Metro West Advertiser January 23, 2025 by Colorado Community Media

New homes from $400s

from the land, Farmlore represents a wonderful slice of small-town living that bikes outnumbered cars, and neighbors or lemonade on the front porch.

Farmlore is located in Brighton, just west of Prairie Center, on 144th Ave.

Expect a Lot of Talk About Making Homes Fire-Resistant. Here’s My Contribution.

The whole world has watched in horror as wind-driven fires have ravaged Southern California, According to available data, approximately one-third of the U.S. population lives within two miles of the WildlandUrban Interface (WUI), meaning roughly 100 million Americans are situated in areas at risk of wildfires due to their proximity to wildlands. That’s 45 million residences that could be destroyed quickly, given the “perfect storm” of high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.

It was that combination that destroyed over 1,000 homes in Boulder County three years ago.

sealed is essential when fire breaks out. The windows should be closed, of course, but keep in mind that if the windows have vinyl framing, it could melt, allowing the window to fall out. Aluminum framing melts at 1100º F, so metal or fire-rated wood framing is best. You could even install fire shutters or roll-down steel shutters, allowing you to keep your current vinyl windows.

My Previous Columns on This Topic (posted at

Sept. 14, 2023 — I Found Only One Marshall Fire Home Being Rebuilt With Fire Resistance in Mind

Just like then, we are beginning to see pictures of homes that didn’t burn in the middle of neighborhoods where every other house was burned to the ground. Below is one such picture taken by the architect who built it, Greg Chasen. There was even a car parked on the property line that burned so hot that the aluminum from the car melted, flowing in a stream toward the sidewalk. A video link with this article on our blog, http://RealEstateToday.substack.com, includes Chasen explaining how he designed the home to survive just such a fire.

Embers will land on your roof, so a metal roof is best. There are some attractive stone-coated steel roofs that resemble wood shakes or composition shingles.

If you have a vented attic, you can install screens with 1/16-inch mesh that will keep 99% of embers out of your home.

The most important factor in keeping a fire out of a house is eliminating wind-driven embers from entering the attic. Most homes have ventilated attics, with soffit vents to let air in and roof vents to let the air out. In the above house, there is no attic and therefore no vents.

In my Oct. 13, 2022, column (see box above right), I wrote about two homes in Superior that didn’t burn because they had “conditioned” attics with no openings for ventilation. Instead of blown-in insulation resting on the attic floor, the ceilings of the attics (the underside of the roof) in both homes were insulated with closed-cell foam — in other words, attics were conditioned (heated and cooled) like the rest of the house. Because most fires spread through windblown embers, keeping a home completely

Some building codes now require fire sprinklers, but sprinklers probably wouldn’t be in your unconditioned attic. If a fire enters your attic, the PVC pipes in the attic for delivering water to your top floor sprinkler heads would likely melt before the sprinklers activate, which would be too late anyway.

If you have flammable roofing, you might install sprinkler heads on your roof ridges to keep the roof wet during an ember storm, but don’t bother doing that if you haven’t made your attic ember-proof!

Wood decks, wood fences and vegetation that touches your house will receive windblown embers and, after burning next to your house for a while, will ignite your home, so consider replacing or eliminating the deck, installing steel fencing, and eliminating all vegetation within five feet of your home, especially juniper bushes, which make great kindling for starting a house fire.

If you’ll be replacing your windows, having the outer pane be tempered glass makes it much more resistant to breakage from heat, and pay attention to the window frames, as I mentioned above.

If building a new home, adobe walls are best, because “dirt doesn’t burn.” In my Sept. 14, 2023, column I reported on a Marshall

Jan. 5, 2023 — Revisiting Lessons Learned from the Marshall Fire a Year Later Oct. 13, 2022 — Homes That Survived the Marshall Fire Were More Airtight and Had Conditioned Attics

Jan. 20, 2022 — Here Are More Examples of Concrete Construction and Fire-Resistant Roofing

Jan. 13, 2022 — Homes Built of Concrete Garner Increased Interest in Wake of Marshall Fire

Jan. 6, 2022 — Last Week’s Fire Disaster Is a Wake-up Call for Building More FireResistant Homes

Fire rebuild made from “Ecoblox,” a product of Lisa Morey’s startup, Colorado Earth

Here is a picture of homeowners Matteo Rebeschini and Melanie Glover at the factory where the Ecoblox for their home were being manufactured. Ecoblox also have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional bricks, because they are not fired, but merely compressed.

Building with dirt has a long and proven track record dating back 10,000 years, and is clearly the most proven material for building a fire-resistant home. Learn more at www.ColoradoEarth.com Their factory is near Brighton. Lisa built 25 homes in New Zealand before returning to the United States and co-authoring a book on the subject, Adobe Homes for All Climates

China and New Zealand are leaders, it appears, in the resurgence of this building technique. Read more at www.earthhomes.co.nz.

The reason for using bricks instead of its predecessor technology, rammed earth, is that it can be reinforced with steel rods and concrete to make the structure earthquake resistant, not just fireresistant.

Of necessity, this article only begins to deal with hardening an existing home or building a fire-resistant home. In researching this topic, I discovered a website www.WildfirePrepared.org, which has an amazingly thorough checklist of actions to take which result in the awarding of a “Wildfire Prepared Home” or “Wildfire Prepared Home Plus” certificate which is recognized by insurers in Oregon and California, but not yet in other states. Nevertheless, it is a terrific menu of actions you could take to make your Colorado home fire-resistant. I have put a link to it with this article at http:// RealEstateToday.substack.com

PBS Show to Feature Local Net Zero Home

This coming Saturday, January 25th, Rocky Mountain PBS will broadcast another episode of “Heart of a Building,” this time featuring John Avenson’s amazing net zero home in Westminster. It will air at 5:00, between “This Old House” and “Weekend NewsHour.”

neer, has continued to enhance the home’s performance as each new technology, such as coldweather heat pumps, was introduced.

