It seems perfectly reasonable to match the speed of paying the billings to not only the percentage but also the speed of completion by your contractor. The percentage complete tends to be a very imprecise measure. Certainly this is the case with our pool as we would expect that, as we have just been billed on the basis of 93% completion, we should by now be looking out at a pool that is at least filled with water, if not fully tested. In our dreams maybe but sadly not in reality!

Presently we see more than 7% remaining to be done so I have notified Northcon that our check raising will match their speed and certainty of completion. We have been given many promises but still no firm commitment on a completion date. Therefore we will make no further payments to Northcon until we see evidence of a commitment to get the job done. Despite the appearance of a Northcon foreman yesterday the only activity we witnessed this morning was someone sweeping the bottom of a, so far, empty pool.

Our pool is almost ready although Northcon were struggling to get the filtration pump to work yesterday. It was overheating badly so they have had to order a replacement from Manila. Hence no chemicals in the pool yet.

Prior to the storm hitting we had filled at least half the pool by connecting a combination of surplus drain pipe and hoses to several outside taps. A little heath robinson but it worked. Then Northcon decided that it was still a bit slow so they ordered up the Santiago Fire Service to deliver several tank loads of water.

Although Northcon were not yet able to get the filtration system and chemicals goingwe decided to use the pool for the first time anyway.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2
• Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress

We are very much taking one day at a time here. Rain has caused further delay to the remaining tiling and in fact I calculated that they will need to order quite a few more tiles. Yesterday the Northcon team were painting the newly-welded railings and this morning they were beginning to position them around the pool. One champagne palm seemed to be compromising the ideal positioning of one side of the fence so I told them to remove it and will will re-position it when the fence is finished.

Again I assume because of the inclement weather, bags of pebbles sit to one side awaiting application to the deck, steps and shower area.

In the front yard Von returned this morning to reconnect the wall lights, flood lighting and front gate bell. Some of the orange pipes and cable runs were torn up by the heavy vehicles that have entered the yard delivering materials for the pool. I think we have an agreement with Northcon to pay for or contribute to the cost of rectification of the perimeter wall electrics.

Today we purchased 20 dwarf coconut palms, from Mindanao, which will define the centre way between the two houses. They should grow to full height and fruit after 3 years. They have a life of 25 years we understand but I don’t think that’s going to worry us too much as hopefully we will have a lot more full-grown plants in our yard by then. We decided against planting full-sized coconut palms around the houses as there is the risk of them falling if there’s a major typhoon.

I must send off my 2009-10 UK tax return tomorrow in order to meet the 31 October deadline. I could do it online but I want to mention various things so it’s best to do it the old way at least this time. Previous comments about double taxation seem wrong now. Apparently unless you can prove that UK income is subject to Philippines tax, you won’t get the UK tax authorities to give way. As I’m at present a “resident alien” the Philippines authorities only tax income and bank interest arising in the Philippines. So although I deliberately collected a local tax number (TIN) from the BIR the other month, it’s not much use to me yet. I also made a useful contact with the head of the BIR in Isabela which could be quite useful if I have any tax questions in the future.

Depending on the availability of grout, chemicals and any other bits and pieces, the pool should be ready to use in a couple of weeks, we hope. Certainly the Northcon team was pushing on and also picking up themselves and fixing any defects. Yesterday it was the edge of the deck pebbling. The rain the other day had made it a straight instead of a curved edge so they were working under floodlights last night to remove the offending sections and should redo them today. They will then spray some kind of shiny surface material over the whole deck area. Then it’s time for the concrete blocks round the outside of the deck.

Yesterday they got me to test the connections to the internal light in the pump room and the floodlight on the roof which illuminates the pool area. Later there will also be a low DC voltage light under water in the side of the pool.

I am gradually uploading older video taken on 9th August when the concrete for the pool was being poured, so visitors to this blog may be interested in looking back at blog #180. I did try to updload the merged video file but it was so big (499Mb) it was taking hours so I am now uploading them as individual files.

The pebble deck has been redone at the deep end of the pool. It now has a much rounder edge. There is some slight variation in the thickness of the edge, however, it’s nothing major and frankly we would rather they get on and finish the pool now.

The Northcon team was down to 2 men yesterday, cleaning the pool tiling and replacing any suspect tiles. Nobody seemed to know what the next step would be although we assume, once money has been transferred from Manila, the edging concrete blocks will be installed.

By the fact that there was only one Northcon worker on site, bailing out water after last night’s rainfall, we assume the other guy is in town to meet materials sent up from Manila. But we could be wrong.  Yesterday they spent the day cleaning up the pool tiles in readiness for grouting. They also helped me move a couple of the heavier palms ready for planting. Other than that it was a very quiet day for them as they were still waiting for materials.

Last night I received a text reply to my request for a timetable for finishing. They say hopefully by the end of next week, but clearly that must depend on planning ahead so that the guys on site have the materials they need for each step in the process. No doubt Northcon have their own point of view on this but one of the reasons the project has dragged is this lack of “just in time” planning. I would call it “just too late” planning.

I can see businesses like Northcon increasingly struggling to win new business because the adverse exchange rate is deterring foreign customers who tend to overlook the value for money factor. Their first and only thought is how many pesos they get for their pound, dollar or whatever. And the answer is less and less. Faced with this equation the customer then tries to stay within his budget limit at the new exchange rate which can only be achieved if costs or margins are reduced. It is not a happy scenario for either the company or customer. It leads inevitably to job losses, shoddy workmanship, lack of qualified supervision etc etc. Now I am not accusing Northcon of the first item because the workmanship is very good, but our project has clearly suffered because of the absence of on-site supervision.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress
• Isabela House (Construction Log 41) Beginnings of a Swimming Pool
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction

One thing you learn from experience in business is the need to keep a record of any warnings that you have given. Should you need to refer a problem to a lawyer, such communications are critical evidence if you need to pursue a claim.

Having been involved in a number of multi-million pound legal actions when I was in business, you learn how vital this is. Thankfully, as in business, the fact that you have this kind of evidence available usually means that you end up settling out of court. Of course it can backfire. The classic was when a senior manager in one company I worked for was a key witness in a huge legal action against a consultant contractor. Millions of pounds were spent by my company to assemble the case against the contractor and then just before the case was due to go to court, the key witness attended a briefing. Until then all the emails and letters and other correspondence relevant to the case had been gathered and shared with both the prosection and the defence. Thousands of documents. At the briefing with prosecution lawyers the key witness disclosed that he had overlooked the daily diary record he kept and which was stored in several binders at his home. This dumfounded everyone. It was too late to submit this information, much of which undermined our position, and we ended up “dropping hands” and walking away from the case. The write-off in terms of both the failed consultancy contract and the legal costs of the failed case ran into many millions. Not to mention the exhausting time and effort that had distracted us all away from our dayjobs.

Yesterday I planted the two large bamboo trees and a tall palm down our sideway, positioning them against the alternate blank spans of the perimeter wall. Which reminds me, painting the wall is another job that has to be done, probably an orange and white combination to match the two houses.

The most curious thing came to mind this morning as I surveyed the newly finished backfill around the house. It looked just like one of those first photographs taken on the surface of the moon. The colour was almost identical.

Our swimming pool is showing signs of moving towards completion although whether one could argue that it is even now “substantially complete” is questionable. Northcon seems to apply its own definitions to such assessments. When the team doesn’t run out of cement, like they did yesterday, they work very hard. Only the selection and supply of materials and the remote supervision from Manila, or complete lack of it, gives rise to major delays. Handrails to the steps at the deep end were being installed today as well as sample pebbles for the deck, pool steps and shower area. We have also requested a short pathway between the shower area and the pool which will help reduce any dirt and gravel from the construction entering the pool. Eventually of course we will grass over the present backfill.

Our latest choice of pebbles was again rejected by Northcon and a third choice was provided which we refused to comment on as it seems a total waste of our time. I have insisted that any future choice must be pre-approved by Northcon.

As work on our pool has progressed the landscaping around it has begun to take shape. Once the position of the safety fence is finalized we will complete the planting and move the bahay kubo from the rear of the Mangligot house over to the corner of the wall behind the pool. This area will be used for barbecues and general entertaining.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2
• Isabela House (Construction Log 43) Landscaping and Pool Progress
• Isabela House (Construction Log 34) Project Completion Today?
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5

Due to the heavy rain we’ve had lately, the concreted but tile-less swimming pool has been regularly part-filling with water. So we thought, why not use it. Under our watchful eye Justin, Katkat and Nicole all began paddling through the water. Even our shitsu, YoYo, joined them and became the first to demonstrate doggy paddle. We just dropped him in, completely out of his depth, and he swam perfectly, achieving quite a speed. Quite amazing what natural swimmers dogs are. I must take some photos.

Northcon have advised that the Malibu tiles for the swimming will be supplied shortly. Their own deadline for delivery by Wilcon in Manila was 25 August, but this is the Philippines so we think they are more likely to appear sometime next week, if we’re lucky. Fortunately, except for the house blessing (a date we still have to set), there is no mad rush to finish the pool. However, I’m sure Northcon would like to finish it soon in order to bill the remainder of the contract price.

The replacement lanai doors are still sitting in our garage and we now understand that, rather than returning them to Manila for replacement of the damaged glass, a technician will travel from Manila to do it here. This makes far more sense.

Our water pump seems to have developed an intermittent fault. Normally we hear it wirring away, delivering plenty of water, however, since the orange conduit was extended to the pump, it seems to need a nudge to start it up. The pressurized water tank has also sounded rather empty. The one Northcon employee on site (pending the delivery of the tiles) took a look at it and diagnosed a loose electrical connection, however, the problem recurred so I switched the pump off at the local panel and re-checked and tightened all the wires. We’ll see if this resolves the problem. Normally in a brown-out we still get water from the taps and showers in the house, but currently when there is no power, the water pressure also seems to drop instantly. The good news it that with a swimming pool to supply Northcon need to ensure that the pump is working 100%, failing which it will need to be replaced.

When you have anything done in the Philippines you quickly learn that even the most respected companies are extremely unreliable. From a selection of tiles that Northcon provided we chose the one below, called Malibu, many weeks ago. However, we only learned yesterday that the manufacturer has a broken machine that will prevent our choice from being produced for an uncertain period. When the order was placed is not clear but we are astonished that it has taken so long to identify the problem with supply.

We believe it’s a combination of Northcon, Wilcon, the biggest hardware store in Manila, and the tile manufacturer. There appears to have been a breakdown in communication, a problem that seems endemic in the Philippines where everyone seems to have an injection of optimism from birth. Unfortunately this so often overtakes reality that deadlines are rarely met and any date you are quoted will almost certainly be missed. So to avoid disappointment you automatically build this factor into any plans you have.

So we said, find another plain light blue tile. We are still waiting. The alternatives we have been offered so far are typcial of what you find in a domestic bathroom, namely blue with darker veins running through or strange patterning, none of which suit the simple statement needed for a swimming pool 14m by 9m in size.

As a consequence construction of our swimming pool has virtually ground to a halt except for the filtration block which is being painted outside to match the main house. Until acceptable tiles can be delivered there will be no further progress.

I will update this blog when we get more news on the tiles. Northcon are supposed to be supplying some alternatives.

The long wait for our pool tiles continues. Northcon are sourcing possible alternatives to Malibu (our first choice) but checking that there are adequate supplies available this time.

In the meantime we have requested attention to our water pump which continues to peform erratically since the orange weather-proof pipe covering the mains cable was extended. This morning they added an l-shape extension as we pointed out that the way they had left it was not weather-proof and that any raindrops fell directly into the pipe. Whether this is the reason it suddenly starting needing a nudge to get it working is not clear. Either way we have demanded that Northcon get an engineer to fix it.

We have been unpaid ambassadors for Northcon for some time but our recent experience of their performance has not matched even our most reasonable expectations. Truth be told, contractors here rarely meet the western standards of performance we have been accustomed to while living in the UK. In part this is because contractors here lack the resources and training but it also reflects the unreliability of those suppliers they in turn are dependent on.

