A new approach to building uses historic bricks

FALLBROOK – Mark Kirk is taking a new approach to building custom homes and it led him to transport a load of century-old bricks from Kansas to California while implementing his new plan.

The bricks that once paved the streets of Dodge City are now featured at the entrance to a lot that is all ready for a new home to be built there.

Kirk first stumbled on to the site of his latest project in Fallbrook in 2002 – a 24 acre piece of property on Monserate Hill Road and knew it was a "Crown Jewel."

Even though the property was overgrown with 1500 old avocado trees so dense he could not see through them, he could envision huge custom homes cascading down the hillside.

"I could see that the property, even though on the side of a hill, would produce large, graded house pads for nice single story homes, with guest houses and accessory barns that all could face their patios, looking south if desired," Kirk said.

The tentative subdivision was approved in 2007 and three of the pads and a new street were installed. The graded pad area on this lot is 36,000-38,000 square feet, almost one acre of flat land to accommodate just about anything one would want to build on a new estate.

The market collapsed just as the property was ready for selling and sales were postponed indefinitely. The other investors dropped out during the recession and Kirk ended up with the property.

Last year, he moved forward in developing the property which is near I-15 and highway 76.

Kirk decided to try a new approach in developing these lots. Having built over 200 custom homes in his career, he discovered that by the end of the job, most clients building a house are pretty exhausted mentally, physically and financially as most custom homes require a lot of decisions and upgrades tend to be expensive.

Most clients just don't have the energy left to tackle a serious development of the perimeter of their property.

Kirk said that he never really got to finish a lot of the perimeters of his projects over the years as nice as the houses were, so he decided to use a different approach to this project.

He recently completed getting the second of the seven lots ready to build, which means the house pad is graded, the water meter is installed, and the septic has been approved. He went a step further this time, installing all of the exterior landscaping and fencing, too.

Instead of the normal budget-strapped entryway, Kirk went all out, and no expense was spared. The design was done on sight by him with no architectural input. He built the columns utilizing the stones that were generated when the pad was graded back in 2007.

The footings for the columns are over three feet deep. The cavities in the columns were wired for the lights and security and then poured solid with concrete. The caps were custom cut from matching slab material.

A total of six of these structures were erected to define the entry gates as well as the two front property corners. Special sconce placards were also installed to accommodate the custom-fit lanterns and the address.

Kirk wanted to stop the flow of erosion every time it rained, so he installed entry pavers. Knowing that construction would still need to be done on the house, he knew he would need to install an entrance that would stand up to the construction truck traffic.

Kirk searched on the internet and found out that Dodge City, Kansas had removed one of its old brick streets. Having been in the brick business in the late 80s, Kirk knew there was a brick plant in Coffeyville, Kansas that had made one of the hardest bricks ever fired.

He contacted the city office of Dodge City and, sure enough, the bricks were stacked loosely in one of the city's maintenance yards. Kirk arranged to have the bricks palletized and shipped by truck to the Fallbrook site.

The bricks were laid on the streets of Dodge City between 1909 and 1912 with the newest technology. Six inches of concrete were laid first, then covered with one inch of sand to cushion the bricks. This process helped the bricks survive the traffic driving over them for over 100 years.

In Fallbrook, some of the bricks were used to build the custom mailbox, custom entry pad holder, landscape accents and two small sidewalks. One sidewalk on the left leads to one of the most secure locking package drop boxes available that was powder coated to match the iron gates. No more coming home to packages laying on the ground in front of the gate.

The right side sidewalk leads to a five foot wide walk through gate with a touch entry keypad. The gates were all fabricated utilizing one inch square bars instead of the normal three-quarter inch. To withstand the extra weight, heavy duty ball bearing hinges were secured to a quarter inch thick steel arm that extends into and down the solid concrete columns two foot deep into the footings.

Cedar planks are utilized around the perimeter of the gates to give them a modern but rustic appearance. The lights chosen to be mounted on the columns were selected and custom fitted to the columns.

Kirk dug out the entrance to the lot and installed 12 inches of compacted class II road base. He commented that the street in front of the driveway only has 6 inches of this same base. He then poured a 12 inch by 12 inch thick concrete curb around the perimeter to lock in the bricks.

Huge boulders, some weighing 10 tons or more, were placed to form a retaining wall and then seamed together with smaller rocks in what one might consider to be a form of art that will last in perpetuity.

Other boulders were placed around the perimeter of the property to accentuate the landscaping. Low maintenance Korean "clump" grass has been planted in areas where runoff is anticipated. The grass will filter the water runoff into very clean water going on to the street by spring when the grass has more fully filled in.

Various trees and shrubs were planted around the property so they might grow to a nice size by the time the new home is finished.

In addition to being in an excellent location, Kirk said the property has one of the most spectacular views in all of Southern California. The pad was just recertified to start construction and is good for another five years.

All the utilities are at the property and the septic is approved for both a five-bedroom and a six-bedroom layout, whichever the buyer chooses. The lot is ready for them to bring their house plans and start building.

See a detailed video of this property at MarkBKirkInc.com/video.