one of the great Boulder neighborhoods worth exploring!

I remember looking at homes in the Newlands Neighborhood back in about 1981 as I contemplated buying a new home in Boulder. This was way back even when guys like John McElveen were fairly new on the Boulder Real Estate scene, and I had barely started thinking about a career in Real Estate.

Now, at that time, a typical Newlands neighborhood home could be had for $75,000 to $100,000 without too much trouble. I looked at a home within a block of North Boulder Park that was listed for $82,000. At the time, that seemed like a fair chunk of change for a house. In fact, one of the most expensive homes for sale in the system was a classic ‘mansion’ up on Mapleton Hill for about $500,000.

Are you thinking about buying or selling Boulder real estate soon? Call or email me today for straight answers, and expert guidance for your needs in the Boulder real estate market.

Well, things have changed and not only have prices gone up, but the things that people demand in a home in Boulder are very different.

This home at 2930 6th Street has so much of what buyers are looking for these days. And if you think this home might meet your needs, you’ll have to pony up a little bit more than the $82,000 I was contemplating on that Newlands Neighborhood purchase back in 1981.

Here’s a laundry list of some of the great features supplied to me straight from the builder of this home on 6th. And keep in mind, it’s just a couple of blocks from North Boulder Park, and steps away from the foothills trails, Mt Sanitas, and Ideal Market:

• triple wide lot
• 90,000 BTU 90% furnace (basement)
• 70,000 BTU 90% furnace (upstairs)
• 3.5 ton and 3.0 ton 13 seer a/c units
• Insulation: R-23 exterior walls, R-38 ceilings, R-13 basement, R-19 garage walls & ceiling
• Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors
• Thermador, Zephr, and Kitchenaid appliances
• Oversized 2 card garage: rough-in gas for future heater, upper deck with gas hook-up for grill, speakers for sound system and CAT/5
• steam shower in master bath
• Master Suite deck with Mt. Sanitas views

If all this sounds interesting and inviting to you, you’ll also want to know that it’s about 5000 finished square feet, but you will need to see how well this floorplan works to truly appreciate it.

Call or email me today so we can get you inside this great home, and other Newlands neighborhood homes when you’re ready to explore Boulder real estate for sale.

-Zachary Epps, full-time professional Realtor® and EcoBroker® at RE/MAX Alliance Boulder

The area between Broadway, Folsom, Iris, and Edgewood/Balsam streets is now commonly called the Old North Boulder neighborhood.

Prior to the time that land was developed beyond Norwood, this area was North Boulder. Now with development stretching to the far reaches of the Dakota Ridge neighborhood, the Old North Boulder neighborhood is really a very central residential opportunity.

I’ve spent many days exploring on foot, the roads and paths around central Boulder, and if you do the same you’ll come to realize just how close everything is in this part of town. It’s only a few blocks between local landmarks such as Vics and Ideal Market, over to Pearl Street, or up to Salberg Park.

The two sister shopping centers, Ideal Marketplace and Community Plaza are home to many local favorites. Ideal Market has a long history that spans well beyond the age of the current shopping center, and it became an anchor for the other shops back in 1958. The Community Plaza shops on the south side of Alpine were built just two years later in 1960.

Other businesses such as Alpine Barbers, Radda Restaurant, Breadworks, Marie’s Restaurant, The Boulder Wine Merchant, and the Pekoe Sip House give residents of the Old North Boulder neighborhood a plethora of opportunity for meeting most shopping needs without much travel. What a great concept in the days of higher gas prices and strong desires to conserve natural resources.

One of those local businesses that’s been thriving in the area, The Pekoe Sip House, has a decade long history in the area. It was originally founded as the Tea Train in Longmont. After many accolades, and eventually being voted as having the Best Tea, and being the Best Tea House in the Denver Metro area in 2000, Tea Train evolved into Pekoe Sip House and moved to Boulder under the new name in 2003.

Schools that service the area include Casey Middle school, Columbine Elementary and Centennial Middle school to the north. The former Washington Elementary school which is north of Cedar Ave, and just south of the Red Arrow Condos is now part of a redevelopment plan that’s been fairly controversial.

For those not wanting to drive, and seeking public transportation, RTD offers the Skip bus line which runs up and down Broadway. If biking is your thing, don’t risk your life jousting with cars on Broadway, try 13th street; it features its own bike lane straight into the heart of downtown.

If you’re considering a move, and want to explore more of what the Old North Boulder neighborhood has for you, call or email me today to get started!

-Zachary Epps, full-time professional Realtor® and EcoBroker® at RE/MAX Alliance Boulder

Boulder custom home builder Bob Hughes is at it again. Hughes construction is finishing up an incredible green-focused remodel on the personal residence of well-know local Boulder architect Jim Logan.

From the engineered lumber used for much of the framing, to 100 plus year old bricks (which are very green due to the very low ‘embodied energy’ which includes simply the transportation from Denver), Hughes has shown once again that he and his crew understand the wide variety of ways to implement green building techniques in a straight-forward and cost effective approach. This Boulder green builder has the experience and dedication to bring you honest and effective solutions to your home building or renovating project.

One thing that I love about this profile is that you get to see the home before much of the green built techniques and products are covered up. We went into the Logan residence just after insulation, doors and windows were in, to give you a rare peek at the guts of a project like this.

There’s a very important reason to be here, reporting on the project at this phase. Hughes makes it a policy to do a blower door test on all his construction projects at two points in the schedule. The first, and most important test is done before sheetrock and other finishing systems are in place. This way, the Hughes Construction crew can find any small leaks and REPAIR them before moving forward. Many other lesser builders only do the blower door test at the end, which really doesn’t provide any opportunity for improvement of the home. After all, what good is a report that you can do little about?!

Starting from the outside, we can see the exterior is enveloped in closed-cell Styrofoam insulation. This provides two benefits; first, there’s an expected insulation advantage due to the typical addition of about an R5 per inch value in the Styrofoam itself, but I think even more important is the thermal break you get from this sheathing. Remember, those wall studs are thermal transmitters, and this thermal break of insulation interrupts that unwanted heat transfer.

Inside, you’ll see in the video how Icynene spray foam insulation was used in the walls and ceilings. This open-cell expanding foam gives excellent insulation value, and also does a tremendous job of sealing potential heat and air leaks. There are two key reasons why you see smooth walls but bumpy ceilings. Both are explained in the video, and directly relate to how Hughes works hard to find balance in the way he approaches green building success.

Hughes says one of his primary goals is to build sustainable homes from a number of different viewpoints. Today, that means having a keen understanding of everything from reuse of products (think the 100 year old bricks, LSL studs and joists), to renewable energy solutions (the Logan home utilizes a geothermal energy system for home heating and cooling), and of course efficiency measures (insulation and good home sealing).

In my view, Bob Hughes nails it, not only for Jim Logan, but all of his clients when it comes to highly effective custom green building for Boulder and beyond.

Call or email me today to learn more about green building, and to get a personal introduction to one of Boulder’s leading experts on green building and custom home building.

-Zachary Epps, full-time professional Realtor® and EcoBroker® at RE/MAX Alliance Boulder