Immigrant Bengalis

(Posted July 20, 2024)

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If owning a home in the USA is a dream for an immigrant, then the thought of building a custom home following one’s vision and wishes is pure fantasy. This story is about turning such a fantasy into reality on my part. I owned several homes during my professional life, but the idea of building a home from ground zero never crossed my mind simply because of my aversion to construction type activities and the months it takes to plan and build a custom home.

I was driving back from Los Angeles to San Diego one afternoon on a business trip in the mid-nineties with a colleague from Sony. I had seen an ad in a home magazine for some ocean-view lots in San Clemente, a small town about half-way between San Diego and LA, made famous by Richard Nixon’s Western White House.  There were not many ocean-view lots available anywhere in southern California at the time. I wanted to stop by and check out these lots.  My friend had no objections.

Apparently, a developer flattened out a mountain ridge at the highest point of San Clemente with an elevation of about 800 feet and made a gated subdivision of 42 lots, intended for custom homes.  These lots were released around 1990 for prices in the range of $350,000 to $400,000, just for the lot alone.  While most of them were sold right away, the economy hit a recession in the early nineties.  Some investors decided to give up their lots back to the developer because of high carrying cost. Four such lots had decent ocean views and the price was cut by almost 50% to move them quickly.  I realized that I hit a gold-mine and had to decide fast.  Fortunately, I did not have a wife to consult with and could put together enough cash to make a down payment. I bought the lot with the best view among the four within a matter of weeks.

I left the lot alone for many years; San Clemente was too far from Sony, and I did not have money to build a custom home. I would often go to see my lot, walk on it and gaze at the ocean. The artist inside me had already started to envision the layout of a home with a floorplan that was both functional and at the same time unique from an esthetic point of view, taking full advantage of the ocean view.

Finally, I could not resist the creative urge anymore and decided to, at least, prepare a plan whether I built the house or not. I made sketches of the floorplans and elevations and wanted to discuss the feasibility of building something like that with two architects.  The first guy was a Caucasian guy; he looked at my sketches and commented “Oh, you want an Italian Villa; I would design you a beautiful Mediterranean home”, as if he knew what would be good for me.  I did not like that.  I wanted to be intimately involved in every phase of the design. The name of the second guy was Frank Montesinos. We hit it off immediately.  He liked my sketches and agreed to work with me.

It took us a long nine months to complete the plans, but I was in no hurry.  We had numerous interactions through faxes, e-mails and meetings.  He made every effort to accommodate my wishes and provided me with alternatives and/or explanation when that could not be done.  Among other things, I wanted a roof-top deck because every house where I lived in India had a flat roof.

We spent countless hours trying to figure out how to include a stairway to access the roof-top deck.  Stairways consume a large amount of space, and it would take away areas from rooms and/or hallways.  Frank came up with a brilliant solution; he put most of the stairway outside the exterior wall of the house. 

The final plan was a masterpiece.  We were focused on the artistic aspect of the plan and did not pay much attention to the square footage.  It turned out to be a 5000 square feet house!  When I learned that Frank was a genuine Spaniard, I was ecstatic; when you are building a Mediterranean home in San Clemente whose nickname is “Spanish Village by the Sea”, you do want a Spaniard designing it! The curves, the arches, the columns and the balusters, the plan for my house had it all.

I sat on the plans for a long time. Then I became curious about the cost of building something like this.  Once again, I found two general contractors – one Caucasian (call him Joe Smith) and another Latino – Miguel Bueno Viejo.  Joe was articulate in his effort to convince me that he was the guy for the job.  He generated reams of paper, breaking down the cost structure item by item, to the last penny.  He had his own construction crew and was committed to schedule adherence.  He bragged about his engineering degree and mentioned that not too many contractors had engineering degrees.

However, I was not comfortable with him for some reason – perhaps he was too aggressive for me.  Miguel, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.  He was a hot-blooded Argentinean who loved horses and women.  He loved to talk, but was always a little ‘wishy-washy” when answering my pointed questions about schedule, guarantee of workmanship, cost over-run etc.  On top of all that, his cost estimate was slightly higher than the other guy's.   

