Philippines or Bust » Featured

Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress

Andy — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:14:25 +0000

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.

9th August 2010 – 1

9th August 2010 – 2

9th August 2010 – 3

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 38) Time to Sing

Andy — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:22:13 +0000

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.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 27) Details Details

rich — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:56:04 +0000

Over half the roof of the Hyner house is now metal tiled. Great sheets of the stuff have been pulled up on the roof for the past three days. Inside a variety of work continues. Ceiling panels are going up in most rooms as well as windows. Those in each bathroom are frosted for greater privacy. The steel security grilles for the larger windows are being created quite rapidly, just waiting for their decorative leaf design to be added and then it’s painting time. On the roof cappings are also starting to appear over the joins and a large gutter runs the whole width of the back of the lanai/viewing deck. Finishing touches are being made to the master bedroom ceiling prior to raising the floor with more concrete and applying the floor tiles. We have selected spotlights.

In addition more materials have been delivered for the perimeter wall and we have engaged an electrician to install lighting on the wall pillars and security floodlights. Materials cost has been calculated and we will negotiate shortly on the labour rate. We are also in discussions with our perimeter wall contractor regarding a pool, having already received a bid from Northcon, our main house contractor. Our wall contractor was responsible for the construction of a large public swimming pool, paddling pool and jakuzzi at Waterworld in the barangay of Ramon so we will be interested in obtaining a comparison quote from them. Depending on what offers we get, the remaining backfill and the entrance driveway are projects we may handle independently.

There are due to be rotated power cuts this week because of the impact of the long drought on HEP. So this will disrupt progress on finishing where power tools are required and this includes the roof.

House Construction Progress 17 March 2010

Every time we visit there is some feature being added that we had forgotten about. For instance the doorway between the dirty kitchen and the open laundry area has a molding around it as it is an outside door. All the outer doors apparently have these. I dread to think what these extra embellishments would cost to do in the UK, but then the whole house would be much more expensive, not to mention the land.

The average cost of a house in the UK is now £222,000 (P15.5M). In the south-east of England, even a two bed terrace house (joined at either side in a row of similar properties) will set you back over £160,000. Take an architect-designed house on three quarters of a hectare of land, similar to what we are building here, in the UK and you on another planet pricewise. Way beyond our means. But here you can have that dreamhome for less than the price of a UK terrace house.

The exchange rate of the pound vs peso is tragic at the moment but the compensation is that 1000 pennies (or £10) is the equivalent of a week’s wages for an average worker here. Hence you get a lot more for your money here when you want to build a house or run a farm or do many things. People are desperate for work so it’s a win win situation. You are providing much needed employment and they create an asset for you that you wouldn’t be able to afford in the UK.

As usual I pottered around taking photos of progress. Up on the deck the first floor tiles were being laid. While we were there this afternoon the foreman asked us to select from two pebble samples for the steps of the spiral staircase to the viewing deck.

We watched as the first security grilles were tested for fit to the bedroom 2 window. Inside the living room the welder had already constructed a number of similar grilles.

House & Wall Construction 20 March 2010

The perimeter wall is progressing nicely. More steel was delivered today to further strengthen the cross-beam structure and posts and binding supports will be added shortly. It is costly in terms of 10mm an 12mm steel rods but absolutely essential because of the weight of the backfill at the sides and the back where it will be 1.6 metres above ricefield level. At the front the difference in height is only around 0.4 to 0.6 of a metre.

A molding has started to appear around the entrance to the dirty kitchen from the open laundry area.

Work on the kitchen is expected to take another two weeks.

More security grilles are welded on the floor of the living room. It’s a good job that the living room/dining room area is big as it provides plenty of space for this kind of preparation.

Glass is in place to the side of the lanai doorway. Security grilles and steel door to be added.

This is the view from the viewing deck. While much of the vegetation is green el nenyo has left much of the ricefields brown as the irrigiation could not deliver sufficient water. Some of our rice will be OK, however, as we were able to pump water from nearby fishponds that are supplied by underground water. It’s amazing that even after such a long dry spell there still seems to be plenty of underground water.

Note the mountains in the distance. These are more visible some days than others.

Mangligot house waits patiently for attention while the focus is on the main house. Soon it will receive its own roof and external finishing.

The front wall grows and soon will receive steel railings.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 26) Beginning of the Finishing

Andy — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:38:42 +0000

We made the 2nd progress payment to Northcon today and also made the drive over to Quirino province to visit Gina’s aunt to find out what the situation was with the front doors we ordered before Christmas.

Later in the day we met up with Gina’s brother, Resty, at the construction site to view progress. There seemed to be an army of men working all over the site, probably around 40 including the team that are building our perimeter wall. In the UK that would cost a small fortune but here in the Philippines, where a typical weekly wage is little more than the equivalent of £15, labour is the cheapest part of construction. And this includes skilled labour such as carpenters, roofers, electricians, welders, plumbers, plasterers etc. None of these is expensive to employ here and they are generally grateful for the work.

The Puyat Steel team were pulling more sheets of metal roofing up onto the top of the Hyner house so that just over half is now covered. Northcon have requested more fitters in order to speed up the roof completion so they can move on rapidly with finishing the interior.

Interestingly, though the sun was pointing directly at the side wall of the master bedroom, inside, thanks to the styrofoam insulation panels sandwiched between the concrete, the wall was quite cool. The double glazed windows were warm but not baking hot so again we hope this will mean we do not have to run our air conditioning overmuch but it will be there is we need it.

The wall at the front is rising steadlily and we can begin to see the shape and dimensions of our perimeter. As the backfill on which the houses stand will be matched soon by backfill of the remaining area within the perimeter wall, the structure of the wall must allow for both the weight of backfill pushing against it, where it is 1.6 meters above the base ricefield level, as well as drainage runoff for rainwater. So it has to be strong, hence the quantity of concrete and steelwork being used in its construction. There will also be supports at regular intervals to ensure the wall is robust. Externally it will present a barrier which, subject to our final appraisal of the first section completed, will be up to 3 metres in height. The variable of course will be how much steel railing we decide to use to provide viewing points around the house and across the front.

Puyat Steel roof fitters were hard at work halling up more panels of metal roofing tiles. We are using 0.6mm guage which is one of the thickest they do. A signficant proportion of the roof is now covered with the metal roofing on top of insulation sheets.

Only a few windows remain to be installed now, the majority now fitted and awaiting various items of finishing.

Leaning against the wall in our living room was a completely welded security grille, just waiting for painting before being installed. This is for the large windows. It’s a sad reflection on the Philippines that this measure is necessary but better safe than sorry.

In the master bedroom the ceiling panels were now up and they were installing the wooden coving. Floor raising and tiling will follow.

The second security grille was receiving its initial welds.

Standing at the back of the house on the lanai we could see for the first time the window of the movie/playroom. In the initial design this was on the side but we felt that the view from the back would be a great improvement so moved it to that wall.

