Full Circle Real Estate Group: Athens Real Estate, Sustainable Real Estate

Over the last couple of years we've teamed with local architect and green-building expert Lori Bork Newcomer of Bork Architectural Design on several occasions to provide our clients with innovative and sustainable home designs.

We are proud to announce that Newcomer's personal home on Pulaski Heights is the first home in Athens to earn a LEED Platinum Certification, The U.S. Green Building Council's highest designation. Her home is only the seventh in Georgia to receive LEED Platinum certification.

The custom home was designed and built by Newcomer to incorporate modern design ideas but also remain sensitive to the architectural context of her historic, in-town neighborhood. To do this, she designed a deceptively compact front façade for the 2,632-square-foot home, blending strong horizontal and vertical modern lines with the traditional gabled form and large front porch indicative of the neighborhood’s cottages.

The side elevation reveals shotgun-style length – another Southern tradition that also allows natural passive ventilation. Tennessee fieldstone, stucco and white clapboard siding echo the native and traditional materials used in many of Athens’ oldest homes.

“As much as I love modern aesthetics, we didn’t want to build something alien to the neighborhood,” says Newcomer. “So I borrowed signature characteristics of the cottage vernacular to envelope a contemporary living space that fits our lifestyle.”

Jetson Green, a design oriented site for sustainable homes, natural materials and green technology, compiled a list of their favorite 20 green building innovations from the past year. Check it out HERE!

Happy New Year!

If you are an Etsy nut like me, you'll be excited to hear that the 2011 Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa Holiday Market is set for Saturday from 10 am to 6pm at 670 West Broad Street - a new location at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets in the Ben's Bikes lot.

There is a plethora of info available on the event and a great blog that profiles some of this year's vendors at www.athensindiecraftstravaganzaa.com. The market features the handmade work of many local artists and crafters!

No more sorting out bottles, cans and paper for Athens recyclers.

The Athens-Clarke Solid Waste Department switched to a single-stream recycling system on Monday, allowing residents to mix all their recyclable items together in one bin.

By making recycling more convenient, the change will bring Athens close to the goal of a 40 percent recycling rate the Athens-Clarke Commission set for 2015.

“My low, conservative estimate is 20-25 percent” more recycling with single-stream, Waste Reduction Administrator Suki Janssen said. “Everybody else says it’ll be much more.”

Full Circle Agent Katie Throne's photographs, currently on display at Ted's Most Best, will be featured during Saturday's Pulaski Street Art Crawl.

The Georgia Sculptors’ Society is hosting The Inaugural Pulaski Street Art Crawl on Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 5:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M. Pulaski Street artists and businesses are opening their venues to the public to showcase Athens artists. The Pulaski Street Art Crawl will start at ARTini’s Art Lounge, culminating at Pints and Paints featuring the Georgia Sculptors’ Society’s Juried Art Exhibition. The Pulaski Street Art Crawl is an opportunity for Athens artists, business owners, and patrons to come together and engage in cultural discourse while boosting Athens' respective businesses and art community. Food for the juried show will be provided by Last Resort Grill and The Grit! Admission is free and open to the public.

Click HERE for more info!

American homes are more cluttered than ever with devices, and they all need power: Cellphones and iPads that have to be charged, DVRs that run all hours, TVs that light up in high definition.

But something shocking is happening to demand for electricity in the Age of the Gadget: It's leveling off.

Over the next decade, experts expect residential power use to fall, reversing an upward trend that has been almost uninterrupted since Thomas Edison invented the modern light bulb.

In part it's because Edison's light bulb is being replaced by more efficient types of lighting, and electric devices of all kinds are getting much more efficient. But there are other factors.

New homes are being built to use less juice, and government subsidies for home energy savings programs are helping older homes use less power. In the short term, the tough economy and a weak housing market are prompting people to cut their usage.

As a result, many families can expect their monthly bills to remain in check, even if power prices rise. For utility executives, who can no longer bank on ever-growing demand, a major shift is under way: They're finding ways to profit when people use less power. Click HERE for full story from The Associated Press...

As an avid viewer of Bravo's cooking competition reality show, Top Chef, for all eight seasons, I could not be more excited to learn that local Chef Hugh Acheson, of Five and Ten and The National, has been named the show's newest judge!

It was just announced yesterday that Acheson and Bam! man Emeril Lagasse will join the show's original judges, Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio for the Emmy-winning show's ninth season.

Acheson came in fifth earlier this year when he competed on Top Chef Masters, a spin-off show where well-known chefs compete for their favorite charities. His one-liners and personality on the show obviously garnered the attention of the show's producers.

The ninth season started filming in June and will take place in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas.

If you haven't been by Ted's Most Best for pizza and a beer yet, stop what you are doing and head that way. Our friends and Boulevard neighbors, Jessica Greene (The Grit) and Jay Totty, recently opened their unique restaurant specializing in artisan pizza, panini, salads, homemade desserts, great beer and wine and espresso/cappuccino. They converted the old Snow Tire storage building at 254 W. Washington Street and recently won a preservation award for their adaptive reuse of the space. Full Circle Agent Katie Throne took some photos of the building's interior before it was remodeled and they are showcased inside Ted's. The restaurant has a great atmosphere, plenty of outdoor seating (which many downtown restaurants lack) and a bocce ball court, so visit them soon!

Heirloom Cafe and Fresh Market, another great adaptive reuse project, just opened in the Boulevard Historic District. You've probably read about the cafe in some of our previous blogs. The owner, Jessica Rothacker, rehabbed the old Amoco station at 815 N. Chase Street. You can read all about her endeavor and check out her menu at www.heirloomathens.com.

New Urban Forestry and Tarzan Tree Care have joined forces and are now offering reclaimed urban lumber 7 days a week in Athens! Go by Southern Surplus at 4175 Atlanta Highway and check out the new display that includes various kinds of hardwood lumber and slabs, including black walnut, elm, hard maple, ambrosia maple, cypress, red oak, etc. If you don't see what you want, contact Kevin at kevin@newurbanforestry.com and he can help locate what you need.

Their selection is great for DIY projects! See New Urban and Tarzan's gallery HERE. Look out for our new blog series on DIY projects for your home. Next up, a Reclaimed Antique Heart Pine Entryway Table. Stay tuned!

After recently moving into an older home that I presume isn't very energy-efficient, I started investigating cheap ways to cut my bills and save on energy. With the thermometer only going up, here are the top 10 tips (mostly under $25) to beat the heat and save some cash this summer from www.greenandsave.com:

The Right Setting

Typical air-conditioning settings for a programmable thermostat at different times of day:

• 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. = 75 degrees
• 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. = 80 degrees
• 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. = 75 degrees
• 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. = 80 degrees