The big chill is coming to the Destin area.

Landscaping like this rose plant was covered in ice Friday morning along Highway 98 as temps slid to 30 degrees. With the wind chill it felt like 18, making for a bone-chilling morning in Destin. While temps rose over the weekend, forecasts call for even colder days ahead with a low near 20 degrees in Destin on Monday night.

Destin and the region are under a Freeze Warning, Hard Freeze Warning, Wind Advisory and Wind Chill Advisory.

According to the National Weather Service, a Wind Chill Advisory means that very cold air and strong winds will combine to generate bitterly cold wind chills of less than 10 degrees. This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken. If you must venture outdoors, make sure you wear a hat and gloves.

A hard freeze warning means temperatures 20 degrees or lower are imminent or highly likely. During this period of unusually cold weather… check on elderly neighbors to make sure they have adequate heat. Outdoor pets should also have adequate warmth. Area shelters should continue to expect increased demand. Temperatures such as these can cause exposed water pipes to burst.

Everyone should take adequate safety precautions with their heating systems… and make sure to utilize Carbon monoxide detectors in enclosed spaces. Extra caution should be used with portable space heaters. Make sure space heaters are not left unattended and are not used near flammable materials such as curtains or bed coverings.

Open the faucet slightly for a small stream of water overnight if you have any exterior open air piping.

Listen to NOAA Weather Radio or your local news media outlets for continuing updates on the cold weather. A hard freeze warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.

A Wind Advisory means that winds of 25 to 39 mph are expected. Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.

Check out the photos of icy Destin at right. Share your photos of the Jack Frost on the Emerald Coast, by clicking here.

CITRUS AND THE COLD

As temps approach the upper teens in Destin late Monday, Master Gardener Larry Williams advises residents to put a citrus protection plan in place, adding that Destin citrus and fruit trees should fare better than other points in Northwest Florida.

“You are fortunate there. You got two bodies of water, the bay and the Gulf, that help moderate colder temperatures,” he said, adding that generally the fruit won’t be damaged until temps dip below the lower 20s for sustained periods of time.

Williams advises that young citrus trees are more vulnerable, but are easier to cover. He recommends using cloth and removing it after the cold snap since plastic sheeting traps the heat of the sun, which could damage the plant more long-term than the freeze.

For more tips on how to protect your fruit trees, click here.

– William Hatfield

ADVICE FROM DESTIN WATER USERS

DWU posted this to their Facebook page in early December. “As winter approaches it’s important to winterize our water pipes: Our temperatures here in Destin don’t usually fall below freezing, but when we do our exposed pipes on the exterior of your home can be vulnerable. Protect your exposed pipes by wrapping them with insulation. Know the location of your main shut off valve. If a pipe does freeze and burst, will you be able to shut the water off immediately? If you can’t shut off the water, call (850) 837-6146 for assistance during normal business hours. For assistance after hours, holidays, or weekends, call (850) 699-3647. 

TIPS FROM GULF POWER FOR DEALING WITH THE COLD SNAP

Cold weather is here and expected to continue into early next week along the Gulf Coast. Here are some tips to keep cozy and save money and energy during the winter season. Many more ideas are available at MyGulfPower.com.

Things you can do to save money and energy:

• Set your thermostat to 68 degrees or lower. For every degree below 68 you’ll save 10 percent on your heating costs.

• An electric blanket is more economical than heating the entire house all night long.

• Open shades, drapes and blinds during the winter so sunlight can enter the house and help to warm the home naturally. At night, close shades, drapes and blinds to help retain heat.

• Operate your ceiling fan on low speed and switch in reverse to push hot air from the ceiling level to the occupied-lower areas of the room. Use fans only when the room is occupied.

• Use a portable electric heater to heat only a small area. Purchase models that are thermostatically controlled. Keep it at least three feet from items that could catch fire like curtains or furniture. Make sure you have working smoke detectors on every floor and in every sleeping room of your house.

• Make sure vents and return-air registers are not blocked by furniture, draperies, doors or other obstacles.

• Don’t use your oven to heat your home — it’s very costly and most importantly, it’s very dangerous.

Things you can do to prepare your home for winter:

Temperature settings

• Heating your house can make up as much as half of your electricity bill so direct most of your attention to your thermostat. Keep it at 68 and wear warmer clothes.

• Programmable thermostats are a good investment, or you can take advantage of Gulf Power’s Energy Select. Energy Select is Gulf Power’s advanced energy management program that offers a lower price for electricity 87 percent of the time.

Heating and cooling equipment

• If your heating system is an older, less-efficient unit, upgrade to a geothermal heating and cooling system — or a high efficiency air-source heat pump. Talk to a Gulf Power representative for a free Energy Checkup: 1-877-655-4001.

• A complete tune-up of the home heating system can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 or more, but this is a worthwhile investment and can reduce your heating bill from 3 to 10 percent.  Remember to replace your filter every month. Talk to a Gulf Power representative: 1-877-655-4001.

• Duct leakage can account for 20 percent of your heating and cooling cost. Getting ducts sealed should be at the top of the list for making your home energy efficient.

Insulation

Adding insulation to your attic is one of the most cost-effective energy saving measures.

Weather-stripping and caulking

Weather-strip door jambs and caulk any cracks around windows to prevent cool air from entering your home.

