Rolling Away the Past: A Los Angeles Story of Dumpster Removal and Renewal

The first time Lena smelled sawdust and old paint thinner mixing with ocean air, she thought she had made a terrible mistake. Her 1920s bungalow in Venice—sun-faded shingles, a front yard dotted with succulents, and a creaky porch—was mid-renovation and mid-meltdown. A pile of plaster, broken tiles and a rusting bathtub towered in the driveway like a tiny urban mountain.