Our Story

It’s not that I wished a tree to fall on my house, but oddly, I think I always knew one would. Especially since in 2010, a dead eucalyptus tree fell on a neighbor’s house, putting one woman into the hospital and causing the house to be taken down to the foundation. I had 5 of those same trees in my front yard. I have been preparing for this day.

I called my insurance broker to make sure we would be covered if the same happened to us. Our front yard lacks a sidewalk to divide our property from the city’s property. In fact, the whole side of our street lacks a sidewalk. Those trees sit lined up like silent sentries in the gray area of whose property is it, just off the curb. I learned that my house was properly insured for such a disaster, I also learned the catch 22 when it comes to dealing with these trees.

“If you want to trim the tree, you can’t because it is the city’s, but if the tree falls on your house, it is your tree”.

So, if the tree is dead, or hemorrhaging large branches into your yard and on your car, you cannot do anything to remedy the situation because it is not your tree. As long as it is vertical, hands off.  But when it falls onto your house, well, it is now your dead tree lying horizontal on your smushed house.

In truth, by the time we moved into our perfect little house with what I thought were magnificent old growth trees, it was already years too late for keeping those trees safely sized and shaped.  I still loved the massive giants that dwarfed our little house and felt they guarded our humble abode.

The history of our community and the relationship to the trees is an interesting tale. Granada Hills is called “the most neighborly town in the valley”. It was built on the expansive acreage that was acquired in the 1880’s for farming and then sold off to become the “Sunshine Ranch” in the 1920s. The eucalyptus trees that line our side of Kingsbury street were planted to protect the orange groves from wind damage.  Our neighborhood  is still peppered with beautiful old orange trees that not only produce the most amazing navel oranges every winter but also perfume the neighborhood with the scent of orange blossoms every spring.

When we first laid eyes on our house after the exhausting chore of house hunting, I was reminded of a book I read when I was a child, “The Little House in the Big Woods”. I had always liked the combination of a cottage with a yard full of large majestic trees.  It was one of the many things that led us to fall in love with and buy our house.

We loved those trees in a historic, romantic, and esthetic way, marveling at their height and in awe of their age.  I did not initially know they had the potential to be dangerous until we were owners of the house. When we saw an occasional Eucalyptus tree fall, on the news, we began to understand it could happen to us, and so…

…On December 27, 2016, it did!
I do not think I willed it to fall because it crossed my mind so often.  If I had that superpower, I would like to think I would use it to better mankind or at least improve my house with just a twitch of my nose, not destroy it.  It was just the tree’s time to go.  At almost 100 years old, the height and weight of the eucalyptus cannot be supported by its shallow root system. The roots were starved of light when the streets were paved in the 1950s and more recently, 3 years of drought followed by intense rain and then high winds (very characteristic for this area) were a recipe for disaster.

In our case, we did dodge numerous bullets.

1. We were not home
2. No humans were hurt, though one kitty got a scratch on his nose, but he is not talking so we have no clue if this was because of the tree entering the house or because of fleeing from the tree entering the house.
3. It did not take out the whole house but it caused damage throughout. The extent of which cannot be determined until we move out and they begin removing the roof and walls
4. We were out of town and therefore not around to be interviewed by the news crews who descended on the block. I have no desire for the world to see me without hair and make-up, in shock at the addition of a tree in my house. (My neighbors, however, gave numerous interviews and loved their 2.5 minutes of fame)

People are really surprised by our easy-going response to this predicament. Well, similar to my cancer diagnosis in 2002, which I have happily survived, there is no one to blame and no option but to move forward. We plan to experience this as an adventure and see it as an opportunity to evolve our little house from the “cutest house in America, maybe the world” (as I have always affectionately called it) into a “work in progress with the promise of potential expansion”.

So, what happened the day the tree fell on our house? We had just celebrated the Christmas Holiday with Tobin’s family in Houston. We were still IN Houston the early morning that I got a text from my next-door neighbor, Mayra. (please excuse any typos)

After a few speculative calls to the airline, again this is the week between Christmas and New Year’s, we decided the added expense of emergency travel was not going to help the situation.

There was nothing WE could do that could not be directed from a distance. We were certainly not going to lift that 70’ gargantuan tree off the house by ourselves. And even if we could, what would we do with it? So, who do you call when a tree falls on your house and you are 1,547.9 miles away?

I wish everyone in crisis mode had as easy an answer as I did. Lucky for me, my highly skilled and highly resourceful insurance professional Alberta, over the years, has become one of my closest friends and I have her cell number.

