For The Union-Tribune

When Roy Bain and his wife Jean were living in a Fashion Valley condo in the mid-1990s, they spotted the vacant lot overlooking Mission Valley, old Qualcomm Stadium and the Interstate 8 freeway, they knew they’d found the perfect property for their dream home.

Situated on a cul-de-sac that was once a lovers’ lane, the steep Normal Heights property — which is just over 1 acre — reached down the equivalent of 10 stories to the bottom of Mission Valley, just above the freeway.

Before moving to Alpine in San Diego County in the early ‘90s, the Bains had lived in a hilltop home in Riverside and missed its elevated location and expansive views. A new clifftop home would fill that void.

The 4,000-square-foot custom contemporary home in Normal Heights looks over a steep acre. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Working with designer J. C. Benet and contractor Steve Dabbs of Dabbs Custom Builders, the Bains guided design of their angular custom contemporary home.

Both were experienced in dealing with real estate. Roy Bain, now 86, was born in San Francisco into a poor family and started working by age 7 to help support his family. Later, after the family moved, first to Gonzales in Monterey County and subsequently to Salt Lake City, he discovered in high school that his talents and skills lay in sales and marketing and the arts of persuasion and listening to customers. He found his niche in the growing hearing aid industry, introduced by a business associate and later branching out into their manufacturing, just as miniaturization enabled the field to take off.

With only a high school education, he became a millionaire by 35, with the support and encouragement of Jean, a Utah farmer’s daughter, his wife of 63 years and for whom he still writes love poems and songs. They have two sons, both living in San Diego, and five grandchildren. That includes their granddaughter Haley Bain, 18, a college student who spends considerable time with them and whom they mentor.

Homeowner and longtime entrepreneur Roy Bain, 86, cherishes a decadeslong friendship he had with Roy Rogers. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

“I learned that it takes you a lifetime to make a living. If you’re going to really get any real money, you have to do it on the side,” he said.

For the Bains, their side business was investing in real estate, buying and fixing up houses, renovating and doing the repairs and maintenance themselves on evenings and weekends. They rented the properties and then traded up into something larger, including apartment houses and strip malls. Their investments made them a fortune, but the experiences also gave them the knowledge to shape their dream home.

“My wife and I knew what kind of house we wanted, Roy Bain said. The designer built a little model. Jean didn’t want to have a flat roof and I wanted to have big windows. One day I was looking at it and saw the roof wasnt attached. I picked it up, set it upside down. I said, ‘Why dont we build it like that,’ halfway joking. He said, ‘Yeah, we can do that.’

“And thats what we did. We basically put the roof on upside down. We got the big windows and put in a cathedral ceiling,” Bain explained, adding that he closely monitored its design and construction, even directing the framers where to locate interior walls.

Roy Bain is flanked by granddaughter Haley, left, and wife, Jean. Armed with a high school diploma, Roy Bain ultimately became a millionaire by age 35. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A large piece of art is featured just outside the kitchen. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Bains kitchen. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The great room includes art and a large seating area. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Floor-to-ceiling glass panels in the dining area provide panoramic views of Mission Valley. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Roy and Jean Bains master suite has an open plan that merges the bedroom and bathroom, including a whirlpool tub. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Roy Bain is flanked by granddaughter Haley, left, and wife, Jean. Armed with a high school diploma, Roy Bain ultimately became a millionaire by age 35. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Building the house, he said, took only about six or seven months, but it took years to get through the complex, multidepartment review and permitting process because of its environmentally sensitive hilltop location.

“We built on every inch we could,” he explained, but much of the area couldn’t be built upon. To avoid future problems and ensure code and environmental compliance, he finally arranged with representatives of every department needing to sign off on the project to meet together at the site and show him and his construction team what they could and couldn’t do. He brought along a pile of stakes.

“They told me where I could put the stakes, what I could do, what I could clear, and what and where I could build,” Bain said, adding that the fire department’s input was the most important and restrictive because of a large fire in the area a few years before.

Construction finally wrapped up in 1998. The open floor-plan design, about 4,000 square feet, on the main level boasts a great room encompassing an art-filled entertainment and seating area, complete with piano, dining room and kitchen with an island/breakfast bar, with wide views over Mission Valley from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Opening off the kitchen is a large pantry complete with wine and liquor storage racks.

The garage is filled with photographs of celebrities with Roy and Jean Bain. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Photographs of celebrities with Roy and Jean Bain. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Roy Bain, right, is shown in an early photo with Roy Rogers. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Roy Bain’s office shows family photos, his books and memorabilia. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A past photo shows Dolly Parton with Roy and Jean Bain. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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The garage is filled with photographs of celebrities with Roy and Jean Bain. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Overlooking the great room, up a short flight of stairs, is Bain’s office, filled with memorabilia of his decades-long friendship with renowned cowboy singer and early movie icon Roy Rogers. It’s there that Bain has written his many books, encouraged initially by the prolific novelist Irving Stone. He was originally a hearing aid client-turned-friend whom Bain met through television personality Art Linkletter, another of the many Hollywood and music industry celebrities Bain met and befriended through his work fitting sophisticated hearing devices.

Their home has two bedrooms, a main level guest room and the lower-level master bedroom, also with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the valley, with glass doors opening onto a terrace and a stairway leading to the pool and garden below.

