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"PARADISE IN MEXICO!" or so says our daughter and only a 3 easy block walk downhill to the Jardin.
This is from a renter celebrating her fourteenth summer of renting our home. "We had such a wonderful time, each year is better than the one before....the house looked marvelous, never were the gardens more beautiful....so impressive....I love your home and for one month a year, I can pretend it's mine! " Linda L Houston, Tx.
From the moment I open the door to our house which I share with my husband and family, I feel centered. This home is about joy, light, and color. It is located just 3 blocks from the center of San Miguel, uphill from the cathedral, jardin and market with wonderful views of the city. .
Nineteen years ago when we first saw this house, occupied by the refrigerator repairman, there was a giant sow nursing her piglets in what is now our laundry space. Fortunately we also saw that the plan and light orientation were perfect. When we came back for the closing several months later, the ceilings that had been propped up by wood poles at the corners, were now on the floor of each room. A year later, with a lot of rubble removed, our house was somewhat ready.
My husband, an architect who built schools in Columbia during his Peace Corps years, along with myself, put the house back together, nurtured the existing trees, planted more bougainvillea and a garden, added skylights to each colorful room and decorated with simple furniture and textiles from Mexico.
After our first vacation where I had to cook, we hired Juana, who is a fabulous cook of typical Mexican comidas, a wonderful vegetarian cook (our proclivities), keeper of the house and a wonderful spirit who will listen patiently to bad Spanish (mine) or anybody willing to try.
We have five bedrooms on the first floor, although we usually only use four and keep the fifth for a study or second living room (works for children). The bedrooms open directly to the patio (no corridors) in the true Mexican tradition and thus provide privacy for each room.
Between the master bedroom and another bedroom there is a split bathroom, one room with a toilet and lavatory, the other a tub shower and lavatory. The second bathroom, quite large, has its access from the courtyard and contains a large shower along with toilet and lavatory.
The stars at night are huge and an added treat if you go to the bathroon in the night. When looking at the entry photo, note that the bedrooms and bathrooms are all to the left while the living room, dining room, kitchen, and pantry are to the right.
There is a fountain, a large and venerable olive tree, table and chairs for eating in the patio. From there stairs lead up half a level to a garden with a fruitful lime tree, a patch of grass for sunbathing or reading, as well as a table and chairs. You may also get to the garden by a meandering garden ramp for anyone who doesn't do stairs.
From the garden there are a few more stairs and a ramp to an upstairs bedroom/sitting room and a very large flat roof. Our daugther when younger, would roller skate there but not before 9 a.m.Here is a good view of the street activity and over the roof tops of town and at dusk, the birds fly in overhead to find their evening sleeping quarters in the trees by the jardin and cathedral. Then about margarita sipping time come the brillant sunsets and night sky. Often the cathedral is lighted at night as well as a number of the many other churches of San Miguel.
My favorite thing to do is watch the light in the morning which first freshens and warms, flattens at midday, intensifies in the afternoon, and backlights toward dusk. This house is just wonderful. It is only three blocks to the Jardin in the center of town, or to the main market, an easy walk.
One of our renters recently wrote" We loved your house. You are so right that it is full of soul. Guests who arrived at night just gasped at the sight of the lanterns illuminating the courtyard..then we would take them up to the roofdeck to see that glorious unfolding of the night sky. It is wonderful the way every room has folk art and fabrics..very much a loved home, rather than a "rental"." Marion F. of Sarasota, Fla. |
