Views from the top

From the roof deck of her house, perched on a hill within the Ayala Greenfield Estates in Calamba, Laguna, Myrna Robb gets a splendid 360-degree view of the placid Laguna de Bay in the north, slumbering Mt. Makiling in the east, the green countryside in the south and the rugged Tagaytay Ridge in the west.

"I often tell my husband we’d have to pay hundreds of dollars a night in a hotel in Europe just to enjoy breakfast with a view like this," Myrna says with a smile. "Here, we get it for free every day, right from our breakfast nook in our own bedroom." Mt. Makiling looms just outside their bedroom window and Myrna usually wakes up just in time to catch the sun rising from behind its slopes. "It’s so good to wake up from a good night’s sleep to the quiet of early morning," Myrna says. The first thing she does is pray. Then, she goes down to her vintage Ed Seiler piano to play inspiring religious music such as Come Holy Spirit, Immaculate Mother, O Sacred Heart, and Our Lady of Fatima. "In the US, I used to promote the devotion to our Blessed Mother," says Myrna, an alumna of Sta. Isabel College in Manila. Last year, her class celebrated their golden anniversary.

Myrna lived for many years in the US with her husband, Michael Robb, a businessman originally from Evansville, Indiana. They met as students at the University of Louisville in Kentucky where Myrna earned her bachelor’s degree with a major in Music History. They married on 9/11, 41 years ago, and have two children, Michael Andrew, a neurologist in Virginia, and Audrey, a nurse who now lives with her husband and four children just outside Washington, DC. The Robbs also own a condo in Florida, "just 30 yards from the beach," Myrna says.

"In March 2000, during one of our visits here, my husband saw a newspaper ad of the Ayala residential development in Calamba, Laguna," Myrna relates. It is purely a coincidence that Myrna happens to hail from Sta. Cruz, Laguna. An uncle, Arsenio Bonifacio, was the second governor of Laguna. "I was three years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed," Myrna recalls. During the war years, her family moved to Manila.

"We had the idea of the house in our head since 2000, but it was only in 2005 that the plan was finalized and construction started," Myrna relates. They were vacationing in Shanghai when the architect’s sketches were sent to them by e-mail. "It captured exactly what we wanted," she says. "We worked with a local contractor from Calamba, and we used mostly local materials, such as Romblon marble for our stairs and floors." The house has three levels, built following the slope of the lot.

In March 2006, they moved in. "I’d describe the house as eclectic," Myrna says. "That’s me." She consulted a feng shui expert who told her "the mountain is good, for our protection."

The arch is a recurring element – in the doorways, at the entrance, and between rooms inside the house. The ceiling is high, the windows wide. She was inspired by the masonry work of Palm Beach architect Adison Mizner. She also drew inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright, the noted American architect who practiced what came to be known as "organic architecture," which recognizes the relationship between the site and the building, as well as the needs of the homeowner.

"I like to bring the outdoors in," Myrna says. Thus, the sofa in her sitting area faces outside. The floor-to-ceiling glass wall allows her to watch the clouds hovering over the lake throughout the day. "We can tell if a storm is coming," she says. One time, a few months after they moved in, the wind was so strong it blew the aquarium by the wall facing the entrance and sent it crushing to the floor. Myrna decided to replace it with a stained glass frame depicting tropical fishes instead.

Now, they do not worry about the strong winds anymore. "We got double-paned windows from Germany," Myrna says, "with excellent window sealing against both wind and rain. It also serves as a noise protector. When the glass windows are closed, we do not hear the wind. I feel secure. I’ve realized the importance of planning well when building a house."

"Ayala Greenfield Estates has strict covenants that we follow, like with height, which has a nine-meter limit, so we’ll always have a view. What’s more, all the utility wires are underground, so there are no electric or telephone wires hanging from poles to spoil the view. Instead, we see lots of trees – ipil, narra, mangga, aratilis, banaba. Toto, our gardener, knows the names of all the trees."

Myrna has also managed to grow vegetables in her garden – tomato, malunggay, sitaw, eggplant, beans, ampalaya, okra. With the harvest, she makes a hearty vegetable soup, which she named "Glady’s Garden Soup," after her live-in househelp from Surigao. Myrna likes to cook and bake, and planning meals is very much a part of her daily routine.

"There’s always plenty to do every day," she says. She does her correspondence with friends through e-mail. When she lived in the US, Myrna organized an international club with members of different nationalities. She still keeps in touch with them. She reads or writes in her journal, her memoir, of what she remembers of the war years, of her childhood, of her years in the US where she taught music and English in middle school. She may decide to take a brisk walk several blocks around her house. She feels safe, with the friendly and polite village security guards making their rounds 24 hours everyday. Or she can take her kickboard and get some exercise in the infinity pool at the village clubhouse.

And then, there is the 18-hole par 72 all-weather championship golf course, designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones II. Although golf is not her sport, that does not stop Myrna from swinging by the exclusive leisure club to socialize or simply enjoy the food. If her pantry needs replenishing, she can venture out of the village and do her shopping at the commercial center in Calamba or Sta. Rosa. Alabang is only 30 minutes away through the South Luzon Expressway. And she actually looks forward to her weekly trips to Makati, where she can get imported items such as caviar and red and green olives for her husband, who is of Scottish-English ancestry, at Santi’s or Rustan’s.

When the Robbs bought their lot back in 2000, the only structure they found standing at Ayala Greenfield Estates was the View Deck at the highest point in the development, which also served as the sales office. Now, there are 25 houses built, 17 under construction, and in the end, there will be 2,000 houses in the 350-hectare Ayala Greenfield Estates.

"I hope all the residents in the village can have a get-together before Christmas," says Myrna, ever the social organizer. "Now, we can watch the fireworks right here from our house" and not have to check into a hotel in Makati like they did in the past.

Ultimately, it’s all about the view. From her kitchen window, Myrna can watch the sun set on the Ridge.

None of her windows have curtains, prompting her husband to ask, "When will you put up the curtains?"

Myrna’s reply: "Never."