I stumbled upon "bird house" house last August while perusing Redfin. The listing showed a large green wall and said it was a tiny one bedroom one bath house but on a large lot 8,500 square feet and a pool. That's huge in LA. The photos looked like there was even a guest house. A guest house?! An office for me? A pool?! My husband would love that.
The original MLS listing photo
We immediately went to the house and broke in to have a look around. This makes my husband crazy - I always manage to "work my way" into houses. It was just a magical backyard. Full grown trees. A large pool. A huge chicken coop. Which is so chic these days, right? The guest house was filled with reclaimed wood walls and beams. It looked like hippies built this house. Such a typical Laurel Canyon cabin feel. I could just picture The Doors having a jam session in the guest house. I was sold and I hadn't even looked inside the main house. We walked in and looked around the main house - it wasn't as charming as the guest house. It had had some bad updates. It was super small 960 square feet but the living room had a fireplace and beamed ceilings. We made our way to the ugly and kinda gross kitchen and there at our feet was a dead headless bird. I looked at the bird and then my husband and said "I want this house. That's good luck, right?"
We immediately made an offer and I started sketching out my dream kitchen and googling "chicken coop maintenance". I was crushed when the owner decided to rent it out instead of selling. We kept looking. We were specifically looking for historic fixer uppers in the South of Hancock Park neighborhoods. They were huge formal houses with smallish lots.
