The Larsen's Winter Casita (small vacation house)

Some of our family & friends have asked for photos of our little winter get-away place so here they are and how they came to be.  On a January day when it was cold and snowing in American Fork, we were visiting our friends who recently purchased a second home in Santa Clara.  We spent a few days enjoying the mild temperatures, riding our 4 wheelers, and dreading the day we had to go back to the snow and cold.  Before we knew it, we purchased our own little home down the street from our friends.  We actually had it built, (which only took 3 months), and have spent the past month getting it ready for us to enjoy this winter.

We hope this little house will be a good investment for our retirement, with the added bonus of having something to enjoy.  (Yesterday, the salesman in the model home in our little subdivision told Jeff that sales continue to increase every month and the floor plan we purchased is currently selling for over $30,000 more than we paid just three months ago!  So far, so good!)

 

Welcome family & friends!

In the future I plan on decorating the walls with some of my favorite red rock photos.

Here are my rules for this house:  (1)  Must make me feel like I'm on a vacation;  (2) Must have light neutral colors for walls and carpet;  (3) Must have bright, sunny colors and loud prints for pillows and accents (4)  Furniture and decor must make me happy, be unique or unusual, and different from anything I'd have in our American Fork house.  (Some of this stuff is from consignment stores, wholesale stores, and even reclaimed stuff from Emery.) 

 

 Bar stools made from farm equipment seats that Jeff spent many hours on in Emery.  We have 2 more not shown here.  I think I'll paint them orange!

Guest room, complete with snack tray on dresser.  (I didn't take a picture of the second guest bedroom that at this point has no furniture.)

Guest bathroom.

Master bedroom, no decorations thus far.  I also didn't take a photo of the master bath which is very nice for a small house.

Because the backyard is miniscule, and our view is of telephone poles and a road, we splurged and put in a water feature to give us something the enjoy from our little patio.