At 7:12 on a bright Saturday morning in Pasadena, Elena Ruiz found a cracked ceramic sink sitting in the middle of her driveway, its chipped basin catching the light like a shallow pool. Around it stood a lopsided stack of fence boards, a broken patio chair, and enough dusty boxes to make the garage door disappear. Her family’s renovation was nearly finished. The mess, however, had become its own project.
