Houses

And now, ladies, one more reason to get out of the kitchen: Cooking may be hazardous to your health. Or so suggests controversial new research into the relationship between the use of gas stoves and respiratory problems in women. The major pollutant released by the combustion of gas is nitrogen dioxide, an odorless, reddish-brown compound that irritates the linings of the respiratory tract and causes shortness of breath.

In an unexpected reversal, federal officials announced Monday that they will pay $3 million to 2,000 homeowners whose requests to be reimbursed for retrofitting their homes after the Northridge earthquake had been rejected. Under a Federal Emergency Management Agency program, the federal government had offered to reimburse homeowners who bolted their homes to foundations to prevent future damage.

Even dogs deserve a cushy vacation hideaway, figured interior designer Jarrett Hedborg. So why not imagine a canine cottage of bamboo and straw beneath the palm trees of a lovely Hawaiian beach? That's exactly what Hedborg did--and built. As a result, his pooch-sized Hawaiian hut is among the most elaborate and humorous contributions to the "Cool Dogs / Hot Digs" exhibit of designer doghouses at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Every night, Armando Munoz Garcia goes to sleep inside a large woman who is not his wife but to whom he has been married, in a sense, for the last seven years. Garcia's home in Tijuana is a 53-foot concrete statue of a nude, her right arm raised in a power salute as she towers precariously over a trash-strewn residential ravine.

Squinting in the midmorning sun, Jorge Garza took a break from his hammering to inspect the maze of wood frames standing on a bare concrete foundation. "I can see nothing yet," a beaming Garza said of the site that will soon be his new home, "but I know it will be wonderful." The landscaper and his family were joined Saturday by more than 40 volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, who erected the first walls of a low-cost duplex in the 200 block of South Poplar Avenue.

City officials moved ahead this week with plans to demolish a former residence on 4th Street for future redevelopment projects. In 1992, the city purchased the house at 7371 4th St. to make way for a commercial development that would have covered 25 acres at Manchester and Artesia boulevards, said May Hui, assistant director of developer services. That project was never built, however. The city has already demolished a half dozen properties that it acquired at the same time on the street.

Brighton Homes will pay five Yorba Linda residents $620,000 each in what is believed to be one of the largest Orange County settlements of a suit alleging construction defects in single-family homes. Filed nearly three years ago, the suit charged the Costa Mesa builder, controlled by developer George Argyros, with shoddy construction of homes that were purchased in 1989 for $430,000 to $600,000. The homes had become waterlogged as a result of severe ground water problems, lawyers said.

Four months after 82-year-old Viola McClain was killed in the aftermath of a gang rape of a girl in a vacant house in Watts, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to buy the house, raze it and replace it with a prefabricated home to be sold to a low-income family. The move is part of a new program in which the city will acquire and rehabilitate nuisance properties throughout the city.

For the past 20 years, the Placentia Founders Society has spent thousands of dollars to preserve the stately, two-story Bradford House built at the turn of the century. "It's part of history," said Alice Husovsky, society president. "It's a cultural center for the city. Placentia's very fortunate to have this house." The 15-room historic home on Palm Circle was built in 1902 by A.S. Bradford, a prosperous orange grower, civic leader and Placentia founder.