Eco-renewal? It’s not for the humble budget

IT didn’t take long for the L.A. Times to discover the “yacht magazine” approach to home improvement. Publishers know that you can sell a lot more magazines about yachts than rowboats, even though most readers can’t afford a yacht.

Today, the Home section is a society page for well-heeled homeowners; those of us who can never afford the luxury homes featured will nonetheless be entertained by the thought that maybe we could copy some small element of these homes in our humble abodes.

After reading about the Rosens’ eco-friendly redo of their sumptuous Brentwood home [“A Natural, Inside and Out,” Jan. 6], I ran to Home Depot to check out prices for “renewable” Philippine mahogany like the Rosens used for their deck.

I found only a few gnarly-looking boards priced about a hundred times higher than the usual junky, possibly noncertified, possibly nonrenewable, ordinary fir most people use. So I won’t be able to emulate that part of the Rosens’ eco-renewal program.

Perhaps I can achieve at least a minimal level of emulative satisfaction by installing a few slate tiles here and there. They have lots of those at Home Depot.

Lou Einung

Palm Desert

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I had to read the top of Steven Barrie-Anthony’s article several times to see if I got it right. A 4,000-square-foot house resting on the edge of Mandeville Canyon isn’t palatial? What are things coming to when a house this size, even if not a McMansion, is not considered large?

Karen Suarez

Eagle Rock