On a sunny January morning, Juan Guerrero stands in the yard of his Seaside home and flips a switch. A few moments later, water starts to circulate in a multi-leveled stone pond in the center of the garden.

“Did you see the face?” Guerrero asks, pointing to the carved features detailed in the rock.

The stone face draped in ivy is one of many surprises that Guerrero and his contracting buddies—including his father and brother-in-law—discovered when they set about remodeling the property last year.

The builders discovered that while the home was mostly in good shape on the inside, the exterior had been neglected to the point of major deterioration. The crew put in new retaining walls, a new driveway and fence, and re-stuccoed the outside of the house, just for starters.

“It was pretty beat up outside,” Guerrero says. “The driveway looked like an earthquake had hit it. It needed a lot of care.”

But Guerrero was determined to get the job done, and quickly.

“I had 30 guys here for about a month,” he says. “I took a whole month off of work. We worked night and day with lights to finish. The neighbors thought I was some kind of slave driver.”

Guerrero’s wife, Andrée Rose, agrees that the home ended up being a lot of work and money, but like Guerrero, she loves the finished product.

“It feels like being in a Mediterranean villa,” Rose says. “There’s such a great amount of privacy with the high fences.”

The new space features a six-person hot tub, a built-in bar, a built-in barbecue and outside cooking burners, amongst the palms and other plants.

“We’re always barbecuing with our neighbors,” Rose says. “We know 75 percent of the people on the street and we entertain at least once a week.”

Wide French doors open up the home’s attractive kitchen to the backyard, continuing the entertaining possibilities.

“It’s too cold right now, but normally we leave the French doors open because it extends the feel of the house,” Rose says.

Inside the 1,475-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home, there’s plenty to discover as well. The former owner, a contractor, put in unusual finishes—such as the wood countertop and backsplash around the copper kitchen sink—that lend a Spanish feeling to the home. Additional copper sinks, an antique bathtub on feet, terracotta tile and hardwood floors, exposed ceiling beams, niches in the walls, thick wood doors, plaster arches, a mural on the living room wall and three elevated gas fireplaces add to the sense of a home that would easily fit in Santa Fe.

The home has custom appliances—like the six burner Imperial range and stove in the kitchen—and surprises like the live oak tree that grows through the laundry room.

Perhaps the most interesting surprise is finding out that the first owners received the land for free.

“People in the 1920s were given the lots on this street for subscribing to the San Francisco Chronicle,” Rose says. “Back then, they must have thought, who would want to live on the sand? Over the years, people built a few cottages on this lot. In the 1950s, our neighbor’s brother bought this property and merged the cottages together.”

But Rose and Guerrero aren’t going to have long to savor the fruits of the property’s many transformations.

“I got a new job and we’re moving to Washington state,” Guerrero explains. “It’s good, but I’m kind of mad because we just got the house the way we wanted.

Price: $749,000. 1323 Elm Ave. (entrance to home on Kenneth), Seaside. Contact: Carol Crandall, Crandall Preferred Properties, 620-1355.