Window units

If you have a window air conditioning unit, remove it for the winter months to prevent heat from escaping through and around the unit. If it can’t be moved, put a cover over it to prevent drafts.

Humidifier

Use a humidifier to keep your home more comfortable. Adding moisture allows you to reduce the thermostat setting without feeling colder.

Customers can get a free Energy Checkup online or at your home with an appointment. Gulf Power energy experts will analyze your house and electricity use, and look for ways to make the house more energy efficient. Just go to MyGulfPower.com or call 1-877-655-4001.

A Galveston County family given a house for free by the TV show “Extreme Makeover” is trying to sell the place because they say they no longer need such a big home.

Larry and Melissa Beach, who have taken in some 80 foster children and adopted some of them over 23 years, lost their home to Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The network program provided them with a new 5,000-foot house two years later.

Melissa Beach tells The Galveston County Daily News she’s grateful for the time spent in the home but the family of 13 is downsizing and only uses part of the eight-bedroom, 4-1/2 bathroom home in Kemah.

Online records show the home is listed for $535,000, down from $799,000 when it went on the market in July.

Copyright Associated Press

By
Elizabeth Carey

January 6, 2014

Updated Jan 6, 2014 at 1:45 PM EST

“Over 80% of the Corian made in the world today is made here at this site,” said Rolf Weberg. And that’s something the 600 workers at the DuPont Yerkes plant in Tonawanda take pride in.

Weberg is the global RD manager at the plant. He says the local workforce is one of the best in the business, “A lot of our best ideas come from the people that actually run the plant so we reach out to them often.”

Corian was developed as a counter top material 50 years ago and has evolved into an engineered one today. The workers are taking new ideas for Corian to market very quickly with many uses in both commercial and residential applications in all sorts of industries.

DuPont recently moved production of its private collection from South Korea to Tonawanda. The plant makes Corian in 200 colors. It can be molded to any shape, but it’s true flexibility is just being realized with designers who are regulars at the local DuPont site. Weberg says they come in to learn about Corian and they leave wanting to work with the local facility. “When you’re working with the design community, the possibilities are endless,” he said.

The local plant is even going green. Leftover scraps are used as a mulch in landscaping in Tonawanda.

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Originally published: January 3, 2014 12:53 PM
Updated: January 5, 2014 8:03 AM

By ILYCE GLINK AND SAMUEL J. TAMKIN
 Tribune Media Services

A for sale sign stands outside a home on Long Island.

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Selling Long Island homes

A year ago, at the end of December 2012, we saw far fewer “For Sale” signs. And this year, there are even fewer.

The surprising thing about the real estate market is its resiliency. It never fails to surprise how decisively a market turns. When it’s time, it’s time. And it’s clear to us that 2014 is looking very good for real estate.

There are a few troubled spots on the horizon: Mortgage interest rates are at least one percentage point higher than they were a year ago. And, home prices are higher. That means homes are less affordable than they were, particularly since incomes haven’t risen, in real terms, in years.

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That’s good news, and not so good news for sellers. It’s great that home prices are rising. In part, homes that were in foreclosure or listed as short sales, have closed and now prices are rising again. But, rising interest rates (depending on how high they go), mean fewer buyers can afford to pay those higher prices

At the end of 2011, mortgage interest rates reached 3.7 percent, before falling back. In 2012, mortgage interest rates were about 3.3 percent on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. We ended the year with mortgage interest rates around 3.5 percent for a 30-year fixed rate loan. This year, we will end at 4.3 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. (If you’re wondering, we think these rates are still great from a historical perspective.)

The Federal Reserve has indicated it will now pull back its monthly spend of $85 billion in mortgage-backed securities and Treasury securities, which it did to keep interest rates at historic lows through 2015, or when the employment rate falls to 6.5 percent. The economy is improving. Third quarter 2013 GDP numbers were revised upward to 4.1 percent. The economy hasn’t grown that fast in years.

So, with low inventory, still low mortgage interest rates, and modestly rising prices, here’s what you need to do to get your home in selling shape for 2014: My classic New Year’s Resolutions for home sellers:

–Overcome any possible objections a buyer would have.

Buyers are always looking for a reason not to buy your house. Your job as a seller is to eliminate any potential objections that would stand in the way for a buyer to make an offer. If you really want to sell quickly, you’ll work hard to exceed the buyer’s expectation of your home as well. If your home is competitively priced, and your home’s condition exceeds a buyer’s expectations based on other homes in the neighborhood, you’ll get an offer — even if it isn’t the offer you want.

–Get your home into selling shape.

Cleaning your home is a must. After that, you should consider hiring a stager to give your home the television-worthy polish so many buyers expect today. (Yes, they want your home to look like something they’d see on HGTV.) Assess what other sort of work needs to be done, such as fixing things that don’t work, touching up paint, or cleaning or replacing your carpets. Decide if you need to update your landscaping, and paint, clean or tuck point your home’s exterior. And if you’re selling in January, clear out the holiday decorations as quickly as possible.

–Invite at least three agents to create a comparative marketing analysis (CMA).

Often, sellers simply call the agent who sold them their home to list it. While you may wind up hiring that person, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you invite a couple of other agents in from different firms. That’s because each will bring different ideas to the table about how much your house is worth and what kind of marketing plan will work. They’ll all have different experiences to draw on and have different buyers in mind who may want to make a quick offer.

–Understand what it will take to sell your home.