Today Resty climbed the spiral staircase to experience the view from the viewing deck. The climb is well worth it and I must take some photographs next time to prove it. The viewing deck is identical in size to the lanai below and has railings on all sides.

At the back of the houses the rear perimeter wall was receiving its next stage of construction. Later this week electrical work will start so that we can have lights on some of the pillars as well as corner floodlights for added security, much as we do here in the subdivision where we are renting.

House & Wall Construction 16 March 2010

In Quirino, Gina’s aunt took us over to meet the carpenter/carver who is creating our front doors from narra wood. To say they were quite beautiful would be an understatement. 25,000 pesos (£300) and some of the finest carving we have seen here based on a design we provided. Intially I thought they were much narrower than they should be but I had overlooked the fact that the frame will be added to create a conventional size door. A particularly nice feature in the carving is the top of each door which itself is a flowing set of curves rather than a straight edge. Very attractive. They have promised to deliver the completed doors and door jam on Saturday.

In the Philippines families are large and if you include close friends, very large. Gina has vast numbers of cousins, uncles, aunts, even grandparents thanks to the definition applicable here, not to mention many friends, past classmates etc. So having a house big enough for those many special occasions when everyone gets together is very important to us. Our house will serve not only this purpose but is also practical as our agribusiness centre. It is also important to have space so we can leave certain things up permanently instead of having to take things down again every time we have visitors. So it is really a shared space which we will use to the full just as we did with our house in the UK.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 25) Windows & Contractors

rich — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:55:07 +0000

As the team continued with the wall footings in the background we could see the the first window installed in the front wall of the master bedroom. The first insulation and roofing also appeared on the parking/garage. Inside the Hyner house the welders were constructing the first security grille, bending the steel into curling shapes. The spiral staircase from the lanai to the viewing deck was also receiving further welding.

Overnight we had a little rain so it looks as if the long dry spell we have been experiencing is about to break. All the more reason for our building contractor, Northcon, to push on with the installation of the roofing now that we have refined and strengthened the roof truss structure. We noticed that the steelwork holding the roof to the walls had been further reinforced with concrete.

After the workmen packed up for the day we climbed the spiral staircase to the viewing deck for the first time. The view is amazing. Even when all the roofing is installed we will have virtually 360 degrees view as when you are standing on the deck you are higher than every section of the roof. We are already talking about the sun shade we need to put up there but it will be a great place to finish the day with a beer, looking out over the rice fields. So we probably need to add a table and some chairs.

The first double glazed window was being installed in the master bedroom complete with sliding window section and insect screen. Looks very good. The welders were experimenting with the first security grille as these will be fabricated on site for each window.

House & Wall Construction 12 March 2010

In the kitchen the cabinet construction was continuing an the wall unit in the dirty kitchen has also been installed. Just a little more to do and then they can install cupboard doors and paint everything. We noted that the kitchen worktop, the concrete of which didn’t seem very strong, more like mortar which crumbled very easily, had been completed hacked out. Just beyond the laundry floor was a pile of rubble from the old worktop. They will re pour the concrete using the proper mix this time.

……….I had an interesting exchange with Northcon today regarding the definition of accomplished.

We will pay the 2nd billing request tomorrow as a mark of good faith but we find Northcon’s definition of completion a little out of the ordinary. The legal definition would we believe feature not merely the purchase of the materials but also their use/installation. Maybe it’s a word that doesn’t translate well into Tagalog!

As we enter a house that has no floor tiles, ceiling panels in only a few places, some roofing panels over the garage and the master bedroom, many windows not yet installed, doors not yet finally varnished or hung, no sanitary ware, kitchen units only partly completed etc. etc. we are apparently seeing something 81 per cent complete.

To be fair there is a vast army of men doing stuff all over the place at the moment so it will get to 81 per cent at some point but not today.

I apply a legal definition of completion while Northcon look purely at the cost on the basis that around 80% is the cost of materials and 20% the labor cost.

I think Northcon will actually do an excellent job and they will finish. If I didn’t have that faith in them, there is no way I would be willing to pay 81% of the contract price.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience. For me it comes down to whether or not you trust your contractor. Northcon care which for me is everything. They have a certain pride in what they do and generally do it well or fix it if they don’t. What more can you ask. I just wish they would adopt a more sensible definition of completion. In my experience the definition Northcon use is the same one the Chinese use. The Chinese say they have done something when actually they have only just started it.

Fortunately our Filipino lawyer is not Chinese but I see no reason at present to involve him in the discussion as I still have confidence in Northcon.

…….When we visited the site today it had actually starting to look like a proper house. More windows had been installed, there was some roof on the master bedroom and even the ceiling panels for the same room. Certainly not 81% accomplished yet but an army of workers is pushing hard to get there. On the lanai railings had appeared on each side and in the living room a welder was almost finished fabricating the very first window security grille. Outside the perimeter wall at the front was starting to grow an everywhere there were piles of gravel, bags of cement and stacks of hollow blocks.

House & Wall Construction 15 March 2010

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 20) Work Continues & Fence Permits Revisited

rich — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:26:48 +0000

When we arrived at the site a couple of days ago, from a distance, it looked as if they had already installed insect screens in two windows of the Mangligot house. On closer inspection we realized that it was large dimension steel wire security netting to protect the materials they will store temporarily in the house. The only insect prevention would have been against giant mosquitoes, but it gave us a good laugh

Although no roof tiles have been delivered yet, two internal doors have been hung and preparation for mounting the ceiling panels was evident. Fortunately the weather has continued hot and dry (37 degrees Celsius yesterday afternoon).

In the kitchen the carcass of the worktops has been concreted into place. We have supplied cooker and refrigerator dimensions to Northcon and have asked for a third time for the proposed kitchen design. Each time we have been told it will be later. On the last occasion they said it would be when the kitchen dimensions were known for definite, which they have been for a few weeks now. We hope it will not be necessary to re-do any of the work to date if we are dissatisfied with the proposed layout.

We also learned that the project engineer is to be replaced although as yet we do not know whether this was planned and have received no formal notification of the change from Northcon.

We expect these kinds of hiccup. I don’t know anyone who has built a house who hasn’t had similar experiences. The contractor wants to get on with the job, which is good, but sometimes they forget the need to keep their customer informed and consult with them on any periphery design matters. So we hope nothing is forgotten in the changeover to the new engineer.

This morning we will meet again with the men who are constructing our perimeter wall and railings to discuss the design further and agree what materials are to be purchased.

While we wait for city hall to issue the fence permit, the men will prepare the steel railings ready to install. The rest of the construction will use hollow block but there will be additional features because of the back fill situation. Currently the largest hollow block costs 6 pesos so we will compare local prices against those of the city engineer’s hollow block making business just up the road from our site. If his prices are in line with or lower than other local suppliers we may as well buy from him.

