Shop Local: House Tour!

One of the funnest (I know it's not a word) aspects of getting to build a house from scratch in Nayarit, Mexico is that you can't just go to IKEA and pick out a kitchen or order all your furniture on Wayfair and call it a day... No, no, no... You hire a carpenter and show him your Pinterest board entitled "Mi Casa Mexicana," you have a contact in your phone saved as "Jose Copper Sink Guy" and "Miguel Pergola Guy"....you buy light fixtures out of the back of someone's truck on the side of the road.  It's much more fun, to say the least!  

So today's house tour is going to include everything we were able to source locally including links and/or contact info for some of the businesses (sadly, I don't think the light fixture guy has a Facebook page.) 

I'll start from the street and try to "walk through" the house in order so you can get an idea of the layout... 

Here she is!  House names are common in Mexico and Ty named ours "Casa de Ladrillo" ("She's a Brick...House!"  Get it?)  But I think a better name would be "Castillo de Ladrillo" because it kinda looks like a castle from the street... 

The view when you enter from the sidewalk... The patio and sliding door to the kitchen are on the left.

Front door... 

Front entryway... The basket lights are from the guy on the side of the road I mentioned.  (Yes, I was being serious.)  The two doors on the right are the laundry room and half bathroom.  

Entryway painting... Purchased from an artist from Puerto Vallarta.  I bought it at the Sunday Market in La Cruz before the markets got closed down.  Love it.  

Ninety-nine percent of the furniture and carpentry in our house came from the same carpenter here in La Cruz...Armando and his crew at Carpinteria California.  Locals will know the place as the shop on the lateral with the huge planks of huanacaxtle (parota) planks standing upright.  

I wanted an "entryway table" to collect all of our (Ty's) junk when we walk in the door and showed Armando a photo from Pinterest.  Perfecto!  It's full of reusable shopping bags, dog leashes, wallets, and other clutter I don't like strewn about the house.  I bought the cute little handmade basket from a beach vendor during happy hour with friends in the pre-covid days.  

Laundry room with lots of storage and a utility sink...

 

Half bathroom... Funny story... I had the workers do one of the walls in the bathroom in red brick to match the kitchen because I specifically wanted a "feature wall" in the bathroom and then they stucco'd over it.  Face palm.  So I landed on this funky tile instead.  The vanity/sink is the only store-bought piece of "furniture" in the whole house.  

Hand-made seashell chandelier (say that 10 times fast) I bought at an estate sale for like 7 bucks... Score!

Our kitchen, living room and office space is all in one big room... The only thing that Armando *didn't* make for us is our coffee table because we bought it months ago at this super cute furniture/decor/boutique-y store in Mezcales.  I couldn't find the name of it, but I'll update this post next time I go in... They had tons of cute stuff I wanted.  

We axed the "dining area" from the building plans in lieu of making a big ass island... No, seriously...it's 6.5 feet by 8 feet!  I still need to buy bar stools, but it'll be able to seat 5 or 6 people.  We love entertaining and every time we've ever had a party, everyone always ends up congregating in the kitchen, so we made it specifically as a "party kitchen."   

Funny story... The ceilings are tall (11 feet) so I designed everything to be to-scale so it didn't look "dinky" in the huge space and because of that, I can't reach anything past the first shelf.  First thing Ty bought was a step ladder because he hates being the resident tall person.  Haha...

Armando made all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as the shelves and bar/buffet cabinet.

If you've known me for the last 10 years, then you know that open kitchen shelving is my "thing"... This is the third house of ours that I've done it in... This time it's just parota instead of IKEA. 

My awesome, handmade copper farmhouse sink!  We bought it at a copper gallery called Cazos y Artesanías en Cobre on the side of the road on the way to Sayulita.  

Giant pantry (the microwave is hidden inside)... Climatec in La Cruz installed our A/C... Highly-recommend!  

I wanted something funky for the island to break up all the brick and concrete, and I didn't care for the tile when it was first installed, but it's growing on me... 

