Two architects built their family dream home with lots of “gizmos,” including a crane designed to transport the dining room table for outdoor meals.

“Our process involves throwing out a lot of possibilities,” says Alice Kimm of her partnership with husband John Friedman.

Under their shared banner, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, the husband-and-wife creators have completed major institutional projects but nothing quite prepared them for the adventure building their $2.38 million, glass-and-stucco residence. They finished it this summer after living in the evolving project for years.

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The couple bought the cliff-side chunk of land in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood for about $210,000 shortly after the turn of the millennium.

Just 60 feet wide, the lot ranges 120 feet up the slope with street frontages both above and below.

Local building ordinances obliged the designers to place the entry a few steps down from the upper roadway, then carve into the hill itself to create about 3,800 square feet of interior space in the main structure.

The duo only made things more complicated by adding features along the way, including a swimming pool and adjacent rec room on the low-lying terrace and a ground-level garage topped by a rentable apartment and patio.

Every inch of the place seems to be teeming with a whole career’s worth of ideas, from the swooping pergola atop the garage to the built-in sofa in the family room.

The long, galley style kitchen.

The house has architecture references aplenty, including traces of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in the peek-a-boo transparencies between the two top-floor children’s rooms.

On the second-story landing, there is a smidgen of Rem Koolhaas-style surrealism in the duo’s split-level office tucked partially beneath the staircase.

And then there are what Mr. Friedman calls “the gizmos.” Together with a fabricator friend, the two have created a whole workshop’s worth of nifty custom features.

Along the back of the living-room couch, hinged headrests provide comfort while serving as a safety barrier to the atrium’s three-story plummet. The long corner window retracts into the wall.

There are trap doors and concealed faucets and whimsical decorative details. Inevitably, however, one feature draws the most attention.

Spanning nearly the length of the ceiling from the dining room window to the back of the galley kitchen is a yellow, rail-like structure with an industrial crane hanging from it.

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The crane was conceived as a timesaving device, intended to lower the entire dining room table, place settings and all, three stories down to the pool deck for al fresco meals.

The dream is still somewhat in the works, awaiting a few fixes to ensure the purpose-built table doesn’t swing too much in the breeze. For now, a large custom tray is used to lower food down to an outdoor table.

Produced by Leah Latella and Kat Malott