If you live in an area littered with foreclosures, you may have to meet that price point in order to sell. Is it worth it? Probably not, but you’ll have to really evaluate price and timing in order to get the most for your property. If homes have begun to appreciate, you might be pleasantly surprised. Again, a CMA will be incredibly helpful.

–Be realistic about the market.

Find out what types of properties are selling in your area and how many days they’re sitting on the market. Accept the reality of your local market and make sure you price your home realistically. Don’t blame your broker if you don’t get 3 offers over your list price within 24 hours of putting your home on the market. Sellers who set sky-high (or even pretty high) prices could wait months or years for an offer (one of my neighbors has been trying to sell his overpriced home for years) and may wind up with the same price they would have had if they’d priced their home correctly the first time — or a lot less. In this real estate market, one of the worst things you can do is overprice your home from the start. The more realistic you are, the better off you’ll be.

–Rent if you can’t sell and buy at the same time.

We don’t recommend putting in an offer on another property until you have some serious interest in your current property or unless you have enough cash to cover the expenses of both properties for six to 12 months. It’s fine to start researching other neighborhoods, but if you’re not sure what you want to do, consider renting on a short-term or month-to-month lease. While a double move is a pain, and does have some added costs, it’s a lot cheaper than carrying two mortgages for two years.

–Read all documents thoroughly before you sign them.

Why would someone sign a legal document he or she hasn’t read? I’m not sure, but home sellers do it every day. If you’re going to sell (or buy) in the coming year, promise yourself that you’ll take the time to read and understand the listing contract, offer to purchase, and loan documents for your next purchase. (If you’re taking back a loan for the home buyer, have an attorney prepare the documents so you are sure to be protected.) Unless you’ve got cash to spare, a mistake in these documents and the warranties they contain could seriously affect your finances.

–Don’t be greedy.

One big mistake many sellers make is to get a little greedy, particularly if the first offer is above the minimum acceptable price you’ve set. Then the negotiation becomes a game of how much you can get.

Remember, a successful sale means everyone walks away feeling happy. If you get so greedy that the buyer walks away, you’ve let the deal get the best of you. Resolve to be reasonable and you’ll end up shaking hands with the buyer at the closing. You should also know that there aren’t unlimited buyers out there, and if you lose one it might take you quite some time to find another.

(Ilyce Glink is the creator of an 18-part webinar and ebook series called “The Intentional Investor: How to be wildly successful in real estate,” as well as the author of many books on real estate. She also hosts the “Real Estate Minute,” on her YouTube.com/expertrealestatetips channel. If you have questions, you can call her radio show toll-free (800-972-8255) any Sunday, from 11a-1p EST. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, www.thinkglink.com.)

A pair of cold fronts is bringing freezing temps to the Destin area.

Landscaping like this rose plant was covered in ice Friday morning along Highway 98 as temps slid to 30 degrees. With the wind chill it felt like 18 making for a bone-chilling morning in Destin. While temps will rise slightily over the weekend, forecasts call for a low of 26 degrees in Destin on Monday night.

Check out the photos of icy Destin at right. Share your photos of the Jack Frost on the Emerald Coast, by clicking here.

Read a Northwest Florida Daily News story about the cold snap, Click Here

CITRUS AND THE COLD

As temps approach the mid-20s in Destin on Monday, Master Gardener Larry Williams says residents shouldn’t need to harvest in advance of the big chill.

“You are fortunate there. You got two bodies of water, the bay and the Gulf, that help moderate colder temperatures,” he said, adding that generally the fruit won’t be damaged until temps hit the lower 20s for sustained periods of time.

Williams advises that young citrus trees are more vulnerable, but are easier to cover. He recommends using cloth and removing it after the cold snap since plastic sheeting traps the heat of the sun, which could damage the plant more long-term than the freeze.

– William Hatfield

HERE ARE TIPS FROM GULF POWER FOR DEALING WITH THE COLD SNAP

Cold weather is here and expected to continue into early next week along the Gulf Coast. Here are some tips to keep cozy and save money and energy during the winter season. Many more ideas are available at MyGulfPower.com.

Things you can do to save money and energy:

• Set your thermostat to 68 degrees or lower. For every degree below 68 you’ll save 10 percent on your heating costs.

• An electric blanket is more economical than heating the entire house all night long.

• Open shades, drapes and blinds during the winter so sunlight can enter the house and help to warm the home naturally. At night, close shades, drapes and blinds to help retain heat.

• Operate your ceiling fan on low speed and switch in reverse to push hot air from the ceiling level to the occupied-lower areas of the room. Use fans only when the room is occupied.

• Use a portable electric heater to heat only a small area. Purchase models that are thermostatically controlled. Keep it at least three feet from items that could catch fire like curtains or furniture. Make sure you have working smoke detectors on every floor and in every sleeping room of your house.

• Make sure vents and return-air registers are not blocked by furniture, draperies, doors or other obstacles.

• Don’t use your oven to heat your home — it’s very costly and most importantly, it’s very dangerous.

Things you can do to prepare your home for winter:

Temperature settings

• Heating your house can make up as much as half of your electricity bill so direct most of your attention to your thermostat. Keep it at 68 and wear warmer clothes.

• Programmable thermostats are a good investment, or you can take advantage of Gulf Power’s Energy Select. Energy Select is Gulf Power’s advanced energy management program that offers a lower price for electricity 87 percent of the time.

