Show & Tell Part 2 -- Finished Coach House

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Hi all -- Dianne here.  If you are not interested in our coach house remodel, save your time and skip this blog issue!


Seven weeks after our first call to Raul Gonzales, we finished the coach house yesterday with the installation of the painted cabinet doors, knobs, and toilet paper holder.  We are officially done!  This blog will simply be photos and a few explanations.  I say we are officially "done," although there is still the question of what kind, if any, tile or glass backsplash we might install behind the kitchen sink.  We have three hand-painted Italian tiles we purchased in Tuscany that we'd somehow like to incorporate into the backsplash:

Don't want to cross the line into "too much," but I'd really like to use these tiles somehow.  Any suggestions?  We originally considered dark blue tiny glass background with these tiles interspersed. Might still do that.  (We bought the cabinet knobs with that idea in mind.)

As you enter the coach house through the French doors, the first thing you might notice is the tile threshold Roger designed: 

Looking ahead, you would see the view of the kitchen area shown in the top photo.

The sun was so bright that it was hard to get the colors just right, but you can get the idea.    Remember that you can enlarge the smaller photos by clicking on them, if you are interested in a closer view.  


Here's a close-up of the Mexican talavera ceramic knobs we purchased for the kitchen cabinets (The bathroom vanity and cabinet have a different pattern of talavera knob):

Here is a close-up view of the granite countertop.  

More kitchen views:

On the other side of the refrigerator are the two cherry Amish furniture pieces we decided to keep.  They offer great storage:

The north wall has the main front window.  We added a granite ledge to the window shelf.

There's no window covering yet on the windows, so it was hard to get a good photo of it without glare.  

Still turning counter-clockwise, the next view shows our wine rack in the northwest corner.  The large wall art is a compilation of photos of the villa and wine/olive oil bottles from our vacation in Tuscany a few years ago:

Turning next to the west wall, Roger's Grandmother Norris's kitchen table and chairs fit great under the west window.  The chair cushions are also souvenirs from Tuscany.

Another view of the dining area gives a glimpse of our motorhome out the window.  You can see the French doors coming into view, which means we've come full circle in our tour of the living area of the coach house.

The bathroom/laundry is on the south end of the coach house, across a smaller threshold piece:

Straight ahead as you open the door is this view of the bathroom:

You might remember in an earlier blog that I had ordered a Mexican hand-painted talavera vessel sink.  Well, the sad tale is that it broke during installation, and we discovered a replacement wouldn't be available for four weeks.  At that point we were so ready to be done that I hopped into the car and drove to Home Depot for a local replacement.  I actually think this glass sink matches the granite better than the Mexican sink would have.  I wish I could say it was less expensive.

Roger glued the Mexican sink back together and we made it into a bird bath (although they just drink from it) for the gang of 15 mockingbirds that hang around our yard:

Going counter-clockwise again, here's a view of 

the corner shower in the southeast corner:

This shows just how compact everything is, and how every inch counted in our planning.  The next photo shows the edge of the shower and the small space between the shower and my stacking washer & dryer which houses our tiny little Kinetico water softener:

Looking back toward the kitchen area, here's the top of the wall next to the washer/dryer, showing my bird house shelf, and the bathroom side of the stained glass window and door:

Continuing counter-clockwise, beyond the door to the west bathroom wall:

And back to the vanity.  Here's a close-up of the sink and granite vanity top, and the very cool bathroom "tap" as our Canadian friends call it:

Our main use for the coach house is for cooking, eating meals, washing dishes, showers, and laundry.  We wanted an indoor eating area large enough to have friends over for dinner without worrying about the weather.  Our very first dinner guests were Bob and Linda, who will be our next-door neighbors when their coach house is constructed.  (They are our blog friends we wrote about in the prior blogs).  Here's a shot taken at our first "dinner party":

 We opted not to make a sitting area, since our satellite tv/dvr is in the motor home and we have comfy chairs there.  Also, when we're not watching tv, almost all of our sitting time is spent outside on the patio.  All that's left to arrive is the new grill we've ordered.  I have a convection microwave in the kitchen, but no stove, so we ordered a grill with a side burner, since we plan to do much of our cooking outdoors.  

This week our new propane fire pit arrived, just in time for our friends Chuck and Cindy's visit in a little over a week:

I'm including one more patio photo, just because I like it:

Roger and I purchased this solid copper cauldron at an antique store in New Harmony, Indiana in 1973.  It fits snugly into an old chiminea stand, and with water and a solar fountain, is a magnet for the local bird population to get a drink.  

The whippet/doggie photo of the day is entitled "Double-Decker Dogs":

Now that we're finally done with the construction that has taken over our lives since early January, we'll try to make our blogs a bit more interesting from now on, as we begin to actually "get a life" again!