Sky Room

We have a bedroom! No longer the temporary room by the kitchen that we were using (now my office), but a spacious, light-filled room on the roof, with window views in every direction. We can see the major churches, hills, La Bufa (a high rocky mountain ledge that we climb), rooftops, Pipila (a sculpture of the boy who helped start the Mexican revolution, and Guanajuato's most famous landmark), and much more.

"Do you have a name for the room?" our friend Tom from Texas asked us. He and Guille, his partner-turned-wife (just two weeks ago! a surprise!) were sitting on our new sofa and chair in the bedroom, overlooking San Francisco Church. They had come over to see the latest remodels. "I think you should call it the 'Sky Room,'" he said. "It looks like one of those view restaurants on the top of a high building."

A couple of days ago, after the last paint was swabbed, the workers hauled the bed and mattress up the narrow stairs to the roof. It was a much easier task than heaving the sofa and chair, which they did a few weeks ago by roping them one-by-one and using the pulley system they had created for hoisting up bricks and tiles and cement.

For now, the "Sky Room" serves as a combined bedroom, Barry's office and sala. We have no plans to install a bathroom up there, although a few of our friends have wondered about this. "Are you sure you can make it through the night?" one asked. (So far, yes). We discovered the pitfalls this week when it rained. When you enter the house, you go up one staircase that's open to the sky, and then to reach the roof, another open set of stairs. And when it rains here, it can rain hard! OK, we'll keep umbrellas handy at various spots.

While we're in the States in January, the workers will work on the patio we are creating facing the street, and rebuild the steps to the roof, which at the moment are an insurance company's windfall. For now, with the new bedroom, working kitchen, my office, and bathroom, the house feels palatial.