La Jolla design-build · Since 2005
La Jolla home remodeling, designed and built by one team.
Accredited, certified and held to accountCalifornia contractor #922807, in business in San Diego for 21 years
La Jolla · San Diego County
Whole home remodels, kitchens, bathrooms, additions and ADUs in La Jolla.
From the cottages around the Cove and the Village to the hillside homes of Bird Rock, La Jolla Shores and Muirlands, La Jolla has some of the most varied housing in the county, and some of the most involved permitting.
Kaminskiy Design and Remodeling was founded in San Diego by Sergei Kaminskiy in 2005 and is still founder-led. In La Jolla our designers, architectural drafters and project managers take your home from the first sketch to the final walkthrough, on one contract, and we handle the plans and permits with the City of San Diego, coastal zone included. No handoffs, no finger-pointing, no surprises.
Start with a complimentary consultationWhat to know first
La Jolla homes, La Jolla rules. Here is what shapes a remodel here.
La Jolla is one of San Diego's oldest coastal communities, and its houses show it: 1920s cottages and Spanish Revival homes around the Village and Bird Rock, mid-century ranches in La Jolla Shores and the Muirlands, view homes stepped up Mount Soledad, the estates of La Jolla Farms and the condominiums near UC San Diego. Most were built before 1980, so a remodel here usually means opening a closed plan, replacing original systems, and meeting rules that apply only west of Interstate 5. We serve homeowners in all of these neighborhoods, from the Cove to the university.
La Jolla, San Diego County. Our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo is about 25 minutes away off peak; the first meeting is at your home.
La Jolla is a community of the City of San Diego, not a city of its own, so building permits come from the City's Development Services Department downtown. Discretionary projects are reviewed first by the La Jolla Community Planning Association, whose Development Permit Review committee advises the City, and homes in La Jolla Shores go to that neighborhood's own Permit Review Committee under its Planned District Ordinance.
Our design and architectural team prepares the drawings, submits them, answers the City's comments and attends the community meetings when a project needs them.
Most of La Jolla west of La Jolla Boulevard, and everything near the bluffs, sits in the City's Coastal Overlay Zone. A kitchen or bathroom remodel inside the existing walls is normally exempt. An addition, a second story or work near a coastal bluff can require a Coastal Development Permit, which adds a design review and months to the schedule, and within 300 feet of a beach or a bluff top the permit can also be appealed to the California Coastal Commission.
We tell you at the first meeting which side of that line your project falls on, and we plan the schedule around it instead of discovering it at the counter.
Proposition D, passed by San Diego voters in 1972, caps buildings in the coastal zone west of Interstate 5 at 30 feet. Second-story additions in La Jolla are designed to that number from the first sketch: plate heights, roof pitch and where the stair lands all follow from it, and so does the view your neighbor keeps.
Source: San Diego Municipal Code, Coastal Height Limit Overlay Zone
Slopes steeper than 25 percent and the sensitive coastal bluffs fall under the City's Environmentally Sensitive Lands regulations, which limit where and how much you can build. Parts of Mount Soledad are mapped for landslide hazard in the City's Seismic Safety Study, and the Soledad Mountain Road landslide of October 2007 is why a geotechnical report comes before the structural drawings for an addition on the hill. The City waives that report for additions under 500 square feet outside the mapped landslide areas.
A licensed structural engineer stamps our plans wherever the scope calls for it, and on the hillside we bring the soils engineer in early.
Any construction permit on a parcel with a structure 45 years old or more goes through the City's historical review first; interior-only work and electrical or plumbing permits are exempt, and most reviews clear within ten business days. La Jolla has more candidates than most places: Irving Gill's Wheeler Bailey House of 1907 on Princess Street, Cliff May's 1936 ranch houses on Avenida Cresta and Lloyd Ruocco's 1961 house on El Paseo Grande all stand here, and a home the City designates can qualify for a Mills Act contract that lowers property taxes in exchange for preserving it.
