URBAN CONVERSION

gentle music

Rodman

This journey, it's always been for our kids. All the new experiences, all the lessons learned, it's time to put it all together, and to build our new life.

Gina

We are Gina and Rodman Schley.

Rodman

For the past few years we've been exploring our community and learning from other people how to live a more sustainable life.

Gina

And now, we've bought a farm. You in? - Come on, let's do this!

Rodman

I'll be building our home.

Gina

And I'll be working the land.

upbeat bouncy music

laughing

Rodman

It's all part of our...

Both

Urban Conversion.

lighthearted music

Rodman

So Gina and I had been looking for a new house for a really long time. We sold our old house, we were renting a place, and we really wanted to get into something that had some land, room for the kids to roam. And that was close to the city. Because I would've moved out into the country more, but one of your criteria was that it had to be close to the city. Yeah, I didn't wanna have to drive an hour to work each day. Gina also wanted a place where she could grow her farm. And we just couldn't find anything, we kinda gave up on it. We kind of almost mourned the fact that we're never gonna find this property. Until one day... I walk about three miles a day, but for whatever reason, I wanted to do an extra mile. So, I took a right instead of a left that day. And as I was walking that extra mile, I walked past this house, that was on about three acres of land, it was in pretty bad shape, and I was thinking oh my gosh, this is the perfect house. And it was literally like five blocks from where our current house is. The problem was, it wasn't for sale. A week later I took that same walk, and there are two for sale signs sitting in the yard. I was like, ah! I mean seriously, fate, right? Yeah. So I knew there was two things that had to happen. First of all, I had to get ahold of that broker to find out what's going on with this property, and the second thing, get my wife over here ASAP, to check out this property. I definitely had my reservations, because we've seen a ton of properties over the last several years, and nothing has spoken to us. But Rodman is really excited about this property, so for him to be excited, it must be pretty good. Woo!

Gina

That is some serious green carpet.

Rodman

I think your grandma wants her carpet back, honey.

both laughing

Gina

Oh look at these windows. I don't know about the chandelier here. The fireplace looks like an original. Looks like there's some wood floors. Whoa! I swear I had this in 1980s, in Ohio. I do think you know, trying to keep an open mind, I think all this can come out. Like, this is a big room. Well I'm glad that you can see this, 'cause it's hard for me to like, see an old house. Yeah. And I know you can fix it up, but it just seems like it would take a lot of work.

Rodman

I used to buy and flip for a living, so I can kind of, I've done this a lot of times.

Gina

Wow, this room is beautiful!

Rodman

It's amazing how bright everything is. And then you got this problem, look at this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Ugh. I love this, I swear my grandma had this, Pepto-Bismol pink tile. Yeah, this is gonna be great.

laughing

Rodman

There were a lot of things that I liked about the house, it had these beautiful vaulted ceilings, it had these exposed beams.

Gina

Beautiful windows, a ton of natural lighting in the house, that I absolutely love. But there is one room that's kind of off.

eerie music

Gina

Look at this little door.

Rodman growls

Gina gasps

Rodman laughs

Gina

Ouch!

Gina laughs

Gina

Yeah, that room was, creepy!

calm music

Gina

Seriously, Gina, look at this place. I know, oh my gosh. There's so many possibilities with this land.

Rodman

How rare is it though, to find this much land, right in the middle of a subdivision. We should do this. Let's do it!

Rodman laughs

Rodman

Come on Rodman! Alright. Let's do it. You know how everyone says that the right property will come at the right time? It was so true, like this house came to us at the perfect time. It just had this feeling where I knew that it was meant to be ours. You know, I knew that there was gonna be a bit of work, that was gonna have to go into this home, but now that we own it, there is a lot to be done. I think I might have underestimated, just slightly. It's definitely really exciting that now I actually have land and property that I want to start this farm. But it's so scary at the same time because I haven't really cultivated that much soil. We got a lot of work ahead of us.

upbeat music

Rodman

So getting into this process, I'm thinking, I can't do this thing alone. So, luckily I've got a good friend that I play hockey with, who's an architect and he's also an architectural engineer. He's put together some preliminary plans, and he's gonna come down to the office today and he's gonna kind of map out what he's got so far.

Jeff

So we measured the existing building last week, and we have drawn those spaces, and all the windows and doors, and everything that's in there. And now we can start talking about ideas and philosophies, and moving on with this. We got plenty of ideas. Do you? - Yep. Good. 5% are mine, and 95% are hers. That's how it usually works, and that's how it should work. For a healthy marriage.

