February and March Visual Awards
Please notice the Visual Award sign in front of the house in the 1500 block of Lynwood. Walk by and admire the newly staked tree, the lawn which holds the promise of late-spring greening and the elegant desert landscaping just getting its bearings.
This is the home of Lawrence Sweeney, who redid his ranch-style home after a 2007 fire burned hot and the firefighting efforts caused extensive water damage. It took him a year to redo the house, during which time he lamented that the front yard looked like the Gobi Desert, it was so barren.
He finally got to the landscaping, putting the finishing touches on a house he’d called home for 47 years, a house in which he raised seven children.
Yes, admire the finished look and applaud the fact that he won the Visual Award. Because Lawrence Xavier Sweeney died in December, a mere month before his daughter got word that his dream restoration had been noticed by many.
Some home improvements start with small projects that mushroom into major undertakings. Others focus on just the interior.
Susan Allen and Marcy Foster took an inside-out, top-to-bottom approach. After dealing with major infrastructure — new electrical and plumbing, for example — the two turned their attention to the exterior of their 1926 Spanish Territorial home.
They started at the top: A new roof under the territorial’s terracotta tiles, and some new tiles for good measure. Moving down, they did a major masonry repair by repointing aging bricks. Some were beyond repair — Susan said there were big chunks missing in some places — so up to 100 bricks were replaced. After that, they gave the house a fresh coat of paint, opting for a soft tan tinted with green to replace the earlier off-white color, with green trim.
With a new sprinkler system in place, the next job is a redo of the front gardens. Check out this makeover in the 1300 block of Lynwood St.
