Casita Chuparosa

The architect sent us a few photos of some of the work in progress at Casita Chuparosa, so I want to post some of my photos of the site before construction, and the architects photos for comparison. Unfortunately, we haven’t been to the site to actually see this work yet, so my photos are not from the same locations and in the same direction as his — you have to use some imagination to see what matches what.

The only exception is this first pair of photos, showing the back view of the main room. You will remember that the entrance was at back, and in the new design that is still the case — but the door has been moved over, the old door turned into a window and another new window has been added on the other side.

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This also shows the roof. We plan to replace that eventually, but for now it would not fit in the budget. The big problem with that roof, of course, is that it was placed on the flat-topped walls, leaving large gaps underneath where bats, pigeons and other wildlife, as well as copious amounts of dust and dirt, could enter without impediment. The plan includes filling in those spaces, though the construction photo shows that has not been done yet.

In this next photo, you can see the light streaming in those gaps under the roofing. The bright area at left is not the window itself, but sunlight shining on the shutter that swings out into the room when the window was open. The plan calls for a new window here, but this area was not included in photos from the architect. This photo also shows the fuse box and wiring — all tacked on the surface of the wall. All that has been removed and a breaker box installed, with wiring inside the walls where it belongs…

Here we have a view of the rest of the wiring in that room, and the old door. In the new photo that follows it, we see the same area from a different angle — the new window is where the old door was, with a shelf for the kitchen sink beneath it. The old house had no plumbing at all (inside), and the smaller room at the side (which had it’s own door from the outside) was arbitrarily used as the kitchen area. Now that former ‘kitchen’ is to be the bedroom.

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Here we can see the two new inside doors, one to the bathroom, and the other into the small room that is now going to be the bedroom. This wasn’t how we had it in the plan — the bathroom door should be just inside the bedroom, rather than just outside. Also, the step up to the bathroom was not anticipated — an unexpected tripping hazard. Not much we can do about it now, those are the hazards of working from a distance. We will have to put some sort of divider in the room, as this way the bathroom opens into the kitchen — not a pleasant arrangement.

This next picture shows the new door, just over the kitchen divider/shelf that separates the kitchen from the rest of the room, which is both eating and living space (and not much of it — it is a very small casita, after all).

An important part of the project is the stone wall out front, to provide security, and to block noise and dust. Here is a view of the front of the casita before construction, and then the new sidewalk and wall. The telephone pole provides a reference point in both. The new bathroom is in the space between the existing front wall and this new stone wall.

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Overall, we are pleased with how things are progressing, excepting only the location of the bathroom door, and the step up at that point. No doubt the architect will have some explanation why it was done that way, we will see. Considering that all this work is being done for under $12,000 U.S. we are certainly getting our money’s worth.