We had a meeting at the site today with the outgoing project engineer and the two incoming architects who will support the finishing stage. A constructive meeting with full commitment from Northcon to rectify the faults we identified with the roof trusses. One of the new architects is the daughter of a professional welder so has a keen eye for spotting a bad weld. We discussed the seam welding of the steel (like a line of dimes) and also the necessity of having adequate surface connection between trusses. Thankfully we appear to have turned a difficult corner on the project. We will review the fully welded structure once the necessary rectification work has been completed. We also chose external colors today.

Separately we reviewed the prefabrication of the perimeter posts which will commence construction as soon as the fence permit has been issued. The latter is being done by a different team at the site and is being funded directly by us on a piece rate and materials basis. Rather than waste time while we await the issue of the permit it seemed sensible to do as much prefabrication as possible to reduce the building time later. Sensibly they were ordering additional prefabrication material today so that several teams can construct at the same time. They will also hire a mechanical digger to speed things up. All this was quite refreshing news and we rather like the approach of these young men. What they have produced already looks exceptionally professional, just like the plan they presented at the start for our fence.

In the meantime Northcon have requested an extension to the delivery date for our project which we have willingly granted. We have our rented house until July so it is no problem, and at the end of the day we would rather they didn’t rush as this only seems to lead to problems like those we had with the roof trusses.

Yes, we’re ready to fence our perimeter. All the pre-fabricated molds for the posts are ready together with the internal steel frame. But, as usual, we are waiting for the city engineer to apply the remaining signature to the fence permit. The question has been asked, can we hire a digger to start the trenchwork even though we don’t have the permit yet. We think the answer is no, because it would still constitute some kind of construction activity even though we won’t actually be pouring any concrete. We are not keen on asking the city engineer for permission to dig the trench because we remember what happened with the building permit. It is best not to ask any favour or dispensation with these officials. Even though they must be aware of the penalties they could incur under the republic act 9485, some are still prepared to take a chance.

If the fence permit is not issued next week we will take up the matter with the Patul barangay captain and ask him to put a call into the mayor’s office as it will be two weeks on Monday since a young engineer contact we have in the city engineer’s department prepared the fence plan and submitted the application for us together with our supporting documentation. By last Thursday he told us that he had obtained two of the three signatures required and the last he hoped to get on Friday. There was no text message on Friday so we assume he was unsuccessful.

Update 16 February: It is now over two weeks since our fencing permit application was submitted. We received a text from our contact to say that the city engineer wanted a meeting with us. He implied there was something wrong with the building permits. We called in yesterday afternoon and challenged him as he was leaving the office, however, he asked us to return this morning between 8 and 9am. We sat for over an hour in the reception area and he didn’t appear so we left saying we had an appointment with our lawyer and could they direct us to the mayor’s office. Later around 10.30 we received a text to say that the city engineer was now available but we refused to have any further meetings with him. We hold two signed building permits and we know that there is nothing wrong with our fencing permit application as we were shown the file by our contact while we were in the engineer’s department and everything is ready except the city engineer’s final signature. Even the fee to be paid has been calculated. There is therefore nothing to discuss. If necessary we will arrange for our lawyer to meet with the city engineer to discuss any issues he has with the fencing application but we hope the barangay route will make this unnecessary.

We visited the barangay captain as planned and explained the situation. He we livid. As far as he is concerned we have a perfect right to protect our property and he has already issued the barangay fencing permit. He said he would take it up with the mayor and assured us we should proceed with fence construction and advise him if anyone from the city engineer’s office attempted to stop it. As an expression of our appreciation we asked if there were any projects with which we could help. We will therefore be providing 400 hollow blocks so they can build a chapel in the yard outside the barangay hall. This is for residents of Patul who do not have space to hold a wake in their own house. We also promised to donate our air conditioning unit when we leave our rented house as we are having split wall mounted units in our new home.

Which reminds me, I must do a special blog about Patul barangay hall. It almost brought tears to my eyes when I saw the number of different ways in which they help support their local community. Talk about caring, these guys deserve an award!

On Friday we received the bids from Northcon for the sub-projects such as the remaining back fill and the driveway. Thankfully these days we are far more aware local pricing so we could see immediately that the bids were far to high. It puts Northcon out of contention altogether and we will therefore award these pieces of work to local contractors who we know by reputation are reliable. A swimming pool is the one project which we will continue to discuss with Northcon. We need to have a better understanding of the plan which supports their bid and we lack sufficient detail at present to make a judgment. If this information is not forthcoming or we feel that the price is still excessive, that again will be awarded elsewhere. A pool requires special engineering skills but surprise, surprise, we have actually found a local contractor who has constructed a large public pool and, according to a family contact, done an extremely good job.

Unlike the major currencies, the Philippines peso has appreciated so much that it is beginning to undermine these kinds of decision and many potential customers will defer building their dream home here until the fx rates improve. Manila-based companies tend to charge more but you would still expect them to be somewhere in the same ballpark price wise, especially as they in fact use a lot of local labor and very few Manila-based employees.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 18) Roof Continues / Fence Planning Beginnings

rich — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:12:16 +0000

The Northcon crew were steaming ahead today. Lots of activity in every area of the house and many skills/craftsmanship in evidence. I feel a certain buzz of excitemen as I wander through the rooms of the house and see all these skills coming together to create a lovely home.

I have always been fascinated by the way so many of the tools they use are created on site in DIY fashion. For instance, there are a number of handmade ladders constructed from wood and bamboo. The framework the welders climb to reach the roof trusses has also been welded together onsite. Tools for adjusting the curve of a window consist of a short piece of water tube with a nail through the end. The man making the mouldings for the windows uses a piece of shaped aluminium. Although very simply made, in the hands of craftsmen these handmade tools appear to be just as effective as a product you would buy from a hardware store. Welding equipment and certain power tools like grinders are provided, however.

At the end of the day we met the engineer we have appointed to handle the perimeter fencing permit application. We will manage this sub-project on our own, without assistance from Northcon, as we have declined their revised quotation which we felt was still too high. Unlike Northcon we don’t have overheads or profits to consider so where we can do certain aspects of the project for ourselves we should.

We will use re-inforced hollow block for the wall elements with half moon steel railing covered dips to maintain the view from our windows. The wall will also have rampart elements to prevent any collapse and will be set back from the backfill. The front wall will consist of attractive steel railings above a wall, but the back and sides will be kept very simple to minimise cost while at the same time providing appropriate security around the two houses.

Backfill, driveway and maybe a pool remain to be discussed with Northcon but no bid has yet been received.

The height and length of the wall was agreed with our engineer and he will prepare the plans over the next week before submitting them with supporting documents for the fence permit. We have to go to the barangay hall in Patul tomorrow to obtain the barangay fence construction permission. This has to be submitted to city hall along with the other documents. Once we have the necessary permit we will order materials and Gina’s brother will direct the construction.

