Beat the heat on Dawes Street

We tend to spend a lot of time here at Unreal on the coast – from Sunset Cliffs to Mission Beach, from La Jolla on to Del Mar and points north. It’s pretty clear that if you’re going to live in San Diego and you have a lot of money, there’s a good chance you’re going to spend that cash to be near the ocean. But there’s one neighborhood we tend to skip as we make our way up the coast, and that’s Pacific Beach. I just dug through the archives and found we haven’t seen a single PB mansion in at least five years. In that same timeframe, we’ve visited Del Mar at least a dozen times, and La Jolla twice as often as that.

Granted, a lot of the immediate shoreline near PB is occupied by Mission Beach or south La Jolla, and the part that most readily comes to mind is a several-block stretch populated from September through May by trust fund kids from out of state taking a six-year tour of SDSU’s undergraduate program. Still, you don’t have to step too far off the beaten path to find actual neighborhoods populated by full-time residents — like the one where I used to spend weeks at a time on a best friend’s couch during childhood summers in an effort to escape the East County heat. Which brings us to 4215 Dawes Street, and what Zillow remarks refer to as an “uncommon opportunity in a legacy neighborhood.”

“Homes in this area pass generationally and rarely go up for sale,” the listing continues — and this seems to be true, given how rare it is I find something nice enough to write about in an area that has some outstanding homes in the mix. Dawes is the fourth north/south street from the Pacific in a neighborhood that generally uses an alphabetical naming convention to indicate how far you are from the beach (Bayard is two blocks, Cass three, and so on). The 4200 block is near the south end of the street, just a couple of blocks from Sail Bay. It’s an ideal location for those seeking the best of both worlds: not too far from the beach bars and college kids on Grand or Garnet, but also close to the more subdued bayside crowd. What say we have a look inside?

The first thing we see is a nighttime shot of the front. The low-sloping tile roof and the chimney — thick at the base before tapering near the output — are about the only hints that this home was built all the way back in 1929, when tile was still a luxurious roofing option and fireplaces were as much a source of warmth as a status symbol. Everything else looks shiny and new, and for good reason — the house was virtually gutted after a sale just over a year ago and is being offered up as a flip. This after the prior owners held it for at least 20 years.

Inside, we land in a living room that’s perfectly fine: there are some arched alcoves sporting decorative bric-a-brac, a feature that is not entirely uncommon in upscale builds, but still indicates a touch more effort than most modern builders put in. (Someone really likes these arches, because there are three pictures in a row of them.) The fireplace seems to have been converted to run on natural gas. Speaking of which: while the “gorgeous oak hardwood floors” look pleasant as they peek out from under a rug, the tile surrounding the fireplace seems like an afterthought — as if someone forgot that you can’t have wood flooring directly abutting that kind of heat and stuck the tile in at the last minute.

The kitchen and dining area lie just past the living room, and since the kitchen is situated around a corner, this doesn’t qualify as a fully-cliched “open concept” look, even if it does look like a wall was blown out to provide bar seating. The flow in here is nice, as are the light wood cabinets, exposed ceiling beams, and the range, which looks large enough to cook the kind of meals I wish I could do all at once. It also looks like there’s a hidden prep area/pantry in back; we get a peek at it after passing through a half-bath outfitted with an airplane toilet.

Something I am not a fan of: the gold plumbing and lighting fixtures everywhere. I still like silver, although I know it’s going out of style after 15 years as a favored color, and I can tolerate the black or “oil-rubbed bronze” look that’s beginning to take over. But please do not give me gold trim; it reminds me too much of my grandmother’s house in the ‘70s. Alas, everything old becomes new again — or something…

Outside, we get a partially enclosed patio featuring wraparound wood composite decking, an outdoor dining area, a window that opens to provide more bar seating and a pass-through from the kitchen, and a sunken conversation pit equipped with another gas fireplace.

“The wood and tile-inlaid staircase is an invitation to the upstairs primary bedroom with sitting area, fireplace, balcony, and sumptuous spa-retreat bath,” the listing continues. This setup is good: there’s more than enough space to make folks feel comfortable without the ridiculous expanse we might find in an owners’ suite 90 years or so younger. Another pair of bedrooms downstairs share a Jack-and-Jill bath in between; they also open to another private patio and sitting area.

The Dawes house last sold in January 2022 to a D Clippinger Separate Property Trust for a reported $1,825,000. Pictures from back then show a perfectly good house, although some of the paint colors on the cabinetry and walls are highly questionable. After the “ground-up, roof-down luxury remodel to stand the test of time,” it was re-listed in mid-January with a $3,995,000 price tag that remains unchanged to date.

• 4215 Dawes Street | Pacific Beach, 92109
• Current owner: Clippinger Trust | Listing price: $3,995,000 | Beds: 4 | Baths: 3 | House size: 3568 sq ft