When Kendra Sanchez read about Mark Livingston’s Felton house burning down in the Press Banner, she wondered if there might not be something she could do to help.
Her 78-year-old husband, Papo, had spent years gathering every bit of building material imaginable, but now they were planning on moving and she needs to get rid of it all.
“We’re offering for him to come and pick before we put it on sale,” said Kendra Sanchez, 73, while giving the newspaper a tour of the sprawling collection on her property north of Boulder Creek last Wednesday.
Livingston renovated a rustic home in the 1980s and took it off-grid a few years later. His cats died in the June 30 blaze, but his dogs survived. And now, he’s trying to improve the structure as much as possible before the winter storms arrive.
Papo Sanchez had been planning to complete a number of projects that never came to fruition. For example, he had the idea to build a treehouse that their grandkids could play in.
But now they’ve grown, and the trees came down in bad weather last year.
Kendra Sanchez pointed out five rolls of roofing tar paper, metal fence posts, six plastic fire sprinkler pipes and a heavy-duty metal conduit, and a 12-inch drainage culvert.
“If you live in the mountains, you might want to make waterways away from your house,” she said.
There were concrete tools, drainage connectors and some stucco paper.
“I had no idea who this guy was, but I used to work with engineers in the tech world,” she said, referring to aspects of Livingston’s story that resonated with her.
Kendra Sanchez wondered if Livingston might like one of the sinks or metal cabinets currently sitting idle on the ground, or perhaps some of the Douglas fir lumber.
“It’s cool that he’s willing to restart,” she said. “If we can help, even better.”
The Press Banner reached Livingston by telephone Aug. 5. When informed about the trove of materials he was being invited to select from, he was elated.
“I feel like a kid on Christmas Day,” he said.
At press time Wednesday, Livingston said he and his fiancée had made arrangements to scope the items, but had not yet had the chance to head up to the Boulder Creek property.
