Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House
This house is more than ten meters from Cebu Heritage Monument and less than a hundred meters from Colon Street. This structure can easily be recognized because of it's unique appearance. At first, when I saw this house, I was excited but I felt different which I couldn't explain that time, maybe because of the structure itself.
This house was originally owned by Chinese merchant, Don Juan Yap and Doña Maria Florido. It is one of the oldest residential house in the Philippines. It was built between 1675-1700 and was made from Coral stones, used egg whites as glue and "Tigas" or clay for the roof. The wooden pats of the house were made of "balayong" and "tugas" or molave which is the hardest woods in the country.
I paid 50 pesos for the entrance fee, then proceeded inside the old house. First thing that I recognized was the table and the chairs which were all antiques, then I saw the ceiling of the ground floor (which is supposedly the floor of the second floor.) The woods being used in this house already have some molds and stains which looks like really old. I felt afraid when I was on the staircase, because the woods that I was stepping on to were creating a sound like it will be broken. But, everything was fine, maybe that's the effect of being old? I don't know. Please refer to the photos below and see how a real antiques look like.
If you will see the photos above, everything in this house were all antiques except the fridge and the air conditioner. From the kitchen wares, everything in living room and the rest were all antiques and were part of the life of the owner of this house. According to the guide inside this house, the 8th generation family were now the owner of this old house and every weekends, they are resting in this house together with other family members. Beside the house itself, I found a mini garden which all are green except the woods. But, look at the photos below which were taken at the garden. Try to identify the difference between the color of my shirt and the background.
In this garden, there is a 14 feet well which is filled with fresh water, but it's not a potable one. There are jars, bonsai, chairs and the banca or a boat (photo above) which serves as the flower pot underneath the window frame. Also, the guide added, this house is situated few meters (at the back) from the river, that's the use of the banca before. I also noticed that some of the antiques can be found on the second floor maybe because they were afraid on the flood? That's just some of my question, because the guide told me that this house was flooded every rainy days, few years ago. After the amazing tour in the antique house, time for another antique invasion in Casa Gorordo Museum.