Heating and cooling equipment

• If your heating system is an older, less-efficient unit, upgrade to a geothermal heating and cooling system — or a high efficiency air-source heat pump. Talk to a Gulf Power representative for a free Energy Checkup: 1-877-655-4001.

• A complete tune-up of the home heating system can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 or more, but this is a worthwhile investment and can reduce your heating bill from 3 to 10 percent.  Remember to replace your filter every month. Talk to a Gulf Power representative: 1-877-655-4001.

• Duct leakage can account for 20 percent of your heating and cooling cost. Getting ducts sealed should be at the top of the list for making your home energy efficient.

Insulation

Adding insulation to your attic is one of the most cost-effective energy saving measures.

Weather-stripping and caulking

Weather-strip door jambs and caulk any cracks around windows to prevent cool air from entering your home.

Window units

If you have a window air conditioning unit, remove it for the winter months to prevent heat from escaping through and around the unit. If it can’t be moved, put a cover over it to prevent drafts.

Humidifier

Use a humidifier to keep your home more comfortable. Adding moisture allows you to reduce the thermostat setting without feeling colder.

Customers can get a free Energy Checkup online or at your home with an appointment. Gulf Power energy experts will analyze your house and electricity use, and look for ways to make the house more energy efficient. Just go to MyGulfPower.com or call 1-877-655-4001.

Nearly a year after a committee began work on how to revitalize Levee Park, there’s no concrete plan in place.

But one is close — and those involved say they’re looking forward to creating a sustainable future for a neglected park that saw several bright moments this year — from a popular new restaurant to live music performances.

Mayor Mark Peterson, for one, is ready to have some solid ideas on the table.

Peterson ran his 2012 campaign in part on the dream of bringing the park back into the public spotlight, and in February 2013 formed the Levee Park Committee to explore options.

“I hope I see from (the committee) a plan that they all embrace and share with the community so they can get excited about it,” Peterson said.

The committee has put in substantial work throughout the year, though the

work suffered from a number of delays, including consultants dealing with unexpected personal issues. So Peterson said he’s not worried about waiting another month. He’s satisfied with how far the committee has come, he said.

“I’m realistic,” he said. “It’s a journey, not a race. It’s going to happen.”

In order to speed up the process, the committee and the hired

consultants from the University of Minnesota have decided to release the final plans and then seek comments about them. The initial plan was to hold a public input meeting in October, but the meeting was canceled due to some of the delays.

Committee member Frank Pomeroy said the committee has found other

ways to get input, including from those who attended a number of community events, including the Live at the Levee music and arts series that drew hundreds of people.

‘Make it attractive. Make it active’

Committee members don’t have a clear idea of what new park designs might look like — they’re waiting on the consultants to produce final renderings — but they know what they want the park to accomplish.

They want it to connect to downtown, to be seen from blocks away, to be a destination for residents and tourists, both those on foot and those docking boats on the Mississippi River.

As former Winona city manager and committee member Eric Sorensen said: “Make it attractive. Make it active.”

The city has taken steps in that direction already, with officials and volunteers planting flowers and creating a pavilion

on the spot where the Wilkie replica steamboat sat before it was torn down in 2008. It hopes to build on that success with landscaping and other features.

There are challenges to that vision that can’t be solved.

There’s the location, tucked behind downtown buildings. There’s the concrete levee, which while doing an essential job protecting the city from flooding doesn’t offer much by way of river views.

And others that can’t be easily solved, such as the tall fence that protects the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Spokesman Mark Davis suggested there may be wiggle room for change, but he maintained in an interview what the railroad’s view has long been: Any changes need to keep people from wandering away from designated crossings and not include development on railroad property.

The railroad, however, has shown it supports the efforts, donating about $1,500 to events held at the park.

And others have found creative ways to solve issues such as location with a new restaurant and hosting high-profile events that have drawn hundreds to the park.

Complementing efforts

The Boat House opened in May on the levee, offering a full lunch and dinner menu, as well as occasional live music.

And a separate group of artists and community leaders came up with plans to spotlight the park with the Live At The Levee series, which debuted in October, offering a day of free live music and activities. The organizers didn’t wait for winter to end to hold the next one, hosting the second event in a large heated tent in December. An estimated 2,000 people or more attended the two events, organizers said.

One organizer, Will Kitchen, has a bit of perspective on launching arts events — he’s been involved with the creation of Theatre du Mississippi, the Great River Shakespeare Festival and the Frozen River Film Festival. He said he’s never seen excitement for an event grow so quickly as it did for Live at the Levee.

Committee members  all said the events have been a complement to the new vision for the park.

“We really wanted to do this to support the Levee committee,” Kitchen said.

“Thank God they did,” Pomeroy said.

It’s proved, Peterson said, that there’s ample interest in the community in spending time at the levee. Now, he said, it’s up to the committee to come up with a long-term, financially sustainable plan.

Pomeroy agreed.

“Good things are coming from this,” he said. “No doubt about it.”

Just in time to chase away the winter blahs, the Metropolitan Builders Association’s Building Lifestyles: Home Building Remodeling Show will take place at the Wisconsin Center, Jan. 10 to 12, 2014. “We all have been focused on family and the holidays in the past months,” said Kristine Hillmer, MBA executive director. “This show is a great way to look forward to spring and summer. We are proud to present the first home show of the year.” Thinking about building, remodeling or just making some improvements in the home? “The earlier you plan; the earlier it gets done,” Hillmer said.