The other weakness we find here is that delegation in business is virtually unknown so even the smallest decisions are made by the boss. Also there is much double and even triple checking of things, all of which greatly extends the time it takes to do things. It’s as if nobody is trusted except the top guy. Go to the supermarket and they are even counting the number of items bagged up by the assistant against the till girl’s count. Totally crazy!

So if you decide to work with Northcon or any other contractor here you must expect a level of performance considerably below what you may have experienced in the past. Welcome to the Philippines. Everything is done extremely slowly and may not be to the quality level you require unless you watch very closely. Remember the performance we witnessed with the concreting of the swimming pool when the concrete mixer broke down in the entrance to our yard and they had to use a bulldozer to transfer mixed concrete to the concrete piping truck.

A new tile was chosen yesterday for our swimming pool. It’s called Pisa Blue and replaces Malibu, our previous choice.

A guy traveled all the way up from Alabang just to show us the two possible tiles. All we hope now is the supplier of Pisa has sufficient quantities and no machinery failures like the last tile we chose. In the meantime the frogs and dogs seem to be enjoying the rainwater that has collected in the concrete tub.

The tiling of the swimming pool has at last begun, a supply of the tiles we chose at the weekend having arrived yesterday, and the Northcon pool experts from Cebu have returned. We hope there will be no further hitches with completing the project.

The Northcon team have really got stuck in since the tiles arrived at the start of last week. My photos are a little out of date as some sections of the pool have many more rows of tiles.

Yesterday the guy from the lanai door makers arrived to replace the broken glass in one door. He was the same man who added an insect resistance element to each window in the house a little while back. So he showed me how to repair the sliding insect screens when Justin pushes his fingers into them.

More backfill arrived yesterday to complete the area for which we are responsible. We probably need around two to three more loads and that should be sufficient. Then we will prepare the ground for the driveway and reconnect the lighting that was disconnected during the big truck deliveries for the swimming pool.

The sides of the pool are now tiled but I found it necessary on Thursday evening to send a series of text messages to Northcon because the team seemed to be sitting around a lot on and progress has been exceedingly slow. In part I think this is due to the fact that there is no resident foreman so they appear to depend a lot on me emailing progress photos back to their head office in Manila. The office then issues instructions for the next step in the project. I realize we live in a digital age but the idea is surely to speed things up not slow them down.

The team here, one Northcon guy the rest locals, are a very supportive but do not seem to be empowered to make any decisions on their own. Hence 45 days is turning into 145 days, our project is running in parallel with at least two similar project, Alabang and Pampanga, and as a result it is competing for resources and supervision.

Anyway, I just told them to get their act together as snails pace is not acceptable and in any case it must be eroding whatever profit they had built into the price we agreed.  We need to see the end in sight, not this drifting along.

Yesterday new instructions from Manila had prompted the creation of the steps at the shallow end and, we understand, they will now commence tiling the pool floor. They advised us that they don’t have anyone available at present to do the deck pebbling but in any case we have been asked to choose smaller pebbles.

And so it goes on. It makes me wonder whether we should have asked the local contractor who built our perimeter wall to do our pool. They are very professional and get the job done in the time agreed. Surely Northcon should be better organized than the local contractor but recent experience proves they are not.

Northcon released two local men as they had no work for them while they were awaiting new instructions from Manila. So we redeployed them to help with our backfill, having had a number of loads of embankment earth delivered over the past week. In the meantime I was also busy planting the palms and trees around the pool area. Resty and Nelson helped me move them all from the front to the back yard and then I spent the past three days gradually planting them. Hard work but I have already planted along the back fence and two sides of the swimming pool.

The backfill of the whole yard area, front back and sides, is now completed and we are moving into the next phase of landscaping, creating a concrete driveway, buying and planting tress and palms for the front yard, applying Bermuda grass at the front and Caibou grass in the back yard, and making flower beds for smaller flowering plants.

We now have steps into the shallow end of the swimming pool and the first test railing has been prepared.

Our contract with Northcon commits to achieve substantial completion within 45 days. We are now at day 75. The floor of the pool is still untiled, the deck has no pebbles, one section of railing has appeared for our approval and none of the filtration/shower equipment has yet been installed. There is no doubt that “substantial” had not been achieved within 45 days and it is questionable whether one could really say it has been even now, after 75 days. It is not a nice thing to have to refer matters to an attorney as inevitably the relationship with the contractor suffers, however, it is getting to the point where this step may be necessary unless we can see evidence that Northcon actually have any intention of completing the pool this side of Christmas! I have sent several emails to Northcon management to spur action and get the necessary commitment. I am exaggerating here I admit because it suggests a bad relationship but in reality, yes we challenge them but the relations are businesslike and relatively easy so we have much to be thankful for.

My professional training is a burden at times as I tend to manage every risk in sight, a weakness I have, but it paid the bills for many years. Applied in an emerging economy this doesn’t always fit but I can recognize in Northcon most of the characteristics of what I regard as risk management. It’s just that from time to time it’s been necessary for me to to help them identify risks so that they can then manage them, which, to be fair, they normally do.

Also to be fair to Northcon, I should add that due to our fixed budget we set a very challenging price challenge which Northcon accepted. To meet it they had to reduce the level of supervision i.e. visits not residential supervision. Unfortunately they now acknowledge that this hasn’t worked out as well as they had hoped. But conversely I guess we should be grateful that they were able to meet us on price even if it has meant that we have had to be more involved than would have been the case had there been a resident supervisor.

I didn’t do any planting yesterday as, apart from my right arm aching from the exertions of Saturday, I needed to see where they would put the railing before planting any more palms.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress
• Isabela House (Construction Log 41) Beginnings of a Swimming Pool
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction

There’s certainly plenty to watch as what seems like an army of men continues to work on the pool. This of course is what makes a pool of this size so expensive in the UK where labour costs are vastly higher. In the Philippines I estimate that the cost is barely 25% of what it would cost in the UK. An enormous difference, further assisted by the fact that, unlike the rest of the yard, we had deliberately not backfilled the pool area.

I’m gradually adding videos to the previous blog postings so they may be worth revisiting if anyone is interested.

Our contractor has assisted us in sourcing life jackets and rings to keep everyone safe. Head support style life jackets for children don’t seem to be available in the Philippines but no doubt we will find a supplier here at some point. In terms of ongoing maintenance costs, unlike the UK, we have no need for heating so regular costs are only for the chemicals and any maintenance needed for the filtration equipment. The concrete filtration/shower block is well on the way to completion, only one wall remaining to pour. All the piping is already in position inside.

Foreman Tony, who also supervised the concrete pouring for both houses, has now moved back to another pool construction to run the completion tests and will return when our pool project has been completely tiles and is ready for its own testing. The Northcon pool specialists will stay with our project, however. They are working on the decking and perfecting the pool walls while at the same time fitting all the water filtration equipment.

The filtration building is in the process of having its last wall sections fabricated. Work on the walls of the pool continues, smoothing additional layers of concrete over the previous layers. The Cebu-based pool specialists have temporarily moved back to another pool project in Alabang for testing but will return when our project has been tiled and is ready for its own testing. All the critical pipework is in place so it’s really only finishing and tiling now. Some steps to be added at the shallow end and the decking to be concreted. Backfilling around the pool is also almost complete with only three truck loads to go they estimate.

I wonder how we will cope with the tranquillity after all the work has finished and we are left to our own devices. But somehow there always seems to be plenty left to do. We still have all the landscaping, plants to move from the front to the back yard, bermuda and caribou grass to plant, perimeter fence to finish painting, and so it goes on.

It looks like the pool is nearly ready for tiling.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 43) Landscaping and Pool Progress
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3

Around 1pm yesterday our yard started to fill with vehicles and an army of workers waiting to start concreting the pool. An hour or so later the first concrete was being poured.

A bulldozer was used to compact the driveway areas as much as possible so the 20 ton concrete truck could approach the back of the piping truck standing beside the pool supported by its extended hydrolic jacks.

Everything went well to begin with an then unfortunatley one of the concreting trucks experienced engine problems and became stuck in our front gateway. This caused all kinds of problems. They lifted the cab to work on the engine but despite several attempts it still lacked sufficient power to move. They tried pulling it with the dozer but this was also unsuccessful. In the end they improvised. They managed to reposition the concreting truck back into our driveway and then transferred concrete to the dozer, a bit at a time. It then operated a relay to the poolside and dumped it onto the floor of the pool. An army of workers then spaded the concrete into the remaining floor area and then started to slap it onto the side steel framework. The team wheelbarrowed the concrete to the areas where it was needed while others continued to build up the sides. Water was added reguarly to the concrete in the truck to prevent it hardening and the piping truck ran a clearance spray from time to time for the same reason.

What could have finished at around 6 or 7pm became a marathon exercise, working against the clock to spread the concrete before it hardened. To the team’s great credit they worked on until around 1am in the morning to finish the job. As darkness descended we turned on every possible light in and around the back of the house and extended table lamps to the poolside with daylight bulbs fitted to provide as much illumination as possible for the concreters.

Here is a series of photographs I took yesterday, the most recent at the end:

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 41) Beginnings of a Swimming Pool
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction

Lately it’s been more a story of acquiring plants than actually landscaping.

We’ve been travelling as far as Cayauan City, about a 45 minute drive from our house, to visit plant nurseries we know there. In particular we found some striking bamboo plants that branch out rather like a large hand with nuckles. In addition we purchased a mature Hawaian palm tree, the tallest plant in our garden, together with some champagne palms, some smaller palms, a large uka tree, some succulents, a couple of the fragrant scented blossom ylang ylang trees and some climbing plants. So quite a selection. And yesterday we purchased some large pots at very reasonable prices from the same nurseries.  We have reserved three mature Hawaian palm trees as their price was only 1,500 pesos, a thousand lower than the last one we purchased. We will visit again next week to secure the order and arrange delivery. It just shows it’s best to shop around for the best prices.

We have discovered quite a range of prices for the same plants across the different nurseries. It seems that many of the Santiago City nurseries actually go to Cayauan City for their plants, transport them back and add a mark-up. So you pay more at the closer nurseries for this reason. We’ve ended up buying from Cayauan as well as here in Santiago just to find the right size and quality of palm. Thankfully all the nurseries deliver for free based on a minimum order price. So we  have quite a selection of tropical plants already, but space for many more depending on how much of our garden we choose for grass and plant borders.

Yesterday we bought some very nice orchid plants in the temporary market that has been set up in front of the Catholic Church for fiesta time.

The BBC provides a free virtual garden planner which we have been messing around with to help our planning ideas. And of course the nurseries also want to get in on the act. But the garden is the one thing we feel inclined to do for ourselves if possible.

Very little progress has been made with the swimming pool due to the usual wait for materials. Some hollow block and gravel has been delivered but that’s about it. We understand that backfill has been ordered but will not arrive until the weekend of early next week. One potential problem is a gravel ban by the governor of Isabela, which means that material has to be transported from other locations.

But there was a little more activity around the pool on 22nd and 23rd July with hollow block and steelwork appearing for the first time around the edge. Here is another photo of the pool area taken from the viewing deck.

All of which means we are collecting plants together for the pool area but cannot yet position them around it, a la the “Groundforce” approach to garden plant layout, before digging any holes.

Once construction of the swimming pool is finished we will move them one by one into position and allow enough space for mature growth. Even a champagne palm (or bottle palm as the Australians call them) grows to quite a size (I remember seeing an example at one of the vineyards I visited with my daughter, Stephanie, a few years ago), so we will need to allow sufficient space. The main objective in all this is to provide shade around the pool area so we can use it for most of the day. In addition we want to have an attractive tropical look to the house and garden. Greenery tends to make any new house look more established and will gradually cover the backfill. We are planning to use Bermuda/Blue grass in the front yard but Caribou grass at the back for a lawn area where the children can play safely. Alternatively I suppose we could just have the Caribou grazing by the pool and no grass. That would give plenty of shade. Only kidding!