Ring, ring…(because there are no emoji’s to exclaim that sort of shock)

So Alberta called and I explained where the key to my house was hidden and how to turn off the alarm. Come to think of it, why did we not get a call from the alarm company? It was definitely big enough to trigger the alarm. And what is a tree in your house if not an intruder? A wooden intruder. It literally broke into my house.

Someone needed to get inside and check on our two cats and my friend/assistant Vonnie’s two cats who stay in our guest room/Jana’s closet when she and her husband, Mike are away.  Alberta’s husband David was home that morning and the two of them are to be commended for their quick response to check on the wellbeing of all four fur babies. The tree had fallen on the side of the house where the electrical wires came in.  The visiting cats were in the front room and although I could not conceive of them getting out through the hole from the tree, we were sure they needed to be moved to a safer place in the house before any tree removal work started.

David wrangled the little furry guys out of the front guest room/Jana’s closet and into a safer part of the house.  They were unharmed, save for one little cut, but very spooked. We will never know how Vonnie’s little tuxedo tabby, Jimbo, got his nose scraped up, be it the room falling down upon him, or fleeing face first into something in the room because the room was falling down upon him.  He is not willing to talk about it no matter how many times we have asked.

Luckily, David took some amazing photos inside and out. This has become especially important since by the time we got home from the airport the next afternoon, the tree was completely off the house, thanks to the city of Los Angeles.

Realizing that the electrical was surely involved, our first responders called the Fire Department and the insurance company. I think the electricity was turned off by the city for a while until the tree was off the house. Either the insurance company or the Fire Department must have called the city as they were taking the tree off the house by Tuesday night. It had fallen in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  We returned Wednesday.

THEN THIS HAPPENED
The rest of that Tuesday, while still in Houston with Tobin’s sister Lisa and our family, we were in a state of surreal denial.  Our neighbors were standing in front of our tree-in-the-house and giving sound bites to reporters who were showing the house and the address on camera and explaining that the homeowners were away… Am I the only one that thinks that was a tad irresponsible?

NBC Los Angeles News Article
OneNewsPage.com Video

We became obsessed with following all the links our friends were texting to the multitude of news stories on every network. We even heard about it from friends who heard it on the radio and recognized the address.

All I was thinking was, glad it is not ME in that news clip with NO HAIR AND MAKE-UP!! The fact that it was our sweet, broken house was not completely sinking in.

We were scheduled to fly home the next day, Wednesday, and from the time we woke up in the morning throughout the trip we continued to get reports from friends and clips to catch on news programs. Once we landed and caught the Fly Away Bus for the final stretch, the news was showing the city workers removing the tree from the house. Tobin and I were musing:

If a tree falls on your house, and you were not there to see it, and it is gone when you get home, did it really fall?

The final part of the journey was the Uber from the Fly Away to the house, we had mixed feelings at this point. When the car turned from Balboa Blvd. onto our street we could see the giant yellow dumpster ½ a mile away, blocking traffic from entering the block. As we drove closer the dumpster and the magnitude of the event grew larger and larger.

We were greeted, on our front lawn, by a jovial team of LA City workers. The tree was off the house, 1/3 of which was now open to the sky. The giant tree was cut into long chunks and they were in the process of cutting it up into smaller pieces to fit into the jaws of some sort of scary looking vehicle that takes it to the trailer home size dumpster. More vehicles, some with arms, some with gaping mouths peppered the lawn, completely ruining the front landscaping we had invested in a year before. They were all very large and I assume very heavy and by the time they left, our front yard looked like we had landmines planted and a large herd of bison stampeded through.

We were too fascinated by the process to even consider going inside. We stood and watched and joked and worried and watched as the work proceeded.

Eventually, they offered to cut us a chunk of the tree to keep as a souvenir…we thought that was a great idea, so they did!  I have yet to figure out what to do with it, but I am open to suggestions.

WHEN TREES ATTACK, VULNERABILITY
It was late afternoon by the time we shook ourselves away and ventured into our little- broken home with our luggage in tow

The insurance company had sent a team of guys with plastic tarps to cover up the now vulnerable roof, attic, and house as there were areas where the tree got all the way through.

