Sanju's window to the world!!!: February 2019

Hi Pa,

Been a while you see since you showed up in my dreams, a very long time actually. Knowing your penchant for written communication, here's writing one hoping it will reach you somehow.

Since you left, we took sometime in steadying ourselves, supporting each other through what not only seemed, but was also a very dark phase of our life. Ironically those things, time and tide that you said would wait for none, which seemed prophetic then, was the only reality that helped us looked forward to other things. I got married and then sister got married and life started presenting newer possibilities.

During all this transition, we moved from upstairs to ground floor and rented out the first floor for a few years, after sister got married. In this time, I did scout for some properties with a hope that I might be able to invest in real estate. But then, didn't see economical sense and dropped the idea. Realized that with the current scenario in Bangalore, there is no better place than what you found and made for us.

Anugraha - Circa 1988

Thanks to your bold aspirations, from the humble beginnings(img above) in 1988 you made our abode to what it was in 2001(image below on Left).

Circa 2001(Left) and Circa 2019(Right)

Last year I took on an ambitious renovation project of our first floor residence, with objective of making the residence more spacious, modern and a structure that we wanted to wholly utilize. Here's(the image on the Right above) what it looks like in 2019 after completing this major undertaking. Some of the changes that went in making the new structure are listed below-

The front elevation of the first floor also underwent a major change, the security grills, the balusters are all gone. You'd see a new chic looking stainless steel pipe with 12mm toughened glass, which by the way has a presence even on the terrace. Both the FF and GF front elevation now bears texture paint which kind of gives the whole building a nice classy look.

Elevated the ground area of the portico, in order to eliminate the problem of stormwater seepage from the street by creating a small elevation starting from the stones that form the pathway outside the main gate until the staircase to the first floor.

In order to use the elevated portico for car parking, i did away with the original criss-cross gate and have a sliding gate, with this I am able to park my sedan inside. Can't believe how time is running away, this is my second car after you left us.

Got rid of the open well which was being used as an alternative potted plant. This gave way to an sump with increased storage capacity. Redid our old sump which was around thousand five hundred litre capacity, to get it to almost eight and half thousand litre capacity.

The enhanced water storage of the sump helped in getting rid of the original overhead tank which we had on the landing of the staircase of the first floor. The tank was not being of great help as there was not enough pressure for the ground floor, due to which I had made it defunct and had the overhead tank increased to 1000 litres on the terrace, which was serving as the main source of supply. While the arrangement was working for 8 people who stayed in both the ground and the first floor put together, with rare instances of water shortage, did not want to let go of an opportunity to enhance the overall storage.

The stairs themselves bears a new look with granite being cladded onto to the balding concrete stairs which has been there since 1988.

With the neighbors on our right who also rebuilt their house, light had been a major casualty to the GF, hence did away with the attics in the front, near the staircase to the first floor, grill work are all removed to enable sufficient natural light entry into the house.

As you walk through the staircase, am sure the absence of the main door in its original place will strike you. This brings us to the genesis of the project, the south entrance of the first floor, has been shifted to the east, right next to the pooja room.

As you'd remember we had a tiny 2ft balcony, which is now extended to a spacious almost 5ft balcony, by constructing 3 pillars from the ground floor, one of which originates from the sump. You'll be happy to know all this by staying in the confines of our plot, just used the space better. This additional space has given the balcony a great look and now doubles up as a good portico for both the GF and FF.

The pooja room itself which used to be protruding outside on the first floor, is now leveled with the hall and kitchen wall in order to give the elevation a clean seamless look.

This brings us now to the inside of the house, the main door (a 6ft frame which includes long windows) facing east welcomes you to the living area, which now also comprises of the open kitchen. Yes, you read that right, the place where we kept our TV for so many years has now made way to be the main entrance to the first floor. The previous main entrance on the south has been closed and is now part of the kitchen. The older verandah no longer exists, its now the dining area and part of an open kitchen with walls separating the hall, verandah and kitchen knocked down up to the lintel beam level.

The offset that we had near the verandah entrance to the hall has been removed and moved towards the kitchen area to give the kitchen a unique look, resulted from creating a much spacious living area. This new wall is now the TV wall.

The bachelor room that I owned is now my home-office cum study, after closing the entrance to the verandah.

The 2 bedrooms which were like adjacent excel cells have been merged to make a single large master bedroom, to which entrance is from the passage which starts from the end of the living room. The wash basin which existed in the passage has been moved to the washroom.

The washroom itself is now more vertically spacious, as i did away with the attic, since it had become a dwelling for other creatures alongwith our barely used resources/materials etc.

Other than these structural changes on the first floor, the only other changes are on the terrace, where a new room has been built with access from the terrace. A tiled canopy structure alongwith the room is the new terrace attraction.

The overhead tank and solar being shifted atop this room, has given a lot of space on the terrace for all sorts of future avenues.

No doubt you'd have asked me how much of it was necessary, well i would say I have tried to balance between essential needs and aspirational wants.

Could I have been more conservative? Maybe. Did i splurge? Maybe not.

When i thought of what you'd feel about these changes, I think you'd be thrilled, and also manage to slip in some changes yourself.

The activity was arduous to say the least while it was in progress. Without your and Amma's blessings, my wife's stellar partnership and most importantly my employer's understanding, it would have been much harder.

Here's a snippet of the journey

Before: