Dave and Cheri Diehl have about as much going on in their lives as any two people could and still know what year it is. Aside from being a Pacific Grove Police Officer for over two decades now, Dave is a real estate agent who buys and sells properties and manages rentals. Cheri works full-time at a bank and the couple have three children, the oldest daughter a stunning high school sophomore.

The current home Dave is selling is one the family has lived in for five years, one they bought from contractors to whom the Diehls had originally sold the house. “It wasn’t planned that way at all,” he says. “Cheri and I wanted something larger and realized we could make our own choices within this one during remodeling.”

Four bedrooms and three baths were an absolute must, even though the house had three bedrooms, two baths and only enough water credits to keep it that way. The Diehls believed eventually, after putting the house on the water waitlist, they’d get what they wanted. Gambling, they moved in almost 18 months before that credit was granted.

“See, our contractors intended to keep the original configuration in the remodel,” says Dave. “Cheri and I liked the idea of the boys having the two downstairs bedrooms but on the second floor, where the master suite is, we wanted a similar idea for our daughter across the landing. That meant an addition, although it didn’t change the footprint of the house.”

Their idea became an appealing two-room suite with full bath under the eaves at the back of the home. After arriving at the top of the stairs, one has no expectation of the enchantment right around the corner. Tucked away and understated, the first room calls to mind an updated attic garret in Paris, where windows and floors meet under a slanting roof. Here, the Diehls’ daughter does her computer work and studying. Through the next doorway, the bedroom feels like her inner sanctum, glowing with bright red walls and other plays of color.

Buena Vista is in an area commonly called the Del Monte Park section of Pacific Grove. In 1974, the county annexed that piece of its land to America’s Last Hometown. The Diehl house is in a prime spot that backs up to a tremendous greenway—a piece of the Del Monte Forest unimpeded to S.F.B. Morse Drive and then beyond.

The luxury of having an unusually large backyard abut a big forest could only be enhanced by a hot tub, already there in one corner.

The wealth of space and elegance inside the house is disguised to passers-by via a covered side walk-way that keeps the front door in seclusion from the street, although the stucco exterior and brick-red trim are noticeably handsome. Honey hardwood floors span from the entrance hall (with oh-so-rare walk-in closet) to every main room and the kitchen. One corner of the living room has an angled fireplace on what feels like a high wall.

“All the ceilings are ten feet,” Dave says. “It may not seem like much over the standard, but after being here five years, I don’t ever want to live under eight-foot ceilings again. This is how it should be. It’s a world of difference.”

Price $959,000. 1305 Buena Vista Pacific Grove. Contact David Diehl, First City Real Estate, Inc., 229-2303