Having said nothing much seemed to be happening I’ve had to eat my words.  Here is a series of photos that shows the progress being made up to 26th July. Please note that once the backfill around the pool has been raised to the same height as the first step of our lanai, all that you can see at present will be underground. At the moment it looks like we will be stepping up to go into the pool but this will not be the case by the time construction is completed. It’s fascinating to witness how the Northcon pool specialists approach construction. They have several nylon wires running across the site to keep everything level and at the correct height.

24 July 2010

25 July 2010

26 July 2010

Swimming Pool Update 26 July 2010

The Northcon team seem to be making steady progress. Yesterday the first of around 400 sections of 12mm steel rod began to appear as fabrication of the inner surface of the pool began. This is where the main strength is located. The hollow block is really a strong mold for the re-inforced concrete inner shell but it does also hold back the backfill earth around the pool so it serves two purposes.

In fact there was some discussion yesterday regarding the material delivered for the backfill. I am not an expert but the Northcon team asked me to send photos to their head office just to check it was the right stuff.

The main difference from the previous updates is the steelwork and the floor. The latter dictates the depth of the pool when it is completed. Once the backfill has been completed the walls will not be visible as they will be underground. There will be a deck all round the pool and the area to the left will house the filtration plant, showers and BBQ area.

Not having the internet at home is a real bind but I’m getting used to coming into town and using Alpha’s Computer Shop while Justin’s at playschool or Ging is shopping. Here is a series of photos showing the pool progress since 3rd August.

To prepare for the concreting of the pool Northcon have torn up most of our driveway as it was not firm enough to support the construction vehicles needed. We have requested restoration once the concreting is completed as we will have to pay to re-install some electrical cables and fresh backfill.

Swimming Pool Update 3 August 2010

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3

To bring visitors up to date here are a few photographs of our new home. Aspects that relate to the sophisticated security measures have been deliberately ommitted. It’s a shame that such measures are necessary but they are essential to deter intruders. Incidentally, full licences are maintained for those measures that have the potential to cause personal injury or death and appropriate training has also been undertaken to ensure their safe use. We hope that we never have to use these things but it is better to be safe than sorry.

The Mangligot house is now occupied so I must post some photos of that also. Our family group is in itself important to security since foreigners on their own seem to attract the wrong kind of attention. I am thankful that our situation is somewhat different. In a sense providing a new home for the Mangligot solved two problems: our need for additional security, and their need for a house that didn’t flood twice a year. But they have done so much more to assist us before and since we arrived in the Philippines. I am very grateful to them. This is a family home in every sense.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

Work began in earnest today with four or five men starting to dig out the kidney shape for the pool. We think the initial position chosen is perfect and the pool actually doesn’t look out of proportion. If anything we could have gone larger! But it’s interesting to note that from end to end it’s equivalent to walking from half way through the theatre room across the living room, the kitchen and half way through the dirty kitchen. That’s quite big enough. I’ve seen pools in the UK and elsewhere that dominated the garden. In some cases that WAS the garden. That won’t happen here as the width of the house and the size of the yard area can easily take a pool 14X7 metres.

Depthwise the shallow end will be .6 and the deep end 1.6 metres. There will be removeable railings all round the pool to keep children out when unattended. I think we will need to make a rule that an adult has to be in attendance at all times or the pool is a no-go area.

These photographs were taken over a period of three days to show the progress. Some were taken from the lanai, but the best are from the viewing deck using a fisheye lens. I have not corrected the distortion as I think they work just fine unaltered.



One day on and the full shape of the swimming pool has appeared.

So you can see how quickly the project is progressing. Also apparent is the amount of water a short depth below the ricefield level. Currently they are digging out wet mud to reach the depth required and I wonder whether they might be wise to borrow our water pump to transfer the water outside our perimeter wall.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction

When we visited the site yesterday afternoon there was no sign of the power being transferred to individual house meters, however, our stove and range hood had been delivered and were sitting in the garage. Also arriving late yesterday from Zamora in the nextdoor province of Quirino was the hardwood swing seat, small table and hand-shaped chairs for Justin. They made no charge for delivery and gave us a 20% discount because they are keen to keep us as customers.

Inside our house a few more defects had been corrected but there is still quite a bit to clear. The majority of windows still do not sport security grilles and some internal doors are still being worked on. There was no sign of the kitchen cupboard defects being addressed and all work appears to have stopped on the lanai french doors. We assume the latter may be because Northcon are sourcing a UPVC replacement, but we cannot be sure as we’ve heard nothing more on the subject.

The architect having now left the project, the houseowner across the road, who has to date acted as foreman, now has oversight. An electrican, carpenter, painter, and, we think, a plumber, are all that is left of the Northcon team, so they are pretty busy sorting out the problems and generally cleaning up the different rooms.

In Mangligot house Gina’s two brothers were had finished preparing the ceiling and were applying smoothing and filling compound to the walls. Later in the day the walls had turned white and the wall preparation was in full swing.

Today I have to discuss the railings labour cost which has risen above the 40% norm and will reach 53% if we don’t discuss it with Opong. If he wants further projects he going to have to lower his rate below 40% or split the difference on the wall and railings. I have to say he has done a very professional job of the perimeter fence and wall so it’s probably worth the 53%, however, every peso over the norm is a reason not to give him further work.

We visited Opong’s family workshop today and were much impressed by the gates they have created. A good standard has been achieve that frankly may justify the higher labour percentage. At the site the floor of the back gate section was being raised with hollow block and concrete to backfill height in line with the concrete bindings. Once the gate is installed we will make a ramp down the other side to ricefield level.

While checking recent additions we noticed that the newly added external weathproof sockets in the walls of the lanai and the viewing deck are two, not three-pin, and will have to be replaced so thay comply with the project’s three-pin earthing standard. This is particularly important with external sockets.

Covered cable sockets in the living room floor have also appeared. Silver was not available so we had to have brushed gold colour metal.

The heaters in two out of three comfort rooms are now fully operational and delivering nice hot water for those colder months of the rainy season. It seems extraordinary now as we daily endure temperatures in the region of 40C to 44C, but there is a marked change from September through to December, month names with a “ber” or rather a “brrrr” in them.

I took out the prepaid Smart Bro GPRS starter pack yesterday and am using with my laptop for the blog as there is currently a brownout in Plaridel. Its painfully slow compared to the PLDT DSL service but it’s better than nothing I suppose, particularly when there’s no mains power! If it’s adequate I will switch to the prepaid service so that I don’t have to keep buying new load. Otherwise we will use the internet cafe owned by Gina’s niece which is within the present PLDT service area. Maybe this is a good thing as we will spend less time on the internet and get more done on the house and growing the farming.

We had prolonged heavy rain and strong winds this afternoon. The drains of our rented house couldn’t cope and water began flooding the kitchen. We removed anything that could get damaged and spent a couple of hours bailing out water into the bathroom where there is a drainhole in the floor. This must be a sign so, regardless of outstanding punchlist items, we will move into the new house as soon as we can arrange a truck.

It looks as if we will be hiring the NIA truck for the day to move our furniture. NIA stands for National Irrigation Administration. At this moment (8.05am) it is being used for a funeral so we expect it to arrive later this morning. No doubt it will have to do several runs between here and Patul and we will move more valuable or fragile items in our car.

Northcon have asked us to put everything in the bedrooms as they are still working down the punchlist of defects in other areas of the house.

Wow, I hadn’t realised how many weeks it was since I last updated my blog.

A lot has happened in that time, so where to begin?…..

All things considered the move went very smoothly. All we have left to remove from the yard of the rented house is the top of the garden table, the heavy base for the umbrella, some tool racking and the kubo.  Nelson has been repairing his hand tractor with the intention of using that to move those items but ploughing of our ricefield is a higher priority at present.

Justin has now started at a playgroup three days a week and seems to be enjoying it.

Earlier this week we signed a contract with Northcon, who constructed both houses, to build a kidney-shaped swimming pool behind the Hyner house and work has already begun. We also offered the pool to Opong, the local contractor who built our perimeter wall, but he was too vague on cost so in the end we bargained with Northcon to get the cost down to our budget and they matched it. Plus of course, unlike Opong, they give a warranty on all their work. So in the end we think it is best to go with Northcon. They estimate that the pool will take around 45 days to complete.

The swimming pool will be 14 metres by 7 metres, which due to the size of our yard actually doesn’t look that big. I’ve seen a lot of pools that took over an entire back garden but that looks out of proportion. Ours will have a perimeter paving plus a shower and filtration block on one side. We will also create a BBQ area on the same side. Later today we will make some enquiries into buying mature trees to provide more shade for the pool.

This a retrospective of period since we moved into the new house: (photos to be added later)

4th June

We’ve been incredibly busy this past week and even now there is some stuff we’ve not yet unpacked. We’ve been overseeing the punch list (defects) as Northcon work down it and being here has revealed a several other matters including the need for a floor drain in the lanai, a transformer to clear the power dips and a review of the windows because of insect penetration when they are closed. Today they were hunting for the termite poisoning pipe entrances and exits which carelessly they had concreted over. Fortunately I have a photo of the ones still missing so will give it to them tomorrow. Hopefully this will halt the unnecessary removal of the decorative stone. Now you may well ask why they didn’t mark the positions in their own copy of the plans! Have also asked them to perform the chemical treatment when the find all of the pipe ends as one did not even have a rising section of elbow or plug. To be on the safe side they should repeat it.

8th June

It’s certainly been an advantage moving in while Northcon have been finishing things. Mainly they are doing stuff outside like security grilles, but they’ve found time to make appropriate gaspipe holes for the two stoves and other things we’ve needed doing.

In the meantime Nelson assisted by a couple of local guys and myself at times have been continuing to spread backfill. We are almost there now but compacting will necessitate further deliveries of embankment earth.

I haven’t seen our rice threshed yet but Gina says that when any foreign material gets removed. I have been an observer only up to now. The last harvest was minute because of the dry weather so we hope the recent rains will mean a good start to the next one.

We are nearly through emptying boxes and finding homes for everything. I have to start putting curtains up tomorrow but the TV is already connected and my old Avis Europe desk has appeared at last in the music room. Still ample space for my music equipment and library.

Fly paper works even better than the electric tennis racket.  But the window suppliers has been discussing the problem with Northcon and has apparently come up with a modification. There is one opening they need to cover at the end of each sliding section. And the lanai doors are on hold as Northcon seem to have accepted that they’re rubbish and are supposed to have arranged UPVC replacements, so we’ll see.

Actually doing the brackfill work outside has made a pleasant change for me. I start at 5.45am and go on until 7 when the sun rises. Then I hand over to the day shift and they push on until 5pm. It’s amazing how much earth they’ve spread.

12th June

Well, it looks like we will be watching the World Cup at Gina’s sister’s house as there is no cable coverage in this area. At some stage we will put up a mast so we can pick up the free off-air programming but the local cable network ends about a kilometre away from us. They took a refundable deposit, and later sent a text to say they didn’t cover our area. Similarly no telephone and no DSL internet service. Even the City Engineer, who only lives a couple of hundred yards from us, has not been able to influence the service providers to extend their networks. We’re not too bothered about the TV as most of it is rubbish anyway, but Gina will miss the fast internet. Smart bro broadband, the USB service, is slower than dial-up. So we think we’ll pay towards DSL being installed at Gina’s sister’s house so we can have access to the things we need. [Subsequently decided to use Alpha's internet cafe while Gina and Justin are at his playschool. Jang let's me connect my laptop for free.]

All this means we will have plenty of time to indulge in developing the farm and any other business enterprise.

Northcon say they have sent materials to correct the windows by LBC. Their staff are on hand to fit and the supplier is also sending people to assist and review any other problems. We have a couple of rooms where water is getting in at the bottom of the window due to poor sealing. I did one myself but the storm tonight revealed that I didn’t do a good enough job. We are still getting large crickets penetrating the sliding window system so we hope the modifications will address the problem. We also hope to hear more about the replacement French doors for the lanai. Final payment will not be made until these little glitches are resolved.

