Our Sanctuary

The house we've rented for the year is even better than anticipated! Charming, warm, lovely and quiet, it is set on a private street behind a 15 century church door brought from Puebla. A privada (a private paved area) leads us past a collection of 4 houses, with ours at the end of the path, behind another gate. Although we'd seen photographs of the house on the web, and had received additional more recent ones from Dominique Decelles, the owner, we were thrilled when we opened the door and walked inside and got our first glimpse.

2100 square foot house sounded like it would be a small space when we read about it, though adequate for the two of us with first floor living, plus guest quarters upstairs. But as we toured the house with Norma, the house manager, we realized it is so much more than that when you count all the patios and the rooftop terrace, all of which are filled with plants and furniture for dining and lounging. with the glorious weather year-round we already can tell we'll be spending much of our time outside.

Our master bedroom has an incredible boveda arched brick ceiling and loads of closet space and opens onto the ground floor patio, as does the living room. The second floor has a guest bedroom with a canopy bed, an office and its own patio. Another stairway outside that patio leads to the enormous rooftop terrace. There must be over a hundred large plants in clay pots on the patios and terrace. Luckily the house comes with a housekeeper twice a week and a gardener, because we don't have a clue about the names of the plants, or how to take care of them.The entire house is beautifully furnished and decorated with Mexican tile floors throughout, with silver Mexican mirrors, paintings and folk art on the walls, and the kitchen is equipped with every modern convenience, including cookware, dishes and utensils.

It is all pretty overwhelming to us realizing the adjustments we'll have to make in order to actually here, working with pesos, celsius, functioning in Spanish, learning how to walk on these uneven, jagged cobblestones. Once we figure out how to use the stove, wash dishes using vinegar or solution, and get to the market, we'll be all set to start cooking. That is if we can resist the 450 restaurants in SMA that we've been reading about ever since we decided to move here!