Winnetka sits in the middle of the west Valley, on the flat grid between Canoga Park and Reseda, with Northridge just to the north. Sherman Way, Vanowen Street, and Roscoe Boulevard run east and west through it, Winnetka Avenue and Mason Avenue run north and south, and almost every home here sits on a quiet interior street a few blocks off one of them. Most of those homes went up in the 1950s and 1960s, single story, a driveway down one side, a garage at the back, and a yard behind that. Between the boulevards run long stretches of apartment buildings, duplexes, and back houses.
Households here tend to be full. Grandparents, parents, and children often share the same three bedroom floor plan that was drawn seventy years ago for a smaller family, and a house carrying that many people does not stay still for long. We are based in Reseda, the neighborhood directly east, which makes Winnetka one of the closest parts of the Valley to us and an easy one to get to on short notice.