Open House Event: This Ever-Expanding L.A. Home Was 24 Years in the Making

Dwell’s Open House: Los Angeles event offers a rare opportunity to step inside three architecturally amazing homes on the east side. Read on for a peek at one of the projects our ticket holders are touring—and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about other upcoming Open House events.

If homes are snapshots of our lives at a given point in time, architect couple Rebecca Rudolph and Colin Thompson’s Atwater Village house is a veritable archive of meaningful moments since they bought the property in 2000. It began as a rundown bungalow that was remarkable for all the things it lacked. Dating from the 1910s and clocking in at 500 square feet, the structure sat atop cinderblocks turned on their sides. Other than a tiny garage, the only thing on the mostly dirt lot was a single, bug-infested tree.

None of that mattered to the couple. "I remember our real estate agent asking us, ‘Are you sure you want to buy this house?’" Rebecca says. "But we were young, and our budget was under $150,000. This was under $150,000."

Tearing it down and starting fresh wasn’t on their minds—or in their budget. "It was pretty shacky—a little thing in a big field," recalls Colin. "But we always thought we could add on to it."

In the 24 years since, Rebecca, a cofounder of the Los Angeles–based firm Design, Bitches, and Colin, a project architect at Gensler as well as a builder, have completely transformed the property, with Colin donning his contractor cap to do the lion’s share of the work himself.

Their first task was clearing out the rat droppings and undertaking a moderately priced gut renovation to make the house livable. A few years later, they converted the standalone garage into an office, and in 2006, they expanded the front of the existing bungalow with a 650-square-foot addition containing a bedroom and a bathroom.

By 2008 their family had grown to include two children, and it was painfully obvious that they needed more space. The pair went back to the drawing board and came up with a plan to replace the old house with a two-story volume that extended off their original addition. "We’d put some work into the house, but it was getting to the point where we couldn’t keep fixing all these pieces because it was disintegrating around itself," Colin explains.

Completed in 2022, the house, which has grown to 1,850 square feet, has a connection to the outdoors that it previously lacked, with walls of glass that open to a garden featuring enormous trees and a much-used pool—the property’s latest addition. 

Throughout are details that have captured the couple’s imagination, from the dining area’s green cement tiles from Mallorca to a sitting area with angled walls that Colin finished with contrasting wood panels to mark the standing heights of the family—as well as Shaquille O’Neal, Mother Teresa, and a hippopotamus.

Colin and Rebecca aren’t afraid to mix things up: bifold Dutch doors and two large, round windows accent the facade, which is clad in staggered cement board panels, while the kitchen is outfitted with Ikea cabinets and an island faced in concrete tiles that Colin cast himself. 

The luminous pink paint that highlights the interior and exterior of the upstairs bathroom casts a glow each afternoon on the open stair below. "It makes a really pretty light show that we weren’t expecting," says Rebecca. Another bonus: The vibrant blue hue that envelops the primary bedroom also appears to change as the light shifts throughout the day.

There have been challenges along the way. The black cement floor that runs from the primary bedroom through the living room was poured on a 100-degree day, resulting in an uneven surface. They installed a green roof atop the addition before building the second floor, so they found themselves climbing a ladder to tend to it. And the two upstairs bedrooms are, in retrospect, a bit small—but the couple reason that the wall separating them isn’t load-bearing, so it could be removed to create one large room.

What was once the garage has undergone its own evolution. For a time, it served as the office for a design-build firm the couple founded, before becoming the headquarters for Design, Bitches, which Rebecca launched with architect Catherine Johnson in 2010. "It was our office for six years," Rebecca remembers with a smile. "There were four of us, and our conference table was an outdoor table." Today the 240-square-foot space serves as a guesthouse, TV room, and workout space. "It’s a magical extra room," Rebecca says.

The couple say that having two architects in the family keeps things interesting. "We spend a lot of time talking about ideas that may or may not ever happen," Rebecca says. "Colin likes things that are more inward-turning and closed, and I like big walls of glass and feeling like everything is open—so when it comes to the actual designing, that’s where the compromises have to happen."

Colin agrees: "I think we both like the same things, but we get there in very different ways."

Nearly a quarter century since they first bought the place, the couple feel the house is pretty much complete—or is it? "It’s almost done," Rebecca says with a laugh. "We’ve talked about making the front portion a separate unit and renting it out as our retirement plan."

Like life, the evolution of the house continues.

More Open House: Los Angeles tours:

They Gave Their "Grey Gardens" Craftsman a Grand Reinvention

This Cozy L.A. Home Pairs High Design With Down-to-Earth Sustainability

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Rebecca Rudolph (of Design, Bitches / @design_bitches) and Colin Thompson

General Contractor: Colin Thompson

Structural Engineer: James Tuchscher, Tuchscher Engineering Group https://www.teglosangeles.com/

Interior Design: Rebecca Rudolph and Colin Thompson

Landscape Design: Rebecca Rudolph and Colin Thompson

Lighting Design: Rebecca Rudolph and Colin Thompson