Patio photo

I'd like to welcome you into my house in Morelia!

The most common way to find a place to live in Mexico is to wander the neighborhood in which you'd like to live, because most landlords/property owners advertise their vacancies (both for rentals and sales) with a sign on the front of the building, rather than listing the property online.

With that in mind, I walked a lovely street just south of the main Plaza de Armas, and saw a sign listing a house for rent. I made an appointment to see the property, and knew instantly that I wanted to live there. And three weeks later, I was moved in.

Well, "moved-in" means that my clothes were there. But other than a refrigerator, stove, and a small sofa and chair, the house was completely unfurnished. My very first purchases were a mattress, a mug, a bowl, a spoon, and a small saucepan, just to get me started.

Fortunately, Mexico has a lot of furniture-makers (and also used furniture stores!), so I was quickly able to furnish the house. Although there are some odd quirks to the house (like needing to walk outside to get to the master bedroom—a slight inconvenience during the rainy season!), I really love the space, the light, and the location. 

Throughout the last year, I would occasionally have people ring the bell to inquire if there were rooms available to rent. This puzzled me at first, until a woman explained that she had rented a room here several years ago. As I more closely examined the structure, there is clear evidence that the house had, in fact, once been split into smaller rooms. By my count, the house had been divided into seven rooms with a shared kitchen. However, a couple of those rooms would not have had a window, but I've learned that inexpensive lodgings (primarily for students) often don't have natural light. The main bedroom has its own en suite bath, but the other six lodgers would have, presumably, shared the other two bathrooms.

 

Happily, the alterations to subdivide were easily reversed before I moved in, and now I live (possibly a little guiltily) in an enormous amount of space. So there's plenty of room for visitors!