The aircon is great. We have 7 altogether but use them only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise we have a couple of fans and we also open the doors to the lanai at times and a front window to get a flow through of air. The double glazing is not perfect given the standard of installation but it works to some extent. The insulated walls make a bigger contribution to keeping the house cool. We are also gradually adding curtains which itself cuts out a little excess sunlight. We put the first set up today at the front of the living room.

The house is indeed looking much more like a home now. Most boxes are gone now and most of what we brought fits in fine. We got the 50 inch TV screen working today in the theatre room and I managed to get both the blu-ray and the standard DVD hooked up to the surround sound system. In the meantime Mangligot house is getting on nicely. We have several local men assisting on a day rate of 200 pesos to do all the finishing inside which we left out of the Northcon contract. This also means that Gina’s brothers are really making the house their own. And of course they have been enormously helpful in sorting things out with our own place. It’s been a real family effort so they’ve truly earned they new home here.

16th June

Have now spent two weeks unpacking and finding homes for everything we shipped. Also purchased a few items here to maintain the character. Currently sorting out the double glazed sliding windows. The supplier was up today to modify them as too many insects are getting through, in particular Crickets. The supplier added a bit of plastic and felt at the bottom of every window. We will see tonight whether this stops the regular cricket invasion. They said that the cricket will only use the lower gaps on the window. We hope ours have been properly educated to ignore any gaps at the top of windows. We shall see.

Talking about helping out, the barangay captain came round earlier this week and tried to borrow money. We had literally only 7,000 pesos so we apologised and blamed the current poor exchange rate of the UK Pound. The captain even said he would leave his title document with us as collateral. I ask you! We had previously promised and given him our old window type ACU, so he started by thanking us for that and then it was on to borrowing. Amazing! And he had just come back from a short holiday in Hong Kong. His mother wasn’t well he said and needed some hospital treatment. He had arranged a loan he told us but it wasn’t through yet so needed 10 or even 5 thousand to see him through.

Most things are working well. There is power to this area so that’s not a problem and the showers etc are working brilliantly from the electric water pump and pressurized water tank. So the design works. Ging (Gina) has put up the first curtains we had made for us and is now making some herself for Justin’s room.

19th June

We think most items on our list of defects (punchlist) have now been addressed. Only the replacement of the lanai doors is outstanding. The original doors are still in an unfinished state with no glass sealant and a large gap underneath that we have to cover at night to keep out insects. The windows supplier technician who attended to refine our windows earlier this week and measured up the replacement estimated that the revised doors would be ready in about 7 days. As soon as these doors fitted we will arrange payment in full of the 5th and final billing to Northcon.

Trying to sort something out with Jang & Alpha who is Gina’s niece. They own the internet cafe we used before we had the DSL at our rented house. They think I may be able to connect my laptop there which would be the best way. So we’ll see.

21st June

The window refinement (bits of white plastic with two felt strips that fit into the outer sliding window channel at the bottom) appears to be contributing to a reduction in the crickets. At night I also put books on the floor to close the gap under the doors to the lanai and a similar to the front door although that does have a brush strip at the bottom. As far as we know our lanai doors are being replaced with UPVC units, but while the window supplier who did the recent mods to our windows measured up for the replacement doors, Northcon have been silent on the subject. When Northcon’s MD, Jerry Chin, arrives for the formal handover of our house on 23 June we will no doubt hear more. Presently I have held back on the 5^th and final payment to Northcon as the present lanai doors are not in a finished state. They have glass in each section and a lock but that’s about it. No sealing around the glass and half of one hinge has already broken off.

We have found that crickets are very skilled at coming into your house during the day and then hiding until dark, so it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between this tactic and failure of the new window refinement. So we’ll see.

The provision of the house to Gina’s brothers is a big gift but the family is never expected to contribute a single peso to the building cost. Just them being there beside us will provide us with important additional security. They are doing much of the finishing themselves and we are paying for a couple of guys to assist as Nelson is about to start planting rice and Resty has a PSV van route to operate. Nelson is supervising the completion of the backfill and sorting out any problems we can’t sort out for ourselves. We had two deliveries of stones at the weekend. On Saturday Nelson and I started replacing the muddy earth with stones and yesterday two local guys took over. So we now have good hard standing from the entrance right up to our house. The remainder is quite well compacted already due to the many embankment earth deliveries but we may similarly replace the top layer of the driveway section with stones. Then we have to decide whether to leave it or concrete it over.

Yesterday we selected a white german shepherd female puppy from the same breeder as our shitsu. It should be ready to collect in 2-3 weeks when it has received all its injections. It was a difficult choice as the whole litter (6 puppies)is gorgeous. Then we need to build a large strong steel cage. She will be another plank in our measures to deter uninvited visitors. Apparently this breed generally sleep during the day and are alert at night, so ideal security for both houses.

That’s about it from here. Looking forward to another end-of-the-day iced sherry leaning over the railings of our viewing deck gazing at the distant mountains and palm trees.

It’s 7.04 in the morning and the two local guys are already out there spreading the stones on our driveway. This of course if the best time of the day for it as it’s considerably cooler. Nearby they have a tarpaulin sunshade on a long section of bamboo but we have said to them they are welcome to sit in our porchway when they take a break.

26th June

We had satellite TV installed yesterday so are a little less cut-off from the world now, but the internet is still USB dial-up as the DSL network does not extend this far out of the city. However, Justin has just started attending a pre-school class in the city 2-3 times a week, so we park just outside the city centre, take a tricycle taxi and, on the way to the pre-school, Gina and Justin drop me off with my laptop at Gina’s niece’s internet cafe where I can surf and download from the internet for a couple of hours.

Yesterday the MD of Northcon, Engineer Jerry Chin, our contractor for the house, came for a formal review and handover of the project, and the satellite guys arrived speculatively at the same time. The latter spent 6 hours with us as they had problems connecting their service to the corner post where all our services are delivered. All our wires run underground from the corner post into both houses. Apart from the lanai doors we have few if any issues as most problems, defects or snags were ironed out during construction thanks to us be close-by and visiting twice a day.

Jerry will replace the door to the lanai and we have agreed to split the cost 50:50 as it’s their third attempt at the lanai doors. We discussed the swimming pool area which at present is a deep space at the back of the house at original ricefield height, the rest having been raised by backfilling. We are looking seriously at having a pool constructed both for exercise and to cool down. This is one of the hottest provinces in the Philippines with daily temperatures reaching as high as 45C with high humidity so it is T-shirt and shorts at most any time.  Both Northcon and a local contractor are bidding for the work which will include a shower and BBQ area.

Nelson has just started ploughing our lot, and the neighbouring one we rent, ready for sewing rice seed tomorrow. Irrigation water is flowing so hopefully we won’t have the problems we encountered during the recent el ninyo dry spell. The owner of the lot we rent (next tp our lot) and his son offered to sell their land to us for 700 pesos a sqm. Some quick mental arithmetic and we realised he wanted 5.2 million pesos (UKP 75,000) for three-quarters of a hectare. Even the bank has told us that in some places we can buy a hectare of ricefield for 500,000 pesos. Anyway, we politely eclined, and he immediately dropped the price he wanted to to 2.1 million pesos. We again declined and have not heard from him since. However, there is land available opposite for around 700,000, it’s close to the irrigation and always seems to have plenty of water.

We know the value of land in this locality very well, and the highest price is nearer 800,000 to 900,000 pesos per hectare (10,000sqm or 2.5 acres). We only paid 600,000 for our 7,500sqm three years ago (when the UK pound was worth over 80 pesos) but that was because we had outstanding property taxes we agreed to pay on the owner’s behalf and also some issues which required some patience to resolve. Now with the UK pound nearer 68 pesos we are very picky. If we do buy any more land it will only be ricefield land to grow rice, and as a long term investment. We have no plans to build a subdivision or resort and it is most unlikely that anyone else will buy land to for that purpose here. Our written rental contract with the owner precludes sale to anyone except us for the next two years so we are in no hurry.

Last week we took Justin to the de Vera hospital, a private hospital, as we were concerned that he wasn’t eating enough and had very little appetite. His height is above normal but his weight should be nearer 15kgs and he’s only barely above 11kgs at present. So they did tests (blood and x-ray) and concluded that nothing major is wrong. They prescribed vitamins to improve his appetite and some special formula milk. And we are experimenting with different treats to boost his interest in food but it’s difficult to force him to eat when he doesn’t want to.

The post office here just take the letter from you and calculate the charge for the destination country so you don’t purchase a physical stamp at any stage. With at least 10% of the Filipino population working overseas at any time they must handle a huge amount of airmail. It will be interesting to see if they deliver to this address now or continue to deliver mail to Gina’s sister’s house in Plaridel barangay. I think the postman recognizes my name and tries to avoid having to travel too far to deliver. But it doesn’t matter really as we are frequently there anyway and her daughter and son-in-law who live there (Gina’s sister, Lyn, is working in Hong Kong) even bring mail over to us sometimes.

Used our new oven for the second time tonight to cook some pork with crackling and it worked very well. The La Germania cooker has three gas rings and an electric hot plate plus electric oven with fan, grill and timer. We had to order it through our building contractor as it was only available from suppliers in Manila. We also purchased an extractor fan the same way. Our contractor gave us the benefit of their discount which was very decent of them.

29th June

Rainy season here is gradually developing. Some days we get rain in the late afternoon but we’ve had none in the last 2-3 days, just hot sun all day. When it did rain we had a mud bath outside our front door, so Ging’s brother, Nelson, and a couple of helpers, removed the top layer of earth and replaced it with a two deliveries of stones. We are now doing the same with the remainder of the driveway area prior to concreting.

We have house lizards already. They come in through the roof space into our raised ceiling which is not totally sealed.

We are considering two offers to build the swimming pool which will have railings all around it to prevent accidents but not a cage like you see in Florida. I think they mainly cage them to keep out the alligators. Northcon are rebidding having secured a significant reduction from their main supplier and the local guy who did our wall has presented plans but as yet no cost information. Early indications are that the local guy would charge almost as much as Northcon which makes no sense, especially as Northcon give a warranty on all their work.

Fingers crossed on how the new and old dog get on. Big difference in size of course when the GSD is full grown.

The lanai is our main place for relaxing outside at present. We must put some seating on the viewing deck and then maybe at the end of the day it will be practical to sit up there. We do go up there a lot but not to entertain at present. There is no shade either up there. But we have a garden table and some chairs that could in theory go up there complete with sun brolley.

Tricycles provide a very cool way to travel around with that lovely breeze blowing through.

Just had the painter who is helping with the finishing of the small house give us a list of materials to paint the doors. It came to 10,000 pesos (£140) for painting four doors. I said to Nelson that if he was paying would he spend that much on four doors. After some discussion we reduced the estimate by half. At the same time the security firm we were introduced to by the local barangay captain turned up to ask if we had made a decision on security and I said yes, the answer is No! 9,000 pesos a month is better spent on other things, including food for our new GSD. And frankly with the family living right next to us it seems unnecessary to spend a lot on having a security guard sitting around all night. We have good lighting all round as well and floodlights shortly, maybe even a security camera. But I suspect the barangay captain was going to receive some kind of percentage if we signed up.

I’m starting to put my foot down now regarding unnecessary costs. When I was working it was fine but now it’s down to pension income and savings I have to be quite strict. Gina has always been very responsible in this regard, no doubt because of her wider experience in Hong Kong and the UK.

1st July

We intend to have a barbeque area as part of the pool project. As usual it will depend on cost (UK pound at 69.70 today.

Budgeting is difficult at the moment with so many bits and pieces to pay for, but it’s gradually settling down. Even after the Mangligot house and the pooll are finished we will still have expenditure for the ploughing, rice sewing, transplanting and harvesting of course. We can’t avoid that, but on the other hand the farm should generate an income and food to make us almost self-sufficient. Then maybe a fish farm. We’ll see.