Check out this video: Hyner/Mangli got House Construction 26 January 2010

This morning we visited the barangay hall in Patul to obtain the fence construction permission. This was our second visit, the first being last October when we obtained the building permission. The barangay captain was there this time and was very welcoming saying how impressed he was by the construction work which of course is also providing a lot of work for local men.

In several places there were posters and other messages of support for the re-election of the mayor for what will be her second and final term in office.

The barangay officials are always so friendly and helpful, a contrast to the feeling we had when visiting city hall. The latter tend to be very officious although individual employees we know as friends are always helpful.

Anyway, the barangay officials made us very welcome again and discussed other things we might need. They were keen to recommend an agency that could provide a security guard for us (which is also a job for someone from the barangay), although we pointed out that at present this is the responsibility of the contractor. If they have something stolen they have to replace it and have insurance for this purpose built into the accepted contract price. Security after we occupy the house is another matter and we may employ a night security guard to watch over the property.

The barangay captain said once we move in we must make sure we have his phone number so that if there are any problems he will respond immediately.

As we left we noticed that occupying half of one wall on the ground floor, painted in very large letters, was the full text of Republic Act 9485, the act governing red tape and corruption of public servants. This is very encouraging, although from our own experience it would seem that there are still people who for whatever reason feel they can ignore both the law and the associated penalties with impunity. We hope the new act is fully enforced as it would be enormously beneficial to the Philippines and do much to expunge its reputation as one of the most corrupt nations.

Becoming involved in the community would seem quite a good idea since we want to be accepted as friendly neighbors. There is an organization equivalent to Round Table that we might join once we move into our new home.

Much of the what we saw at the site in the last couple of days has continued. Still a frenzy of activity. On the viewing deck they were preparing the floor and railing pillars.

We sat in the shade of some trees in the next field and chatted to a man from Patul who it transpires lives next to a small lot that Gina purchased together with her sister several years ago, but could not locate when we searched for it recently. We gave the man a lift back to his home in Patul and he led us to the lot in question. We drove to the end of one of the narrow barangay roads but the small track leading to Gina’s lot past some small houses was too narrow to drive up so I reversed and parked. The lot is around 200sm, big enough for a couple of houses to rent out or for growing vegetables or fruit trees. First Gina has to complete the legal transfer of the title as all she has at present is the deed of sale. The owner is elderly and not in good health so this is probably something we should get on with when our house is sorted.

The Patul man spoke quite good English but seemed to have a fixation about finding gold and knowing millionaires. We moved around topics in the conversation but each time he would associate it somehow with millionaires. This was becoming rather annoying. In the end I said I would never want to be one as, having worked for several in my life, they never seem happy and often spend their time worrying about losing their fortunes.

At the end of the day we celebrated the birthday of Gina’s niece and the men including myself consumed Red Horse beer. This also seemed to help those who are normally shy by nature find new confidence to speak English to me. It also seemed to help their singing of videoke songs, the majority of which are in English anyway. Most had good voices, certainly a great deal more in tune than the shop assistant who followed us all round the SCC store earlier this week.

Check out this video: Hyner House Construction 27 January 2010

This morning, at the contractors suggestion, we drove out to the site to meet the window suppliers. Apparently it’s a Manila-based business, owned by a Brit. They discussed the tinting and pointed at that two layers of green tinted glass will be dark green. Given that we will have curtains and nets we decided to revert to clear glass for both houses and called the boss man of our contractor in Manila to advise him. The cost will be less so we suggested a trade off against the additional cost of having separate pressurized tanks and pumps for each house, another decision we made recently.

The window supplier measured 9 windows today and will revisit the site to measure the remaining windows when they have been adjusted by the masons.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 12) Going Up! (Walls That Is)

rich — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:08:58 +0000

The first walls are constructed for the parking/garage/storeroom using the box system of construction. The window openings in the front wall are prepared using prefabricated curved shapes. Despite its intended use, we wanted it to look like just another part of the house, hence it will have windows to match those for the house.

Check out this video: Hyner House Construction 30 December 2009

Construction work started up again yesterday although the foreman and project engineer are not due back until Monday or Tuesday. The Mangligot site is now raised to construction level so once they have done the compaction tests they can begin to lay out the internal pipiing and the steel framework prior to pouring concrete for the floor. The curved shape of the top of the windows in the garage wall is now clearly visible although the concrete has to gain more strength until they can safey remove the formers.

This is just the garage/storehouse. The idea for the windows came from the design of a house in Florida we found on the Internet. In so many designs you see the garage seems to dominate the front of the house but it’s such a plain piece of architecture. Add some windows to the front and move the entrance round to the side and you have something quite attractive.

Today the formers had been removed and the full shape of the window openings could be seen clearly. Welders were busy fabricating the steel trusses for the garage roof.

At the side of the house the window for Justin’s bedroom (bedroom 2) was being prepared for concreting.

Today also the site of the Mangligot House was moving towards formal start of construction, channels having been dug for the different services and stones laid. The latter is apparently to address rising moisture which would damage the concrete floor. The stones together with the overlaying plastic sheeting prevent such damage occuring.

More windows and roof trusses for Hyner are being welded for the garage. Mangligot is prepared for formal start of construction. When the whole team reforms this week after the Christmas/New Year break there will be at least 25 local people employed in the construction which must be very welcome in this barangay, especially as work in the ricefields is not continuous. We put our contractor in touch with the local barangay hall who we knew were keen recommend certain people for our project.

Check out this video: Hyner & Mangligot House Construction 3 January 2010

As the front walls of the main house begin to appear, passers by stop and puzzle what it is. Distracted drivers turn their heads towards the construction site for several seconds as they pass. Could it be a church, an abbey or a theme park maybe? It’s like one of those mysterious murals Rolf Harris used to create on live TV. You didn’t know precisely what it was a picture of until almost his final brush stroke.

Yesterday morning when we went out to the site, a young couple was standing in our future living room chatting to the chief engineer. Apparently they want to build a house in the city, noticed the construction going on and decided to make enquiries.

The video and photos here were taken around 3.00pm in the afternoon at a second visit.

The first concreted, styrofoam-insulated walls are now visible. The concrete mixture needs to be just right so that it pours easily from the top into the mould made by the steel formers and, of course, has the correct strength when dry.

It is vital to ensure that no air gaps are left either side of the insulation. Metal spacers are employed to keep the styrofoam panels in position within the permanent wire frames, and our contractor has invested in a special power tool which vibrates the steel former panels to ensure the proper distribution of the concrete mixture. We noted that some surface repair was necessary in one area of the wall due to the steel formers pulling away slightly, but this was being remedied very competently with a fresh concrete mix.

Beside the Hyner house, the Mangligot house was nearly ready for concrete pouring of the floor that night.

