The doors and windows are over. The devices are on the way. The hardwood floors are stacked and ready to lie down.
In January, the Altadena house of Ted Koerner was cremated in the fire Eaton with thousands of others.
But today, he and his 13 -year -old dog, Daisy, are only a few weeks old after having spent most of the year in temporary quarters, and they could be the first Altadenans to move into a completely reconstructed house.
“We are starting to train at home,” said Koerner in his front courtyard, with Daisy at his feet and a work team applying finishing keys in the living room.
Daisy, a black eyes with a coat that looks like a luxurious white robe, is the star of this story and the reason why Koerner is determined to finish the house as soon as possible.
“I just want to go home,” Ted Koerner told neighbors about his house that is rebuilt.
Daisy, or Daisy Mae, as Koerner sometimes calls him, is far beyond the average life expectancy for a Golden Retriever, and he wanted her to live his life on the property which was their sanctuary. He feeds his salmon and his bottled water; No impurities for her daughter, who has a Russian and Danish line and is as intelligent as she is soft, according to the most proud of dog owners.
“This dog saved me more times more than I can count,” said Koerner, 66, who is single, suffers from depression attacks and linked to Daisy the day he saved it as a puppy. “It’s my service dog.”
They lost everything except each other, and for the good of Daisy, as much as his, he pushed and pushed, eager to return home.
“They framed the whole house and the garage, in three days. Thirty comrades.” They all understood, if she dies before going home, I do not finish building it, because I will be dead the same day. “
The work continues on Koerner’s house, where he expects to move in Altadena soon.
Koerner thinks he will be the first person to move into a brand new house in the Altadena fire zone. A coordinator of reconstruction of the County of Los Angeles argued this, although Victoria Knapp, who chairs the municipal council of Altadena, said that another project is accelerating towards completion.
Since two thirds of the 6,000 burnt properties have not even struck the authorization phase, and that it could be a few years before a rebuilt Altadena took shape, the questions here are obvious:
What magic did Koerner have done to approach the finish line in a short time, and are there lessons for others?
Koerner directs a fraud investigation and prevention company that has had decades of relations with government agencies and assorted companies, including insurance companies. So, even if he was just a David against an army of Goliaths, he was not new in the practice of recharging a sling.
Before Eaton’s smoke had been cleared, while staying with Daisy in a Pasadena hotel, Koerner met an army engineers who informed him that once his fate cleared, he should pour the cement of a new foundation as soon as possible. Anyway to get there, do it. This would put him in front of the line in a crowd of thousands of thousands of people from zero.
Koerner took the advice and decided not to wait for insurance payment, which could be indefinitely challenged and delayed. Instead, he liquidated pension funds and plowed his own nickel in the hope of being reimbursed later.
Koerner and Daisy spend a warm moment together.
Any major construction project is a herd expedition in a blinding fog, and this can be a patience and mental health test. The plumber is there but the taps are not. The dry partition team appears but can do nothing as long as the electrician performs wiring. The watering system is finished but the inspector has just went on Hawaiian vacation. And the roof tiles were seen for the last time on a van which could or may not have left an arizona warehouse, or perhaps in New Mexico.
This is why people often break that you should take the cost and the promised schedule of a project, double and align a good wedding advisor. The day after an epic disaster, you must also get rid of the complications of destroyed infrastructure, allowing bottlenecks, insurance disputes and frightening contamination levels.
I know a company, Genesis Builders, who says that it manages and accelerates the entire process with pre-designed houses that can be completed in 15 months, but I have not yet checked the details.
For those who wish to follow the example of Koerner, how to do the best?
Koerner Lesson N ° 1: “Email is not a communication.”
And what does he mean by that?
“If you send an email and wait for a reminder, you will not have it,” he said. “No city, no county, no government agency is never ready for a disaster of this magnitude. It will always be chaos. “
Rather, he called people, and kept a direct line file, or he met people face to face. He was the creaky proverbial wheel, never taking no for an answer, and he was able to invest a ton of his time, even if it meant being waiting long enough to read “Old Yeller” on several occasions and watch the film.
Koerner praised Anish Saraïya, director of Altadena recovery for the supervisor of the County of Kathryn Barger, for having helped him to sail in the labyrinth. When I used the word “persistent” to describe Koerner, Saraiya corrected me.
“He’s tenacious,” he said.
Saraiya said Koerner has helped identify road roadblocks to progress – such as the typical delivery time to align public services – and the county works to rationalize the entire reconstruction process for everyone.
Koerner Lesson 2: “Make the decision to go home.”
By that, it means moving and keeping the plans simple.
“Now is not the time to build a mansion in your inheritance,” Koerner said. “Do you want to go home, or do you want to play with all three inches of the place where the sink, the closet goes, each door, each window?” Make a decision and respect it.
Koerner Lesson 3: “Hire a manufacturer that includes the meaning of the word” finish “.”
Before the fire, Koerner had his bathrooms renovated by Innova Creative Solution, a general passing company of Van Nuys. He trusted Jossef Abraham project manager, so he hired him to build his new house. And Abraham, according to Koerner, has made things move as promised.
“I think it helps a lot for people victims of fire to see progress,” said Abraham, saying that he managed bureaucratic obstacles and made sure that his equipment suppliers were aligned.
The house will be better armored against fire, said Abraham, with concrete roof tiles, soaked windows, sprinklers and closed stairs. He said he was well aware of Koerner’s bond with Daisy, and although he does not know if he can get the man and his best friend at home by Halloween, he thinks that six weeks is doable.
“Daisy is her whole world and she is simply incredible. What dog,” said Abraham. “”
Koerner and Daisy sit in the backyard of their Altadena house.
Koerner’s house is just west of Lake Avenue, where the mountain and the metropolis meet, with a panoramic view through the valley and to the sea. The light days, Koerner said, he can see Dana Point and Ventura.
He avoided visiting his property before the start of the framing, too depressed by the empty space where the house had since 2006. When Daisy was a puppy, Koerner began to plant dozens of native plants near the pines of Aleppo and figs, creating what he called their campsite arboretum. Most of which were destroyed.
During a recent visit with Daisy, Koerner took place in the front courtyard, under a heritage oak that survived the fire, and looked at the hill towards dozens of vacant land where the houses were held in the past and a disaster seemed distant. Daisy seemed surprised, perhaps even confused, by the modified terrain. But she quickly fell into a familiar rhythm.
“She immediately approached me and agitated like Goldens,” said Koerner. “She looked at me,” licked my hands, lying down next to my feet and fell asleep. And the neighbor and I cried a lot because that’s all that matters to dogs is that they are with us. ”
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
