Beaches, Bing Crosby, and horses running in circles

Welcome, friends, to our periodical check-in on Some House We Can’t Afford. I normally try to pepper these intros with a bit of background information on the neighborhood we’re visiting. But today, we’re headed up to Del Mar, and while it’s mid-August and this is, remarkably, our first visit this year to the land where the turf meets the surf, the truth is we’ve been here many, many times before. Beaches, Bing Crosby, horses running in circles, waypoint for Prohibition-era Hollywood elites on their way to Mexico, we’ve covered it all.

So, let’s dive right into our tour of a “modern estate [that] offers mega views and the very best location” in the “private hills of Olde Del Mar overlooking the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean,” according to the Zillow pitch for 1930 Balboa Avenue, a 4482-square-foot mansion built in 2005 and remodeled (less than a decade later) in 2014. Location-wise, Zillow says it’s “walking distance to the beach, the area’s best restaurants & shops plus the world-famous Del Mar Racetrack” before noting that “this exceptional property sits on an elevated, fenced 17,000 square foot lot offering plenty of space to relax and play.” That all seems inviting enough; let’s have a look around.

Nearly 500 square feet of bedroom area alone.

We begin with a tiled sitting area surrounding a gas firepit overlooking the ocean, which looks to be a little more than a quarter mile due west. The hillside perch of the property affords a commanding view, and an old-growth Torrey pine would surely offer welcome shade during the day. An aerial view that follows shows us that we were just sitting near the top of the lot, outside a newly-constructed two-bedroom guest house. The main house, with a pool deck and some outside entertainment spaces of its own, lies just down the hill.

Back on the ground, we’re looking at the pool, which is of the disappointingly small lap-swimming variety, but at least there’s a spa attached. From my brief pool-owning experience I can say with confidence that the hot tub is going to see far more use than the pool itself, so that’s a plus. The glass block windows of the house looking out are a touch I’d expect to see on a house at least 50 years older than this one, but they’re not unappealing.

Inside, our first stop is a living room with two stories’ worth of windows spanning from floor to ceiling. A door leads out to a deck over a carport, and floating wood block stairs with glass railings lead up to the second level, while we get a glimpse of the kitchen. There, some uniquely patterned stone spills down the back side of a counter and matches an adjacent dining table. The next shot shows us that the table is actually built into a center island, and while we see some sleek European-style cabinetry and a fancy appliance package, the listing text skips the trope of rattling off a list of every manufacturer of every product that went into the kitchen’s construction. Too bad, for once; I’d really like to know what kind of stone this is.

Next, we’re off to the palatial primary suite with nearly 500 square feet of bedroom area alone. The spartan furnishings and “fully retractable glass doors that open to the ocean” really emphasize how much space we’re working with here. I can see those glass blocks by the pool from the inside now, but the odd thing is that the corner they occupy seems to be sealed off from the inside by another set of windows. There’s no further explanation as to what’s going on in this seemingly empty space, but the giant clear window next to them makes me wonder why privacy glass would be used at all.

While I would’ve liked those blocks to be part of a shower or tub surround, the actual bathroom is considerably more substantial, with a floating dual vanity equipped with vessel sinks, a freestanding tub, and a walk-in shower with at least three heads. It also looks like there’s a window looking down on the living room, which makes me realize, upon second look, that most of the rest of the bathroom is completely open to the floor below. I’m not sure I love this, even if the angles would make it hard for someone downstairs to take a look up. There’s also a massive closet that seems like it’s intended to display clothes as much as store them, and then we’re off to see some more bedrooms and baths, each apparently an en-suite and some large enough for their own private sitting areas.

At some point, we jump to a second kitchen that’s well-appointed but not as fancy as the first, and opens to a large empty room. I think we’re in the guest house now. We get only a few peeks at this space, but it appears modern, functional, and not really exciting in any way. Then we’re back outside, looking at the view from a bunch of angles already covered — albeit this time with some fancy digital editing on the photos.

Public records list a Nevada-based LLC with the same name as the property address as the current owner. It last sold for a reported $3.8 million in 2012, before the recent remodeling work and addition of the guest house. The Balboa estate was listed for sale in early April with an asking price of $10,950,000, since reduced to $10,695,000.

1930 Balboa Avenue | Del Mar, 92014

Current owner: 1930 Balboa Ave LLC | Listing price: $10,695,000 | Beds: 6 | Baths: 7 | House size: 4482 sq ft