Building the Kolokoy Home: Building Our Mini Garden

It has been a while since the last time I posted an update about The Kolokoy Home. My initial plan was to give you a glimpse of our living room. But I look at it, and I feel like it’s still a bit too bare. My husband and I still have a lot of renovation plans, but my pregnancy definitely stalled us a bit. The next best thing was to share our kitchen. But every weekend, my husband is coming up with new DIY projects to further improve that part of the house. I’m not complaining, though, even if I am disrupted by his construction worker getup every weekend (with matching pawis at asim ng kili-kili as bonus) because that only means that he is paying close attention in giving me a nice kitchen. I think that’s my reward for serving him good food every single day. Harharharhar!

Anyway, as my husband and I were walking around the neighborhood one weekend morning (for me to get my needed exercise and dose of Vitamin D), I told him that our house does not really look like a “house” as compared with our neighbors’. Although we got a lot of compliments from our guests during our house blessing with how we designed our interiors all by ourselves and how well we maximized the space, I think that we have been focusing all our time and energy with our house’s interiors that we had totally forgotten to pay attention to the façade of our house. Our garage still has a lot of trash and construction materials so that added to my bakit-parang-hindi-mukhang-bahay-ang-bahay-natin vibe. I have been bugging my husband to put up an outdoor planter, but he kept on saying that it could wait. But I guess he was finally convinced that our house needs some oomph that’s why he gave in. (Either that or I was just being my usual stubborn, pregnant self, haha!)

One morning, he woke me up and excitedly told me that he had a surprise for me. He then directed me to the garage, and I saw two large pots of plants. One has small white flowers. He said that the other one is a plant that helps keep mosquitoes away. He bought those plants from the same guy who was supplying plants to our neighbors. And yesterday, we bought a calamansi plant from the same vendor. Hahaha! I was seriously thinking of buying a malunggay plant in preparation for my breastfeeding journey, but I don’t think we can handle something as tall as a malunggay tree! :p

I told Boyet that the plants are actually a bit expensive. Mama usually buys plants from a nearby shop. If you’re from the Paco-Sta. Ana area, then you probably know the garden shops along Pedro Gil St., near the PNR-Paco station. I asked my husband if he could check it out to compare the prices. And of course, my hunch was right! The plants, soil and pots are way cheaper there!

I asked my husband to buy a santan plant so I can teach our Englishero neighbor kids to eat its nectar! Wakekekekeke!!! (Next ko kaya ang Gumamela so I can teach them how to make bubbles?! :p) And because part of my 2015 goals is to build my own herb garden, my husband also bought mint, basil and tarragon! He was looking for parsley, thyme and rosemary, but the store ran out of stock. He was asked to come back next week to check for the new arrivals. Wooohooo!!!


The plants will be staying in this part of our garage for now. We’ll probably get more plants before we build the planter that we have been planning. I’m looking forward to having our own mini garden! And I’m so excited to simply stretch my hand out of the window to grab some fresh basil leaves while I cook pasta! Very Giada de Laurentiis ang peg! Hihihi!