The Next-Best Thing to Living in Newport

Selling points: Double beach status and a face lift

Location: Huntington Beach

Asking price: $695,000

Status: For sale

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The house Ed Clark helped renovate is now so swank he’ll never be able to call it home.

“I’d love to live in it, but it’s a little too pricey,” he says. Clark and another investor bought the two-story house in the Strand area last year and transformed it from ‘70s gloom to ‘90s sleek.

The prime appeal of the six-bedroom, three-bathroom house is not just the light ambience and its 3,600 square feet of space. It’s close to the beach. “Beach” as in Newport Beach.

“You can’t get any closer to Newport Beach than this,” says Clark, appealing to those who would like to brush shoulders with that Newport prestige.

Prospective buyers also may be lured by its proximity to Huntington’s beach. The house is as close to the sand as a house of its size can get, Clark says. It has the added bonus of a view of the beach from the balcony.

The house is in a well-kept neighborhood, but when it was repossessed in September, Clark and a partner bought it and went to work.

To update the look of the two-story structure, they rounded the sharp edges of the exterior and replaced acoustic tile with textured ceilings.

They turned three humdrum fireplaces into tiled showpieces, and they added hardwood floors and deep-pile carpets, lightening up the atmosphere.

The result is a very clean-looking house, fitted throughout with fixtures that have a copper-type patina.

The modernization has inspired not only buyers but also neighbors, some of whom have stopped by to study the design for ideas for their homes. “It’s just something to see--a little competition,” Clark says.

Information: (949) 553-8000, Ext. 408