Gift House Finally Gets New Owner, Location

Debra and David Tenzer, who had difficulties giving away their Brentwood home last June, finally found a taker in August, but couldn’t get the house moved until last week.

“It took a long time to explore the possibilities with the hundreds of people who called after the story ran,” said Debra Tenzer. “Then, even when we were in agreement about who would get the house, it took time.”

The home was the subject of a Times story June 18, relating the couple’s frustrations in finding a nonprofit organization to accept and relocate the three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,712-square-foot house, where they lived since January, 1988.

The Tenzers wanted to build a larger house on the site but didn’t want to destroy the Spanish-style home that had stood there since 1926, when it was built, they say, by cowboy star Tom Mix.

“We got more than 300 calls, maybe 50 of those from other parts of the country and one from Paris. Then we changed our phone number,” she said with a chuckle.

“Most of the callers didn’t have a place to put the house, and one organization found out that local laws wouldn’t allow the house on their site,” she recalled. “Others wanted the house but didn’t have the money (to help move and maintain it), and some tried to get the money through city financing but failed.”

The couple finally agreed to give the house to Cal State Dominguez Hills, where it will be used, on a site just southeast of the main campus, by the university president for entertaining.

“After we decided on Cal State Dominguez Hills,” she said, “we had to work out a contract to absolve them and us of liability in case anyone was hurt during the move. Both of us had attorneys, and whenever you have attorneys involved in anything, that takes time.

“Then the lender wouldn’t allow the move, so we had to get new financing. Finally, we had to get permits to move the house.”

Now that the house is gone, the Tenzers, who are living nearby in rented quarters, are having the foundation remains cleared in readiness to build a two-story contemporary home. Designed by the architectural firm of Rivers & Christian of Brentwood, it will have four bedrooms and four baths in 4,100 square feet.

“We’re into the holidays,” she said with a sigh. “So the new house (which she and her husband had hoped to start building last August) won’t go up until after the beginning of next year”

“But we have a good feeling that we saved the old house,” she said.