Poolwise I think we will push on as soon as we have agreed a price. It won’t get any cheaper unless the UK pound recovers significantly. Also the rainy season is less popular for project starts so contractors are hungry to cover their fixed costs and therefore likely to be more flexible on profits and contingency add-ons. Having two quotations has been a good policy. I haven’t opened the latest one from Northcon but I’m hoping they will match the local guy as they, unlike him, will offer a warranty on their work. Ging feels that’s a big advantage and I think she’s right. Ging doesn’t swim yet but I don’t think it would take her long as she loves messing around in the water and doesn’t seem frightened.

We now have stones spread over almost all the front driveway area and will probably let that bed down before we concrete it over. We will have a couple more stone deliveries so we can finish the centre way through to the entrance to the rear of our lot, but we will not concrete that over. As you suggest, just doing this has already begun to reveal what will be garden and landscaping. It will keep us busy when the weather allows, and by that I mean avoiding the hot sun as well as any rain. Currently we are painting the perimeter fence ironwork. I got up at 5.30 am to do it before the sun and humidity made painting impossible. Isabela is the hottest province in the Philippines so one needs to be careful. So we paint early and late each day. Doing the gold ornamentation at the moment.

Subdivisions usually only provide entrance security while there are still available plots. Once fully sold the security disappears unless residents pay an annual service charge for it. In some ways its better to live with family around you as subdivisions don’t seem to offer the security you might think. I’ve told the security firm that was chasing us that we’re not interested. I can find better things to do with P9,000 a month and the whole point of having the two houses in one compound was to benefit from having several adults on site. We have perimeter fence lighting on many columns and also floodlighting which can be turned on if we hear something suspicious. We have just installed a spyhole in our front door so we can see who’s knocking. There are already several layers of security and more will be added. Ging will also apply for a gun licence, a common measure in the Philippines.

Northcon have confirmed their offer for the swimming pool project at Php 1.3M.

Included in this offer are as follows:
1. Operational Pool as stated in the bid cost breakdown
2. 1.5 height backfill around pool area
3. Solid concrete pump room (concrete roof)
4. Two shower head

5. Tiled wall and floor

6. Spot light direct to swimming pool from filtration room

7. Movable steel fence(painted using gi pipes and wiremesh w/ gate), whole movable fence is two meter around pool.

8. Pebble wash out deck and 8″ x 8″ ceramic tiles pool finish (owner to select color)

9. Construction is 45 days

10. Down Payment 50% and balance by progress billing

11. Mobilization is 2 days after receipt of down payment.

12. All pump and filter equipment are US Brand

2nd July

Photograph of insect screen damaged by Justin’s fingers sent to Northcon. Annoying habit soI need to learn how to repair them when he does it.

Getting car insurance quotations from PNB as well as through Toyota dealer who supplied our Fortuner. No such thing as a no claims bonus here apparently. Only question is how much risk you are will to bear yourself and whether or not you want typhoon and earthquake protection.

Made enquiries today into Window-Eyes for Arkhy, Lyn’s son, who has been blind from birth. The application is there from the moment you switch on your pc and effectively screen reads but also supports scripting. The challenge for Arkhy is to learn to use the mouse or touch pad as to date he has never used either, prefering instead to use the arrow keys. The latter are useless when the screen is complex however. The supplier of Window-Eyes, GW Micro, do an instalment plan over 32 months, so if Arkhy likes Window-Eyes I will cancel my donations to Sightsavers and switch funds across to pay for the full application. The demo version has a time limit of 30 minutes after which you have to reboot your pc.

We are close to contract signing for the swimming pool now having answered most questions. It appears that our existing water pump will be fine for the swimming pool so we will not need to drill a separate deep well.

6th July

Northcon engineer Jo arrived this morning we pre-signed contracts and two Northcon swimming pool specialists from Cebu. These guys build all their pools. They borrowed some steel rod that was surrendered to us after the perimeter wall was built and used it to show us the shape and positioning of the swimming pool. They got it right first time as far as we were concerned. We were advised that there will be up to 15 workers recruited to assist in the construction. Once the shape has been fixed with hollow block they will pour all the concrete for the pool in a single day.

7th July

Work has begun on the swimming pool. Some marker posts have been positioned and they started to dig around the kidney shape marked by the steel rods.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

At the moment there’s nothing much to say about the City Engineering Department inspection other than that it still hasn’t taken place.

Northcon’s site architect, who is dealing with the occupancy permit, has the name of the engineer who will do it but as yet there’s been no sign of her. The application for the occupancy permit was submitted to the City Engineer’s department over two weeks ago. The engineer has promised to carry out the inspection for several days now but has not appeared.

We have our own contacts, including the City Engineer’s right hand man, who is Gina’s uncle, but it seems best to leave it to Northcon at the moment. There are also other connections at Mayoral level, but again at the moment we will leave it with Northcon who are assuring us that they can deal with it.

We hope this is not going to be a repeat performance of the problems we experienced with the building permit and later, at least initially, with the fencing permit. In the end those delays were attributed to what were referred to as misunderstandings. Maybe the days lost with the election have contributed, we don’t know. But it is Northcon who must deal with the occupancy permit as it is part of the contract. Also frankly, if we get involved it always seems to lead to major upset for the City Engineer and we have no wish to make an enemy of our future neighbour. So best we keep out of it.

Update 18 May 2010
We have since learned that an engineer from City Hall conducted the inspection at the end of last week and there were no major problems. Some minor item or items on the electrical side but that’s all apparently. So now they need the approval signature of the City Engineer who is apparently in Manila today.

Yesterday when we visited the site they had changed to yellow the bulbs in the entrance lights. Outside, with the light orange walls, the effect works well, but inside, with the white walls of the living room, it will make us look as if we all have a bad case of jaundice. So I think we may pass on changing all the lights to yellow.

Last night the Northcon supervisor was looking somewhat dejected as it seems that, despite their best efforts, the electric pump on the Hyner deep well is still not doing its job. We had installed some additional parts in both pipes for the deep wells but apparently this was not the only problem, it was the pump that was faulty. Or maybe it was the wrong spec for the depth of well. We really don’t know, but anyway they said they would replace the pump with another model. In the meantime we have been asked to make the Mangigot well even deeper as the amount of water is slightly less than the Hyner well at present and needs to be increased. Nelson will arrange for the deep well team to return today (Sunday).

Today when we arrived at the site the electric pump on the Hyner house deep well was positively gushing lovely clear water. Apparently the Northcon team had tightened something inside the pump and this cured yesterday’s problem.

The Mangligot house deep well is also being made deeper today, adding a further 5 metres.

Inside the Mangligot house all the ceiling panels are at last up (delayed while the roof trusses were fully welded for the second time) so we can at last now prepare the walls and ceiling for painting and tile the floors. I must buy a grinder and some disks, one of which will remove the ridges on the walls between each concreted section and another to cut tiles when we start the flooring. For the walls and ceilings Northcon use gysum putty, paste it into any cracks, including the ceiling panel joints, and then rub down to a smooth surface ready for painting. The ceiling panels will also need taping before painting.

Between the entrance of Hyner house and the garage/parking path of tiles has now been added and inside the garage/parking the floor has been concreted. We believe they will be adding an expoxy type rubberised surface to the floor to make it easy to keep clean.

The tiling of the walls and floor of the common bathroom is almost complete and it now has a toilet, shower hardware and a granite top to support the counter-top style handbasin.

Peaking inside the kitchen, most of the painting seems to be finished now as does the dirty kitchen. The cupboard doors have been hanging outside for painting and drying so maybe today (Sunday) they can finish both rooms. That will be only one day over the bonus target date.

Defects (the snagging list as it is otherwise known) are gradually being dealt with. The roofers came yesterday to complete their bits and inside Hyner house several efects we had reported in our room turnover review have already been cleared.

The lanai now has the same colour walls as the outside of the house and the spiral staircase steelwork has now been painted black except for the decorative leaves which are gold. No lights have been installed yet in the lanai but we have already supplied the central light which was our responsiblity to purchase. We have also previously supplied the two central lights for the living/dining area and one for the kitchen.

If Wellcome Enterprises continue to lie about sending fitters for the aircon, Northcon say they will instruct local installers here in Santiago City to do it.

Update 18 May 2010
Amazingly, the Wellcome Enterprises ACU installers arrived today so I will remove my blog.

We visited the furniture maker in Cordon again yesterday. They have started making our table and bench chairs for the lanai (similar to the ones they we had seen on our first visit) and we admired a bar and stools that they had recently completed, which could easily be accommodated in the lanai. This again used salvaged driftwood or fire-damaged timber. The roots and trunks of trees featured on the front of the bar and supported the three stools, each of which had a back and footrest. The complete set was 35,000 pesos and include a raised arm of wood for a light fitting. Very unusual, as is all the furniture this wood carver produces. Out front was a huge pile of bits of tree trunk etc, much of it showing different kinds of damage, which itself will dictate the use and shape of whatever the woodcarver creates.

The Wellcome Enterprises ACU fitters had already started work at the site when we arrive yesterday morning.

Correction to earlier blogs: It was Wellcome Enterprises who messed us around with the ACU fitting and not Anson’s Emporium. I have amended previous blogs to reflect the correct supplier.

In the front yard more embankment earth for the backfill arrived (10 truck loads altogether) and the level of the ground is fast approaching house the foot of the entrance steps to both houses. This means that as soon as the concrete binding posts are covered we can switch some areas to top soil for the landscaping while continuing a little longer with embankment earth for the driveway area.

Compaction of the driveway section of the yard is critical so Nelson paid one of the truck drivers 100 pesos to spend a few minutes rolling over that area in particular with the truck still loaded with the latest delivery. This seems to produce a really hard surface which we could never improve on even if we hired a compaction machine. 100 pesos well spent.

Project update 19 May 2010

All seven split inverter aircon units were fitted by last night, a successful end to four days of hard work by Wellcome installers. After the Northcon workers finished for the day, the installers tested each unit in turn, connecting a meter to the external unit and turning the internal unit on with the remote control. We checked each room to see that the units were working correctly and were very satisfied with the result.  We have 1.0HP units in 4 rooms, a 1.5HP in the master bedroom, and two separate 2.0HP units in the living room.

While the rating given by Panasonic gives one answer as to the power of the unit needed for a given room size, we followed the room size/rating table issued by the Philippines government. This combined with the fact that we have double glazed windows and insulated walls means that we have selected lower ratings in each room. Our aim is not to operate all seven simultaneously but simply to have access to aircon in whichever room we’re using at the time. Otherwise the cost would be astronomic.

Two out of three CR water heaters have been found to be defective and Northcon will replace them. The plumbing to the mixer in the master bedroom CR was incorrect, hence more wall hacking, this time from the bedroom side, to correct the problem.

The french doors to the lanai were being glazed yesterday but still look very bodged. It’s not the fault of the workmen, but we still feel that Northcon really should have supplied upvc double glazed doors to match the rest of the house. When the boss of Northcon visited the other week we thought he might replace the doors as he had been speaking to the window supplier, and we discussed the full length security bolts we use in the UK, but nothing has been heard on the subject since. We would never have imagined that Northcon would weld doors together on site. Clearly it’s cheaper than buying a ready-made unit but inevitably the quality is inferior to a factory produced upvc product.

There are now lights in the lanai, including the centre light we supplied, and the walls have been finish painted to match the outside colour.

Mangligot house CR fittings are now in place and, while awaiting delivery of finishing materials we have ordered, we started to prepare the walls of two rooms yesterday using sandpaper and a newly acquired Black & Decker grinder.

The team was still working hard to finish the Mangligot deep well, having dropped a section of piping down the well by accident earlier in the week. So some of the work has had to be repeated. However, the good news is the volume of water available at the increased depth is much greater. In the meantime a connection has been made from the Hyner pressurized tank into the Mangligot house so we had plenty of water on site. In contrast, when we returned to our rented house in the subdivision there was only a dribble of water, a regular occurrence there.

