The following excerpt comes from the Los Angeles Times; you can read Robin McMacken’s full article there, and there’s also a photo gallery of the Riddle/Ledner house.
“Don’t do it,” said Kyle Riddle with a laugh when asked to offer advice for homeowners. “I would recommend that anyone buying a two-story house have a structural engineer inspect the property – as well as a traditional house inspection,” he said. “Had we known up front that our foundation and structure were seriously compromised, we would have never bought the house in the first place.”
Kyle Riddle and wife Catherine Ledner’s South Pasadena home, a 2,700-square-foot, two-story bungalow home reflects the turn-of-the-century transition from Victorian architecture to the Craftsman style so well-known in Pasadena.
Yet what makes the 1890s home undoubtedly unusual is that it underwent a massive transformation a couple of years ago, making it an intriguing blend of old and modern construction.
When Riddle and Ledner purchased the home in July 2000, they were eager to renovate their new residence. Ledner said things went alarmingly awry, however, when they realized the home was not as structurally sound as they had believed. The old-home blues were heightened by the fact that an update in the 1950s had been less than desirable.
In a bad real estate market, it may make better financial sense to redesign a home to meet your family’s needs than to move. This may entail changing a den into a bedroom and adding a closet to make space for an expanding family.