North County Times

After the Cedar Fire ripped through the county, John Oleson thought he could keep future infernos away by clearing the brush around his home so he allowed his insurance to elapse. Last October, he learned a difficult lesson.

Oleson, his wife and their seven children are living in two Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers on the burned lot in Ramona. Oleson said he would be living in the trailers indefinitely if it were not for Merced-based Envision Homes, which has been building some houses in San Diego County.

Greg Bradford, president of the company, is rebuilding the Oleson home ---- for free.

"I took a team down to evaluate what happened (after the fires) and looked at all the devastation, and it touched me," Bradford said. "God spoke to me and said, 'Build a house for a family that has no insurance.' "

Bradford assembled a committee to review applications from fire victims and put out a call for submissions through local churches. After filtering the applications for people who owned the home and did not carry any liens, the committee selected the Oleson family.

Because of a slowdown in housing, Envision Homes is not missing opportunities to turn profits on other projects by building the Oleson home. And donations of materials or rate reductions from subcontractors has allowed the builder to cut costs by 20 to 30 percent, Bradford said. Nonetheless, it will cost the company about $100,000 to build the 2,100-square-foot house, he said.

"When he (Bradford) said he was going to do it for free, I said, 'Oh, so we're going to do it at cost.' And he said, 'No, we're giving them the house,' " said Don Valdez, a construction manager for the company since May. "I've been in the business for 30 years. I've heard of builders giving things away to entice the buyer to buy, but I've never heard of anything like this."

Envision started building the house in June and will finish by September.

Oleson said he is still reeling from the loss of his home and virtually all possessions, including family heirlooms and a stock of chickens, peacocks and parakeets. One animal that survived, a young black cat, roamed the property Wednesday, inspecting the construction.

Though he is still grappling with the loss, Oleson, a telephone utility worker with Verizon, is excited to move out of the trailers and into his new home, he said.

Oleson has lived in Ramona for 15 years, he said, and never thought about relocating after losing his home.

If Envision Homes did not rebuild his house for free, the family of nine would have been living in two trailers on the burned lot "for a while, a long while," Oleson said.

"My life was turned upside down when this happened," he said. "But now, everything is starting to turn around."

Contact staff writer Zach Fox at (760) 740-5412 or zfox@nctimes.com.