Piece of Kalaka Story Begins

When we grew up in Malang first, we often went to the house of the deceased grandfather on my father’s side. The house of grandparents is a heritage house of the Dutch colonial era. Not big for the size of the house in his day. It is said that according to the story of one of the brothers of the father, the house was one of several houses rented by a Dutch meneer owner of a Chevrolet Malang dealer. The grandparent got the house when President Soekarno nationalized a Dutch-owned company. The meneer must return to his home country.

We are often amazed by the power of the house. Already over a century old and the grandparents only changed the tile. There is no weather in the teak wood. Floor tiles only fade a little old.

Starting from that house, from childhood we often fantasize about having a colonial era building. Unfortunately most colonial buildings are in premium areas with exorbitant prices. It is not possible for us to get it.

The solution arose when discussing with our architect Mr. Eko Prawoto, he suggested using used materials from ancient buildings. The hunt began.

At first we collected ancient doors and windows. Mr. Eko advised us to contact Mbak Iin. He is an old wood collector. He got the items from Madura Island and the East Java horseshoe area. There is a former colonial house garage door, an old teak house door from Probolinggo, a window from Madura and a teak gebyok made in 1930 which was obtained from Sumenep.

Amid the process, we became acquainted with Mr. Maman and his son Ricky. They are a specialist basket of buildings and old houses. Through them we can get old Kalimantan and Papuan wood from campus and hotels around Jogja. We use the wood for the construction of roofs and stairs.

The plan is to use the brand new floor tiles. But when we contact the Lock Factory, we are asked to wait a year due to their piling orders. This is where we met with Mr. Sonny. At that time he had 200 square meters of antique floor tiles stocked from Semarang, Pekalongan and Magelang. Without much thought, we immediately sorted out his stock. The shortcomings we got from Mr. and Mrs. Jono who happened to have just unpacked the tiles from old hotels around Malioboro.

Often we rent pickups and drive ourselves to transport these items. Pretty cost saving too.

In the end, we used new items only to the extent of bathroom equipment, tile, not the palace, and Hebel brick.

Sadly our grandparents did not have the opportunity to see Kalaka because he had passed away in 2012. This caused us to delay this bed and breakfast development project. If the word destiny can be arranged, of course we would love to tell at length to grandparents about all matters relating to this project.

Currently Kalaka bed and breakfast is in operation. What we can’t tell to our grandparents, maybe one day we can share with you who like the same thing. But above all, we hope that Kalaka can be a part of your story when visiting Yogyakarta.