How Santa Barbara Homeowners Can Create a “Smart” Healthy Home

PURIFY · REJUVENATE · REFUEL · RECOVER

Female hand holding black mobile smart phone with smart home application on the screen. Blurred house on the background. For access to all of the controls of your house and caring of home security.

Did you know that today’s new smart home tech can actually make you healthier by creating a healthy home? In fact, an entire industry is focusing its efforts on ways to make our interior spaces smarter, more connected, and futuristically convenient to create a healthier, stress-free home environment. And today’s cutting-edge wellness intelligence in smart-home innovation goes way beyond auto-smart thermostats and wireless speaker systems. There are new gadgets and systems hitting the market every day designed to purify, rejuvenate, refuel, and recover.

Healthy Communities

Experts say a significant key to healthy living is residing in a healthy community like ours. Even before smart home tech became the norm, we who are fortunate enough to call Santa Barbara home led the way in healthy living when compared to other communities across the country. Santa Barbara is naturally a healthy community in its own right, consistently ranking at the top in surveys like this one from livability.com, which named the American Rivera one of the best places to live. I concur!

Of course, besides living in a healthy location, there are some other simple things Santa Barbara homeowners can do to relieve stress: like meditation and Yoga. But don’t stop there. if you want to get your life to a more manageable level, there are also many smart gadgets you can buy designed to help create a healthy home. And no need to worry if you’re not a tech genius. Smart home technologies don’t need to be overwhelming. Here are some to consider:

Relaxed young woman at home with raised arms

Purify

Your home may be your castle, but most are surprisingly bad at defending against air and water pollution. Over time that pollution can contribute to respiratory, digestive, endocrine, and cardiovascular issues.

Enter the Darwin system by Delos. With a mission to improve human health and wellbeing, this company offers an array of air-and water-quality sensors, filters, and purifiers all designed to reduce or remove airborne particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. Some of the dangerous compounds the system removes include excess carbon dioxide, heavy metals, viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants from drinking water.

This pioneer of Wellness Real Estate^TM has also designed an intelligent dynamic platform that helps improve a home’s air quality. Featuring the world’s first home wellness intelligence platform, DARWIN Home Wellness Intelligence air monitoring sensor technology passively tests air quality in real-time and provides key information about the health of your home via the wall-mounted interface or an app.

Spa therapy. Woman relaxing in bath tub with flowers. Female with long slender legs enjoying aroma therapy of scented water at day spa salon outdoors.

Rejuvenate

There are several reasons your bathroom should be a sanctuary. First and foremost, showering enhances blood flow and relaxes muscles while adding a steam bath can improve cardiovascular health.

READ: Maintaining a Healthy Home Begins in the Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Santa Barbara homeowners can create their own personal home spa by outfitting their bathroom with the right hardware. You might want to begin by installing Thermasol’s ThermaTouch interface, an entire shower-and-steam experience that allows you to adjust everything from lighting and music to steaming temperature and duration; all on the system’s 10-inch LCD screen. You can even choose from nine “tranquility scenes” which fill the bathroom with soothing sounds and images from nature. For the ultimate unwind, ThermaTouch will combine your steamed bath session with sound therapy, which can propel brain waves into a state of deep relaxation.

Refuel

The kitchen is known as the heart of the house and Vera Iconica, a Wyoming-based architecture firm, pushes that notion to the extreme. Specializing in what it calls “wellness architecture,” the company offers healthy home innovations like the integrated hydroponic window garden for growing pesticide-free greens at home. Or perhaps you’d like to install one of the company’s cellar-like storage solutions, with humidity-controlled cabinets and surface sanitizing via ultraviolet light, especially important today considering COVID-19 because the light eradicates any viruses that may be lurking on your countertops.

READ: Santa Barbara Farmers’ Markets Farm Stands And Gourmet Shops

When it comes to cooking, look for a combi-steam oven, the go-to appliance for anyone interested in wellness. Simply put, steaming helps retain foods’ vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. They combine elements of steam and convection cooking, which means home chefs can use steam on a wide range of foods—even steak—for healthy, delicious meals.

