A weekend retreat

Saturday, November 26, 2011

CITY living can be frenetic, and getting away on weekends from all the hustle and bustle is a calming, revitalizing experience. It is for this reason that a power couple decided to build a seaside retreat, not a beach house but a lovely weekend home away from the city.

A two-story four-bedroom affair, the house, with a modern Asian look, has everything the lady of the house wanted. The ground floor opens to a large living area with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. The doors facing the Liloan sea lead to a lanai that is perfect for lolling around, for watching the world of sea and sky, for viewing ships, pleasure boats and fishing boats go by. By the shore at low tide, another scene unfolds: village folks picking edible sea shells, perhaps to sell at the local market or perhaps for their own consumption.

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The rest of the ground floor has a powder room, a guest room which also serves as the grandsons’ room with its own spacious dressing room and bath, a kitchen, and a maids’ kitchen with stairs leading up to their quarters.

The main staircase leads up to the TV room-cum-family den, dominated by a flat screen TV on one wall. To the right of this is the master’s bedroom, with a great view of the sea. It has its own bathroom and a roomy dressing room with lots of storage space. To the left of the TV room is the bedroom for the couple’s bachelor son, and another room for their three granddaughters.

The mistress of the house specified she wanted a “low maintenance” abode so she made sure the furniture and the ceiling fans can withstand the salty sea air. Most of the furnishings, she said, came from her other home or were in storage someplace else. She bought only the necessary furniture, deftly combining the new with the old, and decorating the house with the things she already had, the things she acquired from her travels abroad. For a seaside abode, she has a lot of bird figures on her walls which she got from Bangkok.

A gardener keeps her landscaped exterior lush with plants. And because she wants everything in its proper place, the two-car garage has closets for her gardening tools and cleaning equipment.

The whole house has an uncluttered and spacious look. Someone described it as “elegant in its simplicity.” It is that and much more, for here serenity is in the air. No wonder the couple looks forward to their weekend getaways.