The Pillar Letter

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Last weekend I finally got the house and the pillar in our front yard ready to stucco. As I was screwing down the boards on the pillar I thought how this space has not seen daylight for nearly forty years and it will probably be another forty years (or more) before it sees daylight again. That is when I decided that I had to leave something in that space. I couldn’t think of anything meaningful to put in there so I decided to write a letter. I put in a hard copy of the letter along with a USB drive with a copy of the letter and a bunch of pictures of our yard showing how it has changed over the years and how much fun we’ve had in our yard during that time. Here is a copy of the letter.

April 6, 2016
Fred & Lisa Leavitt
13445 Thunderhead St
San Diego, CA 92129

858-761-1990

Re: The Pillar

Hi,

My name is Fred Leavitt and my wife is Lisa Leavitt. The stucco on this pillar has been flaking off for ten years or more. I’ve repaired it myself and I have had it professionally repaired but it keeps flaking off. A few weeks ago, I was repairing the sprinkler valves near the front of the house and at one point I leaned onto the house, and my shoulder went right through the stucco. That is when I decided it was time to take care of this. I repaired the house first and got it ready for stucco because I didn’t want any wildlife to make a home in the wall and now, I’m preparing the pillar for stucco.

As I was closing up the pillar it occurred to me that this cavity hasn’t seen daylight for nearly forty years, and it might not see daylight for another forty years. I thought I should put something inside the pillar for when the pillar is opened again. Kind of like a time capsule. As I was trying to think of what to put in here, I decided that I would like to share with you how much this home has meant to our family. If you’re reading this, it either means that I did a lousy job of repairing the pillar and you are redoing it, or our home has lived its life and is now being demolished. That would make me sad.

Our family moved to San Diego from Alberta, Canada in July of 1992. We rented in the area until we bought this house in February 1995. As far as I know, this house was built in 1988 and whoever lived here must have loved it as much as we do because the yard and home were immaculate and beautiful when we bought it. We moved our young family into this home, and it is the home that they grew up in. When we moved in, our youngest child was only a year and a half old and our oldest was twelve. Here is a list of our family at that time.

Frederick Arlen Leavitt born Aug 12, 1958
Lisa Gay Leavitt (Shaw) born Jul 5, 1963

Kira Anne Leavitt, born Sep 2, 1982
Brandon James Leavitt born Jun 2, 1984
Benjamin Scott Leavitt born Feb 25, 1986
Alycia Grayce Leavitt born Feb 3, 1989
Alexander Thomas Leavitt born Mar 12, 1991
Sarah Christine Leavitt born Aug 24, 1993

Sarah is the only child born here in the US. The older five kids were born in Canada. We all have dual citizenship. Here is a picture of our family when the kids were still young. We are sitting on the steps leading to our deck.

Our yard was a big part of our family’s life. We played out there all the time and, in the canyon, as well. I always said that with the canyon, we had the largest backyard in the city. We had parties out there, weddings, family gatherings, sleepovers, we ate several meals in the yard, the yard was simply another room in our home.

Inevitably our family grew, it wasn’t long before Kira headed off to college. On the previous page is a family picture taken around that time. You can see the big fig tree behind us.

We loved that fig tree, but it is what eventually led to a dramatic change in our yard. As our kids grew, the yard grew as well. I wasn’t good at keeping the bushes trimmed and the tree completely overtook our yard. The trees shallow roots cracked our patio and became trip hazards in the grass. I say grass but the grass was dead because it never saw the sun. The huge canopy of the tree covered our entire yard. The tree had to go. Ben helped me take it down in 2016.

Our deck was also a victim of time. The beautiful cedar began to rot, and termites made the deck boards dangerous to the point that I wouldn’t let anyone on the deck. While quarantined during covid I tore down the old deck leaving only the foundation and rebuilt it. It is quite beautiful if I do say so myself.

With a new deck, we also had to redo the yard. The yard still isn’t finished but, in this picture, you can see what we’re going for. 

The hill on this side of the yard kept slumping down. In fact, it slumped so much that our lemon tree is now tilted. It looks funny, but that lemon tree is amazing.

When we moved into the house the previous owners had a lemon tree, an orange tree, a grapefruit tree and a lime tree all along that side of the yard. I was too busy and distracted to take care of them properly so before I got my act together, the trees were all dead except the lemon tree. The lemon is a Meyer lemon, and it is an amazing tree. It bears the most delicious lemons all year round. We have come to love lemonade.

This leads to why I am now repairing my pillar. I want to extend that wall you see all the way to the front sidewalk. To do that I had to do a little bit of work in the front yard. Without getting into the details, that required me to move the sprinkler valves in the front yard and at one point when I leaned against the house, my shoulder went right through the wall. That was quite alarming.

As I said earlier, the stucco on the pillar started failing shortly after we moved into the house back in 1995. Every picture I can find of the pillar shows the stucco flaking off. Repairs didn’t fix it and it was now so bad that there were holes in it. I knew I had to peel the stucco all off and fix whatever the problem was. With a hole in the house as well as a hole in the pillar it was time to do just that. We fixed the house first and it is ready for stucco and I am now preparing the pillar for stucco. We fixed the house first because I didn’t want the wildlife to make a home in my walls. I haven’t put the stucco on yet, but it is ready for it. I am now preparing the pillar for stucco.

I think the stucco failed early for two reasons. First, whoever applied this stucco didn’t have any backing board. They applied the stucco directly onto the wire and tar paper with nothing behind it. Secondly, the sprinklers must have been hitting both spots causing the wire to rust over time. As the wire rusts, it expands causing the stucco to spall off. There was no wire and only about 1/8” of stucco left.

We took out the bushes growing up against the house and I adjusted the sprinklers shortly after we moved in but the previous owners must have allowed the walls to get wet for years and by the time I fixed it, the damage was done. I now have the pillar closed up and I will leave this letter and a USB drive with lots of pictures in here for you to find.

It is not likely that Lisa and I are going to be around when this letter is found but maybe you can track down some of my kids and share this letter with them. I have no idea where they will be when you read this, but here is our contact information as of today.

(because this blog is public the contact information has been removed)

Fred 
Lisa 
Kira
Brandon
Ben
Alycia
Alex
Sarah

It seems unlikely that any of my kids will be at the same address, but there is a good chance that their email addresses will not change.

Our family has now grown to the point that we have six kids who are all married, and twenty seven grandchildren.

Kira & Justin Palmer have two boys and two girls.
Brandon & Ally Leavitt have nine kids. Six of Brandons and three of Ally’s.
Ben and Sharley Leavitt have two boys and a girl and three foster girls.
Alycia & Trevor Crowley have two boys and two girls
Alex & Lisa Leavitt have a boy and a girl.
Sarah & Sam Taylor have a boy and a girl.

I would love to include a family picture of all these people, but so far, we can’t get them all in the same place at the same time. Instead, I will include this picture of our six kids as young adults.

So, there you have it. This home has created many wonderful memories.

Fred & Lisa Leavitt

---------------------trivia--------------------

The average lifespan of a modern American home is generally 70–100 years,

though many can last much longer with consistent maintenance.

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