About two months ago, Eli Russell Linnetz moved into a house built in the mid-1980s by the actor Dennis Hopper. Mr. Linnetz had spent the last few years as a kind of Venice Beach Goldilocks, moving until he found a studio that felt just right. Walking across the property, toward a small white house where he now lives, Mr. Linnetz discovered gardenias blooming in the yard. One of his earliest renovation decisions was to tear up the studio’s floors and install plywood from the time it was built. Mr. Linnetz tends to fixate on small details in the service of telling a good story.

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Persons: Eli Russell Linnetz, Dennis Hopper, Linnetz