Thes-One remixes a house he calls “California No-Style”
By Eric Ducker
Christopher Portugal describes the original look of his home as “California no-style.” The 2,500-square-foot house was built in 2004 on a 10,000-square-foot hillside lot in San Pedro. It was, he says, “just an amalgamation of random stucco and tile that you see springing up everywhere, with no general architectural direction or proper contractor supervision.”
Portugal bought the home when it was in the early stages of construction and moved in with his wife, Ritu, after their honeymoon. They soon started seeing small problems, and when the rainstorms caused flooding, they realized how seriously flawed the building was. “When we moved in, we were looking forward to getting on with our lives,” says Portugal, who records under the name Thes One and is a member of the hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs. “I was thinking about touring. I was thinking about doing music.”
Instead, he immersed himself in fixing up their house, though he had no prior home improvement experience. “It was very dramatic, those first two years. Then I realized I liked doing it,” he says. “I liked being outside and being involved with the construction.”
Take a peek inside the latest installment of our Backstage Pass series on the homes of Southern California’s music industry -- homes as entertaining as the personalities on stage and behind the scenes. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
The top floor contains the house’s common areas, an open floor plan with high ceilings. With five bedrooms on the bottom floor, Portugal, wife Ritu, son Sai and daughter Samiya have plenty of space. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Portugal invites Sai to play a piece of a gamelan orchestra that takes the place of a traditional coffee table in the living room. The instrument came from an Indonesian furniture outlet on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood that was going out of business. Teak furniture from Indonesia, India and South America is found throughout the home. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Much of the house’s decor comes from Portugal’s travels -- tours with People Under the Stairs and vacations with his wife, Ritu, a lawyer. The living room chairs were built from dowry chests bought in northern India, where Ritu’s family is from. They open to reveal storage space. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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After the flooding damaged an exterior wall and led to mold, Portugal decided to convert a bedroom into a home studio. It features a mixing console built by Inward Connections to his specifications, but Portugal soundproofed the room himself, creating a separate vocal booth and building all its wood furniture and trim on his own. He has recorded three People Under the Stairs albums here, including the upcoming “Carried Away.”
Portugal says he learned about construction from the Internet, how-to books and employees at his local Home Depot, which he estimates he visits three or four times a week. He plans his designs using Google’s SketchUp program. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Because he works from home, Portugal turned another bedroom into his personal office and record library. The wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling shelving holds nearly 10,000 rare and collectible records. To access the top rows, he outfitted it with a rolling ladder that he bought on EBay from a library in upstate New York. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
The entry to the house is another Portugal project, made with wood from an ornate 19th century Indian window and metal work that he designed. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
This 30-foot-tall Buddha was bought from another Indonesian furniture outlet going out of business, this one in Sherman Oaks. It had to be transported on an 18-wheel truck. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Portugal owns two paintings by Bay Area artist Peter Gronquist. This one hangs in the dining room. “I used to see his artwork in a restaurant in San Francisco, then I saw one in a gallery in Long Beach,” Portugal says. “I told my wife when we were dating, ‘I want to get something like that in our house.’ ”
It turned out that Gronquist was a fan. “I got in touch with him through a friend. He was like, ‘Do you want that particular painting?’ So I ended up getting the piece that I saw [in Long Beach] eight or nine years prior.” (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
On the wall: a framed sheet of stamps from Africa featuring James Brown. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Portugal already had an extensive collection of vintage upright video games, but he paired it down before he moved into the San Pedro house. He kept the games with what he calls “the best party-playability.” He even outfitted his Klax machine with two holders for 40-ounce bottles, seen to his left.
The video games are kept in his garage, which also functions as Portugal’s workshop. “I have a friend in Palm Springs who just got a house, and he’s building a studio, so I’m helping him,” Portugal says. “We’re like young old men -- sitting around, drinking beer and talking about miter saws.” (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
