My buddy Deepak overheard me talking about investing in real estate with an IRA and was intrigued by the concept. Yes, you really can diversify your retirement portfolio by purchasing rental property, secured or unsecured notes, even a seahorse farm. Your vehicle is a Self-Directed IRA.

Traditional IRAs are limited to stock, bond, and mutual fund investments. Self-Directed IRAs have restrictions, most specifically life insurance, collectibles, and transactions where the IRA owner or immediate family would directly benefit from the investment. Everything else seems to be fair game. Most common are various forms of real estate, notes, and business investments, although the possibilities are vast.

No, it’s not as easy as buying 200 shares of Yahoo. It takes extra management and they’re not for everyone. Make sure you do your research and that your tax advisor understands Self-Directed IRAs (or get one that does). One concept that helped me early on was to learn that the IRA is considered to be an entity separate from myself, like an LLC or Corporation.

Some of the best-known Self-Directed IRA custodians are Pensco, Entrust, and Guidant.

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San Jose Magazine sure likes “best of” lists. According to the teaser on the Aug 07 cover, they’ve picked the top “cities and neighborhoods to consider moving to when buying a home and selecting a good school district for our kids.” That’s it. No overall criteria explained inside, as far as I could see.

However, there is a well-written individual description for each of these Best Places to Live selections. I added SJ mag’s sub-header to the names on the list to keep it interesting and entice you to look at the description, so here goes.

Atherton: Elegant gardens and native trees dominate this quiet small community.

Lovely homes on tree-lined streets have made Burlingame the “City of Trees.” (Trees and nature are mentioned throughout the descriptions of these Best Places.)

Campbell is a quaint community where tradition and progress go hand-in-hand.

Founded as an artists’ colony, Carmel is as inspiring and beautiful as it was more than a century ago. (The only coastal city on the list and the only one in Santa Cruz County.)

Diversity and high-tech innovation abound in Cupertino. (Schools are a regular highlight in these cities’ descriptions.)

With plenty of shopping, employment and recreational opportunities, Fremont captures metropolitan living at its best. (The only East Bay city listed.)

One of the fastest-growing cities in Silicon Valley, Gilroy is open for business.

Hillsborough: A great small town in which to lead a lavish life.

Tree-lined streets and a small-village atmosphere liven up Los Altos. (“Small town” feel is another feature prized by the group creating this list.)

Los Gatos: A small-town feel and rich history can be found in this bedroom community.

Milpitas: This forward-looking city is a vital part of the Valley’s economy.

The city might be tiny, but Monte Sereno is awash with beauty and rural charm.

Thoughtful planning has made Morgan Hill one of the Valley’s most desirable communities. (Valuing the past while planning for the future seems to be another key to getting on this list.)

Mountain View offers homes and amenities suited for every lifestyle.

Palo Alto: The “Birthplace of Silicon Valley” is a blend of old and new.

There are countless reasons why business and citizens choose to locate to Santa Clara.

Community pride and a rural feel separate Saratoga from Silicon Valley.

Woodside: A place to find small-town life at its finest.

San Jose neighborhoods:
Residents retreat from nearby Silicon Valley to the relaxing Almaden Valley.
Families build their future in the developing Evergreen Valley.
Rose Garden: San Jose’s historic neighborhood cultivates its turn-of-the-century beauty.
Hidden in the foothills, Silver Creek is sheltered from the chaos of Silicon Valley.
Willow Glen: A neighborhood that retains its unique identity in spirit and architecture.

There are no surprises on the list. This really is a great place to live.

With all the interest in green homes, it’s not often one comes on the market. That changed yesterday, with a beautiful, century-old Craftsman now for sale at 120 Waverley Street in Palo Alto. This home blends the character of an old home with modern comfort and conveniences.

A Palo Alto firm Topos Architects remodeled this home following LEED Residential standards. They claim that, had the rating been available when the home was completed, it would have qualified for a LEED Gold rating.

How does this home qualify as being so green? Much of the existing building material was re-used within the remodel. Recycling efforts for the unusable material far exceeded Palo Alto’s requirements to minimize landfill.

Energy efficient design exceeds the California Energy Commission standards (Title 24) by 3%, reducing the owner’s energy consumption and utility costs. This is enhanced by passive solar design and tracked through an innovative Agilewaves resource monitor, making it a smart house as well.

Building components that create the energy efficient envelope include highly rated windows, exterior doors, and insulation. Interior energy savers include the furnace, air conditioner, ventilation fan, water heater, toilets, and lighting with a lighting control system. Energy Star rated appliances (refrigerator, clothes washer, and dishwasher) add the finishing touches.

If you’re ready to move into a green home, the $3.15 million price tag is a good value for the neighborhood. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, there’s a tear-down in a nearby neighborhood for almost $2 mil. You can still have your green dream home – it will just take longer to move in.

It’s almost the end of class and towers of cardboard cover the tables and floor. Students have been learning the importance of a wide base to have a waist-high structure.