We design additions that respect the original house, and we handle the review as part of the permit, not as a surprise after it.
Source: City of San Diego, historical reviews for structures over 45 years
Within a mile of the ocean, ordinary hardware and fixtures corrode and ordinary exterior wood rots. The materials that last here are marine-grade stainless steel, fiberglass or aluminum-clad windows, and sealed or composite exterior trim. Drywood termites and dry rot are common in older coastal framing, so when we open a wall in La Jolla we expect to find repairs, and we price the work so they are not a surprise.
The marine layer also means less direct sun than inland San Diego; lighting plans here lean on layered interior light rather than the window alone.
To orient yourself: the Village runs along Prospect Street and Girard Avenue, with La Jolla Cove and the Children's Pool below it; Windansea Beach is to the south, Scripps Pier and UC San Diego to the north, and the Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial sits above all of it. The La Jolla Historical Society in Wisteria Cottage on Prospect Street holds the records if your house has a story worth keeping. For materials close to home there is Cabochon Tile and Stone on Girard Avenue, the Ferguson kitchen and bath showroom on Mercury Street in Kearny Mesa and Dixieline Lumber on Convoy Street; most selections, though, happen at our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo, about 25 minutes by Interstate 5 and State Route 56 off peak, and the first meeting is always at your home.
What we design and build in La Jolla
La Jolla remodeling services: five ways to fall back in love with your home.
01 · Most requestedWhole Home Remodeling
Two rooms or the entire floor plan, designed as one cohesive home instead of a collection of projects.
Whole home remodels
02Kitchen Remodeling
Custom cabinetry, islands that work, lighting in layers. Designed around how you cook and gather.
Kitchens
03Bathroom Remodeling
Spa primaries, hall baths, universal design.
Bathrooms
04Room Additions
Build out or build up. Additions that look original.
Additions
05ADUs and Conversions
Detached casitas, attached suites, garage conversions.
ADUsRemodeling in La Jolla
Every service. One local team.
Every Kaminskiy service has its own La Jolla page, with the local projects and the questions homeowners here ask most.
Nearby neighborhoods
We work in every neighborhood of San Diego County. See all thirty-seven neighborhood pages or schedule a consultation.
Our work in La Jolla
La Jolla remodels. Real homes. Real families.
Every photo below is a Kaminskiy project in La Jolla, designed and built by our own team. Open any project for the full gallery, and follow the galleries to see hundreds more across the county.
The La Jolla remodeling guide
What we remodel in La Jolla, room by room.
What La Jolla homeowners ask us for, room by room, and what each project runs into here. Every service below has its own La Jolla page with the local projects and questions.
The typical whole home remodel here is a 1950s or 1960s ranch in La Jolla Shores or the Muirlands that has never been opened up: three small bedrooms, a closed kitchen, one and a half baths, and the original wiring, plumbing and single-pane windows. The plan is usually to open the kitchen to the living room, carve a primary suite out of two bedrooms, replace every system, and keep the roofline under the 30-foot coastal limit.
Most families stay in the house through a phased schedule. Work inside the walls needs only a building permit; the moment the footprint or the roof changes, the coastal review joins it, and we plan the sequence around that from the first meeting.
Whole home remodeling in La JollaGalley kitchens in the Bird Rock and Windansea cottages, closed-off kitchens in the Shores ranches, and view homes on Mount Soledad where the kitchen faces the hill instead of the water. The La Jolla kitchen page covers what we find behind the walls, the materials that survive salt air, and the three La Jolla kitchens in our gallery.
Kitchen remodeling in La JollaWhat a kitchen costs in San Diego in 2026
Many La Jolla cottages were built with one small bathroom. The most common request is a real primary bath and closet inside the existing footprint, and a hall bath that two kids can share. Ventilation matters more here than inland because the marine layer keeps bathrooms damp for weeks at a time, so we size the exhaust for the room and vent it to the outside, never into the attic.
For owners who intend to stay in the house, a curbless shower, a wider door and blocking in the walls for future grab bars cost little during a remodel and a great deal later.
