The Address
For this empty nester, rebuilding a home presents an opportunity to repurpose and reflect on life’s continuous changes
This lovely empty nester shows us why homes are extensions of one’s self; The Estate Makati brings elegant living in a premium location in the metro; Grand Hyatt Manila presents its magnificent holiday packages
Having called this space her home since her early twenties, this family matriarch has gone through a lot of life changes in this sprawling house at a posh village in Makati City. As she says, the house evolved with her basically. Coming from a huge clan, her residence was initially designed to accommodate family and guests for a variety of occasions. “The house when I first came in here, because of my age, was really designed to be a party house. This was very open. I couldn't fit in here easily, comfortably, about 200 people. And I used to entertain a lot through the years,” she shares.
With all her children growing up with her, the estate became host to birthday parties, Christmases, New Year celebrations, and Thanksgiving dinners, among other important family milestones. A structural problem became an opportunity for a
home makeover. While she kept the structure of the house, much of the interiors have been renovated. “It was literally open. No walls, no nothing,” she explains. It took two and a half years to finish. “Had I known it was going to be two and a half years, I should have just torn the whole thing down,” she quips. Aside from adding a beam and a column to solve the issues with the structure, the set of stairs leading to the second floor was relocated as well.
Because the process was long and tedious, the outcome became less relevant to the family status quo come completion. It took another 10 months to a year to have it retrofitted. She says,
“When I moved out of this house, I had with me, my two girls. When we planned how the house was going to look. They were very much involved. But when I came back, they both left me. So I'm an empty nester now. So now I have the whole house to myself. I had to redesign the purpose of the house now to fit what I want. Since I'm an empty nester now, this whole place is just mine to enjoy, mine to cocoon, mine to have—what I can say my sacred space or sanctuary from the outside world. That is the feeling that I was trying to evoke. It's not the kind of house that you enter and you go ‘Wow!’ It’s the kind of house that when you enter, you feel peace.”
The change, more than the physical, was very personal. “I really made it in such a way that it will evoke a very serene surrounding, a very grounding type of energy that I, for a lack of term to use, created my space to fit what I'm going through also in my personal life. It's not to impress anybody, it's to feed my soul.” Her home, then, is one that continues to evolve—“a work in progress,” she explains. “It's not my style though that's continuing to evolve. It's me as a person and the house is just an expression of how I am at this point in my life.”
NATURE AND ITS RESPLENDENCE
Lush greens and exquisite crystals are found in nearly every corner of the house. More than the profound meanings associated with these things, she feels that the flow and fluidity of how she places
these things bring more comfort and ease to the eye. “I've been decorating my space with crystals that I have. I did it for aesthetics. I didn't know that it had meaning. The people that know about crystals, when they come in here they’d say, ‘Did anybody teach you how to put your crystals?’ And I’d say, ‘No, it’s just me.’ There's no rhyme or reason for whatever. It's a natural piece of art. It's not manmade, it's Godmade.”
She then shows us her collection, “I have clear quartz, lapis, aquamarine, and jade. That piece (pointing to a large chunk of aggregate white crystals with purple accents) is very rare, the clear quartz that has amethyst on it. It's called Veracruz. That's from Mexico. The mines closed already. And then I have a lot of amethyst, a lot of smoky quartz and agate slices, and other crystals everywhere. It cleans the space.” Her fascination with rocks started at a young age. As a little girl, she would go around the garden collecting rocks of unique shapes and colors. “But they were like nothing,” she says laughing.
Her penchant for nature’s wonders extends to the backyard where rare, beautiful flora can be found and in the decks on the second floor. Pointing outside, she talks about her plant selection. “I only have Vandas, teretes, and semi-teretes which are all in the Vanda family of orchids.” Her vision is to have her own rainforest at home. Hence, she is very meticulous about any new additions to her garden, avoiding commonly used plants and instead opting for rarer species. So far, her efforts have been productive. Skimming through her photos in her phone, she shows me an impressive photo of a dragonfly resting atop a leaf. She proudly shares,
“I've never seen a dragonfly for a long time. And now because of what I'm doing, they know where to go.”
Towards the back end of the property is a room where her dogs stay. “I love dogs. I have ten,” she says. “I used to have a lot of labs, golden retrievers, spitzes. But I've had so many dogs through the years, but now majority of them are corgis.” Aside from their own room, the dogs also have a grooming space and even a special treadmill at the gym. At night, some of the dogs sleep at her room. “I have dogs that sleep with me in my room. There are dogs that sleep with my two daughters. One has three dogs that sleeps in her room and the other one has actually four dogs that sleep in her room. And I have two.”
HER IN MANY WAYS
With the yuletide season fast approaching, the interiors have been aptly decorated. And while most of the areas in the house are muted in color, she is not one to go easy with Christmas décor. She shares, “If I can have Christmas here the whole year, I would. I love Christmas trees. I used to have six here, but because the ceiling now is low, I only have three. I really deck out my home every time it’s Christmas. I start September. And then, I really kind of push it to the second week of January before I take things down.” Each tree is special and has a specific theme. “Before I go really crazy, full on, with different themes every year, but since I moved back here, I kind of wanted to keep it low key,” she says, admittedly.
Regardless of the overhaul, she still is mindful of her family’s need for personal space at home. Hence, they each have a room which they can use when they’re around. If she has learned anything in the process—from moving out, to coming back alone, it is recognizing
where she is now and being comfortable in it. She concludes, “When I did come back and everybody did leave me, it gave me a chance now to clean up my space. There was a whole process and it's still ongoing—cleaning, decluttering—because that is the phase where I am right now.”
Welcoming of the many changes her life has undergone, she continues to embrace each change, adapting seamlessly. And somehow, this transcends to how this particular home underwent decades of existence, achieving a kind of beauty that is effortless, timeless, and beautiful without being showy. And as they say, homes are reflective of the people who live in it.