Fire Rebuild

Top Ten Guiding Principles:

Fire-resistant
Follow home hardening and defensible space best practices, and exceeding these measures, for example, with a state-of-the-art fire suppression system with back up power generation, extra water storage, and a lamination layer in our windows that makes them essentially ember-proof.

Earthquake resistant
Meet, and where possible, exceed code to minimize structural damage in the event of a large earthquake.

Climate protective
Minimize embodied lifecycle greenhouse emissions in building materials and operations.

Healthy
Eliminate toxic materials and emissions wherever possible, and maximize the use of natural, healthy, breathable materials.

Resource efficient
Select building materials and practices that make efficient use of natural resources wherever possible. This includes using materials from onsite where possible, including wood we milled onsite from our dead trees and stones that were salvaged from our destroyed home, that tumbled down from mountain during storms and that were recovered during activities on the land.

Durable
Build to last, including materials and craftsmanship that will stand the test of time.

Efficiently used renewable energy
Achieve high energy efficiency and net zero energy with onsite renewable power generation and energy storage in building operations.

Water saving
Reduce and safely reuse water wherever possible, as well as capture rainwater for landscape use.

Timeless aesthetics
Strive to build a home that is not only beautiful but looks as if always belonged there and should remain there.

Cost effective
Select methods and materials that fit our budget, do not waste time and money and add and endure in value

Top Challenges:

Permitting

By far the toughest challenge to rebuilding has been the arduous and lengthy permitting process. It took us roughly 5 1/2 years to obtain our building permit from Los Angeles County. To put this in perspective, on the fifth anniversary fire, only about 13% (91 of the 688) homes lost in unincorporated Los Angeles County in the Woolsey Fire had been rebuilt. It took close to two years simply to get a permit to live in temporary housing on our property. All the reasons for this difficulty are hard to fully know and merit deeper investigation. From our experience, it appears that the County lacks enough personnel, political will, and internal organization to manage fire rebuilds. There are some excellent people on staff, but the process is in dire need of improvement to support victims of natural disaster. Under such conditions, pushing the envelope on innovation, such as low carbon and non toxic building materials and systems, no matter how aligned with broader climate and public health policy goals, is next to impossible. Many options that could have helped us build more quickly and/or sustainably fell by the wayside because getting permitting approval was costing us too much time and risk in such a difficult environment. You can learn more about our permitting process here.

Cost

Building is expensive. Building in Malibu is particularly expensive, due to high labor costs. Building during the inflationary pandemic and post-pandemic economy is costlier still. Add to that the costs of rebuilding our 1973 house up to 2024 code and hardening to prevent disaster from ever destroying the house again. We were fortunate that we had good insurance. Many were not so fortunate. Securing a policy anywhere close to as good as what we had before the fire seems elusive for now, increasing the risk of rebuilding. We hope that insurance companies begin truly reflecting the hardening we have done in their premiums and coverage.

Securing the right team
Finding people with the skills, willingness and capacity to work with us on our modestly sized, rural project in the toughest of building jurisdictions has been another major challenge.

Why?

A common and reasonable question. Why rebuild here when the risk of wildfire coming again some day is a near certainty? Most in our community respond to each other with the same question: Where else would we go?

This is home. Like most within a couple miles of us, our family has been in Malibu for many decades, and one of us was born here. Being in a place with deep personal history is irreplaceable.

Also, fire and other disaster is spreading to most rural regions, while urban neighborhoods have their own daily environmental health and safety risks.

Living in the wild so near a city is a rare privilege. While much of the coast gets increasingly built up, astronomically expensive and owned by those who do not live here, our canyon is ruggedly natural, the small community is tight-knit, and the serenity here on most days is magical.

We feel responsible for being stewards of this sacred place. Like all in this canyon, we clear the fire prone weeds, rescue injured animals and people, partner with authorities on safety, invest in beauty and resilience far above requirements or possible “market” remuneration, pass on the lore of many generations – hard and costly but a labor of love we feel dedicated to and fear will be lost if those with history and commitment leave.

We have watched time and again as disaster, economics, and other forces lead to fewer residents, bigger homes, and loss of local soul and wisdom. Commercialization over community saddens us.

There are days when we want to give up. For today, to borrow from an old Malibu adage, we will take 99% heaven, fully aware that it comes with 1% hell.