If you were to choose between a big house with a large backyard and a small narrow house squeezed between your right and left neighbor, which one would you select? I guess, most of us would go for the bigger one. But what if you have no choice, but live in the narrow townhouse? Well, you still can have a beautiful home without compromising on anything. Balamani P.V., aka Balamani teacher, will show you how.
By looking at Balamani teacher’s house from the street, one would think it’s just another concrete house with a small backyard. But wait till you enter inside her pristine white abode: you’ll get blown away by the smartly planned house on such a small plot (read two cents!).
 - Copy.jpg.image.784.410.jpg "Living room")
After taking voluntary retirement from Girideepam School, Kottayam, Balamani teacher longed for a house near her favorite temple. But she never wanted a big one. As her only daughter Arya is settled in Bahrain with husband and family, all that she wanted was a comfortable home that her family could come back to during holidays.
Located towards the south side entrance of the Thirunakkara temple, the front yard of this compact looking, pretty white house is laid with paving tiles and has enough space to park one car.
Living room
On the first floor, there is the sit-out, living room, kitchen, common bathroom and one bedroom. To reach the sit-out, you need to climb three steps to from the front yard. Grey colored granite has been used for the sit-out.
The sit-out leads to a beautiful living room. Ivory vitrified tiles has been used for the flooring here. An inbuilt wooden cupboard here with a designated space to light a lamp doubles up as the puja room.
On the right side of the L-shaped living room is the dining area. There is enough space here to place a dining table with six chairs. From here, a designer glass door leads to the kitchen. Though small, the kitchen has been smartly furnished to make up for the space constraint. The kitchen cupboards display excellent space utilization.
On the left side of the dining area is the common bathroom. A PVC designer door has been used for the bathroom. There is a separate wash basin in the dining area itself. A single wooden door near this opens to the exterior.
Shera board stairs
Adjacent to the dining area, there is a staircase with 17 steps to go up to the top floor. This has been built with Shera Board planks and aluminum hand rails. A lucky bamboo plant adds to the beauty of the stairs. A window placed on the wall of the stairs lets in ample light and air into the living room.
Top floor
The stairs lead up to a spacious landing area decorated with wicker chairs. From here, you can go into the two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms here is bath attached. Cladding tiles have been used in the bathrooms. The other bedroom has an elongated balcony.
All the rooms are quite airy and bright. Another set of stairs lead up to a terrace. There is also a bathroom here. In future, if the need arises, a separate floor can be constructed here. The plan of the house was designed by municipality architect Jayamol and the contractor for the project was Sureshkumar. The total cost of construction came up to Rs 17 lakhs.
Reduce costs this way
» Using Shera board stairs helped a lot in bringing down the expenses.
» The frames and bars of all the windows are of aluminum.
» The bedroom doors are of PVC.
Photos: Anand K S
