Must be mod

It looks turn-of-the-20th-century Los Angeles, and was built then too. But step inside Eduardo Santiago’s Colonial Craftsman and leave Great-Grandma’s world way behind.

“This house is not concerned with convention,” said Gloria Fowler, 40, former owner and co-designer of the Angelino Heights contemporary renovation. “We rethought the definition of space and materials.”

Whimsy, experimentation and customization define the housing preferences of Generations X and Y, collectively known as Generation-nesters because many of them both work and live in their homes. Born between 1964 and 1994, they make up 40% of the U.S. population, and many over the age of 25 are buying houses.

Gen-nesters are highly educated, ethnically diverse, eco-conscious and consummate consumers, and many of them are entering the housing market with their own ideas about what constitutes domesticity. Don’t expect this demographic to embrace what some view as their boomer parents’ bigger-is-better, cookie-cutter tastes as they dive into the real estate market.

“This generation is a very sophisticated, marketed-to audience that wants a living space that’s personalized and individualized,” said Sharon Lee, co-president of Look-Look, a youth-culture research and marketing firm. “The real estate market is way, way behind in serving this huge audience. Builders need to ask this group what they like.”

Gen-nesters spend a combined $297 billion annually, according to research compiled by ReadyMade magazine, a publication targeting this do-it-yourself generation. Gen-Xers alone, ages 28 to 39, purchased 49% of all newly built homes in 2003, according to a National Assn. of Home Builders study.

To capture the younger end of this market and reel in their housing dollars, designers say builders will need to create homes that combine the mid-20th century sensibility of hearth and home with contemporary ideals. That means open spaces that rely on movable modular walls, which can be replaced when styles change.

“Interiors must be updatable, like a wardrobe,” Look-Look’s Lee said.

Planned communities, with their more homogeneous architecture and restrictive residential covenants, do not appeal to this demographic, which generally prefers individuality.

Santiago’s three-story home -- renovated 15 years ago by Fowler and Randy Stauffer, 44, after a fire gutted the interior -- has two bedrooms plus two extra sleeping or entertainment “spaces” in 2,800 square feet. Its open floor plan allows rooms to meld into each other, and the bedrooms, bathroom and closets have no doors. Stainless steel, maple plywood and “vintage mid-century-modern” construction materials and furniture are used throughout.

This aesthetic can be created fairly easily in homes concentrated in the region’s older, not-yet-gentrified neighborhoods, say architects and agents, and that’s where many Gen-nesters are buying. The California Craftsman exteriors of many Angelino Heights, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Eagle Rock and Highland Park homes appeal to this demographic, who then open and update the interiors to accommodate studios or home offices.

These older Los Angeles enclaves also are more moderately priced, according to David Toyama of Coldwell Banker and Eric Toro of Uptown Properties, who serve those neighborhoods. Gen-nesters often are happy to grab vintage homes, no matter the condition.

“They’re just trying to get in,” Toyama said. “They move fast and make quick decisions.”

Finding the perfect house and staying there until retirement is not on Gen-nesters’ radar, so buying and fixing homes, then moving a couple of years later, is no big deal, experts say. But high prices have forced some Gen-nesters to move temporarily to the outer suburbs, which is a big deal.

“To someone with an expectation of a living space that’s personalized, buying a tract home is like buying a minivan,” Lee said. “Gen-nesters view that as the death of self.”

Some, such as Brandy Fons, 32, and her husband, Ryan, 27, have avoided that predicament by settling for a temporary condo closer to an urban center. They are watching their equity build, and then will jump into a single-family home more to their liking when they can afford it.

Fons’ Hollywood Hills home, like those of many Gen-nesters, doubles as her office. The one-bedroom, 968-square-foot condo the publicist and her husband purchased in 2003 is wired for instant Internet access, TiVo and other state-of-the-art technology. The couple never entertained the idea of settling in the San Fernando Valley or farther suburbs, Fons said. But buying, rather than renting, was imperative.

“Real estate is all people in my age group talk about,” she said. “Real estate is to us what stocks were to Gen-Xers.”

The desire to own compelled married artists Tamara Cervantes and Aaron Bowen to purchase their 9,700-square-foot warehouse/home in Central L.A. seven years ago for $415,000.

Cervantes, 31, a commercial photographer, and Bowen, 37, an artist and cinematographer, sought a large space in which they could set up studios for their respective work and live as well. They got a lot for their money.

When they bought the warehouse, it was nothing more than “some offices in disrepair with 50-year-old paint,” Bowen said. After consulting with structural and environmental engineers, the couple gutted the space and embarked on a 3 1/2-year, $500,000 renovation, much of which they did themselves.

