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"View Slideshow\n\nWater. The sound of it at a Southern California beach house is nothing out of the ordinary. Hearing it coming from inside the house is a bit more intriguing, however. But such is the experience every time Deni and Jeff Jacobs step foot in their oceanfront residence in La Jolla. You don't leave the water behind when you walk into their house; it follows you, which is just one of the clues that this is not your typical beach dwelling.\n\nAmid plantings of papyrus and palm, water borders the path that leads from the entrance gates off the street past a standing Buddha statue and continues all the way to the front door. Just inside, it streams down a wall of rough-cut travertine accented by insets of natural Brazilian citrine, filling the space and nearby rooms with a serene resonance. It's the sort of detail that elevates the residence from mere beach house to exotic hideaway, while also calling to mind images of Bali and Hawaii and any number of tropical resorts in between.\n\n\"I like it when you can turn every which way and you're still interested,\" says Ziman. \"That's my concept with this house.\"\n\nThe head of global operations for the San Diego-based telecommunications firm Qualcomm, Jeff Jacobs travels far and wide, and regularly with his wife and family. But it is their journeys to Asia\u2014to Indonesia, China, India, Thailand and Vietnam\u2014that have indelibly shaped the couple's tastes. They'd considered buying a place on the Kona Coast of Hawaii, where Jacobs has competed in Ironman triathlons, or in Cabo San Lucas, but they were taken with the notion of having an escape just 15 minutes from their main house in Rancho Santa Fe.\n\n\"La Jolla's got one of the best climates in the United States,\" says Jeff Jacobs. \"My family moved to La Jolla when I was six months old, and I grew up on that beach. I remember thinking that if I ever had the opportunity to build or buy a place there, I'd love to do that.\"\n\nThe opportunity presented itself when a modest 1950s beach house on a prime waterfront site came up for sale. The couple contacted Helene Ziman, who had designed their house in Rancho Santa Fe. Ziman and San Diego architect Bill Hayer set to work planning a weekend home with a timeless feel. \"The whole idea was to create an interior-exterior space and to take advantage of the beachfront location,\" she explains. \"I wanted to capture the essence of Jeff and Deni's travels and all the places they'd ever been.\" Adds the architect, who has done four other houses on this particular stretch of beach, \"Deni and Jeff had a good, accurate feeling for what they wanted, and they understood the Balinese vocabulary. We created a casual beach house with really sophisticated elements.\"\n\nThe entrance hall is a case in point, and in terms of materials and atmosphere, it establishes the mood for the rest of the house. In addition to the water wall, there is a bronze Buddha from Thailand that is set, literally, on a pedestal above the front door, before a Mozambique-wood panel and framed by the same Italian travertine that sheathes walls and floors elsewhere. Overhead is a peaked skylight trimmed in Mozambique and koa woods. \"I like it when you can turn every which way and you're still interested,\" says Ziman. \"That's my concept with this house\u2014every time you turn around, you're going to see something different.\"\n\nIndeed, turning left from the front door, one is met by remarkable views of the surf through floor-to-ceiling glass in the dining and living areas. There Ziman chose strong furnishings that echo the architecture: a streamlined travertine slab atop a contemporary Mozambique-wood base for the dining table, large leather-upholstered seating (including armchairs that swivel to face the view) and Mozambique-wood tables in the living area, which displays no fewer than five Buddhas, purchased by the couple on a trip to Hong Kong.\n\nIn the open kitchen just beyond, koa cabinets are joined by counters and walls in a blue-green granite that, says Ziman, recalls \"the really rich azure you see when you're flying over Fiji.\" The easy access to the space befits Deni and Jeff Jacobs's life at the beach, where they often host friends and other family members and where they can go on a moment's notice on weekends whenever the weather's warm. \"We call people and ask if they want to come down to the beach, and they say, Absolutely!' \" says Deni Jacobs with a laugh.\n\nJust off the living and dining areas is a terrace that runs the width of the house. The couple wanted a spa, but Ziman didn't want to break the exotic mood created by the interior spaces. So she designed a whirlpool that looks more like a sculpture\u2014she refers to it as \"a water vessel\"\u2014albeit one that soothes aching muscles after a day riding the waves.\n\nThe house's beachfront fa\u00E7ade features stepped wood eaves that continue the theme of the woods inside. \"The house's contemporary character is so appropriate to beach living, and the expanses of glass really engage the beach and the outdoors,\" notes Hayer. \"I love the way the interior spaces flow to the outside.\"\n\nUnlike her husband, Deni Jacobs is not \"a beach person.\" But the master bedroom upstairs, with views for miles and a pitched ceiling that offers a more refined version of the thatched roofs of the tropics, is, she says, \"my sanctuary.\"\n\nJeff Jacobs now has his house on the sand, one where he can walk out the door and head right for the water, and his wife has a peaceful refuge. And it's become a meaningful family destination as well. Says Jeff Jacobs, \"Every time we go there, it's like we've gone on vacation.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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