January 28, 2020 - 137 - "Mexican Casa Renovation 6: "Rooftop Re-do"

     One of the cool features of our house was a huge boveda (arched ceiling built of bricks) in the dining room.   

     Right after we saw the house for the first time Michael said:  it's got to go.

    I was appalled.  It was the show-stopper of the whole house.  You walked into the dining room and the already 24' ceiling soared about 12' more to the top of the arch.  Wow.

    Michael pointed out that a) we don't really have a need for a 36' ceiling, b) it's not original to the house, and c) it completely ruins the rooftop.

     It didn't take long to see what he meant:  There was a small patio at the front of the roof, that was pretty much the only useable part of the roof.  Smack dab in the middle of the roof was this huge quonset hut-of-a-structure.  It was ugly, and blocked the sun from the small back patio area.  It also blocked access to the rooftop room.  There were weird, rickety stairs built to wind around the top of the boveda. 

     The room was plenty big enough to be a bedroom...but the bathroom on the roof could only be accessed by going up and over the boveda.  (Not too fun in the middle of the night...especially if it's rainy or cold.)

     So, we worked with the city engineer to make plans and ask to get the permits for the project (permissos), from both the city of San Miguel, and the state of Guanajuato.  The structure is  not historically correct, and actually considered a gringo conceit by most locals.  Bovedas were traditionally used only in churches.  Ditto cuppolas.  (Though we still have one of those and kind of like it.  Luckily that's not visible from the street.)

     It's a busy time for construction in San Miguel so it took forever for the inspectors to come out from the capitol of Guanajuato, but they eventually did and they approved the project.


     The roof was removed and, already, the rooftop made a lot more sense.  We gained a couple of hundred square feet of rooftop, we gained sun to the back area, and we gained easy access to the room on the roof.

     It's been a messy, and time-consuming project, but we are starting to see how well it's going to work. 













    We lost a quonset hut...but gained a rooftop seating area and bedroom.

     The house was on the market for a lot of years before we found it.  It had a lot of problems that seemed pretty insurmountable.  Some of them I could see past...but this was not one of them.

     I'm lucky that Michael had the vision when mine failed completely.

     The biggest appeal of San Miguel is near-perfect weather year round.  It would be a shame not to enjoy it.  

     The gray area in the picture to the left is where the boveda was.  Now it's all opened up we can really see a seating area start to reveal itself.  Exciting!

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"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

-Leon J. Suenes

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"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."

-Jonathan Swift

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