By Johnni Wong | Apr 18, 2010
Garden living in Sierramas
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| The walkway leading from the main house to the pool house is planted with nine ficus saplings which will eventually create a shady "mini-forest." |
Homemaker Felicia is a busy mother with three boisterous young children to contend with and a mansion sited on 2,700sq m (30,000sq ft) of space in Sierramas to supervise.
While her Italian husband is busy at work, Felicia who is of Indian and Chinese origins, keeps herself occupied seeing to the needs of Matthew, 8, Lara, 5, and one-year-old Gianluca.
While it is not uncommon for wealthy homeowners in Sierramas, located in Sungai Buloh, to buy an adjoining lot to expand their property, Felicia had to admit that it was rather unusual to buy two extra lots just for one household.
In her case, while the main house is on the original lot, another lot was used for building a pool house with all the facilities. And the third lot was used mainly as a lawn, as an extension of the garden.
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| The dining area with a custom-made 12-seater table is separated from the foyer and living room by an aquarium with marine fish. |
Pizza Margherita
When asked how many kitchens were in the mansion, Felicia laughed heartily and said there were four, including the pool house kitchen specially built with brick ovens for making pizza. Apparently, the family’s favourite food is pizza Margherita which is traditionally made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil.
"My husband is the real cook in the family," said the vivacious lady, "We make thin-crust pizzas, especially when we entertain. As he is from Adria, an area near Venice, known for its abundance of seafood, he puts a lot of seafood as toppings. He is also famous for his risotto and will usually cook that when we have friends around."
And sometimes, the "seafood" comes from the pond filled with local fish, sited at a corner of the huge lawn. "We have kelah, kaloi, tilapia, soon hock (marbled goby), patin, jelawat and even catfish," said little Matthew excitedly, when mummy was explaining why they prefer to keep edible fish.
And true enough, when the maid went to feed the fish with corn pellets and fresh papaya at about 5pm, the fish were caught up in a feeding frenzy and were splashing around excitedly.
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| Lanai: Just off the car porch, this open-sided area is one of the many lounges of the mansion. To the right, in the background, shows the guest wing. |
The family also has an organic garden at one end of the pool house, planted with lady’s finger, beans and herbs like basil as well as fruit trees such as papaya, guava, pomegranate, passion fruit and even durian.
But all these features are not apparent from the outside looking at the main house which is screened by dense foliage.
Lanai
A car porch - flanked by luxuriant plants - is the first thing guests will see upon visiting the house. It is large enough to park a Benz, BMW and a Toyota SUV. A couple of steps up, will lead you to the lanai on your left and the main entrance to your right. Visitors are supposed to sound their arrival by hitting a gong.
First-time guests could well make the mistake of thinking that the lanai could be the main lounge as there were comfy chairs and everything looked so cosy, despite the expansive space. Particularly eye-catching were the batik cushion covers painted by the lady of the mansion.
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| Mementoes of the family's holidays abroad. |
Actually, to the left of the main entrance is a secondary entrance which has a doorbell. The secondary entrance leads to the family lounge and main kitchen and which is connected to the back of the pool house.
Obviously, the owners have been painstaking in selecting the construction material for the house as well as the annexe which serves as the pool house. "We don’t use wood laminate here. We prefer everything to be solid," pointed out Felicia, when asked about the teak material used as flooring for the main areas of the two houses. Besides teak and merbau, other flooring material included Italian marble, terra-cotta tiles and pebble-wash for the outdoor areas. The walls were either clad with stone, slate (pool retaining wall) or finished in stucco to invoke an Italian ambience.
Besides sofas, the main lounge is equipped with a grand piano where the two older children practise on. A couple of modern Iranian carpets add warmth to the large space.
Pride of place would be the three Renaissance-era paintings acquired at auctions in Europe. Said to have once belonged to churches, they are reminiscent of the works of Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione and Titian.
Adjoining the lounge and right off the entrance foyer is the formal dining room which has a custom-made 12-seater dining table. A large glass panel which serves as the table top, allows guests a good look at the myriad sea shells set on a bed of sand in a compartment below. The shell collection was acquired by the family "from around the world."
A nearby bathroom for guests come with a Murano glass basin matched with a vanity mirror framed with the same Murano glass.
Den and cellar
Nearby, a door leads to the basement den with a vaulted ceiling above the karaoke section. The sound-proof room is furnished with a pool table and a bar plus a Tamagnini.com pedestal salami slicer from Parma, Italy.
Naturally, this underground den also has a wine cellar which has since been replaced with a bigger cellar hidden beneath the deck of the pool house. The new cellar can accommodate some 3,000 bottles of wine when fully stocked. Entrance is via an electronically-operated, concealed trap-door.
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| The formal dining room where the glass-topped table where the family's collection of seashells are showcased. |
The pool house was another joint-venture project like the main house, said Felicia. "We chose the construction materials together. And we have similar taste."
Besides the 15-foot-long counter-top and pizza ovens, a long dining table - for informal meals - overlooks the infinity-pool and the luscious lawn.
With a double-volume ceiling, the pool house comes with its own covered deck, bathroom and sauna facility as well as an upstairs studio to accommodate Felicia’s talent for painting. But baby Luca came along and the idea was abandoned.
Part of the pool house is another lounge built with tall, glass doors on three sides to take advantage of the surrounding views. An Ismail Latiff painting hangs on the only solid wall, above an Indian table, lamps and decorative accessories sourced from a local home decor chain store.
"I just love things from British India and many of my accessories are from there," remarked Felicia.
The third segment of the mansion is the guest wing. It is actually another annexe separated from the main house by the lanai.
It has its own lounge and a loft for the bedroom and bathroom facilities complete with a jacuzzi. Apparently, the guest wing is regularly occupied by visiting family members and overseas friends.
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| The underground den which is cosily furnished. |
Tight security
Felcia and her husband chose Sierramas because of the greenery, low density and tight security of the upscale enclave and the relative proximity to Kuala Lumpur.
"We are friendly with all our neighbours and we know them quite well," said Felicia.
She recalled that the housing lots in the neighbourhood were only about RM90 per square foot when they moved here about eight years ago. Her husband bought the first plot to build the main house and five years later, when they bought their other lots, the price went up to about RM150 per square foot.
Apparently, the asking price now is between RM180 and RM200 per square foot.
But guests visiting Sierramas for the first time ought to be prepared for the unfriendly attitude of the check-point sentry, who view visitors unfamiliar with the place with suspicion. "What you doing here?" barked one Chinese guard behind the glass partition, and this is despite having given the car registration number a day earlier. By the time clearance was given, and a Malay guard chirped, "Welcome, sir," Sierramas had etched a lasting impression.
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