Occupying a prominent spot in their art-filled master suite is a once-broken carousel horse that Jean found and her husband skillfully repaired and brought back to life. Nearby, in a chair by the window, sits a full-size figure of a young woman created by an artist friend that is so realistic that it fooled a police officer who searched through the house after a burglar alarm signaled an intruder.

The unusual open floor plan of the master suite merges the bedroom and bathroom, with a generously sized Jacuzzi tub situated near the bed and next to the glass-enclosed shower. Both face onto the dressing area with double sinks, bountiful storage and a separate vanity area backing onto the bedroom wall. This connects with a walk-in closet and hallway lined with a laundry area, complete with sorting bins, leading outdoors to the terrace.

Roy Bain takes in the view over his backyard. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The pool area overlooks a stunning view of Mission Valley. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A highlight of the backyard is a merry-go-round with with a view. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

View of Interstate 15 from the home of Roy and Jean Bain in San Diegos Normal Heights neighborhood. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Bains have an enviable view of Snapdragon Stadium. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

An “I Love You” sign atop a Mission Valley building is one that Roy Bain had made for his wife, Jean. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Roy Bain takes in the view over his backyard. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Once the house was completed and a swimming pool and hot tub installed, the ever-curious and creative Bain, who had never dabbled in gardening, turned his attention to its landscaping.

“I was sitting in my Jacuzzi looking at the canyon, which had nothing but ice plant around it. I was asking myself, what do you really like to do? I loved lying in the sun, but I didn’t have a place for that, aside from a ladder to the top of the roof. I was thinking, I love Hawaii. I wanted to have a Hawaii kind of atmosphere in the backyard, but I really didn’t have a yard. I wanted a place to sit. And I love to work out. I wanted to build that into the backyard,” he explained.

Whimsical Tiki statues dot the backyard. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

With his initial ideas for the landscape design, he decided to build a stairway down to a level area where he could set up seating and sunbathing areas. His landscaper of over 15 years, Victor López of Victor López Landscaping, whose crews have undertaken the heavy work in the garden as well as planting trees, installed porous keystone blocks for the stairways, without altering the shape of the canyon or changing its normal water flow patterns. As Bain added stairways and paths through the garden, López’s workers have laid 2,500 blocks, each weighing 85 pounds. For safety, Bain had a handyman install handrails along each stairway.

Bain handles most of the ongoing planting and garden maintenance himself, with help from granddaughter Haley.

Along with the new stairways, Bain created new rooms in his terraced garden, adding another seating area for watching the sunset and areas with exercise and workout equipment he often designed or built himself, drawing on the handyman skills he developed renovating housing and rental units.

In one room he installed a walking ring, a small circular merry-go-round where he thinks through the books he writes as he walks and does push-ups. In another he built a swing that goes 14 feet high, and in another he constructed a workout bench and swing anchored with two brightly painted Tiki totems and kitted out with an array of exercise equipment, weights and pulleys. At one end is a Polynesian-inspired Tiki bar with a grass-topped table and stools ideal for drinks and conversation.

To fulfill his vision of a tropical landscape, Bain visited area nurseries, learning from their experienced staff, and purchased a wide variety of trees, some of which he admits proved mistakes. With López’s help, he’s planted many queen, king, Mexican and bottle or ponytail palm trees, as well numerous fruit trees. A papaya tree grows near the pool in the upper garden, while lime, orange, fig, lemon, plum and persimmon trees grow in the lower garden and table grapes line the fence at the lowest edge of the garden.

For color and texture, he added scarlet bougainvillea, feathery white pampas grass and lavender and purple African trail daisies as ground cover.

A large stone Buddha adds a sense of tranquility to the garden area, where the Bains grow a broad array of herbs and vegetables in an enclosed section with raised beds. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

In the raised vegetable beds, which Bain enclosed in a screened cage to protect his produce from being eaten by “critters,” he grows herbs, including parsley, cilantro, tarragon, rosemary and basil, as well as tomatoes, butter lettuce, cabbage, onions, butternut squash, beets and green, red and yellow bell peppers. In a corner of the vegetable garden enclosure sits a large stone Buddha to bring peace and tranquility, and a comfortable swinging chair in another corner for contemplation. Haas and Fuerte avocado trees grow nearby, their fruit overhanging the enclosure.

Throughout the garden, Bain has scattered colorfully painted, whimsical Tiki heads and assorted other figures and sculptures he’s collected around San Diego, which he repaints as needed to brighten the landscape. On one edge of the garden he installed three large heads along with an antlered deer.

At night, Haley explained, the garden turns into a magical fairyland with the 350 – 400 programmable colored lights Bain installed himself throughout the area. He often exercises in the garden in the evening and both Bains enjoy using the garden at night. To highlight the garden’s features, he rigged lighting in the trees and added lights to many of the Tiki heads and other garden ornaments, which pulse to the rhythm of the music from the audio system he wired into the garden. Low-voltage LED rope lighting illuminates the stairways at night for added safety.

Bain’s garden is one of a kind, the expression of the many facets of this inveterately upbeat, positive Renaissance man with an effervescent joy for living who was born poor but who bootstrapped himself and his family into comfortable affluence.

A swing provides an idyllic spot. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

More details

For more information about Roy Bain, to read his poetry and songs, see photos of his fascinating life or order his books, visit roybain.com.

To contact Victor López Landscaping, call 619-991-6020.