They are most proud of their “mini urban biosphere” -- they installed an air-circulation and irrigation system and more than 100 plants and trees in their living quarters -- and their adherence to green-building standards. They bought only energy-efficient appliances, and Bowen stretched a reflective covering across the building’s roof, reducing interior temperatures by 15 degrees in the summertime.

The pair live and work in one half of the building and lease the other half to an accessories company. The rent covers their mortgage.

At first glance, their work/living space resembles a small, pristine airplane hangar lined with large, spectacular paintings on the walls, but that feeling is quickly dispelled after entering Cervantes’ oak-finished photography studio and the adjoining warm, cozy living quarters. The light-infused bedroom is decorated with Bowen’s large floral paintings, and the bathroom features a Japanese-style soaking tub. They also have a music room with Cervantes’ cello prominently displayed.

The modular offices in the other side of the warehouse are awash in natural light, with 19-foot ceilings, skylights and a state-of-the art open kitchen festooned with plants. Bowen’s oversized, rough-hewn, utilitarian cabinets stand out.

“It comes down to freedom,” Bowen said. “Today, people change careers and need a space in which they can reinvent themselves.”

For those not so adept at a chameleon lifestyle, there is always Costa Mesa architect Greg Tate, available to create just about any modular design a buyer has in mind. The do-it-yourself expert, 44, is in demand by younger home buyers who want a design using his movable wall partitions that divide open rooms and can double as portable bookshelves or entertainment units. They also can be rolled in and out on wheels. Wall panels made of recycled fibers and floors covered with tiles made from recycled content also are in demand, Tate said.

Tate prefers homes in which buyers “can turn the space into a two-bedroom apartment, if they like, or make it into a recording studio.”

One local builder, West Millennium Homes, is doing just that.

The company is near completion on 26 Gen-nester-friendly lofts at the corner of Silver Lake and Glendale boulevards in Los Angeles, which offer open spaces that owners can adapt to meet their needs.

The structure is zoned for mixed uses, so some owners will be able to run businesses, such as a law office, architectural firm, photography studio or travel agency, out of their living quarters, said Craig Sheranian, manager of the Silver Lake Lofts project.

The three-story units are built to incorporate a business, a garage and living quarters on three different levels.

“People like the idea of having businesses close to where they live,” Sheranian said. “We’re making an urban center around residential units.”

The lofts have open floor plans with a kitchen on one level, and a bathroom on another. There is an “interest list” of 500 potential buyers for the 1,250- to 1,400-square foot units, which sell for $400,000 to $600,000.

Even some of the country’s largest builders are catching on to Gen-nesters’ tastes. Lennar Homes, for example, known for building single-family-detached housing, is using an “urban master plan” to appeal to a range of buyers, including Gen-nesters, said Emile Haddad, president of Lennar’s California region.

The multigenerational plan includes developments with lofts, walk-ups, brownstones and single-family homes all in one location.

The builder’s 1,300-home Central Park in Irvine, the first phase of which will open late in 2006, features two high-rises among attached units, with walking-distance shopping.

Gen-nesters, eager to get into the housing market, are approaching home buying much as they tackle other purchases: Buy as cheaply as possible and trade up quickly.

Tight budgets have accustomed them to finding housewares and clothing at swap meets, ReadyMade’s Shoshana Berger said, rather than at higher-end retail outlets, and they embrace do-it-yourself projects with a religious fervor.

“They’ll go to Costco to buy champagne,” Look-Look’s Lee said. “They’re thinking ahead and searching the Internet for the best buys.”

Patience helped David and Lisa Lowman land a move-up house in Pasadena a couple of weeks ago. Lisa, 35, a fashion designer, and David, 39, an artist, had lived in a two-bedroom fixer they bought in Echo Park four years ago for $255,000, and spent most of their dollars and time on landscaping their dust bowl of a yard.

After the arrival of their son, Joshua, they scrapped architectural plans to connect the two levels of their duplex, dropped the outdoor renovation and bought a two-story, five-bedroom 1903 Craftsman that needed far less work, David said.

The couple were attracted to the gorgeous interior wood and built-in shelves and credenza, as well as the cultural diversity of their Garfield Heights neighborhood. They’re converting the detached garage into a studio for David’s work. They plan to stay in this house for a while, David said, close to the urban amenities they like, but in a house and neighborhood well-suited to raising their son.

“Having an urban edge is important,” he said. “But we’re looking forward to barbecues too.”