The Pope and I

The restored heritage house I toured

  Well, the Pope and I have decided (independently) that tomorrow, Feb. 28, is a good day to step down and move on.  You all know what HIS plans are, but you don't know mine.  I plan to retire into a simple monastic life of quiet contemplation in the countryside outside Tokyo.  I'll be leaving my beloved Penang for a while to be at my husband's side, making muffins and homemade vegetable soup.  I'll probably keep blogging despite it morphing into "Musings on Life in a Japanese Country Town."  I'll have much more time to blog and much less stuff to blog about, so we'll see how it goes. . . .

     Meanwhile, I've tried to pack in as much Penang culture and excitement as I can before I depart (for a while.)  So, one morning recently I joined a Heritage Home Tour of this gorgeous yellow number pictured here.  It's owned by a chef and his wife who've restored this building for their home and a couple of others across the street, which function as their wine bar and restaurant. 

      The home tour was interesting and fun. I always look at those fabulous old buildings that have earned Penang its UNESCO status and wonder what they're like inside, especially the restored ones.  This one is beautifully done,  There's a lovely lap pool beside the house and the original carriage house has been converted into a super guest house that would rent for a lot in a boutique hotel.

Imagine cooking for a household on this original stove!

   Since one of the owners is a chef, the couple has turned the original cooking area into a well-equipped  test kitchen, from which Chef does a TV cooking program called "Chalk and Cheese."   (Which I just watched on TV an hour or so ago.)   They've preserved the original cooking station  -- I don't dare call it a "stove" -- and here it is. Two charcoal burners and some other kind on the right in this picture.  Dunno what it actually was or how it worked.

    I've yearned to restore a house like this myself, but the prices of dilapidated old Chinese shop houses and homes have literally skyrocketed in the past few years.  Then, after you've purchased the property, it costs a fortune to restore these buildings to their former grandeur and, at the same time, make them livable by modern standards.  This couple, for example, turned one whole bedroom into a roomy, modern bathroom.  But, like many other things here in Penang, it took three tries to get the shower stall the way they wanted it to be.

      I can't help but think, when I go through these lovingly re-done homes, "What will they do 10 or 20 years down the road when they're old?"  There are always stairs and often no handrails or bannisters.  There is usually no bathroom downstairs (or upstairs, depending).  In fact, this one above had an outhouse when they bought it, so they had to install two bathrooms.  I suppose if they ever get crippled up with arthritis or need to use a wheelchair, they'll just sell off their hand-crafted, historic home for a handsome profit and move on.  

Even with restoration they found time to read 

    Still, there's a great appeal to knowing the history of one's home, to having an aged sepia photo of the distinguished Chinese grande dame who owned it, to have stumbled upon the original blueprints done in the architect's own hand.  To fill it with things you've lovingly collected in travels around the world.  To have people want to pay money to tour your place and hear about how you did it.  To strive to remain faithful to the original and find elements that fit into it compatibly.  It must be a lot of fun and something that could keep you busy for months, if not years.

    Would I want to have the pleasure of restoring and decorating such a place?  Of course!  But I'm not so sure I'd actually want to live in it.