Datu Lubay House turns green

DATU LUBAY HOUSE along Gobierno Street

The repainting of the Datu Lubay House is going on. The roof has been painted with red oxide and looks brand new. The wall facing Gobierno Street is done. Now it looks like a humongous blackboard. My mother said it looks like an elementary school. Well, Datu Lubay House is an alternative education center. The school image would do well.

Why the house is blackboard green is by circumstance. I went to buy paint from a friend's hardware store. I wanted the house to be a bright, sunny yellow to make it a cheerful house by the corner. But there's only one can of egg yellow enamel paint left. I needed two cans, so I asked for an available color. There was apple green, which I thought was close to the original color of the house. There were traces of light green on the wooden walls. So i picked up the apple green, but when the painters started, it was a dark green - pine green must have been more apt. To break the boring blackboard facade, I asked them to paint the windows white. I guess it will be OK for the meantime. Painting the concrete base wall and the adjacent structure, which is a sari-sari store, a light green will do the trick. The painters are now working on the Progreso Street side of the house. After this we have to stop the job and wait for additional funds.

Datu Lubay House

The Datu Lubay Center is now being renovated. I have sequestered a house my family has inherited from an unmarried grandmother. This house by the corner of Gobierno and Progreso streets was owned by our great grandparents Emiliano Delos Santos and Felicitas Esguerra. It has been left in almost decrepit condition, although still habitable.

We started with fixing the roof yesterday. Today, the carpenters are fixing the overhang for the lower windows and the latticework for the upper windows fronting Gobierno streets. Next we shall repaint it to make it more cheerful, and start remodelling the ground floor for our office and work shops. I still upstairs for the meantime.

The Datu Lubay House shall be the home of the Datu Lubay Doll Collection; eventually we shall turn it into a children's museum. It is a quite ambitious project, but we are optimistic we could do it. We already have outlined the modules for the exhibits. Eventually there will be an extension for the entrance side facing Progreso street.


This is how the house looks now. The carpenters have torn down the window eaves above the lower windows.

The carpenters fixing the roof.

The facade along Gobierno Street. We are fixing the windows and repainting the walls a cheerful yellow. This house shall soon be the Datu Lubay House.