This year’s show, presented by Nonn’s Design Showplace, combines elements that attendees love and new things that are cannot-miss. This includes nearly everything from choosing a lot, a builder or remodeler, to designing, financing a project and food.

New this year, is the Product Innovation Pavilion. The building industry continually works to try to bring the latest designs to its customers. “The Product Innovation Pavilion showcases what’s new on the horizon from power, technology, and kitchen and bath designs. We are really excited about this new feature of the event,” Hillmer said.

The show’s theme focuses on how people live in their homes. The Seminar Stage will feature industry experts in design, building, remodeling, landscaping and decorating who will provide tips and tools to make a home fit homeowners’ lifestyles.

“Don’t miss home improvement expert Lou Manfredini,” Hillmer said. The host of HouseSmarts TV will talk about innovative home designs on the Building Discovery Cooking Stage, Friday, Jan. 10, 2 to 3 p.m. The Building Discovery Cooking stage also will offer cooking demonstrations, tastings and recipe sharing.

The MBA is intentional about keeping the building and remodeling industry vibrant. To that end, the show has a great new resource, Construction Career Center, for those interested in the trades. There will be information on scholarships, employment and educational opportunities for those interested in skill trades from rough and finish carpentry to plumbing. “There are excellent careers in the construction industry,” Hillmer said. “These careers are stable and family supporting.”

The Marketplace Pavilions are always popular areas, Hillmer said. “Our attendees love to see what’s new in the food and beverage industries where they have opportunities to sample while getting great ideas for entertaining,” she said. Wines, ales, teas, spices, sauces and dips will be available. Usinger’s will be there as well as Leinie’s Lodge. Those 21 or older can sample Wisconsin’s fine craft beers.

The Subdivision Lot Finder is another popular feature with attendees. Visitors can search for subdivision lots to build a home. Hillmer said the show also gives attendees a sneak peek at the 2014 Parade of Homes sites. “There are three sites in 2014 and we already have 20 homes,” she said.

The exposition booths will be busy. Vendors love to speak with attendees, to answer questions and to give expert advice on everything about house and home, from landscaping to lighting and carpeting to construction.

Landscape Park shows attendees the latest in landscape trends; and the ever-popular Kids Zone gives kids hands-on opportunities to build and engage in games.

“Of course we will have our Food House,” Hillmer said of the house replica that will be filled with donated food benefiting The Hunger Task Force. Donate a minimum of two nonperishable food items and receive $2 off an admission ticket to the show.

Want more information? Attend the show!

Hours

Friday, Jan. 10
Noon to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 11
10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 12
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission

$10 for adults at the gate

$7 for seniors at the gate

Children 12 and under, are free.

For more information, visit mbaonline.org and take a look at the Building Lifestyles magazine in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper!

Steve and Jill Klein Matthiasson are proud owners of one of California’s most improbably situated farms.

Go to the back of a subdivision on Napa’s west side, just off Highway 29. Find a gap between two houses. Round the bend, and their yellow 1905 Victorian farmhouse sits at the end of a gravel driveway, shaded by a handful of old palm trees – a symbol, explains Steve, a keen student of agricultural history, of 19th century rural affluence.

Next to their weathered barn sits a winter vegetable garden, the victim of a nasty recent frost. Chickens scratch the ground. Sheep in the backyard are a new arrival.

Napa may have mastered farmer chic, but this is no facade. It is a haven created by the Matthiassons, with their two sons, Kai and Harry: a 5-acre thumbnail, a reminder of the valley’s agrarian past, wedged into some of the nation’s most expensive agricultural land.

“I still pinch myself every morning,” Steve says. “I’ll go out there at night and stand in the vineyard and look at the stars and say, ‘Wow, this is our farm. We pulled it off.’ “

California wine has bred its share of radicals of late, and Steve, 44, certainly carries those credentials. He’s best known for a white wine that combines grapes native to Italy’s Friuli (Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano) and Bordeaux (Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon), a West Coast tribute to both. Also for esoterica, like ethereal versions of red Refosco and Cabernet Franc. And frankly, dropping a homestead, chickens and all, into the midst of Napa provides its own radical twist.

Helping hand

But then there’s Matthiasson’s day job. He has become one of Napa’s top viticultural consultants, with a client list that has included Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Araujo Estate, Spottswoode and Hall. When a vintner wants more flavor at lower sugar levels, Matthiasson is the one on speed dial. And he has achieved that while evangelizing for a reversal of the past two decades’ trend toward overly ripe flavors and high alcohols.

These beliefs aren’t reactionary so much as grounded in a respect for values that have kept wine on the table for centuries.

“He’s looking for something more permanent, more perennial, more in keeping with what this beverage is meant to do for human beings,” says Stag’s Leap founder Warren Winiarski, one of Matthiasson’s early clients.

Unlike much of the new generation of California dreamers, Matthiasson has worked in the field for nearly two decades. It provides him with an authoritative voice to dispute the argument that Mother Nature’s gift to California is unchecked exuberance.

If one person stands to rewrite the trajectory of California wine – in Napa’s luxurious heart, no less – it is Steve Matthiasson. For that reason, he is The Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year.