Check out this video: Hyner & Mangligot House Construction 7 January 2010

The final measurements are made to check the positioning of pipes for the different services and vulnerable exposed ends sealed to prevent blockage when the concrete is poured.

Concrete samples dry out ready to be tested by the Highways Department, the same organisation that tested the compaction. A pass is 90% and our site achieved 97%.

View across the septic tank to the side window of bedroom 2.

We took the opportunity later in the day to discuss further development of the project although this will depend on the performance of the UK pound. It was down to 73 pesos yesterday, a victim of the mud slinging between the different UK political parties as they prepare for the coming May general election.

There had been no change in the underlying economic fundamentals but the UK has an uncanny ability to pull itself down. For one of the great nations of the world it should really show a lot more confidence. Though I didn’t agree with everything she did, I have to admit that I miss having Mrs Thatcher as a PM. She was decisive and would knock heads together to get things done. The UK needs an action-oriented leader like that again. Someone who will talk in terms of the glass being half full rather than half empty. The UK needs realistic optimism rather than unrealistic pessimism.

Yesterday concrete was being poured for the floor of the Mangligot house and the front wall of the Hyner house was nearing completion. Unfortunately the concrete mixer had broken down and was awaiting some replacement parts, so in the meantime concrete mixing was an entirely manual process with a chain of workers being formed to pass tubs of concrete up to the pourer.

We did not see the new vibrating machine in use on the formers, only a rubber mallet to shake the concrete into place, so we are not sure whether the new power tool has proved effective or not. However, we are confident our contractor knows what they are doing as they have many years experience of this kind of construction and have their own specialists for each component of the build, many of whom have worked with them for several years. In the end it is best that we assess the quality of work at the very end, not as the build progresses since any faults should be fixed before we accept the project as complete. After Construction is what is referred to as the Finishing stage when any imperfections will be addressed.

Check out this video: Hyner & Mangligot House Construction 8 January 2010

The floor of the Mangligot house is poured with concrete and walls should start to be built this weekend so that, given the difference in the size between the two, both houses will soon be at the same stage of construction

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 11) Foundation and Floors

rich — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:46:29 +0000

The first concrete floors of our house are made. So far the floors of the garage, lanai, laundry and dirty kitchen have been completed. Waving around are all the colored pipes carrying the different services to each room.

Check out this video: Hyner House Construction 23 December 2009

Well it’s now Day Two of concrete pouring and the 20 workers are full tilt laying the floor for the Hyner House. By the end of the day they had only the master bedroom, bedroom 1 and the living room area to complete.

Check out this video: Hyner House Construction 24 December 2009

On Christmas Day we took some food out to the men at the construction site. They were relaxing and enjoying the sunshine before starting work again yesterday when the photos below were taken. The floor of the Hyner house is now virtually complete and a board has been erected displaying the building permit numbers for both houses.

Isabela House (Construction Log 9) Box Construction

rich — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:13:42 +0000

Things are beginning to take shape and in the absence of the release of the building permits the site is being prepared in every other way short of pouring concrete. So in a sense concreteless progress is being made!

This is probably the first time the box construction system has been used in Santiago City. Projects in Ilocos and further north in Tegeugarao have certainly seen its use, but not here before. At first glance the method seems closer to what one would expect for the construction of offices or shopping malls.

The yellow metal formers are in place at footings level right around and a network of steel rods is also in place. To ensure bonding of the concrete floor stones have now been spread over the compacted gravel. Channels for sanitation and water supply to the T&Bs have also appeared and are now occupied by plastic pipes in orange and terracotta. The smaller blue pipes are for the termite eradication system which has to be topped up every couple of years. In the distance a young boy watches while lying across the back of a large caribou (water oxen).

The photographs and video in this blog were taken over a period of 12 days.

Check out this video: House construction 7th to 19th December 2009

The team have been told by our contractor that only Christmas Day and New Years Day are non-work-days. Otherwise every day will officially be a working day. Northcon have advised us that they are targeting this Tuesday for the start of pouring the foundations.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 7) Back Fill & Box Construction

rich — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:39:36 +0000

Progress is being made at last. Lorries are now delivering gravel directly onto the back fill area saving considerable shoveling and wheelbarrowing. The men worked yesterday (Sunday) and even today which is a public holiday in order to reduce the slippage in the construction schedule caused by the wet weather.

For the first time we were able to see the box construction technique in use creating our concrete septic tank.

Check out this video: Backfilling and Box Construction

The construction site moved to 24-hour operation last night using three 8 hour shifts. At night in the main they will compact the layers of gravel distributed during the daylight hours. At 4.00pm yesterday there were only 4 workers spreading a newly delivered pile of gravel so we are not sure how the new working arrangements will benefit the speed of back filling. However, the septic tank, which is the lowest point on the site, is gradually disappearing so clearly there has been progress.

We discussed the positioning of the wall-mounted split type air conditioning units with the project engineer and gave him minimum height details so he can install the PVC drainage pipes when fabricating the walls. Hopefully the decision we made to go for the Styrofoam-insulated concrete walls will reduce to a minimum the need to run the ACUs.

The project engineer has now received the fire certificates and zoning clearance for both houses and the city engineer’s office has asked him to call in next Wednesday by which time they anticipate that the building permit (which confirms compliance with the Philippines building code) will have the required signatures. As the back fill still has some way to go we hope the permit and achievement of construction height will come together. Obtaining the building permit will also enable our contractor to apply for the supply of electricity to the site.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 4) Lot Marking Pt. 2 & Backfill Preparation

rich — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:27:56 +0000

At 6.30 am this morning our door bell sounded and it was the senior engineer from our contractor together with the project foreman he has appointed. They just called on their way to our lot where they will spend the day marking out the position of the buildings. So after breakfast we went over to visit them. They had already hired some local workers who were assisting in clearing the rice stalks. Some green tape was already in place showing one side of our house. They will mark the remainder through the rest of the morning and we will inspect after lunch to see if the positioning is right.

Phoned the engineer/surveyor this morning to see which day he wants us to give him a lift to the BIR office in Illagan and surprise surprise when he answers he’s on a bus on his way there today. We hope he picked up the right birth certificates as we had to drop a replacement into his office last week when we realized that the deed of sale was in the mother’s name, not the son’s.

The outline of the buildings is marked out with plastic string between stakes. Then the rice stalks are cut down to ground level with the tabas blade before the top soil is removed to reveal the harder ground beneath. Onto this will be poured load after load of gravel until the site is almost a meter higher than the barangay road. But no concrete will be poured until we have been granted the building permit.

We now have the community tax certificate, the barangay building permit clearance letters and the BIR tax documents. This weekend an engineer is supposed to be traveling up to submit these papers along with the technical drawings to the engineer at City Hall. It takes 7 to 14 days for a building permit to be issued and there is a lot of gravel to be delivered before construction can begin anyway.