Young woman relaxing in a sauna dressed in a towel. Interior of new Finnish sauna, infrared panels for medical procedures, classic wooden sauna

Recover

Everyone knows you need to add daily exercise for optimal health, but do you know proper recovery is just as important? That’s where infrared saunas come into play. Clearlight Sanctuary infrared model from Northern Saunas is an excellent healthy home choice. Sweating out 15–30 min at 194°F multiple times a week is definitely a great way to enhance, facilitate, and even boost detoxification by increasing circulation using light to warm the body from within. This method is not only more efficient, but it is also far more hygienic than traditional saunas that are at high-risk for mold.

READ: Running Trails in Santa Barbara: 8 of the Most Popular

At the other end of the thermometer are home cryotherapy systems. Manufacturers like Juka are focusing on at home, whole-body systems. There are so many benefits to intensely frigid temperatures, and Juka’s units bring the temp down to negative 200 degrees Fahrenheit, for short bursts of two to four minutes. The extreme cold is believed to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation.

No one’s life will ever be completely stress-free, which is actually a good thing because stress is something that challenges us and helps us grow at a reasonable level. When stress gets too high, it can make even the healthiest among us unhappy and unhealthy.

If you’re ready to maximize your healthy living, having a healthy home or home away from home in Montecito, Hope Ranch or any of Santa Barbara’s upscale communities is definitely something to consider. If you already live here, you know what I mean. Either way, I’m always available to answer any questions or concerns you have about buying or selling distinctive property in one of the “Best Places to Live” in the US. Just give me a call at +1-805-886-9378 or email me at Cristal@montecito-estate.com.

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Client Reviews

“Cristal is a pleasure to work with! Her knowledge of the local real estate market coupled with her amazing listening skills resulted in her showing us an array of homes that were all excellent choices. Her low-pressure patient attitude made us feel extremely comfortable with the whole process. I cannot recommend her highly enough.”

- M.F.

“Cristal Clarke is #1 in her field - and you don't become #1 by luck. Cristal works harder, and longer, and with more charm and patience than any real estate agent I have ever worked with in the past; her calendar has no weekend, her days have no clocks, her only concern is selling your property as soon as possible and for the best price on the market. Am I a fan? You bet!”

- P.B.

“We have used Cristal now several times and cannot express how grateful we are for her expertise, dedication, and unwavering support throughout the entire home-buying process. Cristal is knowledgeable, patient and attentive. Her attention to detail is remarkable, and she consistently went above and beyond to provide us with all the information and resources we needed to make informed decisions. Cristal is a skillful negotiator and advocate. She can navigate complex negotiations with professionalism and grace and felt like a true partner to us in the home-buying process. Cristal has a genuine passion for real estate and a deep commitment to her clients' satisfaction. I cannot speak highly enough of Cristal and her exceptional service. She is a true expert in her field and her dedication to excellence, combined with unwavering support is the reason we choose to work with her for all our real estate buying needs.”

- T.C.

“Cristal is a top-notch realtor who sold my home before it ever went on the market. I had two competing offers that enabled me to get top dollar for my home. Not only is Cristal superb but her team is extraordinary. I cannot say enough about Cristal and her team. They are simply phenomenal, the consummate professionals, who took care of every possible detail, making the sale and transition period, smooth from our end. They are also lovely, caring people, who knew all the right professionals, to get the job done. Thank you, everyone!”

- D.R.

“I could list lots of cool adjectives to describe Cristal. All good by the way. But, that is not why I or anyone should hire Cristal. My reason for hiring her, which proved to be correct, is very simple. She got the job done. And, she does it time and time again and with zero issues. And, that is why she is one of the top agents in the country. End of subject. ”

- M.A.

“Working with Cristal was a complete pleasure. Cristal was extremely patient with us as we evaluated nearly 2 dozen homes over a span of 2 years. Her knowledge of the market is unmatched. Cristal provided us with exceptional counsel as we evaluated opportunities and negotiated pricing. The closing process was handled thoroughly and efficiently. We could not be happier with our purchase and even more happy to now call Cristal our friend.”

