two houses, one roof*

Meat Loaf is warbling in the background.  An old man's lament of his misspent youth and a friend who died too young.

The type of bathos we old guys are prone to indulge in.  But not me.  At least not today.  Because I am looking forward -- not looking at objects in the rear view mirror.

I have put myself in a house-buying mood again.  I found what I thought was a perfect house.  Great view of the ocean.  And with enough bad decorating taste to make me long for the narco house.

But it had more title problems than all of the pretenders to the French throne combined.  There are enough issues with Mexican real estate on the coast without tossing in a group of gringos and canucks yammering at one another.

Something else has caught my eye.  An authentic Mexican beach house.  Most of the houses in town once looked like the photograph of the house at the top of this post.

It screams tropical.  And is quite simple inside.

The place appears to be two houses.  But it is one.  With two roofs -- both thatched with palm fronds. 

The front portion of the house is the living room and bedroom.  Just one bedroom.  The roof in that portion of the house is not only decorative, but of high quality construction.  I know a bit about palapa roofs after watching the church building's roof go up.

The back portion of the house contains the kitchen, eating area, and bathroom.  That thatched roof is not quite as well-built.

The lot is quite large, but it is little more than a small coconut grove.  To cultivate my own garden would take a bit of perseverance.  There certainly would be room for a pool.

But, being bluntly honest, the whole place would take quite a bit of money to renovate.  If I purchased it, I would want to retain as much of the feel of the beach shack as possible.

Looking at it logically, there is not much to recommend a purchase.  But buying a house is more about romance than logic.

It is hard to fight the nagging sense that kismet's wiles are eaves-deep in this attraction.  Take a look at my blog profile photo and compare it to this.

And here I will be:

No phone, no lights no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primitive as can be.

* - My friend Ed and I think this would be a great title for a Chinese art film.