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Professional Boxers and Invasive Vines Had Taken Over a California Mansion Before New Owners Saved It
MANSION GLOBAL | July 1, 2024
MANSION GLOBAL | July 1, 2024
Two years ago, Darcie Bundy and Ken Cohen bought a grand 1920s-style estate in California’s Rancho Santa Fe neighborhood.
The residence, in the community’s popular and historic Covenant section some 10 minutes from San Diego, was in great disrepair.
The previous owner had purchased the compound, which encompasses more than 3 acres, without consulting his wife, who, it turned out, did not wish to live there. So instead of moving in, he turned off the irrigation system and for a year loaned it to a group of professional boxers who installed an illuminated ring in the sports court.
MORE: A Home Remodel Outside D.C. Turned a ‘House Crush’ Into True Love. Check out the Before and After.
“The house was rough because of deferred maintenance,” said Bundy, who is an interior designer. “We knew it was going to be a big project. But it had beautiful bones, which was readily apparent at first glance, and the lot was large and stunning and had several terraces.”
Bundy and Cohen, a retired oil and gas company executive, had been living in Washington, D.C., but when their only child and their two young grandchildren moved to the West Coast, they decided to follow her.
The estate, they agreed, would be a perfect place to watch their grandchildren grow up, and when the time came, they could pass down to the next generation.
They bought the property in 2022 for $6.7 million and embarked upon what became a 16-month-long, seven-day-a-week renovation.
This was not the first residential renovation for the couple, who served as general contractors for the project. In fact, it is the 18th project they have undertaken for themselves or their daughter or on spec.
Although the California hacienda-style residence was built in 1990, it is the epitome of Roaring Twenties elegance and glamour, and Bundy said, most people think it carries the cache of a century-long life.
Defined by its terracotta roof, high ceilings adorned carved beams and thick plaster walls framing archways, the 26-room house, which Bundy said had once been the “pride of the neighborhood” and was featured in Veranda magazine in 2010, covers 10,504 square feet and is set up for grand entertaining as well as comfortable daily living.
It has six bedrooms, six full bathrooms, two half baths, 19 fireplaces and decorative accents that range from antique Mexican doors to Saltillo tile floors. In addition to several living rooms, the residence has a lounge, a family room, a study and a cashmere-upholstered TV room.
Significant details, including a dozen sets of antique Mexican doors and a hand-stenciled ceiling in the entryway, remained intact, and are central to the new design.
Although the house didn’t have major structural issues, some of the infrastructure, including the electrical systems, had to be replaced, and the bathrooms had to be gut-renovated. The lighting fixtures were replaced, and the built-ins were removed.
And the largest space in the house, which the couple has christened The Moroccan Room because of its tile, was remade. Originally an open-air pool house, it was enclosed at some point in time. Cohen and Bundy added much needed heating and cooling systems as well as wall insulation and lighting and had its colorful tile professionally restored.
Cohen and Bundy lucked out because the kitchen, which often is one of the more costly rooms to renovate, was stylish and functional and needed virtually no work.
In a style that Bundy described as “a little Bohemian,” she decorated the house with old and new furnishings, art and accessories from countries around the world, many of them like the collection of Buddhas that she and her husband have amassed during their extensive travels.
“We tried to respect the house’s original floor plan,” Bundy said. “We didn’t tear down or move any walls. Our overall goal was to respect the old soul of the house and make it look more youthful, more contemporary and happier.”
In the time it took Bundy and Cohen to complete the renovation, their daughter and her family moved back to the East Coast.
Reluctantly, they decided to sell. In March, it was listed for $10.7 million by Mary Myers and Jon Granston, the Granston Group, Compass.
“We imagined that we would be here for years and years,” Bundy said. “If we knew we were going to be moving so soon, we would not have bought a house that was so large or that needed such a huge renovation.”
Bundy gave us more details on the renovation below.
I describe my aesthetic as… It’s clean-lined and unpretentious, more handsome than pretty. I like a curated global collection of art, accessories and furnishings mixed with comfortable pieces.
Biggest lesson learned/advice to others… Respect the architecture and the place and landscape. Don’t fight what’s there. In this case, when you walk into my house, you know you’re in Southern California. Whatever the style, design with the flow in mind. The rooms all need to work together. When you’re in doubt, simplify. And go with the pros, devise a plan and budget but recognize that there will always be surprises even with seasoned renovators.
The biggest surprise was… We had lots of little surprises, and some of them were fun and funny. When we were removing a clunky built-in in what was going to be our library, the workers had to open up the wall to get it out, and when they did, they found a crisp $100 bill lying on the floorboards. We had them keep looking—we were hoping they would find 1,000 more to help pay for the renovation. And then there were the TVs—there were 18 in all, and even though we gave one to every single subcontractor, we still had some left over.
My favorite room after the renovation was… I gravitate toward moody, atmospheric rooms, which in my designs tend to be in the private sections of the house such as the baths and bedrooms. My bathroom had a real cottagey look, the Jacuzzi didn’t work, and there was a tiny shower. I completely transformed it, doing it in deep green. I particularly love its art sconces and the fabulous piece of quartzite I selected for the vanity top.
The most dramatic change was… The lounge off the three bedrooms, which we use as a reading room or as a gathering spot for cocktails for guests, now has two comfortable sofas and an antique bench. When we bought the house, there was a hobby horse, the kind that little kids ride after putting a coin in a slot, a huge built-in bar that took up one entire wall, a neon sign that said “Bar,” and chintzy swags hanging between the ceiling beams. The fireplace, which we reclad in Sandalus quartzite, matching the veining, was gloomy—it looked like it was made for a 16th-century Bavarian castle—and was so big that you could roast a cow in it. We cleared everything out and simplified.
A favorite material discovered during the process was… Sandalus quartzite, which is from Brazil. It’s not super common, but you can find it if you search. We used it on the stone fireplace in the lounge, in a powder room and as the top of the vanity in my bathroom.
An unexpected expense was… Getting the grounds in shape was quite costly. We filled five tractor-trailers with dead and dying trees and invasive vines. The casita and garage were covered with sucker vines, and when we removed them, we had to hand-sand the structures to remove the damage. We planted 3,000 shrubs, trees and perennials, including lemon and olive trees, white roses, cacti, lavender and bougainvillea. They are all native species and ones that we saw all over the neighborhood because we didn’t want our property to stick out. We added stone walkways, a new irrigation system and drip lines for the new plants and cleaned all the drains, something that hadn’t been done for a decade.
Total cost of the renovation… was well in the seven figures. I had budgeted $750,000, but my husband estimated it would be closer to $1 million. We blew past that.
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