The house is located in a farm. (Photo by BIBSY M. CARBALLO)

It was our colleague Nestor Cuartero who tipped us on this Vigan-inspired bungalow in Marilao, Bulacan.  We were immediately intrigued by this house, which was built by his long-time friend Dennis Bernal. And when we found out that Dennis was neither an architect nor an interior designer, and was a business course graduate of San Beda, we got even more interested. So we convinced Nestor to drive us to Marilao to see the house.

The trip to Marilao, just 45 minutes from Quezon City, took us through the byways of the rice fields and bamboo groves of Marilao, where the air we sniffed has that unmistakable quality that spelt probinsya.  Along the way, Dennis reminded us we had met many years ago, at the popular digs he had managed in the late 90s called Lola’s Café in Quezon City’s South Triangle. We certainly could not forget Lola’s, a wonderful, welcoming old house converted into a restaurant bar where we would hang out till morning with theater friends like Adriana Agcaoili, Ronnie Lazaro, Dwight Gaston, and Bodjie Pascua.

We would return to Lola’s Cafe time and again but we later learned it had changed names and the ambiance was now different and no longer felt as homey. Dennis now tells us it wasn’t really an old house. It was built in the 1960s but he had refurbished and adopted a design peg of “Lola’s house that kids would go to when they wanted to 'gimmick.'” The motive for this was lolas are traditionally more tolerant of their apos. Dennis managed the place for seven years until he felt the fatigue of getting home from work daily at 4 am.

Dennis and his wife, the former Edith Gonzales, have long been in the restaurant business. They operate Café Andrei in Santolan which also offers food-to-go and catering services. It also has a deli that sells breads and desserts.

After leaving Lola’s, Dennis was asked by his father-in law. who hails from Marilao, if he could build a house  on their property located in the midst of a ricefield. It was to be a sort of weekend house where the family could unwind.

Dennis welcomed the idea and began gathering materials for the Vigan-type house he saw in his mind’s eye as perfect for the property. Everywhere he went, his eye was attuned to whatever he knew he could use in the house. He acquired hardwood from Dapitan when this source of second-hand lumber wasn’t yet as popular as today. When a trader told him he had a supply of 15 old stained glass type windows, Dennis bought the entire lot. When the Philippine National Railways disposed of its old railway wooden planks, Dennis was first in line to purchase them before intrepid like-minded realty developers finished off the supply. At Lola’s, he remembers having installed old discarded Meralco wooden posts.

We ask him what on earth caused him to gravitate towards this passion for collecting century old wood to put into houses. He says he is surrounded by architects in the family but is also unable to thoroughly explain this fascination. Perhaps he was an architect in a previous life?  

The virtual Vigan house he built stands on a 1,500 square meter lot. The house itself occupies roughly 290 square meters. This Vigan-type home does away with the traditional entresuelo (basement storage area). A garden of native low maintenance trees, bushes, and hanging plants surrounds the area.

Elsewhere are plots where Dennis propagates his vermiculture/ vermicomposting fertilizer. Dennis took courses from the Philippine Institute of Interior Design, and sessions in vermiculture using African Nightcrawlers (Eudrilus eugeniae), said to be the best type of earthworms for Philippine soil.

Dennis took us to his plots where biodegradable refuse, leaves of Madre de Cacao, excrement of dogs and coffee grounds (given away free by his Starbucks suki) are mixed with the worms. In a month’s time, he tells us, this would already be transformed into soil. He picks up some soil with the eggs of the earthworm got us to smell it. “That’s the smell of the forest,” he declares with conviction.

Inside, one is confronted by the large sala-dining room with three bedrooms surrounding it. Dennis furnished the house with a hodge-podge of antique wooden furniture including a couple of old wooden movie theater chairs, batibot rounded back chairs, a rattan sofa with soft pillows, a long hardwood dining table, the usual wooden sets with solihiya rattan woven backings, original tocadors, and  original hardwood beds. He even installed an old bathtub in the masters’ bedroom. Somehow, all these blend together comfortably, especially with the roofing of sawali that covers the entire house.  

When the windows and doors are opened, the air comes through to circulate around the entire house. In the tradition of the usual Vigan house, one finds transoms in calado cutout designs also to let the air in.

Family friends and neighbors have found the Marilao house an inspiration and they soon decided to have their own weekend homes built at the end of their own farmlands. Many others have asked Dennis if he could build them similar homes.

Dennis is suddenly astounded; it wasn’t anything he had previously considered. This was all a passion, not a career. We tell him then it’s about time he start seriously thinking about making a career out of it.

Email the author at bibsyfotos@yahoo.com.