A downstairs “finished” basement or upstairs loft was invariably the square footage that real estate agents were fond of touting as that little “extra” that would clinch the sale of a new home.
This was often the “guy getaway” replete with ping-pong or pool table and a monster-sized TV for viewing all manner of sporting events—or it was a “craft room” for sewing or place to stash an overflow of company a couple of times a year.
Detached Casita
Image source: mytime
Now the new bonus room has become the “casita.” In Spanish it literally means “little house” and it’s either an individual structure detached from the main house altogether—or it’s a separate space connected to a home by a breezeway or covered porch.
Attached Casita at Trilogy/Encanterra
Image source: mytime
Casitas are taking on all sorts of functions in The New Nest as guest houses, spare rooms, granny units, mother-in-law suites, or caretaker’s quarters.
On my recent survey of several Active Adult 55+ communities in northern and southern California and in Arizona—built by Shea Homes in their Trilogy series—I saw them put to a variety of additional uses: artist’s studios…dedicated home offices…workout spaces…media rooms…or even as a personal spa sanctuary, as I observed at another development in Palm Desert, California.
At Home Massage Room
Image Source: mytime.com
The casita has become a kind of a “Lucky Strike Extra” in otherwise scaled-down houses built for empty nesters.
As for me, I’d probably turn it into a “Writer’s House” the way my late father transformed a never-used hen house abandoned in the back yard of our family home years ago.
So let your mind roam free…what use would you have for your very own casita, hmmmmm?
Tags: Casita, Design Ideas, Downsizing, Granny Unit, Guesthouse, New Nest, Rightsizing
