About MyNuvaliHome

Slowly incorporating MyNuvaliHome posts into Montalut.com as an open-ended resource on sustainable living. Please let me know if you encounter deadlinks!

UPDATES

  • As of June 2015: Thank you for joining me on my journey as I built my first home in Nuvali!  As I’ve already sold my home, I’ve taken down my old posts on construction and home design, but please feel free to browse through my other posts on green living.   Sending you lots of happy vibes as you take on your own adventures in moving towards a simple, back-to-basics lifestyle.

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I dream of a simple home, a home that keeps me home.
I dream of a home that’s pretty.
I dream of a home that makes me happy.
I dream of a home that would make retreats and vacations unneeded, because the clarity and deep joy that I find in them, I find at home, everyday.
I dream of a home that has both silence and laughter.
I dream of a home that has love.

My Nuvali Home: my first big adult commitment.

It’s not just a house; it’s a big YES to a lifestyle shift– to more quiet everydays, filled with meaning, in resonance with the quiet shift to a healthier, more conscious lifestyle that values and always upholds what truly matters: family, people, ordinary lives, joy in the everyday, helping others, helping who needs help now. It’s one that requires a lot of listening, and a lot of path-clearing… one that is awakened, awakening and awakens.

This is the sustainable life, this is what My Nuvali Home is about.

Johanna
October 21, 2010
~play play play~

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I am a proud lot owner and resident of Nuvali.

On October 15, 2010, I bought a lot in Nuvali…and this is my journey hence.

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I am also a writer and painter.

I have been blogging since 2005 as manilarat, and since 2009 as montalut.   I support slow travel, neighborhood and community engagement, abundance and wealth creation, and pursued spirituality.    I want to use tourism to promote understanding.  I want to use art to awaken –both myself and others– and to give back.

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How to use this blog:

I started this blog to document my everyday adventures in green living in 2010.

As a start, I suggest you visit my posts on the Nuvali Lifestyle, which include the following:

Green Lifestyle topics include Gardening, Raw Food, Slow Travel, and Green communities that can serve as inspirations for Nuvali.

Environment covers anything related to
Green Art
Green Home features posts on Green Design and Green Building & Technology

Pilipinas kong Mahal

18 thoughts on “About MyNuvaliHome”

  1. Annette Enriquez

    You’re a kindred spirit, Miss Johanna; may your tribe increase.  I can clearly see that in your yearning for the bliss of quiet solitude, you earnestly anticipate in living in Nuvali in the very near future.  I can very much relate to this wondrous feeling!

    Last Dec, we drove by Nuvali  on our way back to Manila from Tagaydtay, to show Dominic, my son, a painter based in Manhattan N.Y. the site.   He  expressed earlier, a desire to relocate in Manila this year.  He said it seems Nuvali shows a lot of promise of the many simple things he wants for a place he can call home ,both as a person and as an artist.

    Thanks, and goodluck!

    Annette Enriquez

    1. Thanks for the kind words, Annette, and sorry to get back to you just now. 

      I really hope your son gives Nuvali a second look — we will need artists in the hundredfold in this community, and I would love to have a painter neighbor!  Please let me know if I can help in any way 🙂

      All my best.

  2. ok. so youre parked at your comfort zone. so whats next?  are people really flockinf to your place?  are there serious business around?   i dont even want you to answer. there is none. thats it.

  3. lets be a fuckin realist.  you say na dasma or forbes people took your route decades ago ok ok.  and you fantasize na dasma resident ka 10 years hence.  christ.  cmon child.  you dont know what it takes.  pambihira ka naman for being so naive.  avida lang yan.

  4. sorry montalut.  youre a nice person, i can see.  you are all so excited about your nuvali thing, i can see.  people are excited.  giddy.  pero…. really…. ano meron aside from the technopark gig?  kasi before you build a community, dapat meron source of income dyan.  unless nagpapaupa ka dyan sa metro, ano meron?  sorry to burst your fuckin bubble!

  5. oh, i forgot.  may mga isda sa solenad.  but so what?  malaking bagay ba yon sa simpleng buhay namin? so? pag pinakain namin, so? at kung sumakay kami sa nga rides sa man-made -lake?  ano mangyayari?  so parang nag trinoma kami sa solenad? to further fuel our consumerist desires? to buy shoes in excess of what we can wear, to eat food fancy food? and so on.  is this the life we envisioned? YES!  to go to the mall and get an mdf material cabinet and classify it as a find.  haha.

  6. this blog, i suspect, is a developer initiated thing.  ganyan yan. a sale is all that matters to them.  let us keep them in their place. remember to be vigilant…. all condo buyers.  if magpabaya ka, baka lahat gumaya sa yo.

  7. Thanks for all your comments Epicurious.  

    Nuvali is a beautiful place that I’ve personally invested in, and it’s just one of the many new developments in the South that seeks to address the congestion problem in Metro Manila.  Anything can happen years from now, but as someone who’s already betting on this community, I also hope to be an active part of what will make it truly a home — along with my future neighbors and those looking to contribute to and benefit from alternative communities like this.

  8. Though I don’t have yet sufficient budget to purchase my dream home in Nuvali, I am truly thrilled to see someone over the net posting pictures and blogs about what it feels like to own and live in such a peaceful sanctuary. Keep it up. 

    1. Thanks, RC.  Sanctuary is the right word. 🙂  I just hope Nuvali will grow as intended, with an involved and mindful community that will nurture it and keep it true to its promise.  Good luck to all of us and our dream homes!

  9. Hi
    Have u heard of the recent robbery in phase 1? That is so alarming Robbery suspect broke into a home of one of our homeowners and just shot the husband who happen to be an attorney. This happened sunday evening past 8.00 pm. Securory and police still investigating the incident, the thing is we did not know if the robbers has a connivance with the security or homeowners, robbers escape and the security is still looking the posibillity of where the robbers point of entry and exit.

    1. This is alarming news. Haven’t heard anything but I know there was a homeowners meeting today (which I couldn’t attend). Will look into it but also please share updates if you know of any. Thanks.

  10. hi Ms. Johanna,
    I came across your blog by accident and I am thankful I did..just viewed your doors, cabinets etc..Mang Romy is really a genius!I really admire his talent–wonder if we can afford him..hehehe Where can we contact him if we like to sort of make ‘some minor’ renovations…Many thanks and God Bless!!!

  11. hi johanna!
    I need some advise from you. I bought 2 lots there in Avida Settings and been wanting to sell my 1 lot. I already told my agent last January and I’m still on the documentation stage. How long does it usually take to process everything before it can be put out on the Market? I hope you can help me. Tnx!

    1. Hi Alex, sorry for the late reply. You can actually put your property up in the market already…just explain to potential buyers where you are in the docs stage. You can also ask Avida directly for specific timelines re release dates for your papers so you can be guided accordingly. Good luck!

  12. hi accidentally browse thru your blog and am glad, actually have been to your tagaytay home last week ( just outside) , deciding on buying a house at nuvali or tagaytay , like tagaytay because of the cool breeze, but like nuvali because nearer and seems fully established ( base on your photo and description) i am also an artist from taiwan, but my job here in phils. is dealing with natural remedy on health and life style . thats why nuvali attracted me, but since i hav an 8 yr old daugther and a 60 yr old auntie wit cancer , i hav to take into consideration the education and medical aspect.
    with your professionalism , which place do you recommend tagaytay or nuvali in terms of living and investment .
    THANK YOU SO MUCH !
    jollie

  13. Hi Johanna,

    My H&L in Nuvali is sched ofr turnover this coming Apr 2016. Can you recommend a reliable contractor to do the interior for me? Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

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