The kitchen of Hyner house is still unfinished. Much painting and adjustment and glazing of doors is taking place but they are not at the end yet. However, it is looking better by the day so we live in hope that they will finish by the end of next week. The centre light we supplied has been installed above the central worktop.

Capping of the pillars of the perimeter wall is almost complete and Opong expects to have all the railings installed by the middle of next week. After that gates have to be constructed and the lighting work completed.

Our stove and range hood have been delivered to Northcon in Manila and they are planning to truck it up to the site. We hope it will be this week so that everything can be installed. We have asked Northcon to calculate the rating for a standby generator to support some house lighting and the water pump.

But overall things appear to be on the finishing straight. Many areas need cleaning or touching up, but the big stuff is now done although not dusted.

I walked round both buildings this morning and everything is starting to look more finished. Still a few bits of touching up to do but they’re getting there. A few wires hanging out here and there, presumably awaiting weatherproof sockets or light fittings: lanai, viewing deck, spiral staircase etc; a water outlet plugged that needs a tap; catch basins awaiting covers; the last section of waste water pipe absent; electric pump and wiring in need of weatherproof covering etc etc.

The window security grilles are being spray painted prior to installation. Doors are being final fitted here and there while others are receiving finishing coats of varnish. The floor of the garage/parking area is being painted a dark brownish reddish/sienna colour which is practical for such places.

CRs are nearly complete except for the missing water heaters in two. Water seemed to be connected today although where the heaters are missing there is now an open pipe.

The electrician has shown us where the roofspace lighting switch is located and we should repeat the exercise for all lighting prior to formal handover of both properties.

Northcon are still chasing the occupancy permit so our planned moving in date may yet move back. The city engineer, who is the most senior of a number of signatories who have to sign the permit, was on a rest day yesterday, so was not available to meet with the Northcon architect until next week. We will leave it in Northcon’s capable hands.

Only a few snags remain to be cleared and we should be ready for the big move. Our occupancy permits were issued on Monday and the transfer of the electricity to the permanent meters was applied for yesterday and Northcon anticipate it being completed by the end of this week. Provided that takes place and provided all the security grilles are installed, in principle, we should be able to move in.

Project Update 25-26 May 2010

After an identical struggle to the Hyner electric pump, Mangligot electric pump at last started to work properly. We’re not sure whether it’s unfamiliarity with this particular model of pump but having tried one model of Pentax pump they moved up to a more powerful one and that appears to work fine.

The replacement heaters were being fitted to the comfort rooms today together with other items from the defects list.

The molave bench seats and table we ordered in Cordon a couple of weeks ago arrived this evening on a truck with six strong guys to carry it all into the garage. We saw a hardwood swing seat in a small town in Quirino at the weekend when we visited a furniture maker that was exhibiting at 4-ways in Santiago City the other week. We haggled and settled on a very fair price, so that’s another item that should arrive this week. Like the molave furniture it will go in our lanai.

The decorative railings have been installed on the front and side walls and by the end of today Opong and his team were almost half way through welding the angle bracket railings onto the rear wall, so they have moved fast. The gates may appear later this week or early next week. Next we have the job of painting the railings and the wall.

Security grilles have been fitted to the first windows and we anticipate the rest will be installed by the end of this week.

Work on the door to the lanai had halted so we assume they are aware that enquiries are being made into a proper UPVC unit.

No sign of the stove or range hood the puchase of which Northcon facilitated. Today we were again told that both are in Isabela, but it might as well be the Planet Mars as neither has actually arrived at our house. Must be the Spanish influence again, meaning we are supposed to be happy that they are in the same province as us. Apologies for my dry English sense of humour.

OK, so we have security grilles for all our windows, but apparently, in order to comply with fire regulations, some must have a section that opens. Quite how this can be a secure grille beats me but we will investigate a workaround.

An extra door knob and lock has appeared on the garage door as the original lock meant the door could only be closed if you inserted a key and pulled it shut.

This morning they were struggling to get the Mangligot deep well water pump working properly, but thankfully by our second visit this afternoon it was spraying out a healthy amount of water. Initially it was a bit muddy but as time went on it became crystal clear. I put my hand into the jet of water for a few moment and didn’t even find any grit. Now Northcon need to create waterproof housings for each pump and transfer the present loose wire arrangement to a proper weatherproof electrical connection.

The storm water system and field drainage piping is one stretch short of the rear wall so this must be filled before we complete the backfill. Talking of which, at the front of the compound we are ready now for topsoil and garden earth to take it to full height. Only the area reserved for the driveway will receive more embankment earth.

Assisted by one of the local painters who worked on the big house, Resty and Nelson spent all day preparing the ceiling of Mangligot house, applying joining tape and decorator putty. Nelson has already fixed the major uneven sections of wall. Once they reach the painting stage maybe I can help but at the moment I think it’s best left to them. Nelson is a perfectionist when it comes to finishing.

At present we enjoy PLDT’s DSL internet service in our rented house, but unfortunately the coverage does not extend to Patul where I new home is located so we will have to switch to Smart Bro, a USB based mobile system which is much slower. There is a Smart Bro fixed wireless broadband system but its range limit is about a quarter of a mile short of our location. So it’s USB dongles or internet cafes until one of the providers decides it’s time to grown their customer base and revenues.

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

I haven’t posted a blog for a few days as we’ve spent quite a lot of time out at the site with the contractor. They have made steady progress with the finishing and should have done all the substantial things by this weekend, however, actual occupancy is most likely to be the end of the month. In fact without an occupancy permit, officially we cannot move in anyway and the city engineer’s dept has yet to send an engineer to the site for the related pre-permit-issue inspection. All this is Northcon’s responsiblity fortunately but we hope that our recent encounters with the dept concerned will prompt the speedy issue of the permit once the inspection takes place. Over the next two weeks Northcon will address all the defects we have identified. There doesn’t seem to be anything major fortunately so hopefully they can do it all by the end of the month. There will be a coulple of guys staying on for a short time thereafter in case we have any problems.

Working under a tarpaulin to protect them from the sun, the deep well team finished its work yesterday. The deep well of Hyner house is now as far down as the Mangligot deep well and seems to be producing good quantities of clean water. Both the Hyner and Mangligot handpumps have been raised to backfill height ready for connection to the electrical pumps that will transfer water into each pressurized water tank.

By afternoon they were attempting to connect the electrical pump to the Hyner deep well but didn’t seem to be having much success. Although the handpump had been gushing water, the electrical pump produced a thin dribble of water. They didn’t seem to be reading any instructions for this pump. After a few minutes it was realise that a second electrical connection was needed to another part of the pump and this was fitted. Still only a very small amount of water was produced. Eventually, with the light beginning to fade, they removed the pump for safekeeping. We have no idea why it wouldn’t work as we know there is plenty of water. Northcon’s boss had told us that the electrical pump will produce a lot more water than the handpump so either the electrical pump is faulty or they are not operating it correctly. They have a second electrical pump for the Mangligot house so maybe they should try that one on Saturday to see if it works any better.

Monday and Tuesday it was only a skeleton crew at the site as everybody else was either queuing to vote in the national elections or celebrating afterwards with the assistance of gin or Red Horse beer. So maybe it was a good thing none of them tried to do any work. Wednesday onwards we have seen a complete workforce beavering away and handing over rooms for our review and defect report. The lifted tiles in some of these photographs are ones that didn’t pass the sound test when tapped (meaning the backing concrete has gaps) so have to be relaid.

The following photos were taken a couple of days back using a fisheye lens so please remember that this distorts the images even though I straighten them out on the PC later using Nikon Capture NX to create an extremely wide angle view. So rooms may look a lot larger and a different shape to reality.

Project Update 13-14 May 2010

Backfilling has temporarily halted while Nelson completes the replacement irrigation channels with their catchbasins (to remove any solid material that might block the channel). If we can find additional local labour we will restart the backfill today, otherwise it will have to wait.

Unfortunately Nelson was burning the candle at both ends. As Northcon’s regular security guy was unavailable Nelson took on the night duty as well as the dayjob.

The perimeter wall is having caps added to the top of each pillar. All pillars have now been smooth cemented. Next week the railings will be installed and electrical work on the lighting will recommence.

In the meantime Justin aspires to being a motorcyclist.

Earlier in the week the new owner of our rented house requested a meeting to which we agreed. When they arrived they wanted us to sign a document to say that we would vacate the house by 15 May. I blew up and angrily showed them the legal contract that runs to 30 July. They pretended they were unaware of its existence but they are well aware of the situation as we showed them round the house when they were considering buying it. So either they are completely stupid or they’re just trying it on.

Yesterday afternoon they sent a text messages asking if they could access the rented house to do some repairs. The message then changed to “doing an extension to the house”. We said “No Way!”, as the last thing we want is our security undermined by building work. The new owner then complained saying there should be give and take, to which Gina responded by sending them a text saying that we had the legal right to stay until 30 July and that we were still willing to leave as soon as our new house is ready. That is the give and take as far as we are concerned. We will not tolerate any further harrassment from them and the old owner, who has asked to be kept informed, fully supports us. Indeed the contract gives us various protections in the event of a sale of the property but does not free the owner from the rental obligations or rental period unless we give it up voluntarily.

Footnote

For those interested in the technical side, this blog contains a mixture of photos and video taken with a Nikon Coolpix S700 compact and fisheye photos taken on a Nikon D300, later straighened in Nikon Capture NX to create extreme wide angle pictures with a little less distortion. The interior shots were modified with Nikon Capture NX D-lighting to offset the backlight from the windows against the darker interior of each room. I still have much to learn about taking photographs but it’s funny how sometimes you just see a picture begging to be taken, like those kitchen cabinet doors hanging out to dry.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

The boss of Northcon visited the site today to appraise progress and made quite a few changes to the present strategy including the introduction of special completion bonuses and a room by room timetable for completion. He will focus teams on each area rather than spreading resource. He is also bringing two additional painters up from Alabang. The readiness target for us to move has not changed. It is still 15 May.



In front of the master bedroom of Hyner house was rather an unusual sight: freshly painted cupboard doors from the kitchen hanging out on a line to dry. Over at Mangligot house the first external coat of paint was being applied. One room now has ceiling panels but the remainder have not. We think this has something to do with the decision to refine the welding of the roof trusses a little more. Internal electrical fittings had been added also, so once the panels are up we can begin to prepare the walls. It’s possible we may move the family in first and then do the internal finishing of each room in turn.

By the front wall Nelson and his team were building catch basins and laying plastic pipe to take the irrigation water from under the road into the different lots on our side. At the back of Hyner house another team was making the Hyner deep well even deeper and adding plastic pipe to raise the pump to backfill level in readiness for connection to the electic pump.  We have also requested that the emergency panel linked to the standby generator also covers the electric water pumps so we can still wash if there’s a brown-out.

The meeting with Northcon’s boss morning was direct and to the point. We have been concerned at the way the project seems to have drifted and the number of weeks that we have only witnessed preparation rubbing down of wood and wall surfaces. The changes announced today should do much to address our concerns.

Discussion about the lanai French doors did not to lead to a satisfactory conclusion as Northcon’s boss said he couldn’t justify the cost of revising them for a third time. In our opinion the frame around each door is far to narrow and the individual sections are too big to be secure. The result is a door that cannot even carry a lock without the need to add a metal plate either side to conceal it. We gave the boss of Northcon a photo of a typical French door (below) as is widely available in Europe. The difference between this and the Northcon version is quite obvious.

And here is one door of the Northcon version (the other door has swung back):

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

Now the long spell of dry weather has broken we are having very heavy rainstorms at the end of each day. As a result backfilling has been temporarily suspended although surprisingly at the site yesterday only a few small areas were actually muddy. The rest was firm enough to walk on without earth sticking to the soles of your shoes. But take one very heavy delivery truck and try it and you get a bogged down vehicle, so we must be patient. The forecast later in the week looks less stormy.

Yesterday morning when we visited the site we saw that a sliding door had been fitted between the walk-in closet and the master t&b. Unfortunately it was the same as our other internal doors so far to heavy for a sliding door. Maybe it was a misunderstanding on our part but we thought the plan was to install a glazed pvc door.

Now the interior of the master t&b has been re-organised (no separate shower and no urinal because the t&b that has been built is actually slightly smaller than the plan and also the bath we chose was perhaps larger than had been allowed for) there is ample space for a standard hinged swing door, so a switch will be made. Tiles will need to be replaced where the sliding track was fitted above the door but fortunately, as they have run out of matching tiles for the common t&b, Northcon can re-use some of those tiles to replace those damaged when the track is removed. A different, but similar, tile and trim will be used for the common bathroom as Wilcon have run out of the original tile we chose. So for the second time all the tiles they had fixed already (thinking they could get additional supplies) are having to be taken off the wall again and all walls will have the new tile design.

Glass has appeared in the transom above the front door but as yet none for the kitchen cupboards or the lanai french doors. Water was being sprayed around the spiral staircase to the viewing deck but no sign yet of final painting of railings or concreting and marble dusting of the steps. Painting of the outside of Hyner house has progressed but remains incomplete and Mangligot house has only just had its external walls prepared for painting. Security grilles are sitting by their matched windows and have been test fitted. Some have installation holes drilled (and some concrete areas damaged in the process) but all grilles are at primed-only stage and some do not yet have the central leaves design we chose.

The common t&b is still at the tiling stage with no internal fittings apart from the wooden sink base. The floor has already been tiles however.

The main living/dining room area is still work in progress. Some walls have been first coated but there is still much rubbing down taking place to the ceiling area, so when it will be fully painted is anyone’s guess.

The front doors await a final varnish but the painter phoned in sick yesterday so the doors were just leaning against a wall. The doors need some repair work to hide the circle made by the earlier positioning of the door handle and lock but this shouldn’t be a problem to do. But they will need to restore one door where they moved the handle position. At present on both sides you can still see the circle mark of the previous door handle position. The circle of wood removed was restored but the filler used still shows the old position. There must be something they can do to disguise this blemish.

We pointed out to the architect that the plans we approved show two steps up to the lanai but no steps have yet been constructed. We wondered why it seemed such a difference between the backfill and the lanai level. Now we know.

So far rooms completed (but no ACUs yet installed) are the master bedroom, theatre/play room, music/office room, bedrooms 1&2 and kitchen t&b. Master t&b will be when the swing door is installed. So the largest room, the living/dining room is still work in progress as is the kitchen, dirty kitchen, lanai, viewing deck, spiral staircase, external painting, roofing etc etc. No water connections have been tried yet and sanitation piping is also work in progress.

15 May is still the finish date Northcon are aiming for but there still seems to be a long list of things to be accomplished. We don’t want the job rushed as that will only produce a poor result. Perhaps if Northcon will remove all sandpaper and filler materials from the site we will witness an end to the constant rubbing down so that some actual painting can be done!

The switch to room by room finishing was a good decision by Northcon. It means that many areas are now complete (ACU installation still not done however) but still more are work in progress and require a more methodical approach and a hard push to get them finished. Reliance on local labour has proved to be Northcon’s weak spot as some men, even though most of the time jobless, seem to prefer sitting around doing nothing some days or recovering from a “headache” from too much gin or Red Horse beer the night before! We want to support the use of local labour but they must be properly supervised to ensure that time is not wasted on unnecessary preparation work. We’ve lost count of how many days we’ve seen doors and door jams being prepared. It seems to have gone on for months.

All of this means that work that should be done efficiently is not and much work has to be redone, in some cases, more than once, which must be eating into Northcon’s profit on the job. Of course, provided the end result is high quality, Northcon will have a showcase to use to win other business, so we shall see.

Despite our moans we would still recommend Northcon simply because we think they are trustworthy and professional but maybe we have been too close to the project and as a result have witessed at first hand the flaws in their management and supervision of the project.

The changes in supervisory personnel, whether engineer or architect, have not helped the continuity of the project either. Things tend to get overlooked in each handover and we spend a lot of time repeating things we’ve told the previous engineer/architect which is annoying. Having said that Northcon staff are always helpful and courteous. They mean well so there is no point in getting cross with them as they want the project to succeed as much as we do.

Had we been abroad we would not have been aware of the many problems they have encountered but this might have lead to a longer defect list at the end. So to some extent our watchfulness helps Northcon minimise the defects.

At the end we should give Northcon a list of recommendations that will help them with future projects. This of course was my job as a director of risk management and internal audit for Nynex Cablecomms, then for Cable & Wireless Communications and most recently for Avis Europe and Thus. Better still, I should probably offer to do some paid consultancy for them, reviewing their end-to-end process. There must be many areas to save money and make the whole process more efficient as well as a number where maybe the economies made using their current approach have actually not be cost effective. Now part of the difficulty admittedly is the fact that they are not producing cookie cutter houses. Every project is different and the design is left entirely to the customer. That is Northcon’s unique selling proposition but it is also an extremely difficult thing to manage.

Already this morning when we visited the site they had removed the sliding door track to the master t&b and replaced the screwholed tiles. At first the new tiles are darker than the originals because to begin with they absorb water from the fixing cement. By tomorrow they should dry out to the same colour as the rest. We also noted that the steps of the spiral staircase were being cemented and out front the missing leaves design for the security grilles was being welded on. On the roof further guttering was being installed to the back of the garage and the irregular apex capping now looks much flatter. So full marks to the roof installers who are the original contractors. Thank goodness they came back! Mangligot roof is looking almost finished and Hyner roof is undergoing both fitting of missing guttering and flashing plus sealing of joints.

One surprise yesterday was the supervisor advising us that he has instructed the truss welders to come back as during his own inspection of the trusses of the Mangligot roof he found a number of spot welds and quite rightly insists that they must be made into full welds. So full marks to him!

Inside again today there were still cupboard doors being rubbed down and other surface preparation taking place. No sign of any painting, just preparation work. The same with the ceiling area, particularly the raised feature wood strips.

Outside, the first external lights were being installed under the eaves of the roof.

Work continues on the perimeter wall. Today they were cutting the excess steelwork protruding from the tops of the pillars and smooth cementing them. Once this is completed they will add a top cap of concrete to every pillar.

There was no backfilling again today because of the heavy tropical rainstorm we had last night. Instead Nelson measured up for the plastic pipe he will install to restore the unofficial irrigation canal that runs under the road, down the side of our lot and into our neighbour’s land. This source of water disappeared when we dug out the trench for our perimeter wall but we need to put it back now. Another section of pipe will also be added taking the irrigation water through our compound and out the other side into the top of our ricefield. A third and final section of pipe will take the water along the front of our compound into the lot next to ours that we are renting for the next two years. All this will make it far easier to irrigate our ricefields when we need to and it will also be possiible to block off sections when water is not required so this gives everyone the control they need. It is important to be a good neighbour, particularly where irrigation water is concerned.

At our end of day visit we noted that the gutters/flashing for the laundry roof has been completed, a number of marble dusted concrete steps have appeared on the spiral staircase, and there is now a concrete step down at the back of the lanai deck, so they have moved very fast to correct this ommission.

The replacement tiles in the master t&b still looked much darker than the other tiles but we will check again tomorrow. A lock has appeared on the french doors to the lanai but as yet still no glass. We will have to see how secure the lock is as it is only held to the frame in one place. Northcon will probably need to weld on another steel plate behind it so it is more secure. We don’t mind that they have fabricated the door on site but the end result should be just like any french door one would buy in the shops.

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• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

7 truck loads of embankment soil were delivered today and already the back yard is getting very close to the level of the concrete beam on the perimeter wall, our target, which is also the top of the concrete bindings.

Work is going on everywhere: On the roofs of both houses, on the viewing deck of Hyner house, in most rooms in the Hyner house, on the perimeter wall and in the back yard. And Justin was able to pump some very clear water from the newly enlarged Mangligot deep well. Maybe we can do without the electric pump and send Justin out to pump it every time we need water!

The field drainage for the septic tank and rainwater was also being installed today, the piping running to the rear of the yard and out through the perimeter wall. Northcon did ask us to consider an even greener solution involving the storm water but we don’t want to at this stage as it would be quite expensive.

We also had a second night of much-needed rain, so the long dry spell has at last been broken. It will make the site a little muddy but the new deliveries of embankment earth and the trucks rolling to an fro will possibly to a better job of compacting if its also a bit damp. Daytime temperatures are still in the range 35C to 45C, the latter being achieved when there is no cloud cover. It is also extremely humid. Spend a few weeks in the hot house at Kew Gardens an you would come close to how it feels here. You get used to it but you need to change t-shirt tops a couple of times a day.

Opong has already welded together three spans of the railings for the perimeter wall and has cut all the steel he needs for the remainder, although it was very tough cutting it he said. Which is of course very encouraging from the point of view of security. We still have angle bar to buy for the back fence where decoration seems rather pointless and we just want something really simple but secure. The height of the wall above the ricefield is of course a major plus. Inside the wall, due to the backfill, it will not seem all that high but outside it definitely will, especially with the top spikes in place. In addition there will be lighting on a number of the wall pillars together with corner floodlighting which can be turned on when required.

13 truckloads of embankment earth were delivered yesterday for the backfill and already the level of the ground around two thirds of the site is much closer to the house backfill level. But it will still take another series of backfills around the whole site before the job is finished.

We also had our first big rainstorm of the year yesterday as a result of which the backfill became very muddy and unfortunately Nelson slipped and turned an ankle while rushing across to cover his motorcycle.  His ankle is a bit swollen today so if he goes to the site it will only be to supervise as he shouldn’t put any weight on it.

We took shelter in the Hyner house during the rainstorm and watched in amazement as water penetrated the living room from the roof where it meets the back of the viewing deck. Apparently Northcon have not yet finished sealing the roof which is a little silly so late in the project and may mean they have to replace any damaged ceiling panels. We did point out several weeks ago that the early fitting of flashing and sealing was essential for this area but it seems as if our advice was ignored. Is it pride that causes this resistance to customer advice? We really don’t know. All these problems can be avoided by applying a little common sense.

This morning the ceiling in the living/dining room area was being roller painted and more sanding down was taking place in the kitchen. The glass for the transom was being cut to a template and across the road the window grilles were being primed. We also notice that the grilles for the side windows to the lanai had been fabricated.

The common bathroom is the most behind of the three t&bs. Apparently the truck that was to transport the replacement wall tiles is damaged. Maybe next week they will arrive.

Wiring for the lanai lighting is ready but we couldn’t get a answer regarding the fitting of ceiling panels which hasn’t happened yet. The lights Northcon are providing cannot be fitted directly to the orange plastic outlets so we assume that someone will decide that a false ceiling needs to be constructed so that the lights have something to slot into.

[It later transpired that the type of light unit we have chosen comes with a bracket with which to attach it to the ceiling, presumably using rawlplugs of some kind, as the ceiling in this case is made of concrete, not ceiling panels. Anyway, best we leave it with Northcon to sort out.]

We are two weeks away from the agreed 15 May deadline and much remains to be completed. Northcon have put a lot more resource in to finish the job properly so we hope they can do it.

[When we visited the site on Sunday 2nd May there seemed to be about 7 or 8 men working there including the supervisor. There was still no sign of any painted or glazed cupboard doors in the kitchen, nor any glazing of the lanai door. The latter is presently locked with a looped chain and padlock thanks to the absence of glass, but the lanai door is still work in progress so no doubt these missing elements will be installed soon. Our front doors were at their finish varnish shade so should be hung soon. All other progress will have to wait until Monday. We want the work done properly, but finishing it all by 15 May is starting to look unrealistic when you consider how much still has to be done. I have never seen so much rubbing down before. I cannot fault Northcon preparing surfaces well but it seems to be taken to extremes sometimes when you really feel they should just get on and paint the damned thing. Perhaps it’s local labour trying to stretch the job out so they can have a few extra days pay. Assuming that there is adequate supervision of all the work this shouldn’t happen.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

Today was the target date Northcon set its team for delivering our project and as my photos and videos clearly show they still have a long way to go. We know they will get to the end of the tunnel but the question is when?

