Telipot House

Since I moved out of my semi-D house in Lorong Merican into the condo, I have been thinking about doing something to this house as I spent a big chunk of my money building it.

Part of it was built with my hard earned cash. I was working with Bank Pertanian Malaysia (now Agro Bank), and some of the money was from compensation money paid by the state government when they acquired my plot of land in Pengkalan Chepa and a small part of my mother's property in Jalan Raja Dewa, Telipot. It amounted to more than a hundred and fifty thousand ringgit.Mine was ninety thousand and my mother's about sixty thousand.

I also took an additional one-hundred thousand ringgit loan from MBSB (Malaysia Building Society Berhad). I was paying a hefty RM1,100.00 per month. It was a 15 year loan. When the house was completed in l983, it was rented out to a Chinese family for RM800.00 a month.This was to reduce the financial burden. They stayed for 15years. It was only taken back when I decided to move back to Kota Bharu in l998.

The house was built on a piece of land given by my husband as a symbol of his love to me. The land once belonged to my paternal grandmother, Nik Ti binti Wan Salam. It was charged to the Bank by one of our uncles, Nik Salleh bin Nik Mat Tahir. Fortunately my husband received a notice that the land was to be auctioned by the Bank and he managed to bid for it. There were however other bidders for the property. He managed to get back only half of it. He had to share this land with another person who bid for it too. She was Tengku Elik Zandariah (one of the Sultan of Kelantan consort) the late Sultan Yahaya Petra.

My husband later transferred the land to me as a symbol of his love. Tengku Elik and me subdivided the land into two and she developed hers and I developed mine.

Mine was further sub-divided into three individual bungalow lots. I have always wanted my three daughters to stay together on this piece of land. I have always dreamed of giving one house to each of my children.

I have this principle of believing that each person born into this world is entitled to have a roof over their heads. The size or the type of house is irrelevant.

I must have been very ambitious at that time. Instead of building two individual bungalows I gave in to the designer who advised me ‘to build a semi-D house, so that we can have extra space and bigger rooms’ he said. We also saved on 10feet on each side of the land if we were to build bungalows.

The house was already 15years old when I moved in. It was still looking good, except for the bathrooms, which were leaking. The house was marginally fixed and repainted by son-in-law, Tengku Abdul Rahman bin Tengku Abdul Hamid. Bless him. He was married to Nik Elin Zurina, my eldest daughter. They are now separated and he is my son-in-law no more. They have five beautiful children. They all lived here until they were separated a few years ago.Very sad episode in my life.

I have stayed here for almost twelve years. I was very comfortable here and would love to stay here for another twelve years. But it was not to be. My son-in-law had moved out of the house. My daughter is working in Kuala Lumpur. I live alone in a ten-bedroom house, with two-living rooms; two kitchens; two dining areas; one traditional house and a large garden. OMG. Heeelp!