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Vanessa & Mark

@ourmidhouse

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Our mid century home burnt down in the LA fires
What started as a restoration is now a rebuild
Thank you to everyone helping bring us back home

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Crying laughing thinking about how much has changed in a year. Hoping the 2025-2026 recap is better ✨
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#midcentury #rebuild #homerestoration #demo #homereno #wildfire #firevictim #lawildfires #homebuild by @ourmidhouse

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a year ago

Our dear friend @rosikoeperphotography took some very significant photos for us. It’s so strange to see yourself within this space instead of just witnessing it all through your own eyes. It feels very impossible that this small homesite contained our big lives, and now it is no more. You grapple with a lot of feelings when that happens. You ask yourself hard questions like: is my life not big and beautiful anymore since all the material things that made it so are gone and will we ever trust in the security of home again and buy new things? You also ask yourself: what do I have to give when I have nothing and what qualities about myself remain when everything has been stripped away? We are standing taller than we have in the last few months, but I wonder if we will ever stand at the same height we did before.
Bearing witness to all we had and lost feels like the best way to honor who we were as we discover these new versions of ourselves. by @ourmidhouse

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2 years ago

We bought a house!! by @ourmidhouse

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2 years ago

Nearly 100 days past groundbreaking and we are still here in the foundation stage. Initially, framing was suppose to occur beginning of September, so we are feeling a bit anxious every week that goes by without it. Every week we can’t go home is another week of being displaced. The fire continues to rob us, and lately it is a thief of time, keeping our lives in a state of pause until we can move forward, except while we have to pause we have to also remain in the shock.
#altadena #eatonfire #newconstruction #rebuild #fire taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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a day ago

Days 50-82 were slower moving. We didn’t pass an inspection, but on the other hand at least we are finally at a place to be having inspections! We planted trees, but we already might have to relocate one 🫠 we are getting closer to framing, which for us will be the milestone when it finally feels like it’s happening. After seeing your life burned to the ground, it won’t feel like a home again until we see it standing back up again.
The other day Mark said seeing the stripped forms of our foundation felt traumatic because it looked like all that was left of our house after the fires (the only thing still standing was the foundation). Needless to say, we would like to expeditiously move out of this phase and into the next.
Our building timeline has both fallen behind schedule while also our expected end date has moved up, so who knows when we will be home, but the expectation is April. Fingers crossed El Niño weather won’t cause us delays!
October will bring framing and we can’t wait to finally be able to walk our home then!!
#rebuild #newconstruction #fire #eatonfire #midcentury taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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12 days ago

Time lapse of the first 50 days of work since groundbreaking.
Next week: (hopefully) pouring the bottom of the foundation.
With any luck, framing of the walls will come with September and that will be the first time we are able to see our home in physical space once again!! Myself and many neighbors have expressed it won’t feel like we are rebuilding until the walls are framed out and we can “see” it again, so we are eager to be able to see home once again in the future soon 🧡
#rebuild #eatonfire #newconstruction #timelapse #homereno taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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a month ago

Update from the past few weeks!!
The foundation is framed and inspections are happening ✨ we also had some rough plumbing begin (yay poop pipes).
Some grading and foundation support issues arose over the past few weeks, which took some figuring out, but everything looks to be on track.
I made a change order for the location of a window which is one thing currently delaying us, but if it isn’t structural issue to change it we are hopeful it can be a quick plan adjustment.
If all goes well with inspections this week, we will be pouring the bottom early next!!
I’ll be sharing another drone time lapse soon, because it’s so fun to see the changes from air.
#altadena #eatonfire #rebuild #newconstruction #homereno taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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a month ago

The first three weeks of groundbreaking documented from above!! We know that after a certain point, all the big updates will only be visible from inside the framed walls, but for now all the magic is happening in the dirt.
In three weeks we: removed the dirt, graded, recompacted, and dug the trenches for the foundation. So far everything has remained exactly on schedule. We are hopeful things will stay that way (or better yet go even faster because our lease ends this October 🫠).
Now that things are really beginning to be visible, I’ll keep you in the loop more often so friends, neighbors, family, and strangers can have a real and honest look at rebuilding after disaster.
#rebuild #eatonfire #altadena #newconstruction #timelapse taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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2 months ago

“*Happy* Two Years” to us being homeowners. It’s been a whole year since last years “celebration” and there is still a tractor on our lot instead of a home (literally). Can we call ourselves “homeowners” if there hasn’t been a house there for nineteen months? When did we start referring to our temporary apartment as home and our burnt down home as the lot? We hope year three is kinder to us, and we never have to see another tractor again.
Photo 1: July 2025
Photo 2: July 2026
Photo 3: July 2024

#altadena #home #newbuild #rebuild #eatonfire taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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2 months ago

We left for two weeks and came back to this! This coming week we are getting our temporary power pole and also some new trees installed to replace some of our beautiful forest we lost.
We had SO many trees before the fire, truly so SO SO many (the outside was one of our favorite things about the house), then they were reduced down to five after debris removal.

While we were gone, a friend was able to keep up and take drone progress photos (thanks John!!). I’ll share those soon!

#altadena #eatonfire #newbuild #construction #rebuild taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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2 months ago

The video I took today at groundbreaking versus the video I took the day we got our keys, this month two years ago. The view is different, but this beautiful light is the same. I can’t wait to see which walls it will dance across again soon.
#rebuild #midcentury #home #eatonfire #Altadena taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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3 months ago

Taken last night, the last day of the past chapter. Today we finally get to turn the page and begin the rebuild.
It’s taken too long. Recovery is hard. We are of course glad the wait is over, but we also feel so many other feelings too. In many ways we are still deep in the mourning of what the fire took and did to us, and just stacking on the grief of prolonged displacement right atop it. It’s not just what we lost, but what we continue to lose when each day, week, month, and now year passes we still can’t go home.
Even still, today is the day!
As a photographer who lost all my camera equipment in the fires, I was unable to document or record any of what we went through or our community is those first months. I wish I could’ve processed the trauma from the fire in that way. I’m grateful photographers like @gideonmendel @erinmartonfamilies and @rosikoeperphotography stepped in to fill in those gaps on my behalf. As we rebuild and my gear has been bought back piece by piece, I hope documenting this part of the journey will bring another slice of peace. And as always, I hope it can be an honest report of what recovery looks like and rebuilding after disaster.
#eatonfire #altadena #rebuild #newconstruction #midcentury taken in Altadena, CA by @ourmidhouse

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3 months ago