On 30th October we paid the Capital Gains Tax and Document Tax to the BIR Ilagan but as at today, 10th November, we still have not received the clearance from the BIR who also hold crucial documents we need in order to obtain our building permit from City Hall in Santiago City and register our [...]

No mains water? No problem. Just drill for it. It’s amazing when you realise how many properties in this country rely on underground water supplies. All you need is to drill a deep water well. I say all you need but the reality is that it takes a lot of strength to manually drill these [...]

At 6.30 am this morning our door bell sounded and it was the senior engineer from our contractor together with the project foreman he has appointed. They just called on their way to our lot where they will spend the day marking out the position of the buildings. So after breakfast we went over to [...]

We received the first eBids for our building project on Saturday. Both were higher than expected although the smaller house was the worst coming in at the high end of the average per square meter. So we decided to do all the internal finishing ourselves with family assistance as we have all the skills represented. [...]

After the plan for our lot having been approved, it was marking out day when the boundaries of our land were permanently marked by short, round concrete posts set into the ground. So the engineer invited us to join in. Gina’s brother, Nelson, who is presently growing rice on our lot, also came along as [...]

The Isabela House is the retirement home of Andy Hyner. Andy is from London, England and moved to the Philippines in 2009. He designed the house based off size cues from his house back in England. The house located in Santiago City, Isabel, Philippines, on the island of Luzon. Andy is a very detailed oriented [...]

Today we are introducing a new category of posts that will contain detailed “construction logs” by everyday people in the Philippines. They are building their retirement homes. Under categories / building your dream home / philippines building projects. The posts contained within were written by their prospective authors. We just wanted to consolidate the information [...]

Will you delegate your maid to live in a closet? If you accept a pre-designed home in the Philippines then probably yes. Most higher end homes in the Philippines come with a designated maid’s room. The designers of these homes have tried to fit a room (can we call it a room?) into whatever nook [...]

In a follow up to an earlier post Living Local, I wanted to delve deeper into what you can do to “Live Local” and save tons of money on your next trip to the Philippines. Inevitably in your lead up to moving / retiring in the Philippines you will make several if not many trips [...]

Implying that someone has or want’s a “dirty kitchen” in the west would be considered somewhat rude, but in the Philippines its a normal thing. The term “dirty kitchen” in the Philippines relates to kitchen workspace, typically separated and outside the main living space. It is usually the second cooking area of the home. It [...]