For 10 years, DeDe Daniels bided her time until the familiar property she owned could be transformed into a space she loved. “It was in decent shape, but I didn’t spend a lot of money on it,” she remembers. “The only things I probably spent money on were cleaning products and a gardener.” Daniels, who is a certified personal trainer , grew up in this postwar single-family house in the quiet L.A. suburb of Torrance. “It used to be my parents’ house, and then it was my mom's house, and then it was me living in my mom's house. And now it's my house,” she says, summing up spans of time with the ease of a few sentences.

BEFORE: The original home was a mix of styles from the 1950s and ’80s, and none of it appealed to DeDe. “I just kept telling myself that soon this will all be different,” DeDe remembers. “It basically meant saving and paying off my debt so that when I went to apply for a home equity loan, I would have excellent credit and would get a good rate.”

When her mom left the property to DeDe following her death in 2004, DeDe knew then that she eventually wanted to renovate it. The original 1950s layout sectioned off the floor plan, creating small bedrooms and making the galley kitchen feel like an isolation booth. A 1980s renovation to the front exterior only added to that disarray with a row of cramped windows cluttering an awkward curve. But the worst part? “There was only one bathroom for the whole house,” she says, laughing. DeDe made a plan to save as much as she could for a future gut job as she simultaneously paid off debts. She ignored the sun-bleached paint and structural issues that surrounded her, and instead researched modern properties for inspiration and design-build firms that could deliver comprehensive results. And then one day while stopped at a red light, she noticed the office of Robert Sweet , the lead principal of ras-a studio . It took a decade of saving, a home equity loan , and a pause in traffic for work on her long-awaited renovation to begin.

BEFORE: The original kitchen had a door that could be closed off, which no modern host wants. “If you were in the kitchen, you were completely separated from anything and everyone else,” DeDe says.