House Renovation – Demolition Starts & Saying Goodbye to the Old House
Demolition starts today, I have mix feelings because the ancestral home is really really old….
This is the house that has been in my grandparents possession as far as I can remember, granted there were so many additions / renovations done but I still remember this house with the ground floor only done in bamboo slats as walls, flooring as rough cement, a rectangular heavy wood dining table that’s really is so big that more often being borrowed by neighbors during wedding receptions, with chairs what we called “bangko”. I remember all of us cousins / aunts / uncles at one time or another have lived in the house. All the ‘apos’ eating on the same big table. There’s Belen always falling asleep during dinner; there’s Mamay making an egg shape out of sinangag so some of the smaller kids will have the motivation to eat. There’s a big basket hanging over the table where Nanay keep the fruits and bread.
This is the house I remember having an old style wood chair on the second floor as sala set. There’s only one room then and we all basically sleep on the second floor sala with banig & kulambo. This is the house I remember having white crocheted covers and curtains during fiestas. The house where Mamay trousers always hang by the main door (we always ask him for singko hehehe).
It always been said that the house is protected from bad elements by our Mamay since he was an albularyo with anting anting know how (you know how it was with anting anting during those days). Well, they always say that during the war and Hapon invasion, the house seen from the street was not a house but woods & shrubs instead. Maybe true or not? Don’t know as I was only repeating what the oldies told us hehehe…I am digressing…
Basically this house is more than 60 years old, I think. We all practically grew up here. It was bought by my parents from my grandparents hence my family is the only ones left living in it. Renovations has been added here and there to what it is today. Sadly it has to go since it’s already starting to deteriorate. The tabla walls is seeping through with waters during rainy seasons, the tabla flooring on the second floor has shrink already. But those roof wood rafters and main wood columns are the best wood there is as until now it’s still strong and hard as before. One of the wood column won’t even be nailed thru if you want to use hammer and nails….antique eh…
So it’s time to say goodbye to the old house and start a new one, I’ll miss those big Capiz window, they don’t do those type of window anymore.….so many rainy seasons enjoyed by just lying down on the bed with the window open and the rain pouring down….
Anyway, hopefully the same blessings and protections will be carried over on to the new house….
This is the house I remember having an old style wood chair on the second floor as sala set. There’s only one room then and we all basically sleep on the second floor sala with banig & kulambo. This is the house I remember having white crocheted covers and curtains during fiestas. The house where Mamay trousers always hang by the main door (we always ask him for singko hehehe).
It always been said that the house is protected from bad elements by our Mamay since he was an albularyo with anting anting know how (you know how it was with anting anting during those days). Well, they always say that during the war and Hapon invasion, the house seen from the street was not a house but woods & shrubs instead. Maybe true or not? Don’t know as I was only repeating what the oldies told us hehehe…I am digressing…
Basically this house is more than 60 years old, I think. We all practically grew up here. It was bought by my parents from my grandparents hence my family is the only ones left living in it. Renovations has been added here and there to what it is today. Sadly it has to go since it’s already starting to deteriorate. The tabla walls is seeping through with waters during rainy seasons, the tabla flooring on the second floor has shrink already. But those roof wood rafters and main wood columns are the best wood there is as until now it’s still strong and hard as before. One of the wood column won’t even be nailed thru if you want to use hammer and nails….antique eh…
So it’s time to say goodbye to the old house and start a new one, I’ll miss those big Capiz window, they don’t do those type of window anymore.….so many rainy seasons enjoyed by just lying down on the bed with the window open and the rain pouring down….
Anyway, hopefully the same blessings and protections will be carried over on to the new house….
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