25 years in the making, a dream house rises in Laguna Beach

If you worked on a house for five years, you'd call it a labor of love, right? What if that process took 25 years? Is there a name for that?

This is the story behind architect Paul Zajfen's epic quest in Laguna Beach.

Zajfen, a design principal at the Los Angeles firm CO Architects, bought an ocean-view site on the steep, winding bluffs of Laguna in 1989. His dream was to create a modern oasis, hugging the landscape and opening to the elements. Then things got messy.

First, a lawsuit by locals to ensure that lots on Zajfens street were buildable held up the project for about five years. Next came changes to the neighborhoods specific plan, which delayed construction for several more years. Around 2000, the architect began the painful slog through the local design review committee, a process that lasted until 2007.

Zajfen still grimaces at the thought of neighbors fighting his contemporary structure because it didnt fit into the local guidelines calling for rustic architecture. In Laguna, that means re-creations of New England, Italian or Spanish Colonial designs.

PHOTO GALLERY: Paul Zafjen's Laguna Beach house

Even though Ive done this stuff a ton of times for big clients, the process was physically affecting me more than anything Id ever experienced, Zajfen said. I thought I was going to die.

The review committee reacts to neighbors concerns, and there were plenty: the homes size, its openness, its lighting, the large amount of glass.

After half a dozen trips to the board, Zajfen finally got the citys blessing. He started construction in 2010 and recently completed the house. It displays some of the compromises necessary to get approval, including a lower profile and a discordant brown stucco entryway on the top floor that does indeed look almost rustic.

But his dream has been realized, somehow. Visiting the house can be nothing short of magical.

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25 years in the making, a dream house rises in Laguna Beach