The Home Team

Like many Southern California families, the McGills wanted to take advantage of the endless summers. They added a sun deck and picnic area to the backyard of their Costa Mesa home and built what Mike McGill calls a Swiss Family Robinson-type platform for Dax Minnow, his and wife Lindsay’s 10-month-old daughter. It’s ready for make-believe games when Dax can teeter up the ladder.

And Mike threw up an outdoor shower. Sheltered by 7-foot-tall walls and topless, it’s put to use when Mike, 35, and Lindsay, 28, return from surfing.

The shower also stands as a monument to the challenges and adventures of overhauling this 1922 fixer-upper on the city’s east side.

During the summer of 1996, the shower, a tent, a TV and VCR, a microwave and beach chairs constituted the pair’s comforts of home.

How much fixing up did it need? Walls crumbled as decades of wallpaper were scraped off. Windows that were painted shut had to be pried open. Repiping and rewiring became safety necessities. The floor in a makeshift back room had rotted away, leaving a dirt base underneath a Kelly green carpeting.

When Mike and a friend cleared the backyard’s jungle of tall, dried brush, they unearthed dirt-covered bumps created by long-ago buried chicken and dog bones, dozens of glass marbles, and bottles of Purex and Kraft dressings. (The colored bottles decorate the kitchen as a reminder of the home’s history.)

Each night that summer, after Mike had toiled dawn to dusk revamping the home and Lindsay sweated it out as an advertising director at a local swimwear company before slipping on the overalls and picking up a hammer, the two clinked wine glasses under the stars.

And they stared at the monstrous job before them. They knew the novelty of camping out would give way once the first rain dropped.

“It was scary a couple of times,” Lindsay, now a freelance graphic artist and art director, said, laughing. “I’d leave for work and wonder if the house would still be standing when I got home.”

Finding Their Fixer-Upper

The 6,000-square-foot property, of which the house and small garage claim one-sixth of the area, had seen its day when the former occupant, a 95-year-old woman, moved out.

It was because of the good nature and “vision” of the owner’s son that the McGills became homeowners.

The two were loving life in a small, ocean-view Laguna Beach apartment when Lindsay “got it in my head that we should buy a house.” Neither of them had any idea about real estate or mortgages. They did know they’d have to cross Laguna Beach--where the median price hovers at $309 per square foot--off the list.

“I told her ‘fine,’ ” recalled Mike, a fashion and art photographer. “ ‘I just don’t want any part of the search. Just find the biggest fixer-upper.’ ”

A Costa Mesa real estate agent called Lindsay about a “tear-down” listed at $189,000. “We made a joke offer of $159,000,” she said. “We had no idea what we were doing. But we knew the house and the neighborhood were right.”

The owner’s son wanted a young couple who would fix up the old house. Like the McGills, they were weary of the developer mentality to raze homes on large lots only to cram in multiple residences with minuscule yards. They accepted the McGills’ offer and even carried the papers on the deal. The families still keep in touch.

“We really want to promote [this area of Costa Mesa],” Lindsay said. “It’s one of the few places left in Orange County where a young couple can buy a house with a giant yard.”

“We live in California,” Mike chimed in. “Why would we want to live our lives inside? Even though this is an older house, it’s a house with personality. I love seeing what people do to these old houses.”

Applying Grit and Imagination

Uncovering the personality within their Albert Place home, of course, proved uncharted territory for the McGills. What they lacked in financial resources and experience, they more than reconciled with imagination and grit.

They even allowed the advice of a psychic friend to soothe them when problems refused to resolve themselves.

“She said that the house will plan itself,” Lindsay said, laughing. “So that’s how we approached it.”

With the help of knowledgeable friends and family who worked for pizza and beer, Mike underwent a crash course in carpentry, electrical, masonry, plumbing and any other building art required. Walls were replaced. The room with the dirt floor was torn down. Glass sliding doors were installed to provide the small master bedroom a view to the backyard.

“A couple times we pulled all-nighters before the inspectors would come,” Lindsay said.

In the oversized yard, Mike blanketed the ground with grass for croquet games, studded the ground with tiles and learned to splice one red banana tree into five.

They split the garage, probably a former barn, into two spaces. The front holds either their Volvo or 1957 Cadillac. The back doubles as an office and darkroom--and the occasional guest room.

Lindsay assisted in the demolition and the redesign. Even Jack, their feisty 5-year-old Jack Russell terrier, helped by pulling wires along the 2-foot space under the house. “The cable guy asked us if he could buy Jack,” Mike said.

As the $20,000 budget tightened, the McGills became more inspired. They discovered something dubbed “oops paint” at Home Depot, mishaps of custom paints priced to move. Each room turned a vibrant color: the kitchen yellow, the laundry room red, the bathroom pink.

The home’s lively varied shades reflect its occupants’ spirit and render the perfect background for the McGills’ unusual collection of bullfight-themed pictures. Started as a joke from one plucked out of a garbage can, the collection counts more than 50 pictures, splattered through every room in the house. Yes, velvet ones hang among them.

That kind of eclectic fun extends to other decorating details, including the colored bowling balls used as legs for their queen-sized bed. Vintage armoires and banquet sets culled from swap meets and thrift stores stand in each room as storage for compact discs, clothes, dishes and Dax’s toys.

Polaroids Record Their Progress

The pair coo in amazement over their accomplishments--most firsts--as they reminisce over Polaroids taken during the overhaul. Where one enthusiastically begins, the other interjects and continues.

The McGills met in 1990, two years after Lindsay arrived from her native Minnesota on a training visit as a member of the national kayaking team. She stayed in Southern California, eventually meeting Mike, a local who grew up in Newport Beach’s so-called surf ghetto, the quaint sought-after housing along the peninsula. They married in 1993.

The house is still a work in progress and the visits to Home Depot for supplies continue.