Homes for the new era

When financing starts to be feasible again and the wounds of the crash are mostly healing, what will people look for in a mountain residence? Well, much of the same things they will seek in an in-town residence: smarter more practical design, lower energy costs, lower maintenance costs, less focus on luxury and more on quality. Energy in-efficient "mcmansion" style houses have high costs of ownership and many will question the value proposition. Large square footage or super-high-ceiling spaces will become more scarce when buyers are not only considering the cost to buy, but the cost to heat and cool as well. Imagine a buyer that insists on knowing the annual kilowatt hour use they should expect!

This article in the Washington Post previews the changes:
Recession Should Change Tastes
By Elizabeth Razzi
Sunday, December 28, 2008; Page F01

What will change specifically for second home buyers in the mountain recreation towns? In touring many western mountain towns over the past few years I've seen many attractive properties that turn a blind eye to the practical matters of snow handling, passive solar opportunity, maintenance cycles required for various materials, and heating costs. These costs -- after all -- were trivial compared to the high values of the homes themselves. Builders were selling to a public that could afford not to consider these costs.

Can we define values in new mountain home construction that transcend the traditional prestige-based notions of good, better and best? In other words, can a design be so fitting for its environment and its owner that it is not judged by level of luxury but by the quality of life it offers? Can we really design structures that have very low ownership costs? If we could, can these designs become a new ideal for ownership rather than a compromise?

Well I'm convinced that one impact the financial implosion will have on the Valley is to make Davis more popular. To the question of 'what do we do now?' the answer may well lie in the details of home design, siting, systems and materials. In addition to the house itself we should look at the cost of maintaining driveway, yard and land. The Total Annual Costs of ownership (not including purchase costs) can include maintenance, gas, electric, water, snow plowing, homeowner's association, cleaning, and lawn care. Who compares total cost of ownership before they buy in Canaan? Sure, they think about it in concept and ask about the HOA fees, but few actually made purchasing decisions with these costs in mind. If homes were to emerge that had radically lower Total Annual Costs, I think they would now find a ready market.

Town or Village living is consistent with the creation of radically lower Total Annual Costs. Because of its compactness and location, Davis offers the best buy in: power, water, sewer, road maintenance, personal auto useage, lawn care. Compare the village life with the artifical "estate home" arrangement of a typical Canaan development -- home after home on it's 2-acre lot with septic or private sewage treatment, a well, a lawn, a big HOA fee. Mountain town life, on the other hand, puts homeowners in a community setting with the ability to walk to grocery, restaurant, or shop -- or to head out on a hike or mountain biking loop without ever starting the car. What's more, many groups or families wish to ride in one car and then do different things on any given day. Having only one vehicle in the driveway is not a problem when so much can be done on foot.

I envision a vibrant town lifestyle at the doorstep of Canaan Valley.

The offset to Annual Costs is to put the property in the vacation rental market. Sharing their home with renters is each owner's decision and can go even further in lowering the bottom-line annual cost. Because mountain homes are often not used full time, it is important for any development to ensure cost-effective and reliable systems for renting the property.

In the conceptual master planning process, we had always thought it important that the Riverwalk structures be cost-effective. What the real estate crash and economic meltdown does is accelerate a shift toward properties designed for energy and cost efficiency, designed to suit a new ethos in mountain home ownership.

What the meltdown will do to the future Riverwalk residence amounts to a big push further in the direction of design and construction for lower total costs of ownership. It is exciting to think that we have the opportunity to define a mountain town lifestyle with Davis Riverwalk, while at the same time offering a solution for the new era in Canaan Valley real estate development.

Blackwater Overlook floorplan - tentative

Designing for our next tenant

I am playing with layouts, materials and systems to finish out the other two suites within the Blackwater Overlook building of Davis Riverwalk. Hypno Coffee is doing well in Suite 1, primarily due to the fact that they are well-conceived and well-run business. Additionally, the attractive and high visibility location has helped them add new customers and keep growing right on through the relocation.

For the remaining space in BW Overlook I'm thinking of one small suite, maybe 325-400sft, and one large space of about 1,100sft. Down the road I think Riverwalk would benefit from having its sales and management office in the smaller space, but we can put a starter business in that space for 2009+.

Financing is a major issue in the market we are living with, and will always be a sanity check on future phases of the project.

"Someone" once said something to the effect of, "what does it matter what the tenant business does as long as they pay rent?" Well, it matters bigtime for Riverwalk because the businesses need to attract residents, weekenders and vacation visitors alike. For example, an appliance repair store may be of interest to residents but is of little interest to weekenders here for some fishing. Conversely, a touristy "made in WV" gift shop may be of interest to a tourist but does not interest the weekender, never mind the local. Granted, each business may lean toward one of these demographic spheres, but I want to make sure Riverwalk has a relevant lineup of tenants so that Davis continues to position as a relevant town to all three groups: residents, second home owner/weekenders, and tourists.

