Construction Diary: How a California Designer Crafted His New Family Home—On Top of Their First Home

Eric Johnson appreciates sleight of hand, especially when it comes to design. The educator and designer’s own home in Encinitas, California, appears as a two-level single-family dwelling—one front door, uniform cladding, and few windows on the lower level—but is in fact two homes. Having been in his ’50s beach home for 17 years, Eric wanted more space (and more bathrooms) for his growing family, so he designed a 1,430-square-foot indoor/outdoor plan on top of it, moving in upstairs and using the original space as a rental.