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James Taylor has seen fire and he’s seen rain, but you can see fire right in your water feature.

It’s exceedingly rare to come back for a second look at houses featured here at Unreal Estate — I’ve done it maybe once or twice in the past decade, if at all. But this week, I want to revisit a clifftop Carlsbad mansion we last saw in 2013. Last time, the tour was a bit lackluster, and we spent most of our time learning about the Las Vegas-based owner: a used-car-dealer-turned-professional-gambler who’d gotten himself into trouble bilking the public out of land for golf courses. This time through, let’s focus on the house: a 10,039-square foot palace “situated atop a magical 1.5 acre oceanfront lot...with 165 feet of prime Southern California coastline,” as the Zillow listing remarks describe it.

Let me prepare you: this tour is going to bounce around a bit. We start off with a view of the ocean from an outdoor patio in a shot that looks like it might have been taken from inside the house. There are tracks along the ceiling for what are likely some of those retractable glass walls we’ve seen in other fancy houses, the kind that “bring the outdoors living inside” and whatnot. This is certainly a pleasant place to start off. Then we jump to an aerial shot, showing a grand circular driveway and what looks like a fountain with flame shooting out of its center. There are some waves breaking just off the backyard, though I’m not sure if we get that coveted whitewater view from ground level, due to the cliff at the edge of the yard.

If you’re going to put in a glass wall, you really have to put in glass deck rails, too. Otherwise, why bother?

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Next up is the entry: a large set of double doors leading to a two-level foyer. The doors look like they have bird sculptures for handles, which is a nice touch, but we don’t get to see them up close before we’re whisked into a living room with a massive double-sided fireplace and a raised bar area in one corner. I can see now that this is where that opening photo was shot, and indeed, there are the disappearing glass walls here. Continuing on, we head up to the bar and see that it’s right next to the kitchen, which is open to the living room, features some beautiful exposed-beam ceilings and a huge plate glass window looking west, and has a second bar of its own along one side of a giant island shaped roughly like a guitar pick. My only note here is that the stone backsplash has what looks like too much texture to keep clean, and that its dark color blends too closely with the wood of the cabinetry. Still, this is still an A+ space.

Leaving the kitchen, we arrive at a bedroom outfitted with another fireplace, a glass wall, and what looks like a door to nowhere. Oh wait: upon closer inspection, there’s a private deck, equipped with glass railings so as not to disturb the view. We bounce through a bathroom and into another bedroom; this one also has a fireplace, but includes an indoor sitting area instead of a deck. There’s some interesting texture in the ceiling here, along with some up-mounted lighting that lends an almost fiery effect to its edges.

Moving on, we come to a dressing area with makeup bench and vessel sink. Around the corner is a massive wood-lined walk-in closet. Then we’re in another bedroom. This one is slightly less fancy, but it’s still pleasant, and features a little triangular private deck of its own. Bathroom, bedroom, bathroom, bedroom, and so on, until I’m pretty sure we’ve seen all five of the bedrooms and most of the eight baths.

I’m a little confused by the next room, which holds a small couch facing a wood-lined wall that contains not bookshelves, but a giant television. This looks too small to serve as a family room, though it has yet another small deck outside. Ah — a third picture of the room reveals a large desk, and I realize this space is probably a home office. On we go through a mini-kitchen to the home theater, with its two rows of sofa seating and another marble bar behind them. We then get a room with a couple of chairs pointed at still another TV, a partial rock wall that looks like it could be a continuation of the living room’s chimney, and what looks like yet another bar at the far end. Yep, the next photo confirms it. That makes four so far.

Now it’s off to some more bathrooms, another look at the entry foyer — this one highlighting the curved staircase we missed on the first run-through — and what I believe is the living room of the detached guest house. It’s worth noting that even the laundry room has an ocean view before we head back outside to see the yard, which offers several paved terrace levels, small patches of grass, a row of palm trees, and an outdoor kitchen with sunken bar. This fifth watering hole is the one I’d most like to visit for a sunset cocktail.

Heading back around to the front, my initial suspicion is confirmed: there is indeed a fire feature in the middle of the water feature in the middle of the stamped concrete driveway. One side of said driveway lets you into the three-car garage. Finally, we finish our tour with another drone shot of the back of the house, this one showing rivulets of ocean water pouring down the cliff following a wave strike. Honestly, I like this picture the best of all, and putting it this far down in the slideshow is really burying the lede. The listing tells me there’s a private staircase leading down to the sand, but I don’t see it — or any sand, for that matter. Maybe the beach here exists only at low tide?

The house bounced on and off the market between 2012 and 2014, which is when we first saw it — and also when it failed to attract a buyer with its $29 million price tag. After further unsuccessful listings in 2020 and 2021, it finally sold in March of 2021 to an LLC for a reported $20 million. After two years off-market — a time during which it’s unclear what, if any, upgrades were done — the home was relisted in late May with a price tag of $25 million that remains unchanged to date.

• 5305 Carlsbad Boulevard | Carlsbad, 92008
• Current owner: Carlsbad Boulevard LLC | Listing price: $25,000,000 | Beds: 5 | Baths: 8 | House size: 10,039 sq ft