Gina giggles

Jeff

I like him, I like him. So what do you think, what are some of your philosophies behind the house, and the design, and the direction that we're going? When I was doing research on mid-century homes, I love the idealism around living within nature, so like bringing the outdoors in, and the indoors out. We're talking about a modern farmhouse style? Mm-hmm. - Right? Right. Right now you have this porch that comes out here, so we could almost carry a porch sort of theme this way. Mm-hmm. And then, then front door would be sort of centered on that space. On that porch space, right. And then we tie it all together. This block wall like you said, has barely any R-value. Whether it's eco-friendly, or you talk about a high performance home, or LEED certified home, being that's it's a remodel, I'm not sure what we can do, or like what the standards are, so we're gonna look to you for all of that. But we've learned a lot over the last several years, and we really want to be conscientious about, when we do this home, we believe in the philosophy of less is more. We can do that. It's so exciting seeing all of our ideas and dreams that we have for this home like on paper.

Rodman

It really helps me understand exactly how much work is gonna have to go into this house. We're gonna be broke.

laughing

Gina

So I invited my friend Deaanna over, she's with Bella Native Interiors, and she focuses on farmhouse designs. And we're going to start brainstorming on materials that we want to use, and design elements that we want to weave into the home. We are so excited to have this project in front of us. We've been looking for years to find farm property, and we finally did it. And now, I don't really know where to start, but we do want to be as environmentally conscience as we can in the design element. So what type of design styles do you lean towards? You know, the functionality of different pieces, like specifically in the kitchen I think about. It's like how can we be smart about designing the kitchen because, you know, we compost, and we recycle. And if you look under my sink right now I have garbage, ton of recyclables, and a ton of compost and it's all a mess. Right, and we can incorporate a needs list, with the design of the kitchen. So making sure that we address recycling, composting, trash, you know, and making it still look really beautiful, and integrated into your kitchen. But it makes it a very functional space for you and your family. Yes, well, I have a big wish list, but I'm gonna try to keep it to the most important. Okay. Put the mud room close to the top of the list, because we will be-- I can see that being really functional for this household. Yes, 'cause we will be working the land, so you know, a place to come in and put all of your muddy boots and clothes, and bringing the outside in. You know, I think that's a big design element to mid-century modern homes. Large sliders that have a lot of glass, where you're just, you are, you're just sort of, it's almost like outdoor living, 'cause you've got all the outdoors inside. Right. You can see your flower field, you can see the mature trees on the property, and just really utilizing the natural light in the house will be really great for the design as well. Yes. Let me take this, and we'll start pulling together a plan, and a design for the interior in the home, and make it a home that you'll really love. Yes, well thank you so much.

railroad crossing bells ringing

Gina

So I've looked at the plans, I've looked at the inside of the home, I've looked at the outside of the home. And when I'm going through this process, I really want to take a lot of the stuff that I've learned in the past, when it comes to energy efficiency or water conservation and I want to integrate these things into our home. And one of the world's most recognized certifications programs is LEED. So we're gonna meet our architect down at Energy Logic, where Tom is gonna explain to us a little bit more about what it means to be LEED certified, and what we can do to actually achieve LEED certification. What is LEED, what does it stand for? Yeah so, LEED is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. It's overseen by the US Green Building Council. The idea with LEED is that it's a framework that we can use to help drive the sustainability of the project overall, and then it's also a third party certification system. And everything is kind of on a point system and the more points you get, the better your certifications can be? There is a point scale of 100 points, and so, there's various thresholds to hit the different levels of certification. And we'll be targeting Platinum Certification on this, which is the highest level. Does LEED Platinum mean net zero? No, it's not really interchangeable like that, Oh, okay. So building a net zero home you would earn a lot of points in the energy category, of LEED. But, it doesn't necessarily guarantee you Platinum. I have what we call the score card here, which is gonna help us lay out our plan to get to the 80 points required for Platinum. You know, walking into this meeting I was thinking man, we got this LEED all wrapped up. But after seeing what Tom has laid out for us, we have got a lot of decisions to make.

Tom

Infill development, access to open space, sustainable sites in the rain water management credit, insulation values, indoor water use, indoor air quality, outdoor water use, construction waste management, non-toxic pest control--

Rodman

Looking at this whole point system, they've got a point system that you need to achieve certain levels. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if you have a 85, or a 95, or a 75, as long as you are doing what you can within that system to really have an efficient home.

Gina

Let's do it, let's do it. Those are easy points. We got a point already. I know, right, exactly. One down.

