Genesis Builders,<\/a> that says it\u2019s managing and speeding the entire process with pre-designed homes that can be completed in 15 months, but I haven\u2019t checked out the details yet.<\/p>\nFor those interested in following Koerner\u2019s lead, how best to proceed?<\/p>\n
Koerner Lesson No. 1: \u201cEmail is not communication.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s he mean by that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you send an email and wait for a callback, you\u2019re not going to get one,\u201d he said. \u201cNo city, no county, no governmental agency is ever ready for a disaster of this magnitude. It\u2019s always going to be chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called people, instead, and kept a file of direct lines, or he met with people face to face. He was the proverbial squeaky wheel, never taking no for an answer, and he was able to invest a ton of his own time, even if it meant being on hold long enough to repeatedly read \u201cOld Yeller\u201d and watch the movie.<\/p>\n
Koerner heaped praise on Anish Saraiya, director of the Altadena recovery for L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, for helping him navigate the maze. When I used the word \u201cpersistent\u201d to describe Koerner, Saraiya corrected me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s tenacious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Saraiya said Koerner has helped identify roadblocks to progress \u2014 such as the typical lead time in lining up utility services \u2014 and the county is working to streamline the entire rebuilding process for everyone.<\/p>\n
Koerner Lesson No. 2: \u201cMake a decision to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
By that, he means get moving, and keep the blueprints simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the time to build a mansion to your legacy,\u201d Koerner said. \u201cDo you want to go home, or do you want to mess with every three inches of where the sink goes, the closet goes, every door, every window? Make a decision and stick with it. \u2026 This is not some grand demonstration of your design capabilities. This is about going home, or you go to the back of the line and wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koerner Lesson No. 3: \u201cHire a builder who understands the meaning of the word \u2018finish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the fire, Koerner was having his bathrooms remodeled by Innova Creative Solution, a Van Nuys-based general contracting company. He trusted project manager Jossef Abraham, so he hired him to build his new house. And Abraham, according to Koerner, has kept things moving as promised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it helps a lot for people who are victims of fire to see progress,\u201d Abraham told me, saying he\u2019s managed the bureaucratic hurdles and made sure his material suppliers are lined up.<\/p>\n
The house will be better shielded against fire, Abraham said, with concrete roof tiles, tempered windows, sprinklers and enclosed eaves. He said he\u2019s well aware of Koerner\u2019s bond with Daisy, and although he doesn\u2019t know if he can get man and his best friend home by Halloween, he thinks six weeks is doable.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaisy is his entire world and she\u2019s just amazing. What a dog,\u201d Abraham said. \u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759585154_521_\")
<\/p>\n
Koerner and Daisy sit in the backyard of their Altadena home. <\/p>\n
Koerner\u2019s house sits just west of Lake Avenue, where mountain and metropolis meet, with sweeping views across the valley and down to the sea. On clear days, Koerner said, he can see to Dana Point and to Ventura.<\/p>\n
He avoided visiting his property before framing began, too depressed by the empty space where home had been since 2006. When Daisy was a pup, Koerner began planting dozens of native plants near the Aleppo pines and fig trees, creating what he called their campground arboretum. Most of which was destroyed.<\/p>\n
On a recent visit with Daisy, Koerner took a seat in the front yard, under a heritage oak tree that survived the fire, and looked down the hill toward dozens of vacant lots where houses once stood and disaster seemed remote. Daisy seemed surprised, maybe even confused, by the altered terrain. But she soon fell into a familiar rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe immediately walked over to me and wiggled around like goldens do,\u201d Koerner said. \u201cShe looked at me, licked my hands, lay down next to my feet and went sound asleep. And the neighbor and I cried a lot because that\u2019s all that matters to dogs, is that they\u2019re with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
steve.lopez@latimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The doors and windows are done. The appliances are on the way. The hardwood floors are stacked and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":277247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[143375,143374,21053,143376,1582,276,143373,2385,5810,37512,316,17819,143372,2961,4536,224,5337,7088,3546,10558],"class_list":{"0":"post-277246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-13-year-old-dog","9":"tag-abraham","10":"tag-altadena","11":"tag-anish-saraiya","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-daisy","15":"tag-day","16":"tag-eaton-fire","17":"tag-golden-retriever","18":"tag-home","19":"tag-house","20":"tag-koerner","21":"tag-la","22":"tag-line","23":"tag-los-angeles","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-lot","26":"tag-people","27":"tag-property"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115316180087877329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}