Does the business offer something that will be desirable to the present and future population of Davis and the Valley? Does it attract the people who actually spend money on the goods or services it offers? Does the business take a positive step toward defining what downtown Davis is and will become over the next decade?

What a tuneup

Davis may not be a far drive from Washington but its weather is a world away. Thursday in Davis I was fresh with the memories of riding my mountain bike a day earlier in the fair winter (nightime) weather of DC, but in Davis there was 4" of fresh snow and morning temps in the teens. I drove my bike out on the roof rack to have Blackwater Bikes rebuild the drive train while I was here on other business. I arrived in town Thursday but my bike was frozen to the rack. Got a lighter? Too much wind. Hand warmers from Highland Prospects? Not enough heat. De-icer from Dollar Store? Too little too late. Turned out that a heating pad on an extension cord did the trick. It also pointed out to me by our property manager Mack that the hot water car wash would have done it, if for only the minute necessary to open the rack.

Roger Lilly, the owner and main tech at Blackwater Bikes, ended up replacing the cassette, two chain rings and the chain to bring the Salsa Dos 9er back to whole. The drive train was just worn down and causing chain suck, chain breaks and chunky hesitations that foretell more of the former.

Now Davis is a small town and people therefore feel "familiar" with you enough to call you on it when they see you riding down the street for the 3rd time in the snow. Basically, the message is: "Pete, shouldn't you be skiing instead of timidly riding a bike on snowy sidewalks?" I took some heat but hey the bike was put in full form again by Blackwater Bikes, allowing me to ride back in DC two days later. For some reason I rode like a winded and wounded wildebeast, but the bike was tiptop.

While in the bike shop a few visitors wandered in and one said, "this would be a great place to come to in the summer," touching on a significant business issue for Blackwater Bikes. When it is snowing and honking wind chill down to minus whatever, going biking is not on most people's minds. So what to do in winter? Well the stalwart BW Bikes stands open all winter. No diversification into winter gear or winter sports aside from the obscure but interesting segment of winter mountain biking. Yes this segment exists. That is some serious dedication.

Keep on Planting

When I built a house in Canaan Valley in 1999 I wanted to plant native trees strategically around the property. Plenty of other residents in Timberline subdivision had planted trees on their lots: norwegian spruce, white pine, colorado spruce, you name it. But none of these grew historically in is area and elevation. I inquired at many nurseries only to find that no, red spruce simply aren't available. So, I ended up paying a guy to go get small red spruce and quaking aspen for me. The aspen came from a private land owner and the spruce came from a special pass the power company has in order to maintain power line swaths through the Monongehela National Forest. Surprise, I had about a 20% survival rate at best, and a particularly low survival rate on the reds.

Seven years later, my subdivision, which often discusses native plants and topics such as what landscaping will survive the deer, announced that we could buy boxes of seedlings via a partnership involving the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge. Quite a few Timberline residents took advantage of this. Many of us also volunteered to plug hundreds of them into the Wildlife Refuge. The seedlings have a much higher survival rate even though the start out only a foot tall.

This past Fall, the Friends of Blackwater and Davis Riverwalk got together to purchase several hundred more and volunteers planted them in the Town of Davis' Riverfront Park and along the Blackwater Falls State Park's Town Trail leading to Blackwater Falls. I also bought 100 more for Riverwalk and planted them in a nursery of my own on the slope in front of Hypno Coffee. In the 1880's as Davis was clearcut and its buildings constructed, the town became known as "stump town," for the size and number of red spruce stumps. Supposedly one could hop from stump to stump all the way across town.

Davis Riverwalk and the Riverfront Park will be one of the few areas of downtown Davis with enough green space to support small plantations of spruce. Some non-natives are located in the park today, but we are fortunate to now have a source of native spruce for its future.

Enjoy listening to this recorded broadcast from WV Public Radio!

Restoring forests in West Virginia's high country

By Emily Corio

Our Town

This is a birdseye view of Davis this Autumn taken from the southeast. The new WV32 bridge and the Shop-n-Save grocery is in the foreground. William Avenue is Davis' main street, named after one of its founder's sons. The large stone building at the left is Davis' most prominent old structure -- originally the National Bank of Davis. At the turn of the century the train station would have been visible just short of the bank building, where you see the low roofs of the abandoned motel. North of William is Thomas, also named after a son. The small houses along Thomas are mostly built in the early 1900's through 1920's, replacing the federal-style box-shaped and often adjoined buildings that originally lined Thomas. The photo was taken by Ludovic Moore.

Sunset in Timberline after Thanksgiving

This scene unfolded Sunday evening and lingered for about 5 minutes total. I was reminded why it is better to be here as much as possible. There is simply too much to miss. But in case you weren't this photo is for you.

Hypno blizzard

Some shots of Thanksgiving 'eve' and the arrival of the new roaster...