In 2017 Hollywood Crawford Door Company did the “garage doors” which helped transform this ordinary structure into to “party barn” that you see in this article. This article and photos are © of the San Antonio Express News and writer Richard A. Marini.
By Richard A. Marini, Staff writer, San Antonio Express News
The backyard cabana Peter and Cheryl Nielsen had built in 2017 behind their Sendero Ranch home on the North Side has hosted many fun events: family movie nights, a company Christmas party, their daughter’s bridal shower.
Then the pandemic hit and the rustic, cabinlike cabana suddenly became more business and less party serving as Peter’s home office, from which he hosted numerous telemedicine consultations.
“People online would be like, ‘Where’d you get that great background?’ ” said the OB-GYN with a laugh. “Being able to work out here was like having a private retreat. It overlooks a greenspace and is so quiet and peaceful, I could really be productive.”
The cabana, which they’ve dubbed the Party Barn, was built on an unsightly 60-by-15-foot concrete slab that was down a small slope from the main house. The Nielsen’s weren’t sure what to do with it when they moved into the 6-acre property in 2016.
Cheryl and Peter Nielsen sit inside the Party Barn, their rustic outdoor cabana, built in the backyard of their Sendero Ranch home on the north side of San Antonio.
Sam Owens /Staff photographer
“The previous owners apparently really enjoyed baseball because they used it for a batting cage,” Peter said. “It had a pitching mound, home plate and netting. But we didn’t see the need for it.”
They decided to make lemonade from the property’s lemon and built the Party Barn, which consists four parts: a long, narrow indoor/outdoor living space, a covered TV room and open deck at one end and a small outdoor kitchen at the other. Behind it all is an outdoor seating area surrounding a huge, cauldron-like fire pit for when the weather turns cold.
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During planning, the couple collected ideas from different restaurants and venues they visited, often sending photos of things they liked to Mike and Molly Sowry, owners of San Antonio-based construction and design firm Virtuoso Builders, who built the Party Barn. The inspiration for the four large glass garage doors, for example, came from the Dog & Pony Grill in Boerne.
“The images they would send were really critical in helping us give them what they wanted,” Mike said. “And you can see their personalities are all over it.”
Sam Owens /Staff photographer
At only 15 feet wide, the main room could feel like a tunnel, but the 18-foot vaulted ceiling provides a welcome spaciousness. And the glass garage doors, two to a side, make it feel even wider, even when they’re closed.
In good weather, those doors can be rolled up to catch the prevailing breeze. When the weather’s bad, they can be rolled down so that, with the built-in mini-split, the room always stays comfortable.
The doors also keep out unwanted visitors. “We didn’t want the room to be completely open, because then we’d have deer and turkey and all kinds of other animals wandering through,” said Cheryl Nielsen, a former pediatric nurse.
Overall, the Party Barn has a rustic feel, with a reclaimed wood ceiling, hefty wood trusses and barn-style doors. The rustic country decor includes license plates and soda bottles collected during the couple’s travels, an antique saw hanging over one of the doors and an impressive amount of memorabilia from Peter’s alma mater, Texas A&M University, including a Aggie-branded pool table.
It’s furnished with rocking chairs and gliders and wood cabinets topped with granite.
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There are, at the same time, several modern, even industrial, touches. In addition to the garage doors, cable railings run along the garage door openings, a necessary safety measure since that side of the building is elevated several feet over the sloping ground.
“We don’t want someone playing pool to back up too far from the table,” Mike said.
The Party Barn is a large rustic cabana consisting of a long and narrow indoor/outdoor living space with a covered TV room and open deck at one end and a small outdoor kitchen at the other.
Richard A. Marini /Staff
Because the room is sometimes open to the elements, the floor is a porcelain tile that resembles wood. “It’s durable and cleans up real easy, especially if you walk in from the outside,” Cheryl said.
The outdoor kitchen at one end of the cabana has a gas grill and a single side burner. Large enough for Peter to prepare meals for guests, he made sure it wasn’t so large as to invite others to “help.”
The couple has done plenty of entertaining in the barn and have hosted as many as 40 people, spread out over the main room, the outdoor covered seating area and adjacent patio deck and the fire pit space.
With that many people, having everyone tromp up to the main house to do their business quickly became untenable. So they installed a nearby outhouse dubbed the Potty Barn. With running water and a composting toilet, all it’s missing is a half-moon cutout in the door.
The Party Barn has become a much-loved second home for the couple, who often head down with their three adult children to watch football or a movie.
Or, if they just want to relax, they can fire up the 42-inch hanging cauldron in back of the cabana which will not only keep them warm, it’ll also come in handy should a production of Macbeth suddenly break out.
Reach Richard A. on rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @Richard Marini
Written By Richard A. Marini
Richard A. Marini is a features reporter for the San Antonio Express-News where he’s previously been an editor and columnist. The Association of Food Journalists once awarded him Best Food Columnist. He has freelanced for American Archaeology, Cooking Light and many other publications. Reader’s Digest once sent him to Alaska for a week. He came back.
