One level
While staggering from my attached bathroom, I realised how lucky I am to be able to live in a single storey house with level floor. Blessings that my uncle decided to purchase this house in late 2004.
The most ubiquituos form of housing in Malaysia are double storey terrace houses. The living area and kitchen are downstairs, together with a tiny room which acts as the storeroom or servant's room. The proper bedrooms are upstairs. Quite a neat arrangement where the private quarters are upstairs separated from the somewhat public area downstairs.
In our previous double storey family house, it is only when my grandma and father were ill do we realise this is an arrangement-from-hell for a family with frail family members who have no strength to climb stairs. So luckily we are able to move them to my sister's house which has 2 rooms downstairs, and managed to modify another room for the frail.
I have seen people who had stroke or paralysed living in these double storey houses, and what an unpleasant arrangement. Worse if the floor area are raised to separate the dining and living areas for aesthetic reasons. This is unnoticable or even welcomed by the healthy but for the ailing & their caretakers, it's a major obstacle course.
Single storey houses would be in great demand when the Malaysian population ages and the current up-and-coming or even middle age generations realise that their knee joints may not be able to propel them up to their bedrooms...
The most ubiquituos form of housing in Malaysia are double storey terrace houses. The living area and kitchen are downstairs, together with a tiny room which acts as the storeroom or servant's room. The proper bedrooms are upstairs. Quite a neat arrangement where the private quarters are upstairs separated from the somewhat public area downstairs.
In our previous double storey family house, it is only when my grandma and father were ill do we realise this is an arrangement-from-hell for a family with frail family members who have no strength to climb stairs. So luckily we are able to move them to my sister's house which has 2 rooms downstairs, and managed to modify another room for the frail.
I have seen people who had stroke or paralysed living in these double storey houses, and what an unpleasant arrangement. Worse if the floor area are raised to separate the dining and living areas for aesthetic reasons. This is unnoticable or even welcomed by the healthy but for the ailing & their caretakers, it's a major obstacle course.
Single storey houses would be in great demand when the Malaysian population ages and the current up-and-coming or even middle age generations realise that their knee joints may not be able to propel them up to their bedrooms...
posted by Hee Boon at 4:12 pm
<< Home