The site today was a little waterlogged as a result of the North East monsoon rain we have had the last couple of days. It underlines the importance of raising the level of the site before construction. Work removing the top soil had stopped, but they were practically finished this stage anyway.

The other day we watched as the foreman rejected two lorry loads of “gravel”. The good stuff is redish in color, feels slightly sticky to handle, and also contains small stone chips. You can almost mold it in your hand. With this delivery we could see the foreman holding a handful of what looked like grey material with large stones and telling the delivery guys it was totally unacceptable. Yet another good reason for using a Filipino contractor who knows the tricks suppliers get up to.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 2) Site Marking

rich — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:57:59 +0000

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

One surveyor was equipped with a Nikon elecronic theodolite which bleeped when lined-up with that of his counterpart. I assume he feeds in the co-ordinates of the lot and then the positioning of the markers is automatic.

Below are different views of our lot, some taken from the barangay road beyond Patul and some looking back toward the Patul barangay road.

To facilitate the sale to us the boundaries of existing land owned by the family had to be slightly modified, one of the reasons it has taken so long to reach this stage. The old boundaries were far from straight whereas our plot now comprises straight lines. In some cases this means that Nelson has in fact planted rice on the land of another owner, and in some cases the other owner has planted rice on our land. Now the markers are in place hopefully post-harvest time, everyone will adhere to the new boundaries.

Altogether three new concrete marker posts were placed that day as the fourth was an existing boundary marker at the back.

We begin to see for the first time how deep is our lot although the shape is wider at one end than the other. We have the width (50m) where we most need it, towards the front of the lot. The remainder we intend to use for cultivation anyway. 7,500 Sqm is a bigger area than we imagined and only around 10% of it will be used for the two properties plus garden area.

The view looking back is amazing. I gave up following Nelson and the surveyor as the narrow banks between the rice fields were very muddy and I really needed boots or bare feet to go right to the back of our lot.

The wiggling border below is the old boundary. The new one is dead straight right to the marker in the far distance. But it does mean that once the rice has been harvested we will need to redefine the old boundary with trees and new footpath earthworks, the latter to keep out the water when other rice fields are irrigated, although where we will be building will be almost 2 metres above the rest of the land. This is necessitated by the height of the road, which is much higher than the rice fields. When it rains the water runs off into the surrounding fields so your property needs to be at least 0.5 of a metre higher than the road.

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

Isabela House (Construction Log 1) Plans and Site Inspection

rich — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:13:34 +0000

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

His construction is located here:

View Larger Map

We arranged for a visit from an engineer of the construction management company who will be responsible for our building project. Prior to the site visit we discussed the plans for our house and then measured out the room dimensions in our yard to get some idea the size of each area.

We have been heavily influence by the space we had become accustomed to back in Wokingham on two levels. For this project we are going for a single level but with an equivalent amount of space overall. The lanai at the back will have a balcony area above and there will be provision for a swimming pool, although our priority is the house. There will also be a second smaller property in which Gina’s brother and his family will live and we will have a shared garden space. The lanai will be large enough for both families to eat together and there will be a barbecue close by.

We considered a number of designs before arriving at this one. In essence we wanted to maintain the double aspect look yet have the garage in front. The windows on the right wing are in fact the forward face of the garage, with the doors to one side. Unlike many of the designs you find in the Philippines we did not need a maid or driver room so that space we used for a playroom, music room and study. The pool is out of proportion but at this stage we simply wanted to see how it would fit to the rest of the design.

Our lot is wider at the front than the back. It effectively tapers from the barangay road until it meets the boundary of another lot behind at an angle, perfectly adquate for what we need since we will cultivate what we don’t use for the property itself. The actual lot area of 7,500 sqm or three quarters of a hectare (10,000 sqm) has the dimensions 50.82m wide at the front (on the barangay road), 235.74m length on the rhs to the back of the lot, 178.36m on the lhs to the back of the lot, and 49.54m wide at the back of the lot.

On 20th August an engineer from the construction company came for a site inspection:

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

Philippines Building Projects

rich — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:11:12 +0000

Today we are introducing a new category of posts that will contain detailed “construction logs” by everyday people in the Philippines. They are building their retirement homes. Under categories / building your dream home / philippines building projects. The posts contained within were written by their prospective authors. We just wanted to consolidate the information in one location so that someone such as yourself could find what your were looking for. They contain an abundance of useful information, crucial for anyone thinking to build there retirement home here in the Philippines.

So stay tuned as we roll these out.

A Room The Size Of A Closet

rich — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:27:56 +0000

Will you delegate your maid to live in a closet? If you accept a pre-designed home in the Philippines then probably yes. Most higher end homes in the Philippines come with a designated maid’s room. The designers of these homes have tried to fit a room (can we call it a room?) into whatever nook or cranny they can find. These rooms are typically 3-4 square meters / 30 – 40 square feet. This is about enough room to fit a single bed and maybe a small dresser. The maid’s bathroom is even smaller, usually about 1.5 square meters / 15 square feet. Just enough room for a toilet and shower all in one.

I have read many articles and forums asking about and debating the size of a maid’s room in Asia. The are basically two camps when it comes to this topic. Side A is worried about putting a person into such a confined space and the moral ramifications of doing so and side B takes the stance that “this is the way it is” and that the maid “is used to sharing rooms or sleeping on the floor so this is a step up, they will be grateful”. Lets explore these two sides.

Side A: From the forums and pages that I looked at, the side A proponents were mostly “westerners” that were not accustomed to several things. First and foremost they were not accustomed to living, themselves, in such a small dwelling. Second they were not accustomed to having a live in maid. Houses in Asia are typically not very large, in comparison to western homes. Were talking 2-3 bedroom homes that are no more than 1000 sqf, usually around 800 sqf. Now I can’t really blame the designers of the house, they are providing what the buyers are looking for in terms of cost, thus things like room size are drastically downsized to what westerners would consider to be found even in a apartment. So if your master bedroom is only 10 sqm / 100 sqf, then the maid’s quarters are definitely going to be smaller. The maid’s room, aka. the closet off the side of the kitchen, is a throwback to colonial times when the maid was merely a servant that never had time off and usually was not paid. My views on side A are that if your house is small and the maid’s quarters are proportionate to the overall size of the house then its fine, on the flip side if you have a multi thousand sqf home and put your maid in a closet then you should examine what kind of a person you are.

Side B: The supporters of side B were usually born and raised in Asia and were very used to living in smaller homes. From my experience in Asia, families typically have smaller homes and have more people living within the walls. They make do with what they have. Were not just talking about middle class families. I know several lower income families outside of the city that have very meager homes and they still have “house helpers” and these “house helpers” are not paid and do not have rooms of their own. They are typically younger and come from “the province” and their family could not afford to care for them or to send them to school. So in return for helping around the house, they get a place to live, food and schooling. I can totally see side B’s supporters point of view, but only to a certain extent.

So you should expect that if you buy a house and lot from a subdivision that your home will have one of these “maid’s rooms” that would double for a closet in the west.

As we have designed our own house, we got to choose what size each and every room would be. We have allocated space for 2 maid’s (there was room ) and each of the maid’s rooms are about 10 sqm / 100 sqf with a shared bathroom of about 5 sqm / 35 sqf. These rooms are actually the same size as my office space here in the states and is larger than my son’s room is today. We felt that if were building a nice size retirement home, why not take some space and allocate it to people that make our lives better. For the nominal added expense, each maid’s room is only a couple thousand dollars, which in the overall price of the house is not that much. Each room has a window, will be large enough and private enough for someone to unwind after a work day.

So will your maid / house helper, be delegated to a “closet” or when you build your retirement home will you plan for a bit more. Side A or Side B, which are you on?? Feel free to discuss below in the comments.

Living Local Part 2 (Rental Houses)

rich — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:14:16 +0000

In a follow up to an earlier post Living Local, I wanted to delve deeper into what you can do to “Live Local” and save tons of money on your next trip to the Philippines.

Inevitably in your lead up to moving / retiring in the Philippines you will make several if not many trips to your new / future home. We usually go every 2 years to the Philippines and spend a extended time there. We typically are in country from 3-5 weeks depending on what we need to accomplish. In our first couple trips over we exclusively stayed in hotels and took public transportation (i.e. taxis) We stayed in hotels that we could find ratings and reviews for online, before we left. These were always nice hotels and we were never disappointed with the accommodations. This was before we had definitely decided that we were going to retire in the Philippines and were treating the trips as vacations and a chance to visit family and have a good time.

After coming home from a Christmas trip over, I was looking at the expenditures from the trip (which I’m sure you can imagine a X-mas trip to relatives) and saw that this trip was far too expensive and that we needed to find solutions to this issue before our next trip over. I believe that our total trip cost that time was somewhere in the range of $15,000 USD. As I thought about what we could do to lower the trip cost, while looking over what we spent, the single largest expenditure were the hotel fees. Now granted we were not staying in local hotels we were staying in western hotels that were very nice. Priced at daily total fees of approximately $100 USD per night, you can see that this cost could be potentially $5,000 USD for a 5 week trip. Besides the cost factor of staying in hotels during our trips, my wife was constantly asking me if I thought that I could “handle” living in the Philippines and would I be able to endure all the “down sides” to life in a 3rd world country.

So with those two factors in my head, I started researching short term rental houses in Davao City (where we plan to retire). I asked the usual expat forums and such but didn’t get any good information. So I dug into the internet and the never ending “non page 1″ responses from Google. I found several Davao City rentals ranging from $60 USD to $90 USD per night. Most owners will make a deal if your going to rent for several weeks to months. We made such a deal for a rental house with a pool and a car for about 30 days. I believe that we payed about $45 a night for the house and $15 a day for the car, no driver. So for $60 USD a day we had a 3 bedroom house with pool and a car. Of course there is no room service in this situation and no restaurants on-site, but that’s what it is to live local Although we did have “maid” service while we were there. The house lady came daily and straightened up and mopped floors and such. We gave her a nominal tip on our departure, although I doubt it was required.

Make sure you do your looking and reserving well in advance and you will be able to get a better deal. A owner will be more than overjoyed to have their property rented 6 months to 1 year in advance of your arrival. Most of them will require between 40% and 50% down approximately 7 – 21 days advance of your arrival. You can’t really begrudge them that, it is not like they will be able to rent that property within only days of a cancellation. So for $1,800 dollars we were able to have a rental car and a 3 bedroom rental house with pool for our entire stay, at the same time saving a lot of money on food, solely because we shopped and cooked at our home away from home.

So if you want to save a ton of money on your next trip to the Philippines and find out if you can live local, then lose the hotel and rent a house.

LIVE LOCAL

“Dirty Kitchen” Will / Does your Retirment Home Have One

rich — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:40:13 +0000

Implying that someone has or want’s a “dirty kitchen” in the west would be considered somewhat rude, but in the Philippines its a normal thing.

Open Air Dirty Kitchen Wood Burning

The term “dirty kitchen” in the Philippines relates to kitchen workspace, typically separated and outside the main living space. It is usually the second cooking area of the home. It is used to, traditionally, cook the majority of the food, using wood burning stoves. It allows for people to cook food items that are obtrusive in odor or just better cooked by wood / coal burning than with gas or electric cook tops. Imagine frying fish in your kitchen and the odor it produces or even grilling a pork chop with your BBQ in your house and the need becomes clear. In poorer households the “dirty kitchen” may well be their only kitchen.

“Dirty Kitchens” can be directly compared to outdoor kitchens here in the states. Funny thing is though that outdoor kitchens here in the states are typically reserved for the wealthy. Most everyone else has a BBQ grill of some type that they do their grilling / smoking in. Outdoor kitchens can be anything from a simple cook-top with a counter to a expansive cooking and preparation area including sinks, cabinets, refrigerators, rotisseries and the like. If you look here you will see that there is practically no limit to what you could do with a outdoor kitchen or the amount of money you could spend. Google Images of Outdoor Kitchens

We are planning to have a outdoor cooking area in our retirement home. We have designated a fairly large area of landscape to the outdoor kitchen / eating area. It will be a concrete surface, most likely pebbled so there will be no slipping in the rain or when water from the pool is tracked in. Will have a high roof so that smoke will not permeate the area and a large ceiling fan (Our post on ceiling fans) to keep the area cool and the bugs to a minimum. It will be the centralized gathering space for family functions, parties and just spending time outdoors near the pool. We may have to raise our dirty kitchen up a terrace higher than the pool depending on what the Architects can come up with in regards to the landscaping. I hope to have a gas grill with rotisserie. (Not much better than a marinated manok that has been cooked on the grill) I will make sure to include normal gas powered cooking surface/s so that the family and more importantly the Asawa can have her pritong isda (fried fish) to her heart’s content. I probably will have some sort of small refrigerated area for gatherings and plenty of work space. I may end up bringing the larger components over with us, unless I can find reasonable priced alternatives in Davao that are of good quality.

Besides this area being used for parties / functions and the cooking of “stinky” foods, it will be the ONE AND ONLY location on the property where Durian will be allowed to reside, be opened or consumed. In case you are not familiar with Durian, most westerners are not, I give you Andrew Zimmern, star of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods.

Choosing a Architect / Builder in the Philippines

rich — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:20:31 +0000

When it comes to choosing an Architect for building a custom home in the Philippines the process is a bit more involved than in the US. Architects in the states design / draft the plans so that a builder or general contractor can then take said plans and build the structure. The builder / general contractor then consult with the architect if something is unclear but for the most part they operate independently.

