He may be the first to rebuild his house in Altadena, and he praised his Golden Hound

Doors and windows are completed. The equipment is on the way. The hardwood floors are stacked and ready to be put down.

In January, Ted Koerner’s Altadena home was incinerated with thousands of Eaton Fires.

But today, he and his 13-year-old dog Daisy, returned to their property after spending most of the year in the makeshift dorm for just a few weeks, and they may be the first Altadenans to move into a completely rebuilt house.

“We started practicing to go home,” Corner said in his front yard, at Daisy’s feet, a staff member painted his last touch in the living room.

Daisy is a deep golden retriever whose coat looks like a luxurious white bathrobe, and is the star of the story and why Koerner is determined to finish the house as soon as possible.

Daisy or Daisy Mae, as Koerner puts it, Daisy Mae is well beyond the average life expectancy of a Golden Retriever, and he hopes she can live her own life on the property of their shelter. He fed her salmon and bottled water. According to the proudest dog owner, his girl has no impurities of Russian and Danish descent and she is smart.

“That dog saved me more than I could possibly count,” Koerner, 66, was single, suffered from frustration and rescued his day as a puppy with Daisy. “She is my service dog.”

They lost everything to each other, and for Daisy’s sake, he was as much as himself, and he longed to go home.

“They framed the entire house and the garage in three days. Thirty traveler makers. Because of her identity,” Kona said, recalling the sound breakthrough when he began in mid-July. “They all understand that if she died before she got home, please don’t finish the construction because I’ll die on the same day.”

Work continues at Koerner’s house, where he hopes to move to Altadena soon.

Koerner believes he will be the first to enter a brand new home in the Altadena Fire area. The Los Angeles County Reconstruction Coordinator supported this, although Chairman Altadna Town Council Chairman Victoria Knapp said another project is moving towards completion.

Given that two-thirds of the more than 6,000 burned properties have not even reached the permit phase, and it may take several years to rebuild Altadena, the problem here is clear:

What magic did Koerner show in the short term and others have courses?

Koerner runs a fraud-preventing company that has been dealing with government agencies and various businesses, including insurance companies, for decades. So while he is just a David against a Giants, he is no stranger to reloading a slingshot.

Before the smoke from the Eaton fire cleared, while staying with Daisy at the Pasadena Hotel, Koerner met an Army Engineer officer who suggested that he should pour the new foundation’s cement into as soon as possible once the batch was cleared. No matter what it can be achieved, it can be done. That would have allowed him to rebuild the crowd from scratch.

Koerner keeps his advice in mind and decides not to wait for insurance payments, which can be questioned and delayed indefinitely. Instead, he liquidated his pension and tilted forward with his nickel, hoping to reimburse him later.

Koerner and Daisy had a warm moment together.

Any major construction project is a grazing expedition in a blind fog, which can be a test of patience and sanity. The plumber is here, but the faucet is not there. The drywall crew showed up, but they couldn’t do anything until the electrician ran the wires. The sprinkler system is complete, but the inspector has just been on vacation in Hawaii. The roof tiles end up on a pickup truck that may not leave Arizona or may be New Mexico’s warehouse.

This is why people often have to do the cost you should commit to and a project schedule, double and line up with a good marriage counselor. After an epic disaster, you also have to deal with complications of damaged infrastructure, allowing bottlenecks, insurance disputes and terrible pollution levels.

I know a company, Genesis Builders, who says it is managing and speeding up the entire process with pre-designed homes that can be done in 15 months, but I haven’t seen the details yet.

How best to do it for those interested in following Koerner’s leaders?

Koerner Lesson 1: “Email is not a communication.”

Then what does he mean?

“If you send an email and wait for a callback, you won’t get one,” he said. “No city, no county, no government agency is ready for such a huge disaster. It’s always chaos.”

He called people, instead of direct files, or he met people face to face. He is known as the squeaky wheel, never rejecting an answer, and he is able to spend a lot of time, even if it means it means long enough to read “Old Yeller” repeatedly and watch the movie.

Koerner praised Anish Saraiya, director of Altadena Recovery for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, to help him navigate the maze. Saraiya corrected me when I described Koerner with the word “persistent”.

“He’s tough,” he said.

Saraiya said Koerner has helped identify advances in barriers, such as typical delivery times for queuing up utility services – the county is working to simplify the entire reconstruction process for everyone.

Koerner Lesson 2: “Decide to go home.”

That way, he means moving and keeping the blueprint simple.

“It’s not the time to build a mansion for your heritage.” “You want to go home, or do you want to mess up where every three-inch sink goes, closets, every door, every window? Make a decision and stick with it. … It’s not a big demonstration of your design ability. It’s about going home, or you come to the line and then wait.”

Koerner Lesson 3: “Hiring a builder who understands the meaning of the word ‘face’.”

Koerner was remodeled by Innova Creative Solution, a general contractor based in Van Nuys. He trusted project manager Jossef Abraham, so he hired him to build a new house. According to Koerner, Abraham has been moving the way he promised.

“I think it’s a lot for people who are victims of fire,” Abraham told me, saying he has managed bureaucratic barriers and made sure his material suppliers line up.

Abraham said the house would be better resistant to fires and use concrete roof bricks, tempered windows, sprinklers and enclosed eaves. He said he knew Kona’s bond with Daisy, and although he didn’t know if he could get his man and best friend home by Halloween, he thought six weeks would be feasible.

Abraham said: “Daisy is his whole world, she is so amazing. What a dog.” Transparent

Koerner and Daisy sat in the backyard of the Altadena home.

Located on the west side of Lake Avenue, Koerner’s House meets mountains and metropolis, spreads throughout the valley and admires the sea. Koerner said he could see it to Dana Point and Ventura on clear days.

He avoids accessing his property before the framework begins, frustrating the empty space where the house is located since 2006. When Daisy became a puppy, Koerner began planting dozens of native plants near Aleppo pine and fig trees, creating what he called the camp tree plant. Most of them were destroyed.

On a recent visit with Daisy, Koerner sat in the front yard, survived a heritage oak tree, survived the fire, looking up the hill at dozens of vacant lots, where once stood, and the disaster seemed far away. Daisy seemed surprised and even confused by the changed terrain. But she quickly fell into a familiar rhythm.

“She immediately walked up to me and swayed like a golden man,” Kona said. “She looked at me, licked my hands, lay next to my feet, and sounded asleep. The neighbors and I cried a lot because it was important to the dogs, they were with us.”

steve.lopez@latimes.com