It was a bit apocalyptic and existential to experience the debris in the affected 1/3 of the house. When looking at the front of the house, most of the impact was to the left front room. On the inside, the insulation, bark shards, branches, and pieces of roofing were primarily in that front room, but the impact was clear from the front to back. The cracking of walls and moldings was visible down the interior hall, into the full bath, into the master bedroom and on out to the back patio area. We have not lived in LA during any kind of earthquake activity worth the mentioning, but we have been told that’s the kind of jolt the house took.

Of course, our morbid curiosity would love to know what that sounded and felt like but our more rational selves realize it was really good we were not there to experience it. The master bedroom was in the direct line of the action and we most certainly would have been woken from a peaceful sleep by a un-forgettable and petrifying jolt.

Our friend David had moved Vonnie and Mikes furry babies from the room of greatest impact to the safety of the room next to it. We knew Sharon, our cat sitter, had gotten to the house soon after we had called her the day before and all 4 fuzzy heads had been accounted for. Vonnie’s cats, Jimbo and Hobbs would, if they could, have the greatest story to tell as a giant branch hit directly into the room they were in and all the mess fell around them.  We fear there may be some kitty therapy in their futures. Our Cats, Cotton, and Nala had been held up in the back of the house in the master with access to the outdoors into the secured cat habitat through the cat door. They had also conspired to keep the story between them and refused to answer our questions about what they had experienced. Thankfully, they all fared well enough, mostly appearing completely unfazed.

Our first concern was if it was safe enough to stay the night and actually, we never really got an answer to that question, as we did not actually ask it. I did not want to leave my wounded home and simply wanted to stay inside its safer cleaner areas and project our love for it with our presence in it.

While still in Houston we had begun conversations with our insurance company and by this time I was confident that although they had been fast to secure the property, the guy I was talking to did not comprehend the magnitude of the situation and of the potential danger and loss. In fairness, he had not yet seen the photos or had access to the inside. Tobin got up and went to work on Thursday and I started to assess the process ahead. Having been frustrated by my conversations with the first insurance company guy I/we realized that an independent adjuster would probably be a good idea. With help from my brother, we started to research an independent adjuster in the area.

We probably should not have been staying at the house and our insurance would have covered a hotel, but my nesting instincts had kicked in and I just did not want to be away from our greatest worldly possession. We also had the cats to worry about. The 2 nephews kitties were safely back with their parents, but Nala and Cotton were our concern. I felt that the greatest danger to us would be that in the event of an earthquake we would be more vulnerable than otherwise but that under normal circumstances we were not in immediate danger.

RECONSTRUCTING TRAGEDY
Our house is on a raised foundation, common on the East Coast and less common in Southern California. Although the airspace below my house cushioned the blow, the framing around the foundation literally bounced, causing a ripple effect of damage, like in an earthquake, throughout the exterior walls. The result was each doorway, many windows, tile and surfaces throughout, tweaking and cracking. Our Corian kitchen counter popped away about an inch on end.

While this felt like a great tragedy at the moment, I quickly realized that everything I would walk through in reconstructing my house would better equip me to recommend renovation and design changes to my clients’ homes. And they don’t need a tree to fall for me to see design potential!

The tree fell on the east 1/3 part of the house and the resulting impact was visible throughout. In the attic, besides the giant holes open to the outside, the center top beam of the roofline was compromised. Due to the nature of my work, I have an experienced understanding of structure and framing of homes built in all eras.

My head was already spinning with the possibilities of how to upgrade, reinvent and improve our home while navigating what would be an eleven-month process for the insurance company to put a value on the loss and repairs. So, it was an exciting day when an engineer was brought in. Finally, someone, I could talk with about my ideas. As he drafted the necessary repairs he also drafted the whole house and property lines in anticipation of my design process.

Have you looked at the possibilities of your home?
Have you ever drawn up a plan to see what your house looks like, where the hidden opportunities are?

By the time the Insurance company gave us the news that they were planning to demolish both our bathrooms, the kitchen and many walls and ceilings, plus a completely new roof – as our 20-year old roofing material could not be matched – and  paint  and repair the myriad of cracks around the exterior, I had created a variety of plan options  for renovation. They ranged from minimal, to adding square footage, depending on what the negotiated settlement would come to. I was amazed at how many options started coming once my eyes were opened up to the possibilities both literally and figuratively.

I’ve always known our house was quirky but did not realize the inconveniences; of crossing the living room from the master bedroom to access the only shower or the old brick fireplace which was taking up almost 288 cubic feet of our limited space without adding any efficient heat value. Yes, we have an occasional need for heat in LA winters.

