The Houses of the Espiritus

When Marilen Espiritu invited us to spend a Sunday at the O.V. Espiritu beach place in Punta Fuego, I thought it was a birthday or some kind of special celebration.

But no–as Marilen explained to me later, "I just remembered a piece you wrote in Starweek about waking up one morning with a strange longing to see the sea."

It is just like the always thoughtful Marilen to remember and to think of inviting me just in case I still had that old aching yearning.

I remember quoting my favorite poet Edna St. Vincent Millay: "Searching my heart for its true sorrow this is what I found to be–that I am weary of words and people, sick of the city, wanting the sea!"

For anybody who, like me, is often seized by "that old feeling", the Espiritus’ seaside retreat acts like balm on a freshened wound. Even while still on the road I had a feeling of pleasant anticipation. I knew that something uniquely beautiful would be awaiting us. I was already familiar with Marilen’s magic touch with houses. Every year during the New Year holidays, "lunch at the Espiritus" is one of the highlights of the annual gathering of what has become our "Baguio Gang". We seldom see each other in Manila, but anyone of the group who does not make it to the lunch at "O.V. and Marilen’s", or to Tricie and Louie Sison’s picnic in their pine forest or Tessie Choa’s very gourmet lunch or Teroy and Lorna Laurel’s New Year’s Eve dinner is sorely missed.

There are certain characteristics that mark Marilen’s "magic touch". First and foremost is the fantastic location. The Espiritus’ fairy tale house in Baguio is perched on one of the highest points of Quezon Hill with a panoramic view of the city below. Their Alabang house–or houses–is on four thousand square meters of lush garden. Their Punta Fuego house is right on the edge of the China Sea.

Another characteristic of Marilen’s designing genius is that her houses do not hit you between the eyes, as do many too obviously expensive showcase mansions that make you feel you are in some kind of museum or designer’s show. Marilen’s houses have a quiet but pervasive charm that starts to work ever so slowly as you go through a seemingly modest entrance. Then it starts to build up as you walk in and start noticing the unique detail, the whimsical use of seemingly common objects that makes them look so uncommon, the personal collections of quaint things, so extraordinarily arranged, plants painstakingly trained to grow just so, small subtle touches of shapes and color. You take this all in slowly, then suddenly, wham! your bemusement turns to enchantment as you stand before a breathtaking view of blue mountains or blue sea or rolling expanses of four thousand square meters of green garden, depending on which Espiritu home you are in. From that moment on you are held captive in a fairyland of incredible beauty.

In the Baguio house it starts as you enter a grove of lemon trees with the yellow fragrant fruit hanging on its branches like so many Christmas globes, then encounter a veritable herd of old hobbyhorses in the Vigan tiled porch. In the Alabang house you go through an ancient door carved out of one piece of narra, into the living room where, seated on a chair designed by Abueva also carved out of one piece of solid narra, you gaze at a sun-drenched open air atrium planted with Japanese bamboo and butterfly orchids that provides fresh air circulating through the entire house.

In the Punta Fuego house the most important feature is the China Sea, miles and miles of blue water stretching out into the distant horizon can be viewed from every window, framed with antique narra like so many painted seascapes. Can you imagine having the China Sea as your back yard!

Marilen laughingly points out another constant feature of her houses–the mahjong room! But with a difference. As Marilen’s "quorum" play they can see from anywhere they sit some of the most fantastic views in the country. In the Punta Fuego house they can see steamships plying the regular route from Manila that the old Spanish galleons used to sail. In the Baguio mahjong corner they can see and smell the pine trees on a rolling hillside. In Alabang it is not a "mahjong room" but a mahjong house! A small separate vine-covered house built beside a clear running stream that provides the water from the swimming pool that is bordered with old rocks and blooming plants like a serene mountain pool.

But Marilen says, "Sometimes I think my mahjong quorum never see anything but the mahjong table." And one of her friends who was present admitted, "I have played here dozens of times, but actually this is the first time I have noticed the view!" People who play the game will understand this admi-rable concentration.

In Alabang, aside from Marilen’s mahjong house where she entertains her women friends, there are four other such small houses separated from the main house–each with a distinct function, different equipment and furnishings, but all of similar design to blend into the garden atmosphere.

There is O.V.’s house which is his study and his golf trophy room where he keeps all his books and papers and his golf equipment.

"The secret of a happy marriage," says Marilen, "is for each of you to have your own private space." (Marilen should know whereof she speaks because she and O.V. fell in love "for the first and only time" when they were both sixteen. They married right after college and have lived happily ever after with four children and seven grandchildren whose smiling faces are printed on all of Marilen’s shopping bags!)

The other "houses" in the Alabang garden are "the grand-children’s house" that contains all their toys and gadgets, Marilen’s hobby house where she has her ceramics and where her friends go to paint their special plates, her bead work equipment, her collection of weights and measures, aromatic soaps that she herself makes, and countless other things essential to Marilen’s endless artistic creativity. There is also a completely equipped gym where O.V. works out beside the garage that houses his cars and his golf carts.

Another exclusive "private space" is Marilen’s spa built into the attic of her Alabang house. There she can soak in a jacuzzi surrounded by plants and flowers, perfumed by a faint scent of incense, soothed by piped in music and thinking of other beautiful things she can create.

The most remarkable thing about the many houses of the Espiritus is that inspite of their number and the distance from each other, every house is a home, warm and cozy inspite of their spaciousness, and their artistic perfection family oriented and "lived in". In Punta Fuego there is a "grandchildren’s room" where the platform bed can be converted into one whole enormous sleeping area. By merely spreading the many mattresses (seven of them) of the huge king-sized bed on the polished platform, all seven grandchildren can sleep side by side after many a rambunctious pillow fight. Pictures of these precious grandchildren are to be seen everywhere.

The kitchens of all the houses also reflect this family orientation and are open to the living room so anybody can just walk in to see "what’s cooking". The kitchen stools are all movable so, as Marilen explains, "The maids can look at the view while they are preparing the meals." In the Punta Fuego house the main seat in the TV room is a unique Chinese designed sofa which, if you get tired of TV, all you do is flip the seat over and you will be facing the spectacular view of the China Sea.

In the balcony of the Punta Fuego house the lounging chairs are placed cozily side-by-side to make it conducive to sitting hand-in-hand gazing at the sunset or the moonrise. "Sometimes you can see both at the same time," Marilen says. "Romantic" is another word that comes to mind in the houses of the Espiritus!

If I am mixing up all the houses of the Espiritus in these descriptive ravings, it’s because one cannot really choose or set aside any one of them as most beautiful or most entrancing. They are all beautiful, each in a different way, but all so equally entrancing. The Espiritus themselves cannot say which house they like best. They so obviously love all their houses and from the feel of them, their houses must all love them because every one of them is Home!