- D.K.

“Cristal Clarke has conducted numerous real estate transactions for me beginning 13 years ago with the purchase of a Lemon Ranch. She has handled both large and small purchases and sales with equal dedication. As a negotiator, you can’t find anyone better. Her transactions are always conducted in the most appropriate and professional manner. Cristal has considerable knowledge of the Santa Barbara market.”

- S.N. Decker Ph.D.

“Living in Europe, we were to say the least, unaccustomed to the nuances of Real Estate acquisition in California and Cristal steered us through the process with absolute professionalism and personal attention to detail at every turn. Her in-depth knowledge of the market place combined with enthusiasm and drive was the only reason we secured the property of our dreams and will be forever grateful. If you are looking for personal discrete and private representation of the highest quality we suggest you look no further than Cristal Clarke.”

- Johan and Paula van den Berg

“Cristal is very straightforward, cheerful, helpful, professional and trustworthy….we felt very lucky to work with her.”

- John and Lacey Williams

“After considering our many choices, we are grateful it was Cristal Clarke of Sotheby’s International who represented the sale of our Montecito cottage. We are familiar with Cristal’s reputation of hard work and dedication to clients, but it was her attention to detail that made our experience so positive. She offered suggestions for staging the property, worked in harmony with potential buyers and was even able to secure back up offers. The sale of our cottage was completed much sooner than we expected, due in great part to Cristal’s professional skills and support. We highly recommend Cristal as a first choice for anyone needing representation with real estate.”

- Michael & Nancy Lee

“Our experience in working with Cristal Clarke resulted in the successful and discrete acquisition of a property which was not yet on the open market. Her knowledge of the Montecito/Santa Barbara area and vast expertise blended with her passion for real estate and architecture, provided us with the very highest level of professionalism and personalized services. Cristal exhibited a rare combination of excellent communications, attention to detail, creativity and patience.”

- Richard and Catherine Frinier

“Cristal really breaks the mold. She knows every nook and cranny of this real estate market, understands value, and follows up on everything, all the time. She was incredibly patient with our two year quest to find the perfect house. Every house hunting trip from across the country was well planned, and our time was never wasted. On top of her professionalism and expertise, she is delightful to spend time with. We are thrilled with the home we purchased, and grateful to Cristal for so wisely advising us through this process, right through to the close and beyond.”

- Laurie Siegel

“We met Cristal first in the course of renting a winter home (for three years), then buying a house using her as our agent. She was amazingly good at listening to our wants and showing us homes that fit our needs. Her mastery of the paperwork was perfect. Most importantly, there was never a situation where we doubted her straightforwardness or integrity. If we do another real estate transaction in Montecito (which I doubt, we’re happy with what we purchased), without question we’d use Cristal again.”

- Ken Saffir

“Susan and I just want to thank you for your efforts in the sale of our home. You are really quite amazing. Your competence, persistence, optimism and humor made the entire process effortless. Every problem that arose, you somehow fixed; any obstacle, you overcame. We have bought and sold many homes. It has never been such a painless and enjoyable process!”

- Michael & Susan Marquart

“A little something about “our” realtor, Cristal Clarke. My wife and I came to Santa Barbara about fifteen years ago looking for a seasonal home from which to enjoy the weather and amenities of the central coast. Being in the real estate business myself I was familiar with agents and brokers so entered the market with open eyes. We “flipped” a few houses in the early years, dealing with various agents and finally ended up in Montecito. That’s when good fortune put us together with Cristal. To say we were impressed is to put it mildly. Cristal really knows the market. She is familiar with the area, its history and trends. When we have questions about a particular property she either has the answers immediately or gets back to us by phone or email. There is no waiting or wondering with Cristal. She is an agent who is “on top of it.” Her recommendations as to price points, contractors, inspectors and title agents have proven to be exceptional, showing great insight and the highest professional standards. We consider ourselves exceedingly fortunate to say that Cristal Clarke is our realtor and would recommend her services to any serious buyer or seller.”

- Rob & Judi Kelch