By Isiah REYES

Pacific Outdoor Living held its Designer Showcase & Outdoor Living Expo at six different homes in La Cañada and Pasadena on Oct. 25 to benefit LAPD Foothill’s Cadet Program in Pacoima.

The homes ranged from mid-sized to mansions. The designers at each location were available to answer questions and offer tips on achieving a home oasis. Glen Hampton was the landscape design consultant at the Meadow Brook house in Altadena. He said that showcasing this particular house was nice because it showcased everything Pacific Outdoor Living offers.

“We did all the masonry, the pool, the fire pit, the fireplace, the Baja shelf in the pool, the cook center, the pond,” Hampton said. “We pride ourselves on getting things done quickly and efficiently.”

Pacific Outdoor Living has its own crews that specialize in different areas such as ponds, carpentry, irrigation and so on. Each job has its own site coordinator assigned to it who runs the project working directly with the clients from start to finish.

Christine Chesney and Nancy Valentine designed the two-and-half acre Angeles Crest house in La Cañada. Chesney said the owner of the house did not like the shape of the pool, so she took it out, redesigned it and added a spa and a fire pit. The front of the house took about six weeks to construct and the backyard and pool took about three months.

“The inspiration I’m looking for is to make a beautiful, lush landscape that’s drought-tolerant and low maintenance,” Chesney said. “I’m trying to pick plants that aren’t cactus-looking. Something like Australian natives will do the trick.”

Jake Patton was the landscape architect for one of the two showcase houses located on Hillcrest Avenue in La Cañada. He said the overall design for the landscaping had two major influences. One was the Spanish-themed pool and outdoor cooking area while a nearby slope had a more tropical feel that included a small waterfall.

“The biggest challenge was addressing the slope and, with that, came a lot of the erosion issues. We decided to work with the slope and kind of integrate this waterfall into a very natural setting,” Patton said. “We didn’t want it to look artificial so we kept a lot of the existing trees. We addressed the understory by creating a lower patio and creating a tropical effect with the waterfall.”

The two Hillcrest Avenue properties had a lot of space for the designers to work with. In contrast, the Lambert house in Pasadena has what might be considered a modest-sized backyard.

“Pacific Outdoor Living does great stuff with water,” said the owner of the Lambert house. “The cool thing about them is that they’re dedicated to their projects. They did my house in about three-and-a-half weeks. They also have great designers who come up with some really creative ideas and that’s really nice.”

The owner of one of the houses in Pasadena, David DiCristofaro, said he was pleased with the way his home was designed.

“Everything [Pacific Outdoor Living] told me they were going to do they did,” DiCristofaro said. “They were very upfront. I had a sense for what I wanted to do, but not a great sense, and they really helped me figure out what I could do. The team coached me in the process and that made feel very comfortable working with them.”

Every dollar raised through the ticket purchases for the tour was dedicated to the LAPD Cadet Program. The program builds leadership skills for cadets while providing ways to help out the community.

The Pacific Outdoor Living Design Center is located at 2727 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta. For more information (and ideas), visit www.pacificoutdoorliving.com.

  Photos by Isiah REYES