Bathroom remodeling in La JollaOn the small lots of Bird Rock, Windansea and the Village, the only way to grow is up, and a second story is the most common addition we design in La Jolla. Three rules shape it: the 30-foot coastal height limit, the Coastal Development Permit that comes with added floor area, and the historical review if the house is 45 years or older. On Mount Soledad a geotechnical report comes first.
Our structural engineer checks whether the existing foundation and walls can carry a second floor, which decides more about the budget than the finishes do.
Room additions in La JollaThe larger lots of the Muirlands, La Jolla Farms and the Shores can take a detached ADU; the cottages near the Village usually convert the garage. The state's ADU statutes entitle a single-family lot to an ADU plus a junior ADU, and in La Jolla's coastal zone the City reviews the project for coastal rules as well. Owners near UC San Diego often build for a family member first and a tenant later, and we design the unit to work both ways.
ADUs and conversions in La JollaLa Jolla's outdoor rooms are about the view and the weather: a covered deck or patio that is usable through the marine layer, a fire feature for cool evenings, and an outdoor kitchen built from materials that shrug off salt air. Near the bluffs, the Environmentally Sensitive Lands rules set how close to the edge anything can go, and we check the setback before we draw.
Outdoor living in La JollaA large share of La Jolla homeowners have been in their houses for decades and plan to stay. Universal design is how we remodel for that: single-level living where the lot allows it, a no-step entry, a curbless shower, wider doorways and better light. Done during a remodel it is nearly invisible; done later it is a second project.
Universal designGood questions
La Jolla remodeling FAQ: a few straight answers before you call.
Permits with the City of San Diego, timelines, where you choose materials, and what the first meeting costs. More on the full FAQ page.
Read all FAQsAll of them: the Village and the Cove, Bird Rock, Windansea and Lower Hermosa, La Jolla Shores, the Muirlands, Mount Soledad, La Jolla Farms and the condominiums near UC San Diego. The first meeting is at your home, anywhere in the 92037 zip code.
If your home is in the coastal zone west of Interstate 5, which covers nearly all of La Jolla, yes. Proposition D caps the building at 30 feet, measured from the existing or finished grade, whichever is lower. We design second stories to that number from the first sketch.
If the house is 45 years old or more and the permit changes more than the interior, the City reviews it for historical significance before the permit is issued. Interior-only work is exempt, most reviews clear within ten business days, and we handle the review as part of the permit.
Nothing. The in-home design consultation is complimentary anywhere in La Jolla. A designer comes to your home, listens to what you want to change, takes measurements and photos, and tells you honestly whether we are the right fit for the project.
We do. Permits for La Jolla homes are issued by the City of San Diego. Our design and architectural team drafts the construction documents, a licensed structural engineer stamps them where the scope calls for it, and we submit them and manage the whole process for you. Parts of La Jolla sit in the coastal zone, which adds a coastal development review to some projects; we plan for it from the first meeting.
Yes. 3 La Jolla projects are in our online gallery, with the photos, and hundreds more across San Diego County. Your designer can also show you work in your neighborhood at the first meeting.
A kitchen remodel usually takes about 4 to 8 months from the first consultation to completion. A bathroom typically takes 3 to 5 months. The design and permit phases come first, and construction is the shorter part. Permit review times vary with the City of San Diego, and we plan around them.
At the Kaminskiy Design Center, 12396 World Trade Dr, Suite 108, San Diego, CA 92128, with your designer. Most clients visit once or twice during the design phase. The first meeting, though, happens at your La Jolla home.
Yes. Kaminskiy Design and Remodeling is a fully licensed and insured California contractor, license #922807, in business in San Diego since 2005.
Start here
Schedule your complimentary in-home design consultation anywhere in La Jolla.
- A designer comes to you, measures, listens and shares first ideas.
- No pressure and no obligation. We tell you if we are not the right fit.
- Our Client Care team calls back during the time slot you choose.