From Workshop to Guest House

Interior of the guest house. It wasn't always like this.

It started out as a detached 24 ft square workshop sat at the back of our property. We decided to turn it into a guest house.















Tile mosaic leading into the bathroom made it easier for a novice to lay the tile. Right, kitchen is rough plumbed.








Note the petite appliances. The gas range is 20 inches wide, the dishwasher is 18 inches wide, the fridge is 24 wide. The sink is huge. The laundry area has full size washer and dryer.

The tiny kitchen is fully functional.
We added a wall of closets (PAX system from Ikea) to separate the living from sleeping quarters.
The stucco dries... French doors and a window replace the 16 ft roll up garage door.
The guest house today.

Stone garden bed border

Added some stones in a row to make a garden border. Really softened the look of the guest house. Note the "ladder o' logs" leading to the cat door. Guest House inhabitants have a cat, and this way, kitty can run in and out at will. The ladder is just stacked pieces of trunk from the ash tree we had to remove last year...

Rooster in the house!

After some not so subtle hinting, my husband painted this muralette for me for my birthday last year. This is the back porch door that leads the way to the chicken coop, and the hook and basket were already there for egg gathering. Hubby painted my roo on a post to look like it was there to hold the basket. I love it! I am getting tired of the gold walls, however, and now I have no idea how to change the wall color. Think I am stuck with gold walls.

trompe l'oeil in the bathroom

Well here is an example of how lazy I really am. I had some floating shelves hanging over the tub in the bathroom, and decided I didn't like them there anymore. Of course, when I took them down, the wall was slightly damaged. I patched up the wall and sanded, and then discovered that I no longer had the matching paint color! Yikes! I did NOT want to paint an entire bathroom, and yet I also didn't want to hang up another picture. I sketched out, taped, and painted a "window" instead... It came out ok, and since it is an old-fashioned bath anyway (with clawfoot tub), it looks pretty cool in there.

Broken tile mosaic countertop

This was a fun project. My bathroom counter was a hideous plastic laminate. I wanted a stone counter but lacked the funds... Lucky for me, I had some leftover porcelain (or perhaps ceramic?) floor tiles. I didn't want to rent a tile saw, so I decided to do a broken tile mosaic. I love the effect-- it looks like pieces of slate. To do this, I removed the old counter, cut a plywood top, and traced my sink for the cut-out. Attached hardibacker to the plywood with screws. Installed the counter to the cabinets with various L-brackets. I grabbed about 20 tiles and began breaking them with a hammer. I was careful to break off large pieces of tile edge so that I would have straight pieces for the counter edge and backsplash. Then I used tile adhesive to attach the tiles, let dry for a day and grouted. I had leftover grout from my kitchen tile job. I reused the old sink and faucet, as they were in good shape. The only thing I had to purchase for this project was a sheet of hardibacker (concrete board) and some tile adhesive, keeping the entire countertop project to well under $30.