The Coral Gables Times

THE CORAL GABLES TIMES

13 THE CORAL GABLES TIMES Thursday, November 8, 1962

CHINESE VILLAGE HAS EIGHT HOMES BEHIND THE WALL

RELAXING in front of the 'moon doors' of their studio room in their Oriental home are Mrs. Jose Espinosa, and daughter's Dalia, 7, and Sonia, 1. (Staff photos by Raymond Lang)

'I WISH I HAD A BLACK BEDROOM' | They Live Inside Chinese Village

'I WISH I HAD A BLACK BEDROOM' They Live Inside Chinese Village By RAYMOND LANG Times Reporter The Houses We Make Into Homes The Jose Espinosas of 5125 Riviera Dr. roller skate in their $35,000, two-story home. Mrs. Espinosa, perky like a cheerleader, washed dishes in the bath tub when the kitchen was remodeled. In their two-car garage, painted red and yellow, is a grey, custom-made roadster that has a few airplane parts mixed in with the usual auto accessories. While Dalia, 7, plays in the patio, and Sonia, 1, naps, and their mother, Henrietta tidies up their seven-bedroom, three-bath home, it's not surprising if a sightseeing bus stops and tourists flock out to get pictures. But if any tourist got past the front door, also painted red and yellow, into the living room dominated by black, the hair on his head would stand when he saw the three-foot tall Buddha squatting in the corner. This is life for the Espinosas, who live in one of a group of Oriental-style homes on Riviera Drive. They're painted yellow with slanting roofs and families of dragons perched on the roof tops. Mrs. Espinosa was 17 when she came to live here. Her parents fell in love with the house, bought it and moved back to Cleveland. Henrietta lived here alone while she attended her last year at Coral Gables High. At 18, she married Jose Espinosa, from Managua, Nicaragua and she and the civil engineer set up house. "We did a lot to it," she said, sipping coffee in her spacious kitchen. "All the rooms were white, white, white. "And bugs?" She held a small hand to her forehead, and moaned "Oooooh! "We've been so busy, knocking out walls, busting concrete. "You don't have any idea what the kitchen was like. "There was an old-fashioned sink with legs over there, a pantry there, and old cupboard there and an old cupboard there and a pantry there," she said, waving her arm like a windmill to mark the different spots. "And we lowered the kitchen ceiling a foot to put in the acoustical ceiling. "And oh, I was washing dishes in the bath tub, a lot of mess. Plaster all over. And boards. And nails. It took us a year to get the kitchen finished." Today, the kitchen is done in brown. Three Chinese lanterns hang from the ceiling. The stove, oven and refrigerator are built into the wall to conserve space. There's a 25-foot wrap-around counter, wonderful for chatting over coffee. Then you saw it. A huge, black Chinese symbol in the middle of the white linoleum floor. Mrs. Espinosas' eyes sparkled. "It means success," she beamed. As we walked through the corridor to the living room, she pointed to the stairway. The sides were an intricate network of wood, carved into what looked like a giant spider web. All red. The living room. Almost all black, except for a yellow curtain. The only light was the soft sunlight bouncing off the highly-polished furniture. Two well-stuffed easy chairs stood guard at one end of the room. They were black, behind them the yellow curtain. "They were white," Mrs. Espinosa said. "And I cleaned them and cleaned them. But I just couldn't get them white. "So one day I got busy and-black! My favorite color." A long, black sofa cut the room in half. Two black captain's chairs and a five-foot-tall, black lamp with 10 tiers leading up to an umbrella-sized white shade were behind the sofa. "This is a home of windows and doors," the housewife remarked. "And it's hard to arrange furniture, very hard. That's why this davenport is here in the middle of the floor. "I don't even have room for that Buddha. That's why I stuck him in the corner." Chinese lanterns and knicknacks adorned the wall and shelves. If Charlie Chan and his number one son stepped out from somewhere, you wouldn't be surprised. The studio room is 15 feet by 45 feet. It's here the Espinosas roller skate, "when we have time." A mirror runs the length of the room. Two seven-feet by seven-feet moon doors are at one end. They're round and of fiber glass that casts a pallid, sea-green reflection on the dark floor. A sword hangs from the wall. Beneath it, two lamps, their red shades shaped like flower petals at dawn. Everywhere in this house, the colors are either black or red and yellow. "I love it," said Mrs. Espinosa. It's my biggest baby and I love it. "I like old houses, anything old. Kind of a charm about them. Charming, that's the word for it. "A nice thing is you don't have to board up for a hurricane. It's because of the little window panes, I believe. They can't break like the larger sheets of glass. "And it's interesting to go upstairs and hear the wind whistle real good." Is there one thing, anything, that remains to make this most unusual house complete. She nodded her brown-tousled head. "Yes. I wish I had a black bedroom."

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