131-Day House
Architect Jayna Cooper had never designed a house before, much less played general contractor, when she broke ground on her new home in the middle of Los Angeles in 2009. After a grueling four months of hands-on hard work—managing subcontractors, sourcing materials, driving the front loader—she moved in. Here, she walks us through her completed home and reveals what it took to make this $200-per-square-foot abode a reality.
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To afford property in Los Angeles, I was going to have to buy something cheap. I had been monitoring the MLS [Multiple Listing Service] almost daily for a year or so, and when I saw this property come up for sale, I pounced. Although the lot wasn’t in the best neighborhood, it was geographically central and just a couple of blocks away from a future light-rail station [now open] which I found appealing. The asking price—$225,000—was also low for 2007.
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Aaron Britt
Aaron writes the men’s style column “The Pocket Square” for the San Francisco Chronicle and has written for the New York Times, the Times Magazine, Newsweek, National Geographic and others.
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