Where Do You Call Home...

By Crivenica

The house we'll miss

It feels great to be “home” in Kathmandu again. I arrived in Nepal last Saturday and am still fighting jet lag, but it’s okay because I was so happy to see my cats again and to sleep on my own bed. It just feels nice to be in our own space again.

With the way David and I live, sometimes it’s tough to say where home is. Sure, New York and New Jersey are home to David and Jakarta is home to me because those are where we came from. However, since I go to New York so much, sometimes it feels like home to me, too. Ditto with Jakarta for David.  But on top of those places, we have also made this gem of a house on the outskirts of Kathmandu that we have been living in for the past two and a half years our home.

Though, personally for us Kathmandu isn’t exactly an enjoyable town to live in, this house has made our time here more than comfortable. We  definitely lucked out when we found it. Unfortunately, we are about to leave its comfort in mere weeks. David and I are packing it up and relocating back to Jakarta. And as I’m writing this in my home office, safe from the pouring monsoon rain, I feel a bit melancholy. I’m going to miss this house.

I actually planned to write about the next leg of my last trip to the US, but as I deal with moving company, pet relocating agent, and apartment research web pages - focused on finding ourselves a new “home” -  I thought I should pay homage to our Kathmandu house.

The foyer with our wayang guarding it

From the first time we laid our eyes on this house, we knew we wanted it. After days of viewing huge ugly houses all over Patan (the area where we wanted to live in), we finally found the perfect house. At four stories (two living levels, a half-basement level, and a half open roof level), our house with its exposed red-brick walls is actually pretty small compared to the five-level, five to eight rooms monstrosities we had seen. But by all means, it is not tiny. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor, a living area, a huge kitchen and dining area and a smaller bathroom on the main floor. There are two smaller rooms in the finished basement floor, which can be used as storage or even a smaller bedroom. The top floor housed a small storage room and laundry facility.

At our first viewing, the house was not at its best since it was lived in by a family with small children and their priority probably was not on making the house pretty. And to be fair, they were on the verge of moving out. There were crayon drawings on its stark white walls, a lone-standing sink at one corner of the dining area (which is normally seen in Asian houses), and flowery curtains in the living area. But we saw potential. We could see our own furniture in there. So then, we moved fast and contacted the landlord because there was another family interested in the house and on the eve of the new year 2009, we had fully moved in.

Mr. Shailendra, the owner of the house, has been the best landlord. He had the house built with his family's comfort in mind and had enjoyed it for awhile until he moved to a bigger house. We worked with him on several changes on the house. We took out the sink in the dining room and added in a breakfast bar as an extension of the L-shape kitchen counter. We painted the walls of the kitchen with a soothing tan color, while went with a bold terracotta for the dining area to give definition between the two spaces. We kept the warm tan color throughout the house that went well with the dark varnished wood floors. However, we decided to personalize each bedroom. We painted the master bedroom walls maroon and balanced it with a soft cream curtains, while I went with the contrast of orange and white for my home office as a reminder of my office color in Jakarta. The only thing that didn’t meet my expectation was the color of the guest room walls. I envisioned a soft, but sunny yellow, instead I got a too strong of a yellow. But, I got used to it and my guests had never complained.

Bright & sunny...the living room

Our beloved kitchen

Love how the color turned out in the bedroom

My orange home office

The view from our rooftop

I really enjoyed making the house our own. Though, it’s not entirely perfect, it is cozy. David and I have spent many weeknights and weekends just lounging on the couch watching TV. We have most of our meals casually on the breakfast bar, but we would extend the formal dining table on our traditional Thanksgiving dinner parties. And I have spent many hours in the spacious kitchen cooking and baking, while our cat Sfac sunbathed in the windowsill. And in the winter, we get spectacular views of the Himalayas and it never failed to awe me each time I spotted them out of a window. In short, it’s going to be tough to find a new space in Jakarta that will give me the same feelings. Though, I am hopeful.

L-R: Thanksgiving, Gardenia blooms, the garden, the girls

Beyond the building itself, our house also has a small nice vegetable garden that our gardener/handyman, Dhanik, maintains. This is one perk that we will definitely miss when we’re back in Jakarta. All year long, Dhanik plants and harvests different vegetables like lettuces, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, zucchinis, cauliflowers, bok choys, and on my request, he planted basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, dill, cilantro and parsley so I can have fresh herbs whenever I want. He also makes sure that we always have enough flowers surrounding the house. Oh, I mostly will miss the gardenia bushes when they bloom in May. They just smell so good!

Shova & Dhanik

Dhanik, himself, is a gem. Along with our housekeeper, Shova, they keep the house clean and running. They are also good cooks. Almost every lunch time, I eat traditional Nepalese fare of rice, dal, and some kind of a curry with them. And I’ve asked Shova to cook her traditional Newari food and she ended up making a whole yummy celebration spread. It was wonderful. I will miss them both.

So now, we have about two weeks left in this house and the only regret I have now that we're leaving is that our family had never gotten the chance to visit and enjoy this house with us. Soon, the movers will come to pack up our stuff and we will pass on this great house to the next lucky tenants. Yes, they will be lucky because this is the best house in Kathmandu...at least for me. I hope they will enjoy it and make happy memories here, too.