In contrast the separate local teams we are managing have made excellent progress with both the perimeter wall and the backfill of the yard. Most of the material for the perimeter wall and railings has now been purchased so we labour costs in the main to pay for now.

In the case of the backfill, due to the recent hike in gasolene prices, a truckload of embankment earth has increased from P1,500 to P1,600, but in the case of the supplier we use this also includes delivery. Some suppliers want more for delivery as they have to hire a truck to do it, which seems a little odd.  Anyway, Nelson shopped around but all the suppliers had moved their prices up at the same time. Today the backfill team was spreading and compacting the three loads delivered yesterday and tomorrow we will have a further 10 loads delivered for the front yard.

As with the wall we are meeting material and labour costs for the backfill directly and Nelson is supervising all the work. This leaves Northcon to concentrate on the main project.

Northcon continue to struggle to find sufficient workers in Patul as they rely on casual labour to a large extent. Only a small element of the workforce is employed directly by them. The remainder are sub-contractors like those doing the roof of Mangligot. Apparently there is another project in the area which is acting as a magnet for the casual labourers so painters and other skills are in short supply and some men are asking for P2,000 advances before they will come to work on our project.

So far we have not experienced these kinds of labour difficulties with the perimeter wall or backfill but men working on them are are also people who the family knows well so that gives us a great advantage relationshipwise.

We formally rejected the Mangligot roof today as some of the panel connections are shoddily cut and have not been fully matched to the shape of the roof. This has left larger gaps between panels than is acceptable to us. I took photographs this morning of the worst areas and when we visited the site again this afternoon the contractor had placed a cover over them to conceal the problem. So I the advised the architect and supervisor that we will not accept the roof as it stands. The problem areas will have to be replaced and will require our approval before they can be covered with cappings.

We had similar problems with the earlier roof truss welding and the locally purchased steel used for the spiral staircase and the security grilles. To be fair to Northcon, they had reached the same conclusion about what had been produced and resolved both problems immediately. We have requested their attention to this latest glitch and have already been assured by the architect and supervisor that all substandard roofwork will be replaced.

The third billing from Northcon has also been rejected as the level of accomplishment they are claiming is not matched by what we can see with our own eyes. We have to be more confident in Northcon’s ability to deliver this project to an acceptable quality level by mid-May, which assumes they use all of the 45 day extension we have granted them.

At present we think even mid-May will prove to be a challenging target for Northcon given the degree of incompleteness in many areas of both houses. As an established national construction company we expect them to deliver a quality project on time regardless of any difficulties they may be experiencing with local workers and sub-contractors. After all, project management is supposed to be an area of expertise for them. So let’s see it!

After an early morning phone conversation with Northcon’s boss we were reassured that the project was still on course for a 15 May completion and there seemed to be an immediate step up in energy and the numbers of workers at the site. The new roofers have been fired and the original roofers are back to correct the mistakes their successors made. In view of this very evident step up we approved the payment of the third billing. There is one more to go which should not be until completion, subject of course to there being no defects.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

There seemed to be more to show of the wall than any change in the houses. There is progress in the latter but it is still quite slow and always two steps forward and three steps back. Instance the enthusiastic filling of the holes in the walls of several rooms that will be needed for the installation of the air conditioning units. Much hacking at the wall to find the holes again and more rectification work needed. These are small details maybe but if I was supervising I would not have overlooked them.

Plastering of the perimeter wall has commenced and the team is moving fast.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

The most noticeable progress has been with the wall. Work in the house plods on with some nice touches and pleasant surprises with the design. But it’s much slower than we are accustomed to in the UK. In the main this is because so much in our house is being custom built. This is not a flatpack house. So everything takes that much longer because they are working with the raw material and creating something totally orginal from it.

The photographs and videos show the impact of El Ninyo with no rain for more than 5 months now.

Further update on project progress. But if you’re a goat what does it matter as long as you have plenty of grass to chew!

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• Isabela House (Construction Log 49) Swimming Pool Progress #6
• Isabela House (Construction Log 48) Swimming Pool Progress #5
• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 46) Swimming Pool Progress #3
• Isabela House (Construction Log 45) Swimming Pool Progress #2

Northcon have already begun to take action on the issues we raised at the weekend. As a matter of fact roof installers were already at work on Mangilgot house when we arrived this morning and inquiries are ongoing regarding the sub-contractor issues we highlighted. Later in the day these inquiries led to various decisions being made to bring the project back on schedule.

At our request work is now underway to paint the unprotected new steel welded into place as part of the refinement of the roof structure. For some reason the lack of painting had not been noticed and panels had already been screwed into place in the eaves of the Hyner house. The panels will simply have to be removed and the rectification painting performed or someone is going to have to crawl into the narrow space to do it inside the roof. It is a small but nevertheless important detail of the work that should not have been missed.

Possibly it evidences the danger of removing the foreman and engineer responsible for the erecting the main building structure too early in the construction process as the finishing engineer is really only interested in the internal works. If nothing else the outgoing specialists should revisit from time to time to check that the areas they have expertise in have been properly completed. We have only seen the original engineer once at the site since he was reassigned to another project.

With all this work momentum is important and when a week is shortened due to festivals like Holy Week we can understand that contractors who live some distance away may not consider it worthwhile to work on the non-festival days.

However, what turns this principle on its head is El Ninyo. The Philippines is struggling to maintain power as its HEP resources face shutdown. This week we will have a massive two day brownout throughout many provinces in Luzon including the whole of Isabela. There will be no power between 7am an 6pm on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th April. Play that into discussions about momentum and you come to a different conclusion.

In view of the planned brownouts this week the Northcon team has decided to work from early to late and overnight if necessary when there is power. They will also occupy the site 24 hours a day and close down their rented accommodation across the road from the site. Good thinking, we say. And by tonight the transfer was well underway with staff now planning to sleep in the Hyner house at night.

We have given the architect a design magazine featuring the colour we want used for the kitchen unit externals, a soft tan colour that will not be too bright or too dark. The walls and the ceiling will be white but the window to the kitchen is the smaller of the two types used in the house so we don’t want the kitchen unit colour to be too dark. It needs to reflect as much natural light as possible from the smaller window type we are using there.

More gravel was being delivered for the backfill tonight, or rather to fill the trench outside the perimeter wall. So gradually the site is leveling out and our moonscape will hopefully disappear altogether shortly.

Preparation is made for concrete bindings to support the perimeter wall at the sides and back where the backfill is above ricefield height due to the backfill.  At the front it is not necessary as it is only a small amount above the road.

As you can see in the photos there is a concrete beam all along within the hollow block structure. Combined with the inner steel rods, the second beam of concrete and the concrete bindings this makes for a really strong wall

Some things are progressing faster than others. The roof of Mangligot house is in the slower category so we cannot start finishing work on the interior at the present.

Inside Hyner house some good work is visible but again progress in certain areas is painfully slow. One day the place is heaving with workers, the next there seem to be hardly any. Jobs are still being started in a number of different places but not seen through to completion the same day or even in the same week. Maybe this is the Philippines problem again but ultimately it is a measure of whether your contractor has the necessary skills to manage properly. You only have to look at the progress with the perimeter wall which we are project managing ourselves and you see an enormous difference. That team really has the bit between its teeth.

In parallel with the work the main project and the perimeter wall, work has begun on the backfill with a team led by Gina’s brother, Nelson. Initially they are filling in the trench beside the front wall and digging out the sections inside the wall for the concrete binders. Shortly we will begin to take delivery of embankment earth for the main backfill. Again, the backfill is something we are managing directly as the bid received from the house contractor, Northcon, was absurdly high. In any case we have decided that it is best not to distract them from finishing the main project since they seem to be encountering problems obtaining workers to finish many areas.

Project Update 16 Apr 2010

You can view Andy’s MySpace Blog here: http://www.myspace.com/495233545/blog

Related Posts:

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• Isabela House (Construction Log 34) Project Completion Today?
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• Isabela House (Construction Log 29) Mangligot House
• Isabela House (Construction Log 28) Refinements

Work on both houses is progressing well with one exception, the roof. An army of men is doing all kinds of finishing work and some rooms even look like their nearing completion. Conversely all work on both roofs has been suspended due we understand to some dispute with the Puyat Steel subcontractor. Similarly the original welders have quit and been replaced. Northcon are our project manager and we suppose that glitches like this are almost inevitable but it does make you wonder at times how anything gets done here. Of course, if we were an absentee customer overseas we wouldn’t know about these kinds of hiccup.

Tiling of the living, dining and kitchen areas has commenced now that tiling of all the bedrooms, the music room and theatre/playroom room is complete. There are newly welded railings on both the lanai and the viewing deck and steel french windows to the lanai, one door of which has been rejected as it will not close properly. At the entrance to the garage/parking/storage area a motorised shutter is being installed. Internal doors are being test fitted and we collected and delivered the narra carved front doors on Friday.

The perimeter fence/wall continues to grow. It already rises to more than 7 feet above the ricefield level an has yet to gain its top beam plus further hollow blocks or railings, depending on what we have decided for each span. Down one side the footings for the binding beam are already being concreted into position and these together with the 12cm steel reinforcement will ensure that the wall is really strong.

Backfilling has commenced with a first delivery of embankment soil. Gina’s brother, Nelson, is acting as foreman/supervisor and by next week will have at least 4 guys working alongside him to spread the gravel as it is delivered.

Given the difficulties Northcon seem to be encountering with completing the main house project by even the revised target date, we are confident we made the right decision in not awarding any additional sub-projects to them. We don’t want to distract them from their primary objective.

Both the engineer and architects assigned to the project have been very attentive to our requirements. We cannot fault that. But the relationship betweeen Northcon and some of the subcontractors they are using (welders and roof installers) seems to be strained. Because they are based in Manila and don’t seem to delegate control of payments to the local team here, Northcon can sometimes be a little slow in authorising the release of payments. They also seem to expect subcontractors to take responsibility for correcting things which should strictly be regarded as Northcon mistakes.

We would still recommend anyone building here to consider using Northcon but they are not perfect, just considerably better than the majority of construction firms here, which admitedly is not saying a lot, but you know what I mean. I guess it’s down to culture. Things do get done here ….. EVENTUALLY, but you need a lot of patience! And if you are, what they will produce for you will be something far better than you could ever afford in your home country.

Now it has to be said that we like very much most of the things Northcon are doing but unless it is normal so late in a project for a roof still not to be complete we would question their abilities to manage a project. Even the revised target date of 23 April is now looking rather absurd. It is about supervision, quality control and maintaining good relationships with subcontractors, working with them rather than against them. The alternative is confrontation, workers walking off the job and delivery dates slipping which it seems is what is happening right now.

Northcon spot some things that are wrong but much of the time we (Gina, Nelson and I) find the the faults ourselves and highlight them. Like the railings to the lanai which, now they have been replaced, lack proper anchoring to the wall pillars and wobble when you kick the base of some railings. We haven’t tested the viewing deck railings as this is still work in progress, or will be when the new welder gets started.

In contrast the local contractor we are using for the perimeter fence/wall and railings has proved to be extremely reliable and we manage the material purchase and payment advances to them on a daily basis supported by full receipts and signatures. Having Nelson involved is also extremely helpful. What they have built so far is excellent and it seems quite likely that we will commission them to complete the remaining sub-projects.

An intruder was spotted last night in the site so we have emphasised to Northcon the need to occupy the premises at night in order to discourage any other uninvited guests. This is not a subject to be apathetic about.

Related Posts:

• Isabela House (Construction Log 47) Swimming Pool Construction #4 & Northcon Construction
• Isabela House (Construction Log 34) Project Completion Today?
• Isabela House (Construction Log 31) Contractors and The Wall
• Isabela House (Construction Log 29) Mangligot House
• Isabela House (Construction Log 28) Refinements