Rodman

So how many points do we have now? So right now we're sitting at 68 points, that I'm pretty confident we'd be able to get. With 22 points in the maybe column, so that puts us at a solid Gold with Platinum potential. A bunch of maybe points? Yeah, that we can pick from to try to get to Platinum. And 80 is Platinum, so we'd have to get another 12 points. So very doable. - So we could do all of those. We can get to Platinum. - Yeah. I'm excited, I'm excited that we got a shot at Platinum. Coming out of that meeting, there are so many decisions to make, but I'm so thankful that we have experts like Jeff and Tom, to help us navigate through this process. Our children go to a Waldorf School, and by diving into studying Waldorf education, I found biodynamics, and I knew that if I ever had a farm, I wanted to grow things using biodynamic principles because it's the purest and most organic form of agriculture. So, now we have a farm. First thing I did was, I wanted to find someone who could really help put me on the right path. And so I found Tom, who really has been studying biodynamic agriculture, he's a landscape architect, and I think he's really gonna help me put some of the foundational elements in place. The background out of which I come is inspired by Rudolf Steiner. And he said that our capacity to recognize life cycles, patterns of reality. Our children grew up on a community supported agricultural farm. Our girls knew the cows they got their milk from. Can you imagine growing up like that? Instead of, you know, water is turned on when you turn the tap on.

Gina

Conveniences that we have today, we don't even realize it sometimes. They alienate us from the rhythms, the being of nature. I've been gardening as a hobby and now I'm kind of pivoting towards, all right, now I need to actually, I wanna do this as a career. And I find it really interesting that this is an urban farm. Right, it is, we're right in the middle of a city. It's not in the middle of Montana someplace. Right, no. We're in the middle of Arvada. But I think that there's still a desire for people who live in the city to really connect with the land.

Tom

And that has everything to do with culture, again. Right, yes. CSA. Yes, Community Supported Agriculture. And the agriculture supports the community, so it becomes a kind of two-way street. One of the things that I'm learning with biodynamic agriculture, is that really looking at the farm, to create a healthy farm, is one where it produces everything it needs on the land. So ideally I envision having small animals for manure and I would love a cow. But I don't think I have the space for a cow, and I would love sheep, but I don't think I have space. Get a goat.

chuckles

Tom

Get a goat, maybe a goat, so I'm trying to kind of work through what makes sense here. Are there other community farms nearby? And you share, you know... Resources....with each other. Right. I'm so excited that I found Tom. He really knows biodynamic agriculture and I have a feeling he's going to be at the farm a lot this summer.

Rodman

We always get these neighbors coming up and they're trying to see what's going on, what we're doing to the house. One of the neighbors the other day told me about a family member who spent a lot of time at this house.

Gina

So of course we had to go take her out to lunch so we can learn first-hand the history of the home. Hello! - Hi! You must be Savanah. - I'm Savanah. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming. - Hi Savanah, I'm Rodman. So you probably have a lot of great memories of the property, I'm assuming. Yeah. 'Cause, like, I remember my childhood, growing up with my grandparents, I still drive past my old grandparents' house just to see how it's doing, and see how it looks. What's changed. - And what's changed. Yes, I have some pictures of the property. This is Grandma and Grandpa. Aw. - Okay. So Grandma Lois and Grandpa Marvin. And this was his pride and joy, this house. This is the old original pool. Oh my gosh.

Savanah

It was a big cement pool. It was huge. - Yeah, it was.

Gina

Look at the fence, and the pool house that's still there. Yeah, the pool house. And my parents actually had their wedding reception at the house, so wedding reception. Oh, in her wedding dress. - Yes. Makes me feel good about, you know, having this home that has that family energy kind of always been there, loving and caring for it.

Savanah

I always did like that big fireplace going all the way up to the second story.

Gina

And then there's a fireplace upstairs, too.

Savanah

Right, right. In that little room. - Into that funny little room. That was such a strange room. My grandma called it "the spook room." She told us kids that it was haunted, that there was a ghost in there. I told you there was something about that room! I'm not sleeping in there. So, one last story that was kind of a family legend, this is my cousin Jason. He's about four in this photo. Grandpa brought in a helicopter and landed it right in the front yard. According to family legend, they picked up my cousin and took him to have lunch with the Dukes of Hazzard cast. Whoa! - What? That was the kind of guy that Grandpa was. He was just larger than life, he loved the people in his life and he loved to show them in grand ways. So, you know, a helicopter is totally who he is. I couldn't help but think of Rodman having a very similar personality where it's like I could see you really getting along with the grandfather that lived in the home. I think we ought to bring in a helicopter. I think that'd be fun. We'll bring in the helicopter and we'll go to the Boyz II Men concert. You wanna go to Boyz II Men? I have no idea who they are. Oh, man, Rodman. No, actually too, just walking through the house you can tell that there's such a good energy. And we're just so happy to be a part of this. We couldn't be more happy or grateful that you guys have come along and you've loved this place and seen the potential that brought so much joy to our family and has so many great memories. I just think that Grandpa is smiling down on this and he's so pleased to see what's happening here. This family had so many big events there whether it's wedding receptions or graduations. How cool that'd be for us. There's gonna be weddings, dare I say, I don't want my kids to get married, but. But wouldn't it be beautiful? When it's the whole lavender fields are fully blooming. They'll probably be at least 50 years old, though, so I don't know if I'll be around anymore.

Gina

I'm heading to Palisade to go meet with Paola from Sage Creations. She apparently has the best lavender in Colorado and knows everything there is about growing it commercially. So I'm going there to learn everything I can about lavender. So you grow this here in Palisade. I'm wanting to grow this down on the Front Range in Colorado, can I do that? Yes, you can. These are two species that you can grow at that elevation. It's a Mediterranean plant, it likes it dry, full sun, and good drainage. And it can survive in marginal soils as well. I've heard you say before once, you have to watch the bees.

Paola

The bees will tell you when to harvest. And when it's really ready, there'll be a lot of bees. Do you have any plants right now that are ready to harvest? I would like to see some. I actually do. - Do you? I'd like to see some. - And you can help me harvest. I would love that. - Okay. When we're harvesting for bunches, we harvest it all by hand and we use a hand sickle, and I brought you one. Oh, nice. Are you right-handed? - I'm right-handed. Okay, good. And how many bundles do you get from one bush? Well, it depends on the cultivar. On this one, we'll probably get three to four. Three to four bundles? - Bundles, yeah. You can grab a big handful of stems, and you're gonna cut, not into the wood, and not up high, but just right above the wood, where you will get just the green part. And you just do one fell swoop, and you get like that. So is that about right? That's about right. Yeah? - That looks good. You're doing a great job, Gina. You're meant to be a lavender farmer.

Gina

So, did you come from a farming background? No, I didn't. I had the desire to learn, so I sought to learn just like you're doing. I started a long time ago, always working for other farms, but knowing one day I wanted to have my own farm. Women have always played an integral role on farms, but somewhat in the background. And now it seems like women are coming to the foreground. They're the ones that are starting the farms. And I think you definitely see more and more women starting farms themselves. The people that work on my farm are primarily women. I mean, I have mixed crews, but the people that are here full time and that are interested in working on a farm and learning about farming, they're women. And they're young women. I'm so excited for all the information Paola shared with me, and I've actually been able to take some of her plants home with us to get our farm started. I hope our farm turns out as beautiful as hers. You know, we've met so many experts and they put this whole incredible path in front of us on what we need to do, but there is so much work ahead of us. It's time to dig in.

tractor engine rumbling

Gina

All right, Gina. It's time to break ground. Let's do this. Here we go, here we go. - Right in the wall, hard. Don't be scared, go! Oh yes! Oh my god, there's a big pipe right there. That is a big pipe. That wouldn't be a good idea. This is why we need a general contractor, not Rodman. Move over.

Rodman

All right, pop the drywall screws, you get a bigger piece of that out. Atta girl. Ah, nice, this was the remodeled wallpaper, and this was the original wallpaper.

Gina

Oh yes.

Rodman

1949, right there.

Gina

That is back in style, my friend. What's back in style? That's back in style? Want me to try to salvage it? I'm just so excited, I cannot believe that this is our house. We've got a place now where you're gonna be able to grow your cut flowers and your lavender. I'm gonna be able to do a renovation project. This is our dream home. It is everything that we wanted, and then some. I love it for so many reasons. I know it's gonna take a lot of work but it's one of those properties that you just walk into and you know that it was meant to be. Gimme a high five. We don't need to high-five once per minute. So many things came together on this house, everything from how we found the house to the people who have been involved with the house and the guidance that we're getting, it just feels like it's fate. Absolutely, it definitely feels like when the timing is right, things really do unfold. Ta-da! - Ta-da! We've really been lucky to find people who understand this process, from our architects to the LEED certifications to the biodynamics. My flower farming community, I mean, I've learned so much, and I really rely on them. I feel like this project is giving us opportunity, but it's also giving other people in our community opportunity to shine. And we couldn't do it without 'em. All right! - We did it. I just couldn't be more excited about this place. This is the first time that I've seen you really excited about putting your love and your heart and your energy into a project like this. It's just so right. I know, it totally, for so many reasons, it's kind of like when you plant that seed, and years go by and you don't think that it's ever going to sprout, but then it does, and it all unfolds, and it's better than you ever held it in your mind. It definitely feels like it's a little gem that we found in the middle of the city that, you know, we wanted to raise our family in more of a farm, simple type of lifestyle. Yeah, I think this is the perfect place for us. We're definitely going to write some stories while we're there.

upbeat guitar music

Gina

Sustainability is a huge topic. On urbanconversion.com, we cover it all. We bring you news, how-to's, quick tips for going green, and much more. My education may start on the show, but it continues at urbanconversion.com