Mexican Homes & Gardens 7 - Casa Pcaso

So this'll be my last post for a while on the Mexican homes & gardens we visited on vacation in Sayulita, Mexico, about 40 miles north of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast.

But what a way to end -- here is Tom's fabulous house and garden. Tom calls it "Casa Pcaso," but the locals just call it "Tom's House." Tom used to own a nursery in Austin, named Park Place Garden Center. He moved to Sayulita about eight years ago. He purchased this house - and spent three years renovating it. He showed us photo of the house before it got the "Tom Touch." You would not recognize it now.

He's combined his love of plants (specifically palms & cycads), art, and architecture, with a good dose of fantasy & a little bit of Alice in Wonderland. You will never see a more joyous house anywhere. And you can live in it too! He rents out different floors, or even the whole house, to vacationing gringos! There's four different bed/bath suites. If you're interested in adding some color to your vacation, you can find out more about that here.

Tom's designed, or consulted on, the other Mexican gardens I've shown in the last week.

The house has so many striking features, it's hard to know where to begin. How about in the Picasso-inspired pool with the loveseat lips?

The long neck of the pool, most of it not shown, actually makes this more of a lap pool.
The watermelon "ear" is an icon he's added to every home he's lived in.

The checkerboard tile work throughout is inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

The fireplace is original to the house.
One of the few original elements left from his redesign.

The bar area surrounding the pool is Disney-esque.

This massive tree trunk was found on the side of a road. It is as hard as concrete.
He puts marine varnish on it every few years to keep up its good looks.
Its organic look, and asparagus ferns at the base, contrasts with the blue flowy walls splendidly.

Can't remember the name of these bushes,
but they "clack" pleasantly in the breeze.

Moon window overlooking the garden.

A waterfall feature inside the house.

Dining area and view of the Pacific.

The wood around the frame is cactus wood. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Tom's not afraid of plant or paint colors.

One of the beautiful silver palms along the driveway, seen from above.

The curvy walls were all added by Tom. This is along his driveway.

He was full of great stories. He once was sitting with a friend celebrating her birthday on this deck over looking the ocean and told her that his gift to her was a whale and pointed to the ocean. Don't you know a whale, at that exact moment, jumped out of the water completely, practically in slow motion, and created a huge splash. They both stood there dumbfounded.

Get a load of that faucet. Hello palm tree!

Every bathroom in the house has a shower that is open to the sky.
In one of them on an upper floor, it's so close to a banana tree,
you can pick a banana while you're in the shower.

The belfrys are planted with agaves.

He added this upper belfry to "go" with the actual belfry on the house.
That's one kickass planter.

The back garden, outside the master bedroom.

These flowers felt like hard plastic.

A row of bottle palms had to be placed by crane.

These stairs, which didn't exist before Tom lived there, were an homage to one of his favorite
Mexican architects who used a similar look in many of his designs.

He tells us this is the most expensive pineapple in all of Mexico.

The dining room.

The kitchen.

The End.