Living Large In Small Spaces - Unique Santa Cruz Beach House

This week's featured small space is a beach house in Santa Cruz, California that may surprise you.

Welcome to the 108th post in the series

"Living Large in Small Spaces".

When Mary and Gerhard Ringel first saw the little house that would eventually become their home they had no idea what lie in store for them inside. From the outside it looked like an ordinary little beach cottage, but once inside Gerhard told his wife they were standing in a streetcar, and that, in fact, there were two streetcars that comprised the home. Mary was "blown away". 

The two cars are covered by a regular roof, which explains why from the street one would never know the house is made from two decommissioned streetcars from the early 1900's. The two cars were set next to each other, with a 3½ -foot space connecting them. The first streetcar is comprised of the living and dining room. The second houses the bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. An addition on the back extends the bedroom by 8 feet, bringing the total size of the home to 750 square feet. Quite a downsize for the Ringels, whose former home was 2,500 sq ft.


As this before photo shows, when the Ringels purchased the home it needed a lot of work. 

By Mitchell Parker 

The streetcar ceiling above the TV was sagging 2 inches which caused Gerhard to duck every time he came into the living room. He jacked up the ceiling himself and reinforced it with 2-by-8s.

When they moved in the streetcar windows were a faded acrylic plastic. Gerhard built light boxes with led lights inside. To create the look of stained glass he had acrylic panels cut in various sizes, then bought window film that has a faux stained glass pattern and he and Mary put the film onto the acrylic panels.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes 

Next Gerhard built light fixtures to illuminate the panels from behind. The panels are equipped to change colors as desired, from blue moon to red sunset.

A daybed in the living room's nook serves as extra seating, or a bed for guests.

The Ringles removed all the flooring and installed hardwood in the living room and bedroom, and replaced rough red tiles below the gas heater with granite.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes 

The cherry dining table is one they brought from their previous home. Gerhard cut it down to fit in their new dining space.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes 

Above the doorway to the kitchen is an original cast iron bracket, one of many found throughout the streetcar structure.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes

The kitchen spans the 3½-foot space connecting the two streetcars as well as part of one of the streetcars. The ceiling was installed  by a previous owner, as was the tile on the floor and counter. Original to the home, the kitchen cabinets were repainted in white and apple green. When the Ringles took possession of the house the cabinets were painted orange, mint green and yellow.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes

Originally, the cottage was painted in "a lot of crazy colors. . .very Bohemian". The Ringles wanted to "keep the energy" which is part of Santa Cruz, but as grandparents felt they needed to tone it down a bit. The interior and exterior color palette was chosen with help from local artist and painter Gregory LeBaron, who also did all the painting. 

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes 

They restored the clawfoot tub, and LeBaron created a custom paint and sponged it onto the sides. Gerhard designed and built the copper shower curtain rod to give the tub the feeling of more space.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes

Surface-mounted medicine cabinets were replaced with recessed ones and a pedestal sink was added.The door is original to the streetcar. “It makes a rumbling sound like rough wheels rattling over a metal track.” Out of respect for the history of the streetcar, they kept the door.

Photo by Barnes Photographics - Genia Barnes 

With the 8 foot addition, the bedroom in this small home is spacious.

The door leads to the backyard. 

Several cob structures surround the outdoor living space. 




Cozy, cheery and full of charm.

I love this funky little cottage.

You can see more of this home, including a video that gives a full tour of the home on Houzz here.

Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces

See more home tours in the 

Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.

Cottage Life - The Dining Table and Chairs Question

When Dennis and I moved into our cottage our dining set was an old table and two curbside chairs that received a makeover. We were using that set when our cottage was photographed for the Angie's List feature.

Photo courtesy of Angie's List. All rights reserved.

I liked that little set. It was cute and I thought it fit our small space really well. But the table was pretty wobbly and the chairs needed some help  (I guess you've got to expect that when they're free), and it was hard to justify spending a lot of time or money to repair them. Besides, Dennis wanted more comfortable chairs and we both wanted a table that could seat six people.

Now you have to understand something about me. I don't force my will on my husband. I've blogged about this in the past in Embracing the Green Chair. The majority of the design decisions in our cottage are made by me. Dennis is very open to my ideas and mostly lets me do what I want. There are times, however, when he expresses his desire about our home decor in a way that tells me I need to pay attention and be willing to put on my compromise hat. Replacing our dining set was one of those times. 

We spent months and months looking at tables and chairs. Finally, while we were in Pendleton, Oregon at our favorite antique shop we saw a collection of oak caboose chairs that had originally come from a library somewhere on the coast. They were in great shape, comfortable and priced right. We bought 6 of them. Then, on the way home we stopped at a consignment shop and found a table that was big enough to accommodate the 6 chairs, but not so big that it would dominate our small space. It was in pretty good condition except for one leg that had been used as a chew toy by the owner's dog. The shop owner reduced the price and we bought the table.

Fast forward to this week (13 months later) when I finally got around to painting the table. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the table was an outdated orangey/yellowy color, just begging for a new look.

And here it is all pretty and white with the antique oak caboose chairs. 

Now here's where it gets interesting. I photographed the dining set in a typical set up -- one chair on each of the four sides. 

Dennis likes the table and chairs arranged like this. Two chairs on each of the long ends, leaving the short ends open for good traffic flow.

Which is okay until we're both trying to cook in the kitchen at the same time.

That's when things get a little dicey and we end up trying to squeeze past each other to get from one end of the kitchen to the other, or I walk all the way around the dining set to get to my destination without running into my husband.

So one day when he wasn't looking I rearranged the chairs like this.

And I didn't have to squeeze, or duck to the right, or dash around the table to avoid running into Dennis.

This is convenient. Very convenient. 

So, my question to you is: Does having one side of the table chairless and open to the kitchen this way look really weird to you and have I lost all sense of design etiquette? Please be honest -- you won't hurt my feelings. I really value the opinions of my cottage friends.