Going mainstream

Matthiasson’s early renown, mostly for his white wine, derived from a fascination with Italy, one inspired by a veteran wine executive named George Vare. In 2002, Vare asked Steve for help planting a patch of Ribolla Gialla near his house in western Napa. Later, Steve and Jill grafted Refosco and Schioppettino in the 3 1/2 acres of vines behind their own home.

But the mainstream called. The couple leased 14 acres of a Chardonnay vineyard, Linda Vista, adjacent to their property. Their tangy Linda Vista bottling, aged in neutral oak, might be their most useful wine – not just for “good cash flow,” per Jill, but also because it’s Chardonnay, requiring no complicated introduction to thirsty novices.

In Napa, making a point about ripeness ultimately comes down to red wine. So Matthiasson has made a Bordeaux-inspired red blend for a decade. Three years ago, he and Jill, 51, a talented orchardist in her own right who runs the business side of their label, added a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Their Cabernet is an homage to a classic style for Napa, specifically the ripe but restrained Mondavi Reserve wines of the late 1980s and early 1990s, although its plummy flavors are a bit quieter. At $60, it’s also modestly priced for its neighborhood – part of the Matthiassons’ skepticism about modern Napa’s $100-and-up pricing.

“For one thing,” Steve says, “It’s not us. But the other thing? From a business standpoint, we’re not convinced of the sustainability of that model.”

Yet he exults in the “raw unbridled power” achievable in Napa wines. Modern advances of viticulture have made ripeness a given – a big change from the 1970s, with its old, often diseased vines and unruly trellising, and the often lean wines of the 1980s.

With today’s clean clonal material and spiffy viticulture, Matthiasson says the trick is to “slow the sugar train down.” He isn’t naive enough to believe that lower-alcohol wines will earn 100 points, but he’s trying to slowly notch back ripeness, a victory one degree of sugar at a time.

So he might ditch vertical vine trellises in favor of spread crossarms – a partial revival of the old technique known as “California sprawl” – and align vine rows away from the sun. Both help allay his concern, one reinforced by a study earlier this year, that top wine regions like Napa are getting hotter.

Viewed from outside Napa’s through-the-looking-glass viticulture, Matthiasson’s ideas seem perfectly rational. Why not pick a bit earlier rather than risk late-season weather? Why not leave more crop on the vine, seeing that California vineyards’ great virtue is productivity? In his view, higher yields are both good business and a sound environmental choice: “You don’t need as many acres of the world to grow the wine we want to consume.”

Yet the challenge he faces was never clearer than during a recent panel arranged by the Napa Valley Grapegrowers at Matthiasson’s suggestion, on farming Cabernet at lower alcohol levels.

Were there technical concerns? Not so much. His fellow vineyardists were primarily concerned with what one called “the elephant in the room”: If Napa pursued a modest approach, would it be skewered by the critics who had prompted winemakers to chase ripeness uber alles?

It’s not that Matthiasson’s views were kooky. It’s that so many of his colleagues still live by the score, die by the score.

“That’s what has been so shocking to me,” he says. “I thought getting up there and saying ‘You’re doing it all wrong’ was going to create controversy. And there was no controversy.”

Two approaches

As a viticulturist, Matthiasson has earned a reputation for thriving on gray areas, something that made him appealing to people like Bart and Daphne Araujo, who turned the famed Eisele vineyard into a laboratory for top-quality farming; and to philosopher-vintners like Winiarski, who admired Matthiasson’s ability to mesh modern research science with a farmer’s intuition, which explains why Matthiasson refuses to irrigate at season’s end, even as vines wither.

As Winiarski puts it: “His science does not blind his holistic perception of what the plant is normally doing.”

So it is no surprise that Matthiasson is often downright aggravated by many popular techniques, even something as simple as the use of copper sulfate, a common antifungal. One day while driving with him, I receive a long discourse about its toxicity in the soils of Bordeaux.

Jill shrugs. “He’s the child of anthropologists.”

True enough: Matthiasson was born in Winnipeg, the son of two anthropology professors. His family’s farm, founded by his Icelandic great-grandfather, was just across the border in Mountain, N.D., a bump in the landscape nestled into the state’s northeastern corner. He spent most summers at another family farm in Manitoba.

His parents divorced when he was 8, and moved Steve to Tucson. Its arid landscape was a very different place. He took up skateboarding – a hobby he’s never quite abandoned – and punk, listening to bands like Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys as he worked his way through high school in restaurants and landscaping jobs.

Heading west

Afterward, he was sent farther west, to study philosophy at Whittier College outside Los Angeles, then drifted north to San Francisco in the early 1990s, where he lingered in his punk phase, making money as a bike messenger while volunteering in the city’s community gardens.

To the Matthiasson family, farming was an intellectual’s pursuit. His North Dakota relatives were highly educated, many of them accomplished musicians. And farming retained its pull. He returned to school, studying horticulture at UC Davis, and found an internship in Merced helping San Joaquin Valley orchards adopt sustainable practices.

Jill Klein’s upbringing was rather less agrarian, in a quiet enclave just outside downtown Pittsburgh. Her family owned bars in various Pennsylvania mill towns, and her childhood green thumb was limited to backyard tomatoes – although the Kleins had a yen for the food business. Her cousin Ray Klein helped found Tartine Bakery.

