While the site is rubble and sand, I'm dreaming of a time in the future when I'll be sitting right here with a nice cup of coffee and the newspaper enjoying the scent of my flowering vines. Or harvesting peas and chard. Or hosting a social brunch, or watching Ash grill up a storm. Or planting milkweed and crossing my fingers for monarchs. This vision comes to me courtesy of Fiona, one of my dearest and oldest friends, who normally gets to design much larger and damper gardens in the Home Counties. She might not know California succulents as well as the local garden designers but she knows me better than anyone I could hire here.   Her task is to provide me somewhere pretty to do those things I mentioned. A place to sit and read the paper, eat a meal with family and friends, and grow a few easy crops. We also want scented climbers - because our perimeter wall faces onto a dogshit strewn path  delightful walkway down to the baseball field we are building it high. We want t...

 Demolition day has come at last. Days, actually. Which surprised us because we honestly thought if you just looked at that old shack funny it'd fall over. But it took four days in total to tear it down and wipe out an other old Hermosa beach cottage. Sorry. It took a day for the crew to unpick some parts of the house that are safer and more easily salvaged that way. It looked a bit like a bomb had hit it afterwards. But I've seen 'remodels' around here leave less standing, so I was looking forward to seeing more damage done. The next day they brought the bulldozer on site. That was Veteran's Day, and Hermosa rules prevent construction taking place during a public holiday. But they had to shave a smidge off the side of the house just to be able to park the bulldozer so technically a little teeny bit of house was demolished that day. That's my kind of parking, just make a bit of room for your vehicle and hang the consequences. On Thursday they really went to town...

We moved out in mid September, expecting to begin demolition by the end of October. As it turns out that was a little optimistic, and early November is more realistic. In order to get a demolition permit a few simple-sounding tasks need to be completed. Abatement work to take out any lead or asbestos. This was a matter of writing a fairly modest cheque and waiting a few short days. We are now lead and asbestos free and we've got the holes to prove it. There used to be a lead pipe in that hole A fence needs to go up around the property. Another modest check and not a long wait. The fence is now up - along with a set of construction rules which makes it all seem thrillingly real and like it really might be a construction site - someday. I literally clapped my hands with glee when I saw this fence  A neighbourhood meeting. In the UK this would be a nerve wracking opportunity for nimbies and nostalgia lovers to trash your plans. But here no-one can actually block the project, since we...

  We moved out today. It’s finally time to tear the house down. But there will be no wrecking ball for Casa Del Sol. Actually you wouldn’t need a wrecking ball. You could probably just drive a golf cart very slowly into the house and it’d collapse. But that’s not the way it’s done here. Our house won’t be smashed up and dumped in a landfill. Instead, in accordance with California’s environmental laws, it will be carefully taken apart piece by piece, sorted and recycled.   I’m relieved about this. I was hoping to have some parts of the house salvaged, but it’s surprisingly hard to find a housing charity who will take this stuff without considerable investment and effort on our part. I want to do the right thing but not if it’s going to add a couple of weeks and a few thousand to our project plan. Appliances need to be fairly new and materials need to have been removed and cleaned. I asked our builder for recommendations because ‘I don’t want it all to end up in landfill’ to whi...

Seven days left in Casa Del Sol. Although as Ash points out we still don’t actually have our plans approved, all indicators are that it will happen very soon. And we can start the pre-demolition work in the meantime. So we are going to move out, take what we want to salvage, and let the builders move in. Then the asbestos is removed. A a fence, and a power pole and portaloo need to go up. A neighborhood meeting has to be scheduled. This will take three or four weeks, so we'll get the ball rolling while waiting for final approvals.   It's strange to be moving out of a house that will never be lived in again. No need to clean,  patch up paintwork or clear out unwanted old plant pots. It all just gets left.  Meanwhile Penelope is enjoying these last few days in the house very much: anything goes as far as art – or even just scrawling – on the walls, and not just in her bedroom either.  We’re ignoring the late summer termite invasion. I’m putting stuff down the waste dis...

Just as we were about to sign the lease on our rental, believing ourselves to be in the final stages of plans and loan approval, we hit a road-bump. The appraised value of the finished home came in way lower than we expected, because the appraiser quite literally could not compute the value of the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) space. This is the mother-in-law suite, roughly 700 sq ft of living space, accessible only from an external door in keeping with Hermosa City code. The State of California wants as many ADUs as possible to be built. The Coastal Commission likes ADUs in areas where there’s a need for more housing, like Hermosa. And Hermosa Beach City is fully in favor too. But the slow pokes in the world of real estate appraisers acts as if they are a crazy fiction of an idea. The appraiser’s notes said ‘ADU is not usual so appraised at zero square foot’. i.e. ‘I’ve never seen one of these before so I’m going to act as if it does not exist.’ We appealed and got a higher valuation ...

Since we signed with our builder about a month ago, we've been going through the various stages of loan approval. In parallel, our plans have been going through the various stages of City planning approval. Both processes appear to be nearing completion. All we need is a nice juicy appraisal value to secure the big fat loan we want - and the final rubber stamp from the city. Both should come through in the next three or four weeks. I am itching to get started. Itching! I'm mentally moving in, deciding which pictures will go where, and even which drawer the spices will go in. I've drawn up detailed sketches of all our cabinetry, accompanied by fact-based estimates of the cubic footage and hanging space we'll need for all our storage. I've made a long list of native plants. I've found a nook for a desk on the floor plan that triggered a happy couple of hours sketching alternative window plans for that corner. One day I spent an hour putting all my various notes in...