I finished redecorating the guest room and it is now posted on Airbnb. We have already blocked out the dates for friends who we know are coming to visit, so it is not all business. Today I go to Lima to meet Lillian and Neil at the airport and tomorrow we will return to Barranca and let our young guests try out the space.

This is the doorway to the suite from our central patio.

Double bed with wall hanging of mantas.

Sitting area with baskets hung on the wall. The bathroom is through the doorway to the left, the walk-in closet is through the doorway to the right.

The update falls within our budget and was completed within a month.  I am happy with the result and curious to see whether there are people out there who would like to stay with us. Ours does have the advantage of being only one room. No neighbors making loud noise. The dog does occasionally bark and the birds sing very loudly early in the morning….we can’t do anything about them.

When did the kitchen become a shrine? The two covered items are those we worship, the microwave and the toaster oven. In order to keep them functioning, they must be covered with a towel when not in use. This may sound silly, but it works. We now have had the microwave for more than one year! It’s a miracle. The toaster oven is new (previous post) and therefore larger than the microwave.

The candles and vases are a nice touch, though I don’t keep the vases filled with fresh flowers as in a proper shrine. Now take a look at the opposite side of the kitchen, where the kitchen mother overlooks all the activity.

I particularly like the forest of travel mugs below her and the wine and water glasses on either side. I guess that covers everything.

I’ve moved ahead with preparation of the suite for guests. Here’s a photo of the partial redecoration. By next weekend I should have most of it completed, though there will be fine-tuning until Lillian and Neil arrive.

Here is stage 1 of the basket wall:     Now stage 2 with better chairs:

I created this wall hanging from mantas that women use to carry babies and other things.

This will have a bar and clothes hangars, and perhaps a small lamp shade on the overhead light.

Should I put a dispenser of drinking water outside the bathroom on a stand (in the space to the left of the door) or just a pitcher of water? You can brush your teeth with the local water, but we drink (and make ice cubes) from bottled water. We make tea and coffee with local water on the theory that it is boiled, though not for 15 minutes. Neither of us have suffered from the local water, ever. I drank it full time for a few weeks at one point a few years back, though I don’t remember exactly why. No ill effects, other than the gray hair.

That’s it for now. We are going to Lima on Thursday for doctor’s appointments and shopping. I am hoping to have the rest of our improvements in place shortly after we return on Saturday.

We are planning to offer one of our bedrooms that has a private bath on Airbnb after the first of the year. My pilot guest will be Lillian and her boyfriend Neil over Christmas, and before they arrive I want to get the room as well-arranged as possible. I can use some help.

The bedroom has high windows and I don’t want to put curtains on them because it becomes difficult to open them in the morning. The mattress is a good one, so I believe the bed will be comfortable. I am going to center a hanging over the head of the bed. I have good cotton sheets, so the basics are there. I believe it also needs a coverlet that is coordinated with the hanging, pillows, and a small straw mat on either side of the bed. Since we are on the beach, rugs don’t work very well, and there are some very nice locally made straw mats. The next photo is the space to the left of the bed.

I am having a coffee table made to replace the checkerboard table, but I’m not sure what to do about chairs. The doors of this room are narrow and an overstuffed chair or recliner won’t fit through the door. Small upholstered chairs made here are very low.

I am considering mounting a group of baskets on the wall because it is a large space. I was going to bring in an armoire for the corner of the room, but it won’t fit through the door.

Below is another photo of the space and a couple of ideas I have of patterns for mounting baskets.

If you have other suggestions, let me know. I am thinking about using natural baskets, because I would like to use quite a few.

Colorful baskets are also available.

You may notice that right now the room doesn’t have a color scheme. The floor is brick red, a common treatment for cement floors in Peru. The walls are white. (I don’t want to repaint.) What about shades of blue or blue/green? Alternatively, yellow and orange to complement the brick colored floor?

Your comments are welcome.