The Canadian crooner fulfills his late grandfather’s dying wish by gifting his Filipina nurse with a dream home to call her own.
By ALEX Y. VERGARA/ Photos from thescottbrothers.com
Amid dark, uncertain times brought about by the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian crooner Michael Bublé, one among countless celebrities the world over using their star power to make a difference, recently brought smiles to a weary world when he fulfilled his late grandfather Demetrio’s “greatest wish” of giving the old man’s home in Vancouver to his longtime Filipino nurse, caregiver and good friend Minette.
If only his late “grampa” could see what Michael did. The singer, who has a considerable following in the Philippines, even went further by overhauling the house’s charming but dated early 1970s interiors and turning them into a more current, open and streamlined affair, from the modified floor plan down to the new, more minimalist furniture and accent pieces, before handing the house over to an ecstatic Minette.
To turn his grandfather’s “dying wish” into Minette’s “dream come true,” Michael enlisted the help of identical twins Drew and Jonathan Scott—aka the Scott Brothers—a real estate agent and licensed contractor, respectively, who also star in their popular reality-slash-makeover TV show Celebrity IOU, “where Hollywood A-listers express their deep gratitude to individuals who had a major impact on their lives by surprising them with big, heartwarming home renovations that bring everyone to tears.”
Rolling up his sleeves and wearing a face mask as well as a pair of protective glasses, Michael, armed with a sledgehammer, confessed to being totally clueless and a “wimp” when it comes to “breaking down walls.” Yet he chose to join the Scott Brothers on Day One of demolition day by hammering away at an old wall covered with white tiles.
Without missing a beat, one of the Scott brothers quipped back that Michael, instead of walls, has “broken hearts for a living.”
The Scott Brothers, in a joint statement on their website, went on to say that they had “originally planned to keep the layout completely open, with glass railing on all sides of the stairs and a furniture piece to break it up.”
They had to make a concession in the form of a slatted accent wall to give Minette some privacy while separating the dining room from the rest of the single-story house. Apart from lending the area with form and function, the slatted accent wall is far from constricting, as it succeeds in maintaining “open sight lines.”
“What was a quandary became a feature,” the Scott Brothers said.
Michael’s grandparents, based primarily on prevailing trends when they worked on the house nearly 50 years ago, favored a more ornate but nearly all-white living room. But the Scott Brothers figured that Minette might want a cozier, more comfortable area to unwind at the end of a long day.
They ended up installing two gas fireplace inserts, one in the parlor and the other in the family room, “to modernize the spaces and provide Minette with a warm, inviting home.” In lieu of a nearly all-white affair, the brothers decided to introduce more neutral shades into the mix such as touches of gray, taupe and black.
If there has been one great feature in the house, which Michael appreciates until now, as he reminisced on all the happy moments he and his family spent there, it’s the abundance of natural light that bathes the entire family room, courtesy of several huge glass windows.
Doing away with them would have been a non-starter. But there’s always room for improvement, as Drew and Jonathan, presumably with Michael’s wholehearted seal of approval, replaced the mountain-side windows with more energy-efficient versions “to keep Minette cozy in front of those gorgeous views.”
Adding to their pressure, albeit a manageable one, was the limited time they had. Since Michael wanted to surprise Minette upon her return with his grandfather’s gift, he and the Scott Brothers had to work on the house, pronto, while its future owner was vacationing in the Philippines.
In the end, “the special, beautiful woman” in his grandfather’s life, the same woman who sends back nearly every cent she earns in Canada to her family in the Philippines, was speechless and nearly in tears, as Michael showed her the finished product before making the big reveal.
