MANILA, Philippines - It is a common dilemma with many families when their house outlives the generations that it has sheltered, reaching the point when for the more recent generations, continuing to live in the same house grows increasingly uncomfortable and difficult. Meanwhile, the surrounding neighborhood falls into inevitable commercialization.

The Jesus Escaño family in Cebu was one of the last holdouts on busy Juana Osmeña Street, staying on well after neighbors constructed low-rise commercial buildings that started to hem in the family?s 50-year-old house. Despite all that, they didn?t want to give up their house.

For the many with the common misunderstanding that anything heritage must be grand and out of the ordinary, the Escaño house disappoints. It is nothing of the sort.

Ancestral? Yes it is absolutely ancestral even if it does not fit into the ?bahay na bato? stereotype of ancestral architecture. The low, two-story concrete house built in the plain, unadorned 1950s style that rambles in the center of a large urban garden is no scene-stopper, appearing as everyday stuff if compared to the ?balay na tisa? (as the old houses are called in Cebuano).

But in its day, wasn?t the ?balay na tisa? pretty much everyday stuff?

Old lifestyle

The house reminds of a Cebuano lifestyle from the recent past before the pace of life accelerated and morphed into the 21st century speed, without too many people taking much notice of the gradual change since the lifestyle of a generation or two ago is an era considered too recent to be consigned to history books. Nevertheless, that old lifestyle is a vanishing life experience certainly worth remembering and recording, and that is what the Escaño house does well.

The house was built in the days when Cebu was really laid back. People came home from work or school for lunch and for a siesta afterwards. Families gathered for dinner in those pre-television days, or relatives and friends would come to visit, and in the case of the Escaño house, to hang out.

Although the structure may not be of a scale to merit National Landmark status, it is where three family generations maintain roots, the home where they anchor their personal history. It also registers vividly in the lives of three Cebuano generations because its doors have been constantly open to the family?s wide circle of friends, which included me in various stages of my life.

Now that the family has finally moved out, the house retains its tradition by still remaining open to people.

Today it is Casa Escaño, a bed-and-breakfast, with Don Merto?s, a fine dining restaurant named after the Escaño patriarch. The dining place is known for laying out one of the best tables in Cebu.

Now totally refurbished, the house continues to maintain the simplicity that it has always had, a reminder of the not too recent pre-globalized Cebuano past when the lifestyle was more leisurely and personal.

Continuing the family tradition of providing guests the same personalized attention that it has always done will, it is hoped, set a trend in Cebu and encourage more families to open up their houses as restaurants and lodgings that can add a new, community-based dimension to the already booming Cebu hospitality and tourism industry.

Call Casa Escaño or Don Merto?s at (32) 2535564 and 2535563, or e-mail at casaescano@yahoo.com

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