A collector haven

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been dreaming about having floor to ceiling bookshelves near the window like a scene in a movie. When I go to book or toy stores, I often imagine what type of cabinets or type of bookshelves I would like to have if I had a house. Living in the space filled with things I love would bring me a lot of joy.”

Khun Stamp Alisa Rujivipat, the writer, insisted that she is not a bookworm. She just loves to buy books because she dreams about having a house library. “My job needs to do a lot of research, so it helps to have big piles of books at home. When I need to write about things I’m not familiar with, I could easily search through it.”

Besides books, models and toys are also her collectables. She said,

“I don’t have any specific cartoon characters that I love because I love everything about toys, small toys, Disney characters, famous cartoon characters, Gashapon, models, and any appliances with cartoon characters, especially Gashapon and models made from cartoon characters. I love the feeling I get when I see these models with playful and funny characters. It makes me happy.”

Any toys that come in a complete set, I’m making sure that I have all of it, that’s how crazy I am. When I first started collecting, whenever I saw a Gashapon vending machine while I was traveling in Japan, I would spin it until I get the entire collection. Sometimes, when I spin and get the same characters again and again, I would search for the stores and buy the whole collection.

When I get to the place, I found many second-hand toy shops. After that, every trip I had, became a toy searching trip. I would spend the entire day buying toys. I think that was the starting point of my toy collecting journey.

“Before buying this house, I was living in a 28 square metre condominium. I had not collected toys yet, but the overwhelming number of books and magazines I had could not fit into the three full-wall bookshelves.”

When the models, Gashapon, and toys piled up, I put them in rotation on the display cabinets as if they are in an exhibition because of the limited condominium space. I put my favourites on the shelves and the rest are in the box. I need to constantly check it from time to time because they would get sticky laying in a poorly ventilated place.

After getting married, Khun Stamp felt it was the right time to buy a house because the condominium could not offer enough space for both of them.

“My first criteria is the location. The condominium needs to be near the main road and preferable near the sky train because we didn’t have a car and decided not to buy any for the time being. Therefore, condominiums situated deep in the alley are not what we are looking for. We used to live like that, but it was such a waste of time. Even though the house price is cheaper, paying more for transportation fees in long term is not worth it.”

“Another criterion is the condominium should be in Ramintra area because it is near my mother’s house. My condominium was in the same area, so I feel familiar with the surroundings. The upcoming MRT Pink Line which is connected with BTS Green Line allows us to travel conveniently. Even if we decided to buy cars in the future, we can take advantage of the Ramintra Expressway. These criteria help us scope down our choice.”

“I search for the information solely on the internet. Looking for the articles and reviews about projects I’m interested in such as on the DDproperty website. It saves so much time for us because we can easily compare different projects all at once.”

“The advantage of property websites is they offer a larger point of view that we could miss. It helps a lot when comparing the property before buying. At first, I was searching for a house with a high living room ceiling because I like the space, but when we were watching the video reviewing one project, they said that this type of room has an air conditioner’s power consumption, so I changed my mind. If we were to visit the actual project, the salesperson might not point out these little details, so property website is a golden source to search for a property before buying.”

“The last criteria I had is the space should be big enough for me to build a home library. It is even better if it has good scenery, so I can build a relaxing area near the window. When I first entered the room that we called Entertain Room, it was everything I had in mind; the garden scenery, the location of the room at the back of the house, and the toilet provided within the room.”

“I intended to build this room as a home library, working space, movie room, and collectables display room, all in one area. I could be in this room the entire day and it is my favourite corner of the house. When I’m working, I can relax by looking at the tree outside.

“Another reason I decided to buy this townhome is that every room has its toilet. The whole third floor is the master bedroom, which has big enough space that I can build a walk-in closet. This allows us to use every area to its full potential. As of now, the bedroom does not have much decoration, only a bed, and closet, because I want to decorate the area for my toy collections first.

In the first corner, I’m going to do a built-in collectables shelf near the staircase. When I organise everything, I knew that the display cabinet will not have enough space. Especially for smaller pieces, I don’t want them to disappear deep into the cabinet, so I decided to build the space near the staircase.

“Even though I got new corners losing no space in the house, but it is still not enough to keep all the toys. The collectables area widened its space to other areas of the house. I’m working on efficiently managing the space because I want all the pieces to be in the spotlight. I think I have to gradually decorate this house.”

“The advantage of keeping the toys in a glass cabinet is they don’t get dusty. For other collections that are not in the glass cabinet, I clean them by using wet wipes after I played with them or after I rotate the whole set. Because I constantly buy new toys, I rotate them so often that it gets no chance to be dusty.”

“Dining table is another favourite spot of mine, especially for this Work From Home period. When I’m home alone, I love to sit in this corner. I planned to make this space as multitasking as it could be, so I use a sofa instead of chairs to make it feels like a café. Every day in the morning, I love working here, and working upstairs in the beginning.”

“Lifestyle has a huge impact on choosing the house. I’m not that serious about the kitchen because both of us do not cook, having a stove for reheating and making simple meals is enough. I would add more cabinets for cartoon glasses. Because I wanted to have a small library, so I need to choose the house with enough room and the house plan needs to be accommodated for the future house renovation.”

“I don’t think I’m going to move elsewhere because this place fulfils everything I need, but if I need to move, I would use the same criteria to buy the house by having the location and our lifestyle as the priority.”

“The things that I need to have is that the house needs to have a small library and enough space for the collectables cabinets.”

Regardless of your lifestyle or the collectable items you like, before buying a house, you need to have information on hand. You also need to ask yourself if this is what you want because you’re the one who lives in that house. Therefore, a good house is where you can live happily.