Jill caught the ag bug while at the University of Pennsylvania. But Philadelphia doesn’t lend itself to studying agriculture, and Penn State only offered agribusiness programs. So she looked abroad, spending two years in Israel on such projects as rainwater harvesting and later working in Tucson for Gary Nabhan, a pivotal figure in the seed-saving movement.

She landed at UC Davis, to study sustainable farming. Later, she took a job with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. There she met a growing community of farmers like peach grower Mas Masumoto, who were trying to figure out how to nourish California agriculture on a small scale. In 1994, she received an EPA grant to work on almond farming and hired an intern – a fellow UC Davis student named Steve Matthiasson.

The two began dating. After a month, they made wine together in their shared garage.

Steve was drawn to grape farming, and helped the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission develop one of the industry’s first serious sustainability protocols.

Farming dreams

It was clear they would need to be closer to the coast to work seriously in the wine business. In 2002, the family moved from Davis to Napa.

While the rest of the Bay Area may have been obsessed with local foodways, Napa had doubled down on its cash crop, distancing itself from its old farming roots in pears and French prunes.

“When we planted an orchard, you couldn’t get fresh fruit from Napa,” Jill says. “People would say, ‘Oh, you planted peaches? I hear you can’t grow peaches in Napa.’ “

Even before they met in Davis, Steve and Jill each had an improbable desire: to find a bit of land that they could farm for themselves.

The irony is that Napa economics – Steve’s ability to earn good money for his talents – allowed them to fund those dreams in the most unlikely of places.

Today, when visitors come, Steve often serves salumi (and come spring, one assumes, mutton chops) he’s cured himself, one of many things he and Jill make themselves: jam, vinegar, now vermouth. Jill assembles a salad with lettuce and peppers from the garden.

Napa’s farm roots are stronger now than a decade ago. Jill now sells her fruit at the booming local farmers’ market. And the sui generis style of their wines dovetails perfectly with today’s fashionable farm-to-table gospel. This is merely the continuation of a belief they honed during their Davis days – that it was the moral work of the small farmer to counter California’s agribusiness status quo.

After watching friends trying to make the numbers work in fruit or vegetables – “working crushing hours, living like 16th century peasants,” Steve says – it became evident that wine, even with its messy economics, was a far better return.

Yet, as Jill puts it, “We’re still ultimately selling expensive wine to rich people.”

Which explains Tendu, a project the Matthiassons launched with wine broker Matthew Plympton. This one-liter bottle, meant to be a California alternative to Austria’s everyday liter bottles, is made from Vermentino and retails for around $20. Last year, they added a red from Aglianico, Montepulciano and Barbera. Steve calls it “a Beaujolais, but with Italian varieties.”

Tendu’s grapes come not from Napa but from somewhere the Matthiassons knew would pencil out: Yolo County’s Dunnigan Hills, the same Sacramento Valley spot where Steve once worked for value label R.H. Phillips. He grafted about 30 acres over from Merlot to varieties he knew could withstand 100-degree summer heat. It’s a way to share Steve’s talents with customers have no recourse to $60 Cabernet.

For all the success, Napa’s economics are not kind to the small farmer. So the Matthiassons decided to lease land they couldn’t buy outright – including Coombsville’s Dead Fred vineyard for Cabernet, and a newly found 2 1/2-acre parcel in Rutherford. They surmised that modern-day sharecropping – lend us the land, let us farm it, get a manicured vineyard around your house and a bit of wine – would appeal to those with means, but not green thumbs.

After a decade, they are set to acquire a piece of Linda Vista, which will allow them to expand their own property. Napa’s zoning requires a 10-acre minimum to obtain a winery permit for agricultural land, which will enable them to make wine on their own land – the final step in a dream they hatched nearly 20 years ago in California’s inland orchards.

“It changes things dramatically, because it changes this from a hobby to a real farm,” Steve says. “It becomes something that could support a family.”

From the notebook

2012 Matthiasson Linda Vista Vineyard Napa Valley Chardonnay ($25, 13.5% alcohol): The user-friendly wine in the lineup, with tangy sweet lime, wintergreen and green apple flavors, and a mouthwatering saline aspect. Will get better with some time in the bottle.

2011 Matthiasson Napa Valley White ($35, 12.9%): This edition of the white blend of Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon took a bit longer than most to come around. The oak is down to around 25 percent new, and it’s a stonier, stoic version, matched by dense figgy flavors and that electric energy that Ribolla can bring to a wine.

2011 Matthiasson Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($60, 13.7%): Production is still minuscule, but as a proof of concept, this Cabernet from a cold year shows Matthiasson’s talent with reds: subtle, finessed tannins, aromas of fresh flowers and chopped thyme, chicory and a plummy fruit. There’s skill here in both farming for moderate ripeness and nuanced work to extract flavors.

2013 Tendu California White Wine ($21/liter, 12.8%): Consider this Vermentino Nouveau – a newly vinified interpretation of that Italianate grape, grown in Yolo County, meant for instant enjoyment. Bright citrus accents match a wheatgrass herbal side and ripe pear. An impressive concentration of flavor for a table wine, which I suspect was very much the point.

– Jon Bonné

The wines

The Matthiassons don’t offer public tastings, but their wines are available at many Bay Area wine shops, and via their website. Their wine club offers access to some of their more limited bottlings. More information at www.matthiasson.com.