John’s home was built by SERI (Solar Energy Research Institute), the former name of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) as a demonstration project of passive solar design, with the limited active solar technology available at that time.

Since, then, John, a re-tired Bell Labs engi-

You’ll be impressed at how far John has gone to have his home be an educational installation which he keeps open to the public. It has been on multiple green home tours. Look for the half-hour program at 5:00 pm this coming Saturday on both Channel 6 and Channel 12. The series is a production of Rocky Mountain PBS, but it will air nationally on all PBS stations at a later date.

LEAP proporciona asistencia de energía para bajar los gastos de calefacción.

LEAP helps eligible Coloradans pay a portion of their winter home heating costs.

LEAP ayuda a los residentes elegibles de Colorado a pagar una parte de sus gastos de calefacción de invierno.

April 26, 1932 – January 07, 2025

omas (Tom) Nakata was born on April 26, 1932 in Denver, Colorado to James Tadashi Nakata and Doris Ayako Nakata. He was the oldest of four children. ey grew up in Fort Lupton, Colorado and lived and worked on the family’s vegetable farm. Because the family lived in Colorado and the State Governor was sympathetic to the Japanese Americans, Tom and his family were not interned to a relocation camp.

When Tom was 18 years old, he was drafted into the army out of high school. He served his boot camp time in Fort Riley, Kansas. When he received orders in the 10th Infantry Division to report to Germany at the time of the Korean War, he was assigned to the work directly for the Captain as his personal secretary. Tom always talked about his service time in Germany and how much he loved Germany. With his discharge as a Corporal he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Occupation Medal (Germany), and the Good Conduct Medal.

In 1963 Tom met the love of his life, Majorie (Marge) Masako Yoshida, and they were married in 1964 at the Tri-State Denver Buddhist Temple. After getting married they worked on the family farm and also took in Marge’s mother to live with them.

In 1966 they welcomed their rst born, daughter Lori Tomoko. In 1968 they welcomed their twin sons Kent Tadao and Kurt Eiichi. Tom began working at the Ridge Home Center for the handicapped and took night classes Metro State College. Tom and Marge both went on to work for the Capital O ce Supply while raising their three children. e career Tom felt most proud of was his supervisory role for the State Highway Department. He and his crew were in charge of maintaining many roads locally in Adams County as well as road maintenance and snow removal in other locations such as at the Eisenhower Tunnel. Tom enjoyed and took pride in his voluntary work in the Brighton community. He was recognized as one of the key volunteers at the Brighton Senior Center and was an active member of the Brighton Japanese American Association. With the BJAA he managed several services o ered at the Annual Chow Mein Dinner. He and Marge also volunteered with Meals on Wheels and would take their grandkids, Chris and Lindsay, around Brighton every Monday to deliver warm meals to many residents of Brighton.

After his rst retirement, Tom went on to work at Walmart and Inglenook at Brighton Senior Living Community. He took care of the gardens at Inglenook and the Brighton Senior Center, planting

owers every spring and maintaining the grounds. He would be outside watering the owers even in cold temperatures, he never missed a day of work. If you ever spoke with Tom he would tell you he worked for Inglenook for over 20 years and he “retired 4 times!”. At 92 years old, he still worked up to his life’s last days. In the last few years, as movement was getting more di cult for him from hurting his knees during his military service, Tom’s gardening role changed to becoming Inglenook’s Ambassador. His new role included greeting new residents and helping them get acquainted with their new home. Inglenook also created an indoor garden in his honor enabling him to continue caring for and maintaining plants and owers, but more safely in an indoor environment. During all his years working at Inglenook, he proudly wore his work badge every single day.

On top of his work duties, omas loved spending time with his family including his kids, grandchildren and his great grandchildren. omas rarely missed a dance recital, band performance, graduation, or sporting event. He was present for every holiday with family and made sure every family member received a special card picked by him for their birthdays. He also never wanted to miss a single day of bingo at Inglenook. He took pride in his important role of handing out the bingo cards.

omas was surrounded by the love of his family in his last days. He was still determined to get himself dressed to get to work. He was one of the hardest working, sweetest, and strongest men. He was one of a kind, a wonderful part of his community, and adored by his family. He is and will always be greatly missed.

Tom is survived by his daughter Lori Dighero (Gregory), sons Kent (Jen) and Kurt (Stacy), his sister Reiko Nakata Perkins (Don) and brother Gary. He is also survived by his grandchildren Chris (Brielle), Lindsay (Nate), Talley, Colson, Travis (Heather), Tyler, Dakota, Kaleb, and Lilli; along with his great grandchildren Lincoln, Charlie, Briley, Jaycie, Coraline, and Pax. He is preceded in death by his wife Marjorie, both parents James and Doris, his brother Roy, and his great niece Jade Skye Perkins.

Funeral Services will be on Friday, January 31st, 10 a.m., Olinger Funeral and Cemetery –Highland, 10201 Grant Steet, ornton, Colorado, 80229. Burial and internment to follow at 12:00 p.m. (same location. Afterwards, friends and family are invited to join Tom’s loved ones at the Prost Brewing Company, 351 W 104th Ave, Unit A, Northglenn, CO 80234, for food and beverages to celebrate Tom’s life.

NAKATA

Thomas H. Nakata

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