The couple bought their 1940s Alamitos Heights abode in 1992 and immediately got to work. First on the agenda was the kitchen. After a three-month process of odds and ends to get the house livable, the self-proclaimed cooking lovers reorganized the space to accommodate their culinary needs. Although a kitchen renovation is a task unto itself, this upheaval was relatively minor compared to what came next.

The couple’s next two projects were more laborious and detailed than the initial makeover. The second effort began in 2000 and allowed the family to move a dining room wall to extend the width of the room, add new kitchen cabinets, and increase the size of the patio. Douthit wanted heated tile downstairs, causing a chain reaction because circulating water pipes required lifting the floor, which meant the doors also had to be higher than they were previously.

“I had to pour an inch and a half of cement in the entire downstairs because we wanted warm porcelain tile,” Douthit says. “Then we raised all the downstairs doors and arched them. That’s also when I did the waterfall over the fireplace. The first renovation was to get it habitable; the second time we began creating a more enjoyable space.”

Four years later saw the addition of 2,700 square feet. Upstairs, the pair added a bedroom suite with his-and-hers walk-in closets and a rooftop garden. They also converted their garage from two-car to three-car, built an outdoor spa with a waterfall, brought 46 tons of slate from Mexico to surround their patio and saltwater pool, and created a new fire pit. Similar to the second goround, the third renovation came with unforeseen issues.

“We had just added the radiant heating and remodeled the kitchen, dining room, and much of the downstairs,” Clark says, “but we had to go back in because adding all this structure upstairs meant we had to tear out a wall in every downstairs room again. They had to be reinforced for code reasons. It was awful to re-do after just finishing it a year or two before.”

But the downstairs was not the only issue for the third facelift. The family’s original plan was to create a greenhouse just outside the bedroom door, but the city would not allow that. In a positive twist of fate, this section of their home is now Clark’s organic garden, where she grows beets, carrots, several kinds of peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, rhubarb, lettuce, squash, cucumber, and basil.

“I’m a plant and garden person,” Clark says. “We wanted a greenhouse, but it worked out pretty well for me. Ken built two hydroponics beds and my potting bench. We both love to cook, and it’s great to have your own vegetables and herbs.”

“When she’s preparing dinner,” Douthit adds, “she goes upstairs to harvest. It doesn’t get any better. It really makes the meal because we know exactly what’s going in there.”

The proud parents recently discovered just how well traveled they are when they had to fill out college applications for their son, Jayeson. One questionnaire asked how many, if any, countries the prospective student had been to. Douthit and Clark lost count at 53. This penchant for globe trotting is evident in nearly every nook and cranny in their home: a wooden elephant from Thailand; a brass hippopotamus from South Africa; a giraffe and onyx elephant from Zimbabwe; an antique robe purchased from a Turkish boat vendor; rugs and an urn from Turkey; an antique rice pot from Japan; a mask collection from more than 15 countries; and watercolors, oil paintings, and leather and wood carvings from China, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Cuba, Croatia, Hong Kong, Scotland, Italy, Belgium, and Samoa.

“We love to bring things home from our travels,” Douthit says, “You can travel and remember only so much of a trip if you don’t have something to remind you of it, especially if you travel a lot. We’ll never forget Chiang Mai, Thailand, because of that elephant. Every painting, etching, picture, or anything in this house is from traveling. There’s almost nothing that’s not.”

With so much diversity under one roof, some might expect the Douthit-Clark home to lack a theme or sense of unity. This is not the case. Bonding the variety of influences together is a color scheme Clark describes as “earth tone.” Guests enter the living room and encounter a cohesive motif that runs from the beginning of the house and out through the backyard and the garage.

“I’m flattered when people say our home is tied together because we have an eclectic mix,” Clark says. “I don’t know if it ties together; we just know what we like.”

“When it comes to that,” Douthit adds, “she’s the boss. Structural is my job.” But the most endearing aspect of the couple’s home is an element neither had any control over— the neighborhood. Nestled between bustling Seventh Street and Marina Vista Park sits Alamitos Heights, a part of town both Douthit and Clark say is one of Long Beach’s best-kept secrets. The couple describes their locale as “a tight-knit community” where neighbors look after each other and enjoy playing practical jokes on one another. Alamitos Heights’ lack of notoriety doesn’t surprise the owners of Long Beach Escrow, but Clark says they were pleased to discover the neighborhood nearly two decades ago.

“Parking is easy,” Clark says, “and it’s really quiet. People don’t talk about Alamitos Heights when they talk about Long Beach. They mention Belmont Shore, Naples, and Belmont Heights, but not this part of town. We didn’t realize what a nice place to live it was, and we were in the business.”

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