My first focus, though, would be the kitchen, lacking pantry space or ample cabinetry. The amount of square footage in the kitchen was full of potential I never thought I would get to explore. Who knew a complete disaster would be one of my greatest opportunities!

THANK YOU TREE FOR MY NEW OPEN FLOOR PLAN / KITCHEN
When a 70 foot plus Eucalyptus TREE fell on our house, opportunities came into view and walls opened!  Literally!

I am thrilled to apply the design experience I’ve gained by creating over one -hundred kitchens and bathrooms, as either renovations or new-house construction, to MY OWN new kitchen.
If the tree had not fallen would I have eventually gotten around to renovating my kitchen? Maybe, but you know how comfortable we all get no matter how much we know a renovation might improve things. After the tree fell, our existing kitchen required complete demolition to expose any structural damages to the walls or foundation. Once I knew all the guts were being ripped out, the cabinetry removed, the horrible white tile floor and the plaster wall surfaces trashed, the possibilities became expansive. This experience taught me to not wait and wonder. Improving your kitchen can change your life!

Don’t wait for a tree to fall on your house, as I did!

When we first moved into our house over 10 years ago, the original kitchen had potential. With 162 square feet of space, it was larger than many in a house of 1100 square feet. Only 2 walls had anything on them in terms of cabinetry, and the range was sitting alone on the opposite wall. I employed eclectic pieces from the past and new pieces from IKEA to flesh out an extremely functional cook’s kitchen.

The first day we took possession of the house I took a hammer to the one area I thought we could open, safely, without running into any structural issues. I opened the wall between the kitchen and living room, adding a bar-height eating counter as there was not an eat-in kitchen.

Now, with the re-build, we’re able to take the whole wall out, build an island, and create a stylish open floor plan merging the kitchen with the rest of the main living area.

Our goal at Jana Design Interiors is to help our clients realize the maximum potential of their homes and workspaces and my own kitchen was about to get the best of our abilities!

APPARENTLY, I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVED OUR OLD BRICK FIREPLACE!?!
Designing new houses and re-designing homes from the turn of the century through the 90’s I intimately know how houses have been built through the years.

During my first career as a production and costume designer on historical films, I worked in numerous aging brick structures that were 200+ years old. I have witnessed the ravages of brittle, aging brick and mortar.

I loved the 1952 brick fireplace in our home but when the tree fell and the price quote to repair it came in at $12,000 and a new drop-in gas fireplace would be less than $5,000, even I realized we should investigate other options. I fought hard for restoring the original fireplace, even after more than one of our design company’s trusted contractors suggested we get a new drop-in gas unit which would be an energy efficient asset to our home. I have always affectionately thought of our house as a “cabin” or a “cottage” with a central BRICK fireplace that added warmth and charm. It took a few weeks, but I realized I was the ONLY one who thought restoring the old thing should even be a consideration.

As I do in any design job, I rely on collaboration with experts to arrive at brilliant ideas. Bob at Encino fireplace introduced me to the idea of a corner unit which has open viewing areas on 2 sides. While I was emotionally attached to the old brick fireplace, the new gas unit in the heart of our home, viewable from the kitchen island as well as the living and dining room areas, sends out as much emotional warmth… and is not even hooked up yet.

3 tips for looking at your renovation options:

1. Stay open to possibilities! Your first thoughts may not be your best ideas.
2. Do the research, cost out your options so you can apply the best cost sense to your ultimate design choices.
3. Keep working on the plan until you LOVE it, especially if you are letting something go!

I have been recommending my clients go to Encino Fireplace for years. Bob, the owner, as well as his staff, are so knowledgeable about interior and exterior fireplaces as well as outside kitchens that I know my clients will come back to me with the education and ideas I need to guide them.

This is my thank-you to Bob. But, from this moment on this fantastic design direction will be referred to as MY IDEA!  After all, I knew where to go with MY fireplace confusion!

I will know where to go with your renovation needs as well…

Stay tuned for next week: There can NEVER BE enough closet space…

FROM NOW ON WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 2018
At Jana Design Interiors, we take our clients on a process of designing for the present as well as the future. We draw up the BIG plan first, with all their hopes and dreams included. Then we create a budget for the plans, including options if the plan needs to be either adjusted or done in phases, over time, to stretch the dollars.