Bar/buffet cabinet... Showed Armando another Pinterest photo and voila!  I got the cute arrow handles from Amazon.  There's a wine rack and a place to hang stemware inside.  Fancy! 

View from the kitchen to the patio and yard... These sliders are 11 by 8 feet and they open up all the way and disappear behind the wall on the left.  These were a must-have for me!  I've always wanted an indoor-outdoor kitchen... When it's 85 degrees year-round, outdoor dining is a no-brainer. 

I bought 6 handmade Equipale (wood and leather) chairs and table secondhand last year and then had a local tapicería (upholstery shop) make me seat cushions out of fade-resistant fabric.  

With the sliders open.... 

The view from the outside looking into the kitchen... 

Living room nook... We bought our couch from Sofas y Sillones in Nuevo Vallarta and it was custom-made in Guadalajara.  We were told it would take 6-8 weeks to build, but it was done in about a month.  Quality/comfortable couches are NOT easy to come by in our area, but we're super happy with it.  There's enough room for all three of us to sprawl out and binge on Netflix comfortably.  Priorities!

My favorite painting... Done by the same artist as the beach scene in the entryway. 

Some more handmade treasures... Blanket from Vallarta, hand-stitched pillow from our trip to Tulum last December.   

This space was originally intended to be a pantry (we were given the house plans from the previous owners and they had the kitchen and living room swapped) and I didn't really know what to do with this area, so I turned it into an office/bookshelf.  I bought the dream catcher thingy in Tulum and the blue vase was handmade in Morocco, purchased at an estate sale.  Once markets reopen I plan to buy some oversize pottery for the top shelf.     

Some of the details.... 

This macrame wall hanging as well as one of my hanging planters was made by Magnolia Handmade Deco and I purchased them at the Sunday Market earlier this year.  

Handmade kitchenware from Guanajuato...

Handmade wooden salad bowl... Made in Sayulita, purchased from a beach vendor. 

Alright, this post is taking too long... Let's go upstairs!  

Upstairs hallway...very exciting.  All of our railings and metalwork are from a local blacksmith called Herrería Paredes in Bucerias.  I couldn't find a website for them, but their phone number is 322-227-0534.  This was another fun case of showing a skilled craftsman a Pinterest photo hoping it wasn't too "complicated" of a design and him banging dozens of linear feet of railing out in less than a week.  

Armando made all of our interior doors out of parota and they're *gorgeous*.... 

When you come to visit us, this will be your bathroom...wink, wink!  Another copper sink from the same place as our kitchen sink.  The parota countertop was a last-minute decision because I was getting impatient with how long everything was taking... I don't love it, so it'll get replaced eventually.  

Our master bedroom... It's a huge space and I don't know what to do with it yet so not much to see here.  The patio overlooks the pool... Our (fancy Alexa-controlled!) blinds get installed next week.  

Our gorgeous headboard.... I haven't found a bedding set I like yet, so don't judge my ugly, mismatched sheets.

I had Armando leave this dresser unfinished because I plan to paint a design on it or stencil it or something fun... 

Master bathroom... Pardon the mess, I didn't feel like cleaning up before I took a photo.  I also plan to have Armando frame these mirrors with wood trim that'll match the door trim because they're boring.   

More copper sinks, but I bought these two secondhand... 

Giant walk-in closet with more storage than we'll ever need... 

Future guest bedroom.... I'm not going to do anything with it until we for sure have visitors coming to visit us.  I plan to turn it into a workout room for the summer.  

The guest room closet is total overkill, but it looks cool so, oh well.  

Okay, let's go to the roof!    

Our master patio....

Well, that was anti-climatic, wasn't it?  Yeah, I haven't done anything up there yet... Eventually it'll have a roof or covering and I want to turn it into a super cool rooftop "lounge" where we can have lots of friends over, but considering we're approaching rainy season, I'm going to wait until the fall to furnish it.  The footprint of the house is about 1350 square feet / 125 square meters, so that's a whole lotta empty space for me to turn into a party lounge... Whoop!

Okay, this post took forever and I'm bored... I'm off to plant something.  Adios!