Small Change Adds Up
We now have a peanut butter jar full of change. (Figuratively speaking, of course. Although I have to say that many a gringo has a loose change collection or two around their house. It just seems to happen here.) Let’s see what we’ve been up to:
Changes to the bathroom
A grotto-like bathroom is a good thing, but the room was too big and lacked privacy. The house we live in now has a “party shower” and that’s fine and well; but the Riverhouse bathroom—as it was—would have needed engraved invitations for how many people it could fit. A divider was needed.
Bathroom Before
Bathroom Before
Bathroom After
And beyond that, a very strange feature was the window looking from the master bedroom straight into the bathroom. Fixing that would give even more privacy.
Frosted glass
Changes to the kitchen
I’m a bigtime cook, so at first glance I was concerned about the layout of the kitchen. I loved how it was in the center of the house, part of the activity and not tucked away in some closed off room. And the counters are granite and the cupboards are a nice solid walnut. And the sink has a built in compost area. All great things. But it was tight. Not much usable work space, and when you’re baking bread, cooking up yogurt and preparing the nights meal you need more room to work in.
Before Kitchen
But short of tearing down walls and moving rooms, there wasn’t much we could do. The big idea for this room came when we thought “If only the fridge wasn’t there! We could expand the counter and add some more drawers. OOOh. I chopping block would be great.” If only. So we did it. We got rid of the refrigerator—well, moved it out of the floor space, at least. The big idea was to borrow some space from the guest room closet, and install the fridge into the wall. Why didn’t I think of that?!
More spacious kitchen without refrigerator
Looking good
Fridge sits nicely in the wall
Whose adorable dog is that?
We still need to build some cabinets and add the chopping block, but already the kitchen is much more open and inviting to cooks everywhere.
Changed doors and added screens
Not to say anything disparaging to the previous owners, but the doors all seemed to have—shall we say—holes in them. Got to go. Mulo took care of this as if it were nothing, and Gilberto just needs to paint them. Very easy improvement.
New bedroom door, waiting to be painted
Screens on the front door
Screens on the windows
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