Local company to build Sunset’s Idea Home

Barbara Diamond

A Laguna Beach builder of playhouses to palatial custom homes has

been selected to construct Sunset magazine’s Idea Home for 2005.

“It’s a huge honor,” said Three Arch Bay resident David Mulvaney,

president of 5-year-old Mulvaney & Co. Inc.

Sunset chose Mulvaney’s company to build the Idea Home after being

introduced to the builder by developers DMB, a partner of Mission

Viejo Co.

“We had several meetings and looked at past Sunset projects,” said

Mulvaney. “They had some recommendations on the type and style of the

home.”

The house will be built in Ladera Ranch, being developed by

Mission Viejo Co. Mulvaney is one of five builders working in the

Covenant Hills community of the development, chosen, he said, from an

extensive list of high-end construction companies.

“I am currently their top company -- the go-to guy,” Mulvaney

said. “If they need something done, they call me.”

Mulvaney is working with architect Eric Trabert of Eric Trabert

and Associates on the Sunset project, which has a July 1, 2005

completion deadline.

“It’s a very tight schedule,” Mulvaney said.

The home will be a light craftsman style made famous by Green and

Green of Pasadena.

“Green and Green is dark, heavy and people today are looking for

something more airy,” Mulvaney said. “Instead of the dark, paneling,

the Idea Home walls will be lighter painted surfaces, but some of the

details will be familiar.”

Mulvaney likes the craftsman style, but his own home is more in

the Spanish style, with a “Caribbean flair.”

“It has mahogany doors and Venetian plaster on the walls,”

Mulvaney said. “I didn’t build it, but I remodeled the interior.”

He lives there with his wife, Linda, and their youngest child,

Brennen, a Thurston Middle School student. The Mulvaney’s also have

two older children, Shannon, 27, and Keith, 23.

Laguna has been home to Mulvaney for 22 years. He has been in the

construction business since he graduated from high school. He started

as an apprentice carpenter after earning a construction degree from

Orange Coast College and worked his way up the ladder.

“It’s the best way to learn construction,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney has built custom homes in Laguna Beach, but he mostly

works elsewhere.

He said the city’s design review process, scheduled to be reviewed

by task force, is adversarial by its very nature, although the design

criteria is probably the most liberal in the county. .

“The most difficult part of the process is the community,”

Mulvaney said. “People here have the perception, right or wrong, that

no matter what year they bought their property, things shouldn’t

change.

“Well, life goes on. Change is inevitable. The only way to

preserve something is to take a picture.”

The city has restrictions on height restrictions, setbacks and

allowable lot coverage, which Mulvaney said should be respected.

“If people comply with the code requirements, they should pass,”

said Mulvaney. “Instead, they go in with the design for their dream

house and get blown out of the water because a neighbor 280 feet away

(property owners within 300 feet of a project are noticed) who drives

by three or four times objects. It isn’t fair. The city should just

enforce the rules.”

However, the city adds neighborhood compatibility and view equity

to the mix, which stirs conflict. The “mansionization” ordinance

mandates that builders or remodelers must confer with neighbors about

projects, but does not, cannot, require agreement.

Mulvaney has volunteered to serve on the Three Arch Bay

architectural review committee, but has never been selected.

“I think it’s because I am open to change,” he said.

Mulvaney doesn’t’ just build custom homes. For the past six years,

he has designed and built playhouses for Home/Aid, the charity arm of

the Building Industry Association. Proceeds from the sale of the

playhouses benefit Home/Aid programs.

“We have won first prize just about every year,” Mulvaney said.

The playhouses are displayed each year at Fashion Island, which

also hosts Mulvaney’s Santa’s House during the winter holidays.

Mulvaney said the award-winning playhouses are inspired by the kid

inside. With the Sunset project, the builder inside is getting

recognition too. What an idea.