The Guesthouse

Just realized I never blogged about our guesthouse. I actually rarely blog at all anymore, as most of my friends and family know it all any way.

We used to have an RV out on the pad for guests, but got rid of it when we bought a mobile home in Minnesota for summers. This left us with just a one-bedroom house with no guest accommodations. Not that we ever have guests, but IN CASE, we built a guesthouse.

Actually, Buddha built it. This is Buddha, real name Luis.

We had him build it on top of our garage, with just a vague floorplan we made, plus a covered deck overlooking the ocean view.

Garage far left

We had him make it out of lladrillos, an adobe-like local brick. What I didn't understand until much later is that lladrillos are not waterproof, and we'd have stucco covering the outside. I thought I'd be looking at a rustic brick exterior. Oh well.

It took a year. Buddha works kind of slowly, plus finances demanded the work proceed as the money came in. Here are some in-progress photos.

Lovely rustic brick, alas, had to get covered up.

As you see, there were huge swaths of concrete on my lovely rustic brick interior, which I wasn't happy with. So I showed Buddha some google images of the "Exposed Brick" concept of decor. He got it perfectly, although it seemed to cement his opinion of me as a crazy gringa.

So here's what we ended up with. You can click on them to enlarge for more detail.

View from the deck!

Ta-DA!

Still needs floor covering, that's just the concrete garage roof. We furnished it on a dime, all Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace stuff. Plus stuff I made: counter skirts, shower curtain, kitschy stuff for the walls. It's already been christened, when Ron's daughter Caprice and her husband Don visited us in April.

Sleeps 4 with the futon and bed. Tiny minimal kitchen, propane cooker with oven, shelves behind counter skirting. Tiny fridge under counter. Tiniest toilet I ever saw since kindergarten. Best view in the hood. Bringing home a normal table and chairs from Minnesota next month, the set that's there is made from pallets and is supremely uncomfortably stiff and heavy. With exposed nails. Also a big dresser with mirror to go next to front door where the smoking cat picture is, and a small corner TV stand (and TV) for corner of living area by the patio door.

Will install a minisplit AC unit upon our return, and do something to boost our wifi signal from the house because currently you can only get a signal when kneeling on the sofa by the window.

This guesthouse isn't a guesthouse as in "Accommodations for Rent". It's for close friends and family only, people that would probably be sharing meals next door with us, and spending time with us. I'd be too embarrassed to have strangers there with its minimal comforts. Family and close friends, sure, because they love us.

Loads of thanks to friends who helped with donated cast-offs and bargains: Tunkes, Parkers, Bensons, Patricia, Cathie, and of course Marisela.