The cannery at the end of the Embarcadero hasn't processed fish since 1987. For three decades it sat empty, accumulating birds, graffiti, and a reputation as the ugliest building in Morro Bay. Then Jess and Marco Villanueva bought it for less than you'd pay for a two-bedroom condo in Pismo.

Three years and a startling amount of structural steel later, the cannery is a three-bedroom home with 22-foot ceilings, a concrete floor stained the color of wet sand, and views of the rock from every room. "People ask if it's cold," Jess says. "It's the warmest house I've ever lived in. Concrete holds heat like a promise."