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The house as I repainted it in the mid-1990's.  The house was originally a dark forest green.  The woman who owned the house just prior to me living there had the house painted black with white trim.  She had cardboard stencils, which I was able to re-use, to paint flowers under the front eaves.

Behind the front wall is a pool, with a patio surrounded by stone walls holding up the hillside.

I was given a print of this photograph.  I believe the picture was taken in 1926 or 1927.  The house was built in 1924 as one of the original Sunset Canyon Country Club cabins.  The house is nearly original.  The front yard was removed and the pool added in the 1970's.  The kitchen was remodeled about the same time, as well as a shed out back added for laundry and water heater.  I remodeled the bathroom in 2010.

The house is about 700 square feet.  The lower level is split roughly in half, with the living room in front and the kitchen half underground in the rear.

Me, on the front steps with Miguel the Macaw






The above two pictures are the patio, taken shortly after I moved into the house




My parents dog Brandy - November 1992






The above two pictures are of the garden I added on the west side, adjacent to the walkway down to the pool.




The water outlet pipe on the water heater failed one evening - as the plumber
was making appears, we were invaded by raccoons




Just outside the back door is a stone alcove - perfect place to keep a Buddha
statue a friend picked up in Tijuana




The pool, looking through the garden from the back door of the house.




I painted the living room orange while living there.  The room is sparse in this picture as it was taken while I was moving from the house.










The living room in the early 1990's - before The Oranging
Later I was able to convince my landlady that the horrible blue carpet had to go




The kitchen floor is a mosaic made with broken tile.  This is original to the house.






The kitchen, taken shortly after I moved in




Miguel the Macaw (yes that's a mannequin in the living room - I was
blessed with having to keep three of them for a friend for a number of years)




The stairs are narrow and steep - I loved the old lady carpeting

The bathroom tub surround and floor are done in random broken tile.  The bathroom has an old clawfoot tub which was tiled-in to accommodate a shower.  I rebuilt the wall above the original tub surround when I remodeled the room in 2010.

The front bedroom, taken shortly after I moved in

In the middle of the day in late February 2011 we had a freak snowstorm in the Verdugo Hills.  This must have been an omen for me... I was in process of packing up for my move to Colorado.

In 2009, I convinced my landlady that it was time to do some work on the garage.  The original garage floor had been completely undermined by groundwater and was crumbling.  I had a crew pour a new floor and do a rough-in for a new garage door.  I did the finishing work around the new door so that it blended in with the orignal rock walls of the garage.

The winter of 2004/2005 was Southern California's second rainiest on record.  Early one morning I heard a loud crash and rushed downstairs to find a pancake batter-like ooze running into the pool.  My patio was covered with several feet of mud and other debris.  The wrought iron fence securing the pool area was knocked onto the patio below.  There was nearly five feet of mud and rock at the bottom of the pool, where my barbecue grill had been catipulted.  My patio furniture was destroyed as were my rock garden and most of my potted plants.

Back in September 2005 there was a fire above the canyon.  You may remember the Harvard Fire.

A couple weeks later there were two freak afternoon downpours that caused a debris flow from the fire area that twice came racing down Sunset Canyon like a freight train.  There was more than eighteen inches of charred chaparral, rocks and dirt that completely inundated the road.

Late that afternoon I took a walk with Miguel the Macaw to survey the carnage.  I was met on that walk by a man from Getty Images and a news reporter, who were taking pictures.  I spoke with them briefly and agreed to let them photograph Miguel and me.

It wasn't until some years later, while wandering through Life.com, that I ran across me, enjoying an unexpected moment of fame.  I traced the following pictures back to Getty Images and inquired about purchasing copies for my own use.  Unfortunately their online form at that time didn't allow for individuals to easily purchase single images and their customer support did everything but provide support.

So... Getty Images and Life.com: sue me.  You never had me sign a release to post my likeness on the web.  You never asked my permission to sell my likeness to Life.com.  The following pictures are of me and my companion Miguel.

In late May 2003, I took Miguel the Macaw to Burbank's Farmer's Market, as I had done many times.  I was approached by this woman with a clipboard telling me I had to leave.  I protested that pidgeons and squirrels are permitted to attend Farmer's Market, so why not healthy domesticated parrots?  She cited nonsense about health laws and such, so I left... then wrote a letter to Burbank Leader some days later.  I was featured on page one above the fold on the front porch of 1190 Country Club Drive.