Budget Breakdown: With $312K, They Made a Worn-Down Midcentury "Feel Like a Tree House"

Landing a place to call their own was a long time coming for L.A. locals James and Andrea. They met close to two decades ago on the east side, and spent years sharing spaces with roommates as their twenty-something savings grew to the point where they could begin looking for real estate.

James, who manages a climbing gym, met his friend Yan Wang—an architect and cofounding principal at Cover Architecture—around the same time he’d met Andrea, an acupuncturist. As the couple searched for property, they would send Wang listings they were considering.

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"James would ask me for feedback here and there, and then one day he sent a link to this property," Wang recalls. "As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘Jump on it.’"

They had found a single-story house tucked in Pasadena’s San Rafael Hills, up a curved driveway shaded by mature trees that made it seem far more secluded than it was. The home was built in 1962 and hadn’t been renovated since; its wide deck and sparse windows shrouded an interior that felt like a time capsule. James and Andrea liked the post-and-beam detailing and could see past the cramped rooms topped with popcorn ceilings. They were also shocked to discover how solid the structure was after 60 years, noting that there was not a single crack in the foundation.

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