That may not seem like a tall order for most of us, but these students are five to seven years old. The class is Architectural Design for Kinders offered by Palo Alto’s Community Services Department as part of the summer program.

German native Anja Blum is an incredibly patient and encouraging instructor. She gets a little help from the few parents who stick around and help their child. An architectural designer herself, this is Anja’s first year teaching Kinders. Architectural Design for Kids (7-12 years old) is in its third year.

Through drawing and model making, Kinders learn concepts such as floor plan, elevation, stability, and interior design. The Kids class adds concepts such as scale, three-dimensional design, and designing furniture.

The most important goal is that they have fun working with the materials as they manipulate small boxes, construction paper, pipe cleaners, yogurt containers, toilet paper rolls, craft sticks, wire, strawberry baskets, scissors, tape, and glue.

It’s not be the Magic School Bus, but with these hands-on experiments, they certainly get to “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

I see gray piles of crushed concrete as I’m driving by construction sites, looking like gigantic abandoned sandbox projects. We’re likely to see more of these piles as green concepts permeate the building industry.

According to the Concrete Network, recycling concrete from demolition project can result in considerable savings since it saves the costs of transporting concrete to the landfill (as much as $ .25 per ton/mile), and eliminates the cost of disposal (as high as $100 per ton). This savings to the contractor also results in greater environmental benefits, such as protecting natural resources, fewer pollutants from the transport of materials and reduced impact on our landfills.

Palo Alto’s “construction and demolition” program requires 90% of concrete and other inert solids be diverted. Santa Clara requires 50% to be recycled. San Jose, most of the cities within San Mateo county (and the County itself), and nine cities in Alameda county have also implemented these reuse and recycle programs.

Recycling of concrete is a relatively simple process. It involves breaking, removing, and crushing existing concrete into a material with a specified size and quality. The goal of a green remodeler is to use as much onsite as possible, says Iris Harrell of Harrell Remodeling.

Concrete Technology gives five applications of unprocessed recycled concrete, then five different applications after processing, including new concrete. So concrete really can be recycled into more concrete!

The photo is at 3270 West Bayshore as seen from 101. Other concrete piles can be seen at 899 Charleston and at Page Mill and Park. All are in Palo Alto.

I admit it. We save wine corks. They’re a reminder of good wines and good company. We hate to throw them away, but really, how many trivets can you make?

Enter an innovative wine cork recycling project by Yemm & Hart. Send your wine corks to their ongoing collection as they experiment with converting them into cork floor tiles. This would extend the life of this natural resource for decades more, while keeping the material out of our landfills. Yemm & Hart currently recycles tires, plastic detergent bottles, and PVC plastics into commercial and residential materials.

Producing cork for wine bottles is already a sustainable practice. The bark is harvested in a way similar to sheering a sheep, allowing the trees to thrive. Cork oak forests provide a diverse ecosystem for plants and animals as well as serving as a barrier to the encroachment of the Sahara desert into Europe. All parts of the cork are used, so nothing is wasted until it gets to our table.

Plastic corks and screw top caps are threatening the cork producers and forests. So, drink wine stoppered with real corks, and then ship them off. Yemm & Hart accepts natural corks from anyone, consumer or retailer.

Wine Cork Recycling
Yemm & Hart Ltd
610 South Chamber Dr
Fredericktown MO 63645

Thanks to Kirsten Flynn of Sustainable Home for bringing the program to my notice, and The Green Guide post.

What did you do during your summer vacation? PACCC’s Neighborhood Infant Toddler Center was treated to a makeover. NITC is in a 50 year old adobe stucco house in Old Palo Alto a few blocks from Bowden Park.

Gratitude was appropriately heaped upon the parents, staff, and contractors for their support during the structural and cosmetic upgrades. Bob Davis and David England of Spectrum Fine Homes listed in the thanks. I know these guys and with their dedication to green construction, you can be sure that NITC has become greener.

Also thanked for their “quality and tireless hard work” were RJ Leonard Painting of San Jose, Economy Hardwood Floors of San Jose, Western Exterminator, Art-Craft Carpet and Linoleum Shop in Palo Alto and Timothy Andrew, aka “Handy Andy.”

In case you are not familiar with PACCC (Palo Alto Community Child Care), it’s one of the numerous options for preschool and after school care in Palo Alto. Not limited to Palo Alto residents, it’s a non-profit corp originally created out of Palo Alto’s desire to provide comprehensive child care covering ages two months to fifth grade.

My family gives special thanks to Cara Whaley and her staff at Barron Park Children’s Center, to Mary McCalister and Linda Jackson at Sojourner Truth Child Development Center in the Ventura neighborhood, and to Infant/Toddler & Preschool Coordinator Lisa Rock, who was always helpful and easy to talk to. Additional thanks and congratulations to Lisa Lewis who was Center Director of STCDC when we started and has been promoted again, this time to be PACCC’s Associate Director.