Jon Bonné is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine editor. E-mail: jbonne@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jbonne

PORTLAND – It’s only January but remodeling and landscaping shows, with an eye toward spring, have already begun pop up.

The Build, Remodel Landscape Show at the Oregon Convention Center, for example, is a one-stop source for ideas on home improvements from roof to basement. It’s a great place to start before you tackle a remodeling project.

The remodeling industry has seen tremendous growth in the past several years.

Last year alone, with home sales up, over $150 billion was spent to spruce up kitchens and baths. This year looks to be another good one for an industry that always likes to come up with something new.

For example, one vendor at the convention center was displaying floors made out of ordinary craft paper.

“I took the decoupage process, which is obviously centuries old, and I translated it into a large surface like a floor or countertop,” said Lisa Raymer of Decoupage Floors. “It can be colored anyway you want.“

Raymer said the biggest question she gets is “What happens if the paper gets wet?”

The material is sealed in such a way that you don’t have to worry, according to Raymer. She said it’s a process you can even do yourself, if you’re brave.

The show runs Friday until 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

More about the home improvement show at Home Show Center

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Journalism was my second-choice for a career. In actual fact I wanted to be a bank robber. The guns, the one-liners, the money — I wanted it all. It wasn’t fear holding me back, as such, it was simply the fact that you couldn’t hold up a bank these days the way they did back maybe 30, 40 — or even 20 — years ago. But, like a concert pianist with stubby fingers, or a ballerina with a bum leg, I still pore over my childhood dream with obsession, crying late into the night over blueprints and plastic explosives.

I never told you any of this, mum.

But I’m gonna be straight: These days, you can’t rob banks with a classic “stick ’em up,” have the teller fill your bag, and escape in your get-away vehicle. It’s just not going to happen. These days biometric technologies (eye/fingerprint scanning and the like), time-locked vaults, silent alarms, exploding dye packs — sometimes concealed within the money itself — will make a hash job of your heist.

You’re not out of options: Crafty criminals have adapted to new technologies almost as fast as banks have been installing them. Security has moved into a more digital era — yes — but its dangers are that they are now automated and that the people using them barely understand the technology. A criminal with a sound understanding of the fairly common-place technologies used in bank security is already fast on their way to understanding how the break open the bank… or better: ‘Lift’ the ‘joint’.

Go where the money is

If you’re happy to get “stuck in” with the bank robbing process, there are quite a few options available. On a relatively small scale, you can use clone debit cards, which can hack a bank from an ATM. For this to be effective, you’d need to disable the ATM’s withdrawal limit, which mean you could withdraw more than the allotted few hundred dollars a day. The key to a good heist is speed: If you’re slow, you get caught. Hackers can disable withdrawal fees online — in the U.S. at least. Alternatively, these intrepid individuals used oxyacetylene welders to bust open ATMs and just took the money. They kept portable acetylene tanks on-hand to perform the task over the course of a night.

A little more hardcore is the Brazilian bank heist that took place in 2005. A group of men bought a house in central Fortaleza, in the province of Ceará. They put up a sign calling themselves a landscaping company and over the course of three months tunneled beneath the house toward the vault of a Banco Central. They were meticulous — disabling the bank’s alarm system before the grab, and spreading burnt lime around the property to prevent finger prints. The money — 160 million real-dollars ($73.2 million, £45.6 million) — was unmarked, meaning tracing was impossible.

Brazil recovered less than R$9 million of that money, and eight of a possible 25 perpetrators. But a word of caution: It wasn’t all plain sailing after their success. The head of the operation — Luis Ribeiro — was killed in a botched robbery of the money he’d made. Many others in the gang are thought to be victims of kidnapping in return for a ransom. Ultimately, the moral is mum’s the word, both for the police and the people around you.

Alternatively, there are the “smart” methods — although to be fair, tunneling under a bank isn’t exactly easy. In September 2013, a group of thieves successfully stole 1.3 million pounds ($2.1 million) from the British bank Barclays. The “Barclays Gang” posed as IT workers and, during their “operation,” set a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) which allows someone to access the computer remotely. They then siphoned off the money — transferring it from customer accounts to their own bank accounts. This is apparently a “hot” technique — so get it while you can before the opportunity closes.

There are, of course, phishing scams to think of. We’ve all gotten the email — “Nigerian general”, “Lloyds will close your account” etc. — but how effective are they? Apparently, annually about 0.5 percent of a bank’s customers will fall for phishing scams, and the money made could be very small, break-even amounts, to the tune of $10 million. A scam set-up is said to cost in the region of $500. Not a direct bank robbery, but you get there in the end. More to the point, would Robin Hood go phishing? Probably not.

There’s a few things to remember about living your life afterward. If the money is “marked,” i.e. if it is identifiable as stolen currency, you need to deposit it abroad or look for “unscrupulous” individuals. Don’t flaunt your money, for goodness sake. If you had the patience to plan the heist, have the patience to spend it at an inauspicious rate. Alternatively, you could money launder Breaking Bad-style. I’m not recommending this course of action, just saying it exists.

Well, there’s some ideas to kick around on a rainy day. Crime can pay, if you’ve got the smarts, the right guys, and a little seed money. The most important thing to remember is: Do the unexpected. Be “the smartest guy in the room.” Don’t get caught. And whatever you do, do NOT take me seriously. I’m just joking. Jeez. Chill.

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