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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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I am Vanessa Todd, a photographer in Los Angeles. SoCal is home, scatter my ashes on Colorado Blvd.
The most defining moment of my life happened January 7, 2025 when my home and all my possessions burnt down in the Eaton Fire. I had lost every part of my business and gear in the fire. It was an interesting thing to hold those burnt cameras and feel like I was holding my own arms, detached from my body.
My husband has always been and continues to be the light, the sun, the optimism that seeps into every corner of life. He truly is my partner in everything. I once heard someone say in their vow renewal that “marriage is hard,” and I remember vividly thinking “no, life is hard, but being married to the right person makes it better.” Mark makes life better.
Mark’s job allows us to travel often. He works around the world on different stages and cruise ships. The best trip we ever took was to Antarctica. It is my favorite place in the world and a photographer’s paradise.
When I have true free time, I’m painting. I’m working on a series called 182 Beds (the number goes up the more time passes). I’m romanticizing the places we have gone since our home burnt down through postcard watercolors, counting how many beds we sleep in until we go back home to ours in our rebuilt home.
My degree is in Art History & Studio art, but before I graduated I attended 9 universities all pursuing different art & literature specialties. To this day I LOVE to sew and read. I’d love to hem your pants for you while we discuss VE Schwab’s latest book (because I personally loved it).
We are putting our life back together, one day and piece of furniture at a time. As we do, it becomes abundantly clear what matters in our life and where we find joy. For me, I’m still here, choosing this job and this profession. I love this work and I love the hospitality of this special career.

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Happy Valentine’s Day to my Valentine. In honor of the love day, here are some of the reasons why life with you is so joyful, even despite all life throws at us. You are consistently the sun, always making every day brighter. You start every day with making me coffee with hand crafted themed latte art, and always find ways to make me smile. You are always up for every adventure I want to embark upon, whether that be skiing in Breckenridge at an altitude neither of us have the lung capacity for, hiking in Sedona without any pre-planning of trails, and buying a house and renovating it only to have to spend the next two years rebuilding it entirely. There’s no one else I’d want to do it all with. I love you 🧡
What’s your favorite “Mark Moment”?
#valentinesday #memories #marriage #rebuild #eatonfire

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After the fire, @gideonmendel photographed fire victims in their homes for @natgeo from the LA Fires the devastated multiple cities and communities. We were amongst those who stood for a portrait. Two days ago, near the approaching anniversary of the fires, the article and photos were shared.
Katja, who helped Gideon with this project, told us many who have been in front of Gideon’s lens described the experience as a “deep witnessing” and I can say we truly felt that.
As a photographer myself, it was a surreal experience to be on the other side of the camera in this way, to explain how my dominating feeling when looking at my fire burnt cameras was the feeling that my arms had been cut off, and to be in this space, documenting this moment together.
As we have moved through the aftermath of fire loss, I’ve felt we gathered a small circle around us of those who can try to emphasize vs. those that cannot. Those who stood with us in the tomb of our home became those who “got it” and our safest allies.
The witnessing for us helped us feel seen in our hurt, helped us feel less like we were alone in this burden, and a “I see the life you had and it was beautiful and worth remembering.”
Please, read the article, be a witness to those who shared their story and life, and hold space/hands with friends and family still going through it.
Thank you to Gideon Mendel not only for photographing us, but seeing us too.

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Happy three years of marriage to us (and five years together)!
In our relationship’s duration we have done and seen a number of things, we have survived horrible moments and celebrated beautiful wins. We often joke we have lived many lifetimes in the short time we have had together so far, but in every life I choose you.
Mark, you are my every laugh and smile, my joy and my safety. There is no one I’d rather go through the roller coaster of life with except you. I love you, I love you, I love you. You teach me how to be gentle, and I hope I teach you to be bold. You’re my perfect partner whom I get to share this life and find wonder with.
No matter where we live you make it our home by just being there. I hope I can make a home for us to come back to again one day.
I have a hope, that this time next year on our fourth wedding anniversary, we will stand in our living room of our finished house and get to reshare our vows that were burnt in the fires. Like we did on our wedding day, we will frame those vows and hang them on the wall as a daily reminder of the love we share. Until then, may this third year be filled with love, care, smiles, happiness, and hope for all that is to come 🧡

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Still catching my breath after an incredible week that started with TEDx Altadena! What a healing, emotional, and unforgettable day — filled with powerful stories, incredible speakers who are now friends, and so much heart. All of us walked in with different stories, but the same goal — to rebuild our town, together.
I’ll be replaying these moments for a long time. ❤️ Forever grateful for this community and the amazing team that created an event that helped heal and unite Altadena.
When the videos go live online, I highly recommend watching a few of these incredible talks — they’ll stay with you long after, I promise.

Thank you to @ourmidhouse for helping get footage too 🥹. And @loboehm for helping with all my wardrobe questions.
#TEDxAltadena #Community #Resilience #RebuildingTogether #altadena #eatonfire #tedx

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Spent an afternoon walking through life-sized floor plan options with our amazing clients @ourmidhouse

Have you ever walked a life-sized floor plan @walkyourplans? The difference between seeing it on paper vs in real space is invaluable — clients can walk through each room, test furniture placement, and experience the flow between spaces.

As a design-build contractor, we’ve learned that this step helps our clients make informed design decisions and feel more confident about their investment before submitting their plans to the city for permits.

#customhome #floorplans #homebuilding #designprocess #custombuilder #homedesign #constructionlife #walkyourplans #floorplandesign

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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.

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We bought a house!!
This dream has been years in the making and the day is finally here! A tiny corner of Southern California is ours and we can officially tell both of our parents we aren’t moving to another state. It’s the cutest little mid century fixer upper and we cannot wait to host everyone out on our deck. We started an Instagram @ourmidhouse where I will be living out my HGTV fantasy.
We are also so grateful to our agents who helped us buy our home! They came highly recommended from one of my sweet couples (love you @oliviapoppens !!) and I want to shout their names from the rooftops for anyone in need of a real estate agent.
Brb, we are painting our walls between shuffling cards and capturing weddings. We are so lucky and grateful for every moment of this beautiful life!

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