Correcting Issues from the Childhood Home

Ondoy, 2009

While planning our future home, we made several lists:

• List of basic needs and must-haves
• Wish list
• Property red flags

The list discussion lasted a couple of years. It started as a rough draft and evolved to a final list when we also chose our architect. It was important to give our architect a list of issues we experienced while living in my childhood home.

• Flooding Issues
• Basement flooding - the water would come from the road at the back. It's lower than our frontage, plus the basement was lower than the road and there was no firewall between our house and the property at the back. Also, there would be times flood water would come in from the bathroom drain.
• The neighbor doesn't have a drain and their basement area gets flooded. They used to throw water over to the property behind them.
• Our ground floor never flooded, but when the creek overflows, the street gets flooded up to 2 feet. This only happened during Typhoon Ondoy and Yolanda. Mom's garden also only got flooded once during typhoon Ondoy.
• 
  Termites and other pests
• Our whole village gets infested with termites. I had my childhood home treated by pest control in the last decade. 
• There was a time we had a rat and roach infestation.
• And, snakes. 
• Burglary
• We had experienced burglary in the past. We've lost a couple of bicycles and some tools since they were not placed inside the house. Our neighbors have also reported some random burglaries happening in the past few years. 
• Heat
• The overall temperature of our home was tolerable when I was a child. It got very hot eventually when my parents made adjustments to the house.
• Also, back when the house was built, installing insulation wasn't really a thing. Mom had insulation added, but with the cross-ventilation affected, it was still very hot in the house. 

All of the past issues would be addressed. I think the biggest change we're doing is to raise the whole house by at least a meter. It's in consideration of climate change. We'll also be able to avoid getting the basement flooded as well with proper firewalls on all sides. It's been raining for more than 3 weeks now and the street in front of our future home hasn't flooded. I think our barangay has been working hard to clear all waterways. 

Stay safe and dry everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Home on Mondays: We Ripped Up Our Kitchen

Our kitchen had a lot of issues from top to bottom. Floor tiles started breaking, then we discovered the termites, then the ceiling started leaking in several areas. The leak also affected the lights and the kitchen became too dark to do any cooking. The cabinets and drawers also smelled bad even though we kept it clean. We also couldn't remove stains on the countertop.

It was supposed to be a brand new kitchen when we bought the house. Damages were due to poor workmanship and bad materials. A friend who's a contractor advised me a few months ago to just do some touch-ups since things were still new. We decided to renovate after we found issues in the electrical installation and the damage from the termites. 

It took just two days for everything in the kitchen to be removed. The first thing the crew checked were the broken tiles. They told us that the tiles were not properly installed that's why they kept getting dislodged*. Unfortunately the same tiles are no longer available, so we decided to change the tiles (the tiles are slippery too). 

3 tiles adjacent to it are also broken.
There are other tiles across the house with the same issue.

When the cabinets were removed the workers commented that the material used was just like paper. They said it'll disintegrate once it gets wet. The plywood used for the countertops were not also treated. The cabinets that were removed and moved out soon developed orange mold (Aspergillosis). Imagine if that happened while it was still installed. 

I always thought the bad smell from the cabinets and drawers were due to bad drainage**. Partly it was due to that, but the bigger culprit was the area that the termites infested. We couldn't see it because it was behind the cabinet. It was a really bad infestation and the pest control company said it probably started before we moved in. 

The electrician warned us not to use the lights after heavy rainfall directed the leak to pass through the bulbs. We had been complaining about the leaks for many months, but it was always just a band-aid solution the former contractor did. Electrician also found other issues which is hazardous for us. 

I'm glad we decided to renovate the kitchen. I was getting sick also from the smell whenever I got a whiff of it. It is expensive to renovate, but the family's safety is our priority. All we wanted was to have a new home where we could build new happy memories. The journey though has been riddled with issues that could have been avoided. 

*This is a problem we're encountering across the house.

**Plumber did confirm that p-traps were not installed across the house.

#BeKind #StaySafe