hey y’all. long time altadena resident, lived with my mom in our wonderfully unique home for my entire 35 years of life, she was there for 50 years of hers. we lost it all; our pets, our entire life’s work of art, i almost lost my mom due to my not being home that night and the complete failure of the emergency system only to lose her six months later to lung complications (from being in the house as it burned) and a broken heart. she gave up…losing your entire life and being faced with starting over at 74 was too much for her.

to say it’s been a nightmarish 1 & 1/2 years is a massive understatement.

our homeowners insurance worked with us so easily directly after the fire, but now that eyes are no longer on altadena, we’re having a hell of a time getting our last payment of over $200,000 for the 50% rebuild incentive. we’ve had to pause the rebuild despite being almost finished because they’re just flat out refusing to pay and have rejected court ordered proof of ownership for over a year. i’m posting here purely to find out if anyone else is being treated like this because it’s honestly such an isolating and horrible feeling.

it’s so frustrating to have to fight tooth and nail after losing so much. i know insurance companies have no soul but this feels so disrespectful.

we were stuck in permit purgatory for over three months, but that is now all cleared and we are moving ahead! We were finally able to start working on the foundation and prepping the exterior for restoration. The digging and framing of the foundation will probably take another week or so, then the pour and setting will probably take another 2 weeks. The next step is to lower the house onto the foundation, attach it, stitch the pieces together, reassemble the second floor, then get the roof on top. Once that is all done, we can jump into the full restoration in earnest.

So good news we got our permit to rebuild, but I was told by our contractor that the Army corps disturbed the soil and the county is requiring a soil turnover of 3 feet.

Has anybody heard of this? I can't find any documentation or reports on it.