This was not different from the way I approached our own re-design. Presenting my husband, my architect friend Richard Blumberg of RLB Architecture, my team of contractors and my “committee” of friends many plan options over the 5-month period while we were waiting for the budget totals from the insurance company. The insurance company’s job is not to pay for improvements, but rather to repair the property to the pre-existing condition, you know, before the TREE FELL! Once the amount of the settlement is agreed upon, however, exactly how you use the funds is open to interpretation as long as the house is returned to pre-existing or/and improved condition. The insurance company does not actually care about this, but your mortgage holder, who is doling out the funds, REALLY cares about it. More on that at a future episode.

Anyway, after working through every possible scenario, some adding square footage, most not, we have arrived at the plan we are 90% complete with implementing.

The first and probably greatest design and livability issue we addressed:

The coveted OPEN FLOOR PLAN:

PROBLEM:

Even though it rarely rains in Southern California, it does get chilly enough so that, until now, we only entertained from May- October when we can spend most of our time outside on our veranda The inside has felt too tight to entertain in the “winter” months.

There are constantly crowds of people in and out of our house for Charity organization meetings, book-club…and we entertain a lot.  1-2 times a month we have 10-35 or more people at our house for MOVIE NIGHTS on our back lawn. Did I mention my husband, Tobin, is a film historian and archivist by vocation and avocation?  And then there are the “family” pool parties, charity events, quiet dinners with friends, and BBQ’s when Tobin could not resist smoking way too much foodstuff in his smoker for just the 2 of us.

SOLUTION:

1. Greatly improved, super functional kitchen with central island. The island adds storage, an “eat-in” seating area our enclosed kitchen did not include, a serving surface for entertaining, and directs the sink and major work area toward open.

2. Opening the floor plan, not only for the “feeling” of enhanced space but also for far superior PARTY FLOW. We are so greatly looking forward to entertaining, in our new and improved open space.

We are completely jazzed at the future possibilities of cozy WINTER movie nights, more dinners with friends, book-club and Soroptimists organizing meetings in our house all 12- months of the year!!!

Let us know the design ideas you are Jazzed about this year?

We would love to help you make them into realities!!

DESIGNING THE FABULOUS BACK INTO THE CLOSET
One of the areas which can be a challenge in an 1100 square foot house is storage and closet space. When our house was built in the 1950’s the amazing space-saving technologies in design, cabinetry and organization of today were ideas of science fiction. While having the opportunity to apply every trick I have learned from 15 years designing my clients’ renovations to my own home, I am greatly looking forward to some very necessary.

Improvements:

1. Space created by removing the old HUGE brick fireplace becomes a NEW coat closet in the hallway.
2. Bedroom closets had sliding mirrored doors. The mirrors help a small room look bigger and lighter, but you can only access ½ your clothing at a time. Replacing these doors with mirrored bi-folds will open access. As bi-fold doors take up floor space in the room we needed to adjust the framed door opening to clear the space for bedside tables.
3. Old way-too-small “coat” closet is free to become rather generous “supplies” closet, you know for Costco runs on toothpaste, toilet paper, aspirin…
4. Improve existing linen closet
5. Full floor to ceiling pantry in the kitchen as well as additional pull-outs for full depth storage and easy access…YES!!

While living in an apartment 9/10 of a mile from the house and the Jana Design Interiors offices, we have become spoiled by the well-designed closet and pantry space. We will NOT miss the stacked parking and lack of ice maker, but the closets have been grand. The apartment is coincidentally also 1100 square feet. As it is in the neighborhood of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), the 2 bedrooms are really designed to be shared with up to 4- individual students. Each of the 2- large bedrooms have 3 large closets and there is a pantry closet to help make the tiny kitchen survivable.
I also realize that we have spent the year living with ONLY what we instantaneously determined we would need for 6- months, which has become a year. The rest of our belongings were packed and moved into storage and we have little memory of what we had or why we had it. What we packed to live with included the normal 2-ish seasons of clothing, normal for LA, just enough cooking supplies and the bare minimum of sundries. The myriad of stuff we thought we needed and harbored in our closets, nooks and crannies, now, in hindsight, has questionable “need “in our lives. Clearly, as we thrived in 2017 without this huge truckload of stuff, we will need to make a lot of decisions when the stuff comes back to us.

With this said, while every wall in the house needed repair, it was a good time to look for the adjustments we could make to incorporate improvements in our closet and storage.  This is exactly what I look for to enhance my clients’ homes and businesses when we design renovations, and now I am eagerly applying all my well-honed talents to our home.

No matter how large or small your home may be, there is ALWAYS room for storage improvements…

What’s in YOUR CLOSET?

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“Designing your way back home”