What do you do when you retire? Narerat and Yunyong Kakanantadilok decided to enjoy their retirement by transforming their Bangkok home into "Baan Nok" (Birds' House).

Narerat, 63, and husband Yunyong, 70, returned to Thailand six years ago when they retired from their business in New York, and bought a new house on the Baan Manthana project built by Land & Houses on the Rama IX Ring Road.

Narerat says they decided to buy the house because it was ready for occupation and its design matched their lifestyle.

"We love to stay close to nature and also have a good location close to a main road that makes it easy to travel," she says.

The Kakanantadilok family spent their savings of Bt8.7 million to buy the house, which is on 118 square wah of land and has living space of 265 square metres. The house has three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a living room, dining room/kitchen and utility room.

The first impression visitors have is the number of bird houses scattered around the large garden. Some are occupied by the family's feathered friends, and almost all were made by Yunyong.

"My husband learned how to make bird houses when we were in New York. He loves to make them because he feels free and relaxed. I also love to paint the bird houses and decorate them with items made from wood and plaster cement," Narerat says.

From the big garden, which features a small wooden pavilion, visitors can see wooden and plaster dolls inside the living room of the house.

Yunyong made almost all the home-decoration items by himself, including a shelf for his wife's dolls and miniature bird houses, which are sometimes gifts for their friends on birthdays or occasions such as Christmas, New Year or Valentine's Day.

In the living room, the main feature is a white leather sofa. Its simplicity matches very well with the colourful and differently designed dolls made by the home-owners.

Narerat, who was a nurse in New York, loves to paint dolls and other wooden items made by her husband.

She often designs characters for her husband to copy when he makes the dolls.

"Sometimes I will copy cartoon characters from my souvenirs that I brought from different countries on our travels around the world. Each doll gives a different feeling, but we are proud to present them to my friends because they were made from my ideas," Narerat says.

From the living room, you can see a private room that used to be a dining room. It is close to a balcony overlooking the garden. The balcony is also decorated with more bird houses and recycled items such as flower vases made from milk bottles.

The kitchen features a dark wooden dining table that the family brought from their house in the United States.

"We love the design of this table and thought it would look nice in our new house in Bangkok," Yunyong says.

The ever-present wooden and plaster dolls give the bathroom a colourful appearance.

On the second floor, visitors soon see a prayer space and a large bookshelf. The main bedroom has a wooden floor and ivory wallpaper. This room differs from the other rooms because almost all the decorative items are made from wood.

Narerat believes wooden decorations create a feeling of being close to nature.

"The main bedroom is my private room, I love wood and its advantage is that it is so much easier to clean than other materials," she adds.

As they made so many of their home's items themselves, the couple spent little money on decorating, but they feel their efforts have been rewarded.

"We are proud to present our ideas for decorating our home. It was not expensive in terms of money, but it has a high value in making us feel good," says Narerat.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation