Sleek and customized, a ground-up remodel transforms a tiny ocean-view lot. When architect Robert Nebolon started sketching out ideas for his sister’s tear-down and rebuild in south Hermosa Beach, he felt pretty confident that his design would meet the needs of her family — despite the challenging 30-by-50-foot lot they had to work with. But…
Mitch Klapow was not enthused when his mother handed him an ad for the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, where he would eventually buy his first home. At the time, Mitch, 30, was searching for a condominium to rent. Looking at the mobile homes in the real estate magazine, he thought: “There’s no way…
The low-cost remodel of this 1948 Long Beach house has so many things going for it I don’t know where to start. While the hardwood floors were already in pretty good condition when Janet Foster bought this place, everything else you see is her doing, with the help of her dad. Note the one red…
The story you are about to hear is shocking, so don’t fall off your chair when I tell you: The remodel of this 1948 Hawthorne home was designed by a 16-year-old, David, and built by him and his father Norbert, a schoolteacher, during a summer break. Since then, David has been accepted into the respected…
You know how everyone likes to sit up high on bar stools? But without having to be in a bar? Steve and Marygrace Carpenter like that feeling so much they got rid of their lowly kitchen table during a recent remodel at their Westchester home and replaced it with this tall table. It’s almost like…
Taking a break from the wildfire coverage, let’s consider load-bearing posts in a house. Every now and again, a large and open room requires a post to hold up the roof or floor above. It’s usually a matter of the budget, where a beam or beams strong enough to span the room and carry the…
It might be soon to talk about recovery as the tragedy unfolds, but Southern Californians do rebuild after fires. I’m sure Claremont residents Vern and Deb Jahnke, who lost their house in the 2003 Grand Prix Fire, are thinking about and praying for (he’s a minister, after all) the victims of the current fires. After…
I caught up with Liese Gardner, a marketing and PR pro, and Dave Lidstone, an engineer type, whose gorgeous DIY Spanish-style kitchen was featured in the L.A. Times last year. See pictures of it here. I asked Liese my favorite how’s-the-remodel-working-out set of questions. I wanted to know what she and Dave would have done…
This three-minute YouTube video shows some befores and afters of SoCal remodeling projects I’ve written about. Perhaps they will inspire you. Be sure to turn up the sound.
Bill and Becka Doering did a whole-house green remodel on their Santa Barbara home, and I wrote a Pardon Our Dust feature about it, which you can read here. Bill is both an engineer and a green-building enthusiast. With his firm, Doering Design & Engineering, he helps others make their homes more energy-efficient. Also, the…