Sasha and Rachel Klupchak were completing graduate programs in Berlin when they decided to realize their dream of relocating to Los Angeles. Searching online, they fell in love with a 1923 home in the Larchmont neighborhood. Needing to buy the house without seeing it in person didn’t deter them, nor did the prospect of renovating. Reality struck when they arrived in California. “I thought, What have we done?” Sasha recalls.

The couple had underestimated how much work was needed to make the property viable for Sasha, an anthropologist and filmmaker who has used a wheelchair since becoming paralyzed in a 2008 accident. “Accessibility-wise, it would have been easier to move into a new place with an open plan,” admits Rachel, a therapist. “But we have a soft spot for older things.”

To transform the uninspired backyard into a modern oasis, they called Neive Tierney, founder of Nectar Landscape Design and a longtime friend. It took time to find a builder they liked who had experience with universal design, but the couple eventually met Joan Barton of Dirty Girl Construction, who was immediately on board with Rachel and Sasha’s brief.

“They didn’t want it to look like an accessibility project,” says Barton. “There would be two people living in this house, and we had to make it work for both of them.”

Every inch of the 7,500-square-foot lot was scrutinized. Inside, Barton customized the kitchen with features like a drawer dishwasher and a roll-under stove top and outfitted the main bathroom with a curbless shower and a vanity with wheelchair clearance. Outside, she implemented Tierney’s vision for an upper patio, concrete ramps leading to the pool, and a boardwalk that wends through sedges, sage, honeysuckle, and lavenders to a studio/guesthouse.

The elevated saltwater pool was a must-have for the residents’ physical and mental well-being. Sasha says the ledge that enables her to transfer in and out independently is “life changing” and adds that the garden became a favorite spot for friends, especially during the pandemic. “It’s been a true sanctuary.”

Project Credits:

Construction: Dirty Girl Construction

Landscape Design: Nectar Landscape Design

Structural Engineering: TY Engineering and Design

Cabinetry Design: Hope J Brothers

Design collaboration with Anna Hermann

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An Uninspired Los Angeles Yard Becomes a Lush, Wheelchair-Ready Landscape With a Saltwater Pool