After being displaced from her Altadena home, designer Justina Blakeney took time to reflect before she could restore. This is her story, as told to Leonora Epstein.

The evening of January 7, 2025 almost felt almost romantic at first. Outside, the wind was doing that full-throated howl that rolls down the hills of Altadena during the Santa Anas. Inside, with the electricity out—not uncommon up here on a windy day—my husband, kiddo, and I posted up in the living room surrounded by all the candles I could find. We played music—me on the guitar, my husband on ukulele—under the beams of our 1930s Spanish home .

My husband left to pick up some pizzas, and that’s when the destabilization began: a patchy phone call from him, halfway down the hill: “Look outside,” he said through the crackle.…