No, the house is not yet ready -- it's still a "work in progress." We just extended our condo rental for another month and hope to be able to move sometime in January [just don't ask what year].
Friday, we moved in our first piece of furniture -- a custom-made dining table that should seat a few of our visiting friends and relatives. The wood is "balayong" and I'll have to find out how that translates into an English tree. It's kind of heavy, to say the least. It took 12 people to carry the tabletop into the house. Prior to the delivery, I had told our contractor to make sure that all groundfloor doors had locks as I did not want anyone to run off with our new table. After seeing them carry it, I no longer am afraid that anyone will still it. Oh yes, the table is a housewarming present from a very, very, very good friend. Once the house is finished, I hope you will come to see and admire it.
The other pictures show some of the rod-iron work at the house, the ceilings with beams, and the house for the pool pump and filter.
2 comments:
Hi Hans & Noel, the house looks incredible! Palaces like that aren't typically built in a year! Peggy and I were originally planned to move into our new home in July, that shifted to September and subsequently faded to December! But... we are finally moving in this Friday... So please be patient, it will happen! In 2 years time you'll look back on these extra months and shrug your shoulders whilst sipping on that cocktail in your pool.
Love from Boston,
David, Peggy and Arie
Hans & Noel dears!
Now that the "retirement home" is practically complete, it will give a better perspective to the rest of your friends how it finally looks. Please publish some photos of the house and gardens. Truly amazing transformation. It is now rather easier to relate to the building photos posted on the blog now that I have seen the finished house. I must say that after having stayed with you for only a couple of days, I found your home very inviting, relaxing, warm, cozy and pretty well laid out with a cross breeze ever present specially for senior citizens like us. One feels that warmth as one enters the courtyard and thru the front door. It also helped that the house faces the rising sun with the Highlands of Tagaytay for a view. I specially liked the two master bedrooms with a shared common bath away and hidden behind the library.... clever!
The gardens are something else. Noel had just started doing his magic and I imagine that sometime soon, the garden will be a veritable forrest. He has vegetable plots,fruit trees,vines, plants and flowreing trees of all kinds, mood lighting, semi- eternal pool and the perimeters of the property are bordered by Mahogany trees for more privacy, not that property did not have any to start with. On the day I left they were in the throes of building what Noel laughing referred to as a "trelis" to save some flowering vine already inhabiting the area... kono! Well from where I was looking, the project looked like a "castlette" being built to last a thousand years at least.
The main guestroom,(I slept in) is truly grand... makes one feel like a true queen or king or maybe a princess!.. whatever! I just may have christened that guest room. I mean..slept in it.?!now, now!!!!
Overall, the house is very California, very airy. A minor nit-pick I might have would be the 8 "Doric" columns - 4 on each side of the house.It is somewhat "jarring" to me. On the otherhand, what would one have put there in its place? Hmmmph!
So publish those photos Hans/Noel for the rest of your friends to see and perhaps entice to come and visit.
Vladimir Velasco
Los Angeles
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