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22 March, 2011

Pool House Tour

Welcome to Casa Winjama's Pool House. This is the front door (the big glass one) and the back door (the fancy metal one)... All on the same side, in fact, side-by-side, you might say. You'd be right on that score. The big sliding glass door opens into the kitchen and the kitchen sitting area. Let's take a look.
Pool House From the Deck
Magically, we just stepped inside, into the kitchen. All the comforts of home, as you can see. We have a stove, microwave, fridge, hot and cold running water, even a coffee maker.

The table in the foreground is actually the kitchen island, but it's on wheels so it can be rolled around as might be convenient. It does more than double duty, from it's oiled top surface that can act as a cutting surface if need be, to it's fold-up table top, so it can double as a dining table, and it has a lot of storage underneath from the far side.
Kitchen Cabinetry
Here's another shot of the kitchen, this time showing the microwave. The doorway at the left goes to the bedroom. All the kitchen and bath cabinetry in the house was custom-made for us by Kim and Ruth Longsworth's Bessa Decor (http://bessadecor.webs.com/) here in Corozal.
More Kitchen Cabinetry and Appliances
Now, if you'll just turn around, you'll see the reason we made the sliding glass doors across almost the whole width of the kitchen. Not bad to have to look at that all the time, eh?
The View Outside
I have to tell you. We designed the pool house to do double duty. By that I mean, visitors staying with us get a bedroom as their personal and private space. The kitchen and the bathroom are what we call 'common areas'. That is, we purposely did that so we have easy access to the kitchen and the fridge (that's where the beer is) and the bathroom - which is accessible through it's own outside door (the back door I mentioned above).

Looking back into the kitchen, here's the kitchen sitting area. So lookie-loo's can kibbitz with the person doing the cooking in the kitchen proper.

The egret painting is by a local Corozaleño artist, Fred Trejo, who frequently shows his work at Art in the Park, downtown Corozal. We bought it via door-to-door delivery, you might say. He rang our bell one day and asked if we'd like to buy a painting. This was the one he held up. Is that service or what?
The Kitchen Sitting Area
I have to say, all the credit for the interior design and decoration goes to Dianna. At one point, she was considering going into the design business with another woman we knew, but retirement and Caribbean adventure got in the way.

Over here is the bedroom. Dianna did the palms you see. We had the headboard made by Jose Kelly at his RX Upholstery shop, here in Corozal.
Pool House Bedroom
Another view of the bedroom. The three paintings you see there are by our good friend, Judy Dillon Smith - one of the Eternal Eight. That in itself is a long story and part of how we ended up here.
Pool House Bedroom and Judy's Paintings
Here's the other side of the bedroom, showing the armoire we bought locally and refinished ourselves.
Bedroom and Armoire
Below is the sitting room, which if needed can double as a second bedroom. The very comfortable couch you see there is actually a futon. The mattress has springs, so it's comfy as a bed as well. The small tables you see have been written about here in a previous posting. They were made by our Godson, Isaiel Pech, of Guinea Grass. They make a trio of nesting tables and are works of art in their own right. We've been trying to convince him to show his tables at Art in the Park.
Sitting Room and Futon
This is another view of the sitting room showing the bookcase and one of the new chairs we got from Home Depot and shipped down here. The painting you see is by another friend of ours here in Corozal, Jeanette McKean.
Sitting Room, Another View
Both the bedroom and the sitting room do have small air conditioners. We've never used them except to see if they worked after we installed them. But, they're there and are available.

Here's another view of the sitting room. The painting here is of a parrot and was done by a young painter, David Terrelonge, from Belize City. We saw him at Art in the Park and now we have one of his paintings.
Sitting Room and Parrot
This view is looking back out to the kitchen. The bookcase is beginning to fill up.
Sitting Room and Bookcase
Ahh, the throne room, where one may majestically hold court. Well, at least it's comfortable and the seat is warm. The painting on the wall is a reproduction of a mural Jim and Melanie Voris had in their dining room at Trinity House here in Corozal.

When they moved back to Florida, Jim wanted to take the mural with him, so he shot a picture of it and had a local graphics shop create a full-sized (roughly 8'x12'), full color image of it on a vinyl fabric.

I thought that was such a cool idea, I asked Jim if he would be willing to share the picture with me. He did and I had it repro'd on vinyl as well, only as a 12"x 22" print. We had it mounted on a stretcher frame at a cool picture frame shop (the Framing Shop) in Belize City. And there it hangs. Mayan art for all to see.
The Bathroom Facilities and Artwork
Looking the other direction, you see the shower. It looks small but is surprisingly roomy inside. It even has a bench to sit on or use if you need to shave your legs.
Bathroom and Shower
This last bit is not a part of the pool house proper, but is the pool utility room. We keep pool tools and toys stored here as well as housekeeping stuff.

We also keep the wood inserts for hurricanes stored here. They slide in a track on the burglar bars and provide a great deal of protection from debris missiles and flying spray.
Utility Room, Heater, Power Panel and Hurricane Wood

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks great!

Anonymous said...

What a great looking hangout!

JRinSC said...

Great job guys... it really looks great and a wonderful place to relax.

Thanks for a great tour and I promise not to give you more grief for the rest of the summer! You can now relax as the days heat up...

Vivien said...

The new chairs,cushions and pictures on the walls, finishes it off nicely.

sandy a said...

that is really pretty!!

Unknown said...

Windjamas....Thanks for the credit for the artwork in the guest room! Along with tagline of 'good friend'! It's been far too long...Eternal 8 in 2012!?!?!?!

Judy Dillon Smith

Lorenzo @belizepost said...

It looks awesome!