In the Philippines most builders have architects and engineers on staff. One usually approaches a builder with design requirements and the builder then has his architect and drafters design the layout and his engineers make sure its sound. Once the design is completed, approved and money changes hands, the “architect / builder” then overseas the project from groundbreaking to handover. The architect basically morphs into the general contractor for the duration. He is on-site each day making sure his plans are followed and things are constructed properly. The builder may actually send a engineer out to the site for oversee specific tasks during the build that are under his area of expertise.

Choosing a architect / builder before you arrive in the Philippines opens a whole nother can of worms. As the Philippines in general are typically behind the 8 ball when it comes to a company’s presence on the web and even when they are the information is limited at best, at least in comparison to firms here in the states. So basically you have to reach out to everyone and anyone that you know for recommendations and references. There is limited architectural information for the Philippines online, and of that very little is marketing info. There are a few blogs out there written by expats describing their process of building a house and the steps and people they used, but that is only a small fraction of the available resources (Andy Hyners Blog and Bob Hammerslag’s goILOILO.com ). There are a few more but with limited information (If you know of any please let me know in the comments ) I also found Licensed architect lists for several cities with names and contact info. I recently emailed every one of them for my area with a chain letter of sorts to see what information I could get back. I then took the responses and did as much research on them and their respective companies in regards to building in my city.

Luckily for me my design is pretty much set, I don’t need the architect / builder to design the layout for me. I feel that this process via email and overseas would / could be a disaster. Taking into account the distance measurement differences between the US and the Philippines, the language barrier and in general, the overall house design mentality of Filipinos, I decided I better be able to hand them something concrete to start with. I have found out during this process that architect’s consider themselves artistic. I always considered architects belonging to the engineering field. I have provided my potential architects with to scale drawings with metric distances along with topographic measurements of the lot. All they will have to do is modify for materials lengths and do the structural engineering on the house.

I am full on in this process right now, I have a couple firms on the short list and am getting pricing and other pertinent information. Luckily I have several years before I start the process, so I have time to gather information and make sure all the t’s are crossed. I hope to have my decision made within the next months allowing for me to start refining my design from a engineering standpoint.

A House is not a Home without a “Cool Roof”

rich — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:09:05 +0000

Roofs are responsible for up to 50% of home’s cooling loads. And that means large air-conditioning bills. If your home overheats in summer and hot weather, reflective roofs and insulation are excellent means to solve the problem. Common dark-color asphalt and fiberglass shingles absorb most of the solar radiation, and are a major cause of high-conditioning costs. A large amount of the unwanted heat in buildings comes in through the roof and attic. To solve this problem the most effective and direct answer is a reflective roof (also technically called cool roof).

As we are looking to gain every advantage we can in building our retirement home, naturally we would look to make our roof as energy efficient as possible.

Also known as albedo, solar reflectance is expressed either as a decimal fraction or a percentage. A value of 0 indicates that the surface absorbs all solar radiation, and a value of 1 represents total reflectivity. Thermal emittance is also expressed either as a decimal fraction between 0 and 1, or a percentage. Another method of evaluating coolness is the solar reflectance index (SRI), which incorporates both solar reflectance and emittance in a single value. SRI quantifies how hot a surface would get relative to standard black and standard white surfaces[citation needed]. It is defined such that a standard black (reflectance 0.05, emittance 0.90) is 0 and a standard white (reflectance 0.80, emittance 0.90) is 100[citation needed]. The use of SRI as a combined measurement of reflectance has been disputed[citation needed], since it has been shown that two different products with identical SRI numbers can yield significantly different energy savings results depending on what geographic region they are applied in, and the climatic conditions present in this region.

Benefits of cool roofs

Most of the roofs in the world (including over 90% of the roofs in the United States) are dark-colored. In the heat of the full sun, the surface of a black roof can increase in temperature as much as 50 °C (90 °F), reaching temperatures of 70 to 90 °C (150-190 °F). This heat increase can contribute to:

* Increased cooling energy use and higher utility bills;
* Higher peak electricity demand (the maximum energy load, in megawatts, an electric utility experiences to supply customers instantaneously, generally experienced in summer late afternoons as businesses and residences turn up their air conditioners), raised electricity production costs, and a potentially overburdened power grid;
* Reduced indoor comfort;
* Increased air pollution due to the intensification of the “heat island effect”; and
* Accelerated deterioration of roofing materials, increased roof maintenance costs, and high levels of roofing waste sent to landfills.

Any building with a dark colored roof, but particularly large buildings, will consume more energy for air conditioning than a “cooler” building – a strain on both operating costs and the electric power grid. Cool roofs offer both immediate and long-term savings in building energy costs. White reflective membranes, metal roofing with “cool roof” pigments, coated roofs and planted or green roofs can:

* Reduce building heat-gain, as a white or reflective roof typically increases only 5–14 °C (10–25 °F) above ambient temperature during the day.
* Create 15–30%[citation needed] savings on summertime air conditioning expenditures.
* Enhance the life expectancy of both the roof membrane and the building’s cooling equipment.
* Improve thermal efficiency of the roof insulation; this is because as temperature increases, the thermal conductivity of the roof’s insulation also increases.
* Reduce the demand for electric power by as much as 10 percent on hot days.
* Reduce resulting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
* Provide energy savings, even in northern climates on sunny (not necessarily “hot”) days.

Note that today’s “cool roof” pigments allow metal roofing products to be EnergyStar rated in dark colors, even black. They aren’t as reflective as whites or light colors, but can still save energy over other paints.

Bob over at goILOILO.com has a excellent write up / pictures on the methods he used on his house to keep the roof cool have a read: http://goiloilo.com/cool-roof-philippines-metal-roofs-and-cool-buildings-in-the-tropics/. He also has a wide variety of topics regarding the building of his home, a full read of his blog would be helpful to anyone looking to build their home in the Philippines.

*Photo of home on front page is attributed to Bob at goILOILO.com

Isabela House (Construction Log 3) Construction Bids & Building Permits

Philippines or Bust » Featured

Isabela House (Construction Log 44) Swimming Pool Progress

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 38) Time to Sing

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 27) Details Details

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 26) Beginning of the Finishing

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 25) Windows & Contractors

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 20) Work Continues & Fence Permits Revisited

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 18) Roof Continues / Fence Planning Beginnings

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 12) Going Up! (Walls That Is)

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 11) Foundation and Floors

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 9) Box Construction

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 7) Back Fill & Box Construction

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 4) Lot Marking Pt. 2 & Backfill Preparation

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 2) Site Marking

Related Posts:

Isabela House (Construction Log 1) Plans and Site Inspection

Related Posts:

Philippines Building Projects

Related Posts:

A Room The Size Of A Closet

Related Posts:

Living Local Part 2 (Rental Houses)

Related Posts:

“Dirty Kitchen” Will / Does your Retirment Home Have One

Related Posts:

Choosing a Architect / Builder in the Philippines

Related Posts:

A House is not a Home without a “Cool Roof”

Related Posts: