Tierrasanta design-build · Since 2005
Tierrasanta home remodeling, designed and built by one team.
Accredited, certified and held to accountCalifornia contractor #922807, since 2005
Tierrasanta · San Diego County
Whole home remodels, kitchens, bathrooms, additions and ADUs in Tierrasanta.
Tierrasanta's 1970s and 1980s tract homes sit on the canyon rims above Mission Trails, built on former Camp Elliott land, and nearly all of them are ready for the kitchen and bath their first owners never redid.
Kaminskiy Design and Remodeling was founded in San Diego by Sergei Kaminskiy in 2005 and is still founder-led. In Tierrasanta 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. No handoffs, no finger-pointing, no surprises.
Start with a complimentary consultationWhat to know first
Tierrasanta is the Island in the Hills: 1970s tracts on the canyon rims above Mission Trails. Here is what shapes a remodel.
Tierrasanta was built from 1971 onward on land that had been Camp Elliott, a Marine and Army training ground, and it still feels like an island: one way in from Santo Road and Tierrasanta Boulevard, canyons on every side, and Mission Trails Regional Park at the back door. The houses are 1970s and 1980s tract plans, single-story and split-level, most of them never remodeled by the families who bought them new. The City of San Diego issues the permits, every original house is past the 45-year review, the canyon rims carry brush management, and the old training ground left a history that matters when you dig. Our Tierrasanta kitchen and bathrooms in the gallery below are the same houses.
Tierrasanta, San Diego County. Our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo is about 15 minutes away off peak; the first meeting is at your home.
Tierrasanta is a community of the City of San Diego, so permits come from the City's Development Services Department. Most remodels are a building permit with no hearing; the Tierrasanta Community Council sees the discretionary projects. No coastal rules apply here, and most streets have no homeowner association, though a few of the later tracts and the condominium groups do.
You will not stand at the permit counter; our architectural team files the set and sees it through to issuance.
Tierrasanta's builders repeated a handful of plans: a closed kitchen off the entry, a sunken living room, a family room with a fireplace, three or four bedrooms, a primary bath the size of a closet, and a slab on grade. The remodel opens the kitchen to the family room, levels the sunken floor where the family wants it, carves a real suite from two small rooms, and replaces the panel, the furnace and the original windows. Our Tierrasanta kitchen in the gallery is exactly this house.
Tierrasanta sits on part of the former Camp Elliott training range, a Formerly Used Defense Site, and the community learned in 1983 what that history can mean. The Army Corps of Engineers has surveyed and cleared the developed areas since, and a kitchen or bath inside the walls is unaffected. For an addition, a pool or an ADU that breaks new ground, we follow the City's and the Corps' guidance for the site and tell you plainly what it involves before the first shovel.
Shepherd Canyon, Rueda Canyon and the finger canyons put a large share of Tierrasanta's lots in the City's brush management zones, which shape what can be built and planted within a hundred feet of the slope. Outdoor living and additions on the rim lots are designed to the zones from the start; the canyon view and the trail at the end of the street are the reward.
Every first-phase Tierrasanta house is now past the City's 45-year threshold, so a permit that changes the exterior gets a historical review first; tract homes clear quickly and interior-only work is exempt. Inside, the houses carry 1970s aluminum branch wiring in some tracts, 100-amp panels, galvanized drains in the slab and single-pane aluminum windows. We replace what is original while the walls are open, and California's Title 24 code sets the floor for the new windows and lighting.
Source: City of San Diego, historical reviews for structures over 45 years
Tierrasanta's first buyers were young families and military households, and many are still in the house fifty years on. The remodel they ask for is universal design that does not look like it: a no-step entry, a curbless shower, wider doors, better light. State law also allows an ADU on these lots, and a backyard unit for an adult child or a parent is a common plan on the deeper lots along the canyons. Mission Trails at the back door is why nobody wants to leave.
Source: Mission Trails Regional Park
To orient yourself: Tierrasanta Boulevard and Santo Road are the spine, Clairemont Mesa Boulevard climbs in from the west past the shopping center, State Route 52 runs along the south, and Mission Trails and Cowles Mountain fill the east. Our Tierrasanta kitchen and bathrooms are in the gallery below. Finishes are chosen at our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo, about 15 minutes away; the first conversation happens at your kitchen table.
What we design and build in Tierrasanta
Tierrasanta 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 Tierrasanta
Every service. One local team.
Whole home remodels, kitchens, bathrooms, additions, ADUs and outdoor living, all designed and built by the same team, all in Tierrasanta.
Nearby neighborhoods
We work in every neighborhood of San Diego County. See all thirty-seven neighborhood pages or schedule a consultation.
Our work in Tierrasanta
Tierrasanta remodels. Real homes. Real families.
Every photo below is a Kaminskiy project in Tierrasanta, 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 Tierrasanta remodeling guide
What we remodel in Tierrasanta, room by room.
What Tierrasanta homeowners ask us for, room by room. Our Tierrasanta projects are in the gallery below.
The 1970s tract done once: plan opened, sunken floor leveled where it should be, every system replaced, the house turned toward its canyon. Interior work is exempt from the 45-year review; an exterior change gets it, and clears.
Whole home remodelingBehind a wall off the entry in nearly every Tierrasanta plan. The wall comes down, a beam carries the ceiling, the island replaces the peninsula and the panel is upgraded. Our Tierrasanta kitchen in the gallery is the template.
Kitchen remodelingThe closet-sized primary bath becomes a suite by borrowing from the bedroom; the hall bath gets a layout two children can share. Our Tierrasanta bathroom and multi-bath projects in the gallery show both.
Bathroom remodelingA ground-floor addition on the slab lots, within the brush management zone on the rims and with the site history checked before any new footing goes in; a room over the garage where the lot is tight.
Room additionsA garage conversion in the tracts, a compact backyard unit on the canyon lots. The City permits it; most streets have no HOA to add a step.
ADUs and conversionsA covered patio off the family room, a deck toward the canyon within the brush rules, and planting that meets them; shade first, because Tierrasanta summers run warmer than the coast.
Outdoor livingSingle-story Tierrasanta plans are among the easiest in the city to age in. A no-step entry, a curbless shower and wider doors, designed in during a remodel.
Universal designGood questions
Tierrasanta 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 FAQsYes. Our Tierrasanta kitchen remodel, a bathroom remodel and a multi-bath project are in the gallery below, with every photo.
Not for work inside the walls. For an addition, a pool or an ADU that breaks new ground, we follow the City's and the Army Corps' guidance for the former training range and explain what it involves before anything is dug.
If the permit changes the exterior, yes: the City reviews structures 45 years or older first. Tierrasanta's tract homes clear quickly, and a kitchen or bath inside the walls is exempt.
Nothing. The in-home design consultation is complimentary anywhere in Tierrasanta. 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 Tierrasanta 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.
All of Tierrasanta, zip code 92124, and the neighborhoods around it: Kearny Mesa, Mission Valley, Clairemont, Scripps Ranch and Santee. If your street is not on our list, call us anyway. We serve every city in San Diego County.
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 Tierrasanta 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 Tierrasanta.
- 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.