One afternoon, I was having a cup of coffee with Miguel at Tommy’s hamburger joint in San Clemente.  At one point I told him, “You know Miguel, I am an artist.  This house would be a work of art for me.  I do not care where the studs should be, or which wall should be a load-bearing wall.  That is why I need a contractor I can completely trust”.  Miguel nodded his head in agreement; he said, “Basab, I know what you mean.  I am an artist also.  It is like describing your ideal woman.  In your heart, you know what she looks like, but you cannot spell it out in terms of some specifications”.  His comments resonated deeply with me.  I looked at him and said “Miguel, you are my man”.

Unlike my experience with Montesinos, I had misgivings later about Miguel’s working style.  While he did a reasonably decent job in building an architecturally difficult building, he took a lot longer than I anticipated and his attention to details begged for many improvements.  The delay did not affect me; no one was pestering me to be able to move by some deadline.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I qualified for a mortgage loan despite my burden of mortgage plus alimony and childcare payments! What worked in my favor was the fact that banks approved construction loans not against total cost but the estimated value of the completed home, which typically is significantly higher than the cost.

I decided to go ahead with the construction ignoring the fact that it would be an hour-long commute to Sony. I learned a lot about building a custom house in the process, as this was my first such endeavor.  One lesson was to be patient if you wanted anything out of the ordinary (like color of the sink or tiles).  Another was how to do several things in parallel.  For example, the granite counter guy did not even want to come to the site until the wooden cabinets were physically in place.  Had I known that, I would have had the cabinets installed much earlier.  I had expected that he could do his work from the drawings of the cabinets.

After a long wait for eighteen months, the moving day finally arrived.  It is a stunning house, if I may say so myself.  The entry foyer has a 32 ft high ceiling with a spiral stairway, two-story living room with tall floor to ceiling windows, three fire-places, a kitchen bound to please any woman, four bedrooms – each with its own attached bathroom -- a roof-top deck, master bedroom with a large balcony and a bath with Jacuzzi spa, and a view of the ocean from almost any part of the house.   I felt an incredible joy and satisfaction to see something that was in my head as a concept gradually materializing right before my eyes.  It was like completing a painting, but in three dimensions and on a grand scale. 

I certainly do not need 5000 sq. ft. of living space living by myself.  I joke that I use only 500 sq. ft. and spend my time just looking at the other 4500 sq. ft. It is not far from the truth.  It is like living inside one of my paintings. I spent several months decorating the house with the right furniture, the right wall décor and the right appliances. 

Watching the panoramic view of the ocean and the sky beyond from my roof-top deck makes me feel closer to God. The house inspires me to paint.  I look up at the high ceiling and instantly feel a connection with Michelangelo.  He is my hero.  I replicated many of his works. 

The calm and quietness of the neighborhood gives one the impression of being in a sacred place.  There is no noise from undesirable elements – no factories, no school, no freeway noise, no noisy biker or children -- you could only hear the chirping of the birds.  At night it is so quiet, one could only hear one’s own heartbeat and the sound of breathing.

Apart from being a source of joy, the house has also been a reservoir of money for me. I have taken repeated loans against equity in the house and in fact, that is how I have managed to sustain my lifestyle over the past twenty years without a job!  There were also dark days.  The value of the house plummeted by almost 40% (on paper) during those recession years around 2008-2011.  Fortunately, I survived the downturn and house prices have not only rebounded but soared.

I will never be able to pay off the mortgage loan and truly own it free and clear.  I also do not want to sell it even if I make a substantial amount of profit.  This is an emotional decision and certainly not a financially sound one because every month I deplete my savings.  My hope is to be able to live here until I die or become disabled.

I have a feeling that this house would not be a house for regular living; someday it would probably be a house of worship or perhaps a museum or a living facility for people needing special therapeutic attention.  I am not generous enough to make that happen in my lifetime. Once it goes into my daughter’s hand, she is the right person to direct it toward some outcome like that because she is much more compassionate than me.

Building A Dream Home​

Basab Dasgupta