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

Starting House Construction During the Rainy Season

Our home construction was tackled differently. We thought that the whole house would be demolished and then everything would start from scratch. The construction team treated it differently and demolished parts of the house as they progressed.

After removing the "finishings" (all doors, cabinets, windows, bedroom walls), the team prioritized digging the new foundation. They kept the roof intact so they can work without getting rained in. It was surreal to see a huge part of the house removed.

At street level, you wouldn't actually know that the house was slowly getting demolished. The front door was intact and the debris was kept and picked up from the back. It was a good idea to do this since the movement inside was kept private and it kept the dust going to neighbors to a minimum. 

It's really helpful to work with an experienced team. I was worried at some point about their safety and our architect told me not to worry since they knew which walls to remove. My siblings said seeing the bones of the house reminded them of the time it was still being built (I wasn't born yet at that time). Well, I was able to see (from photos) the structure of the house and it was really surreal. 

Our architect has a video about starting construction during the rainy season. He pointed out some pros and cons. The big plus is the pricing of materials. With lower demand, the prices are more affordable. For us, it helped that a structure was in place and they were able to use the roof while working on the foundation. The new house will be a bit smaller than the old one, so the old foundation will help support the new one. 

Would you start your house construction during the rainy season?

Demolition Day One

I was confined in the hospital when the workers moved in. We scrambled to empty the house before the move in day and I guess that made me so stressed out. We had to send Chris and Pops to the province and completely empty the house. 

Funnily, there was still one cabinet that was filled to the brim! Mama Lola's vintage mirror kept it inaccessible. My Mom had cleared out Mama Lola's stuff and in it were more craft materials! It took me another three months to sort it.

Anyway, I managed to get home before the crew started to demolish the house. They had to build their lodging and storage area first. Then they removed all the furniture we were keeping (the big ones we can no longer store in our current home). 

I shed some tears when I saw what they removed first - my parents cabinets. The same ones that were installed when the house was built back in 1969. The foreman commended how the house was built. He said it was built really well and they would probably have a hard time removing everything.

I had mixed feelings about seeing my childhood home demolished. It was taken apart slowly. My siblings knew how it looked while it was being built. I slowly saw the opposite. I only saw what was being done through photos and videos since I had the misfortune of falling down the stairs a week after I got home from the hospital. I'm a total klutz, so for safety, I've been banned from going to my childhood home. It's probably better that way since aside from being a klutz, I may be an emotional wreck. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Last Look at My Childhood Home

I honestly couldn't find a clear photo of my childhood home's frontage because there was so much foliage in front. Mom planted a lot of trees in front and it obscured most of the house. Here's my last photo when the house was still standing. 

And a photo from the corner of the street on January 2025 -

I probably have to look through all the old albums to find an original photo of the house when it was new. It was very different from how it looked when I was a child. I always wondered why my Mom had all the beautiful walls painted white.

I wasn't born yet when the house was built.

This used to be an open area but became my Dad's office

I loved the original look of my childhood home. Tito Bert really designed it really well and it withstood many earthquakes and flooding. Adjustments were made based on Mom and Dad's needs and plans and I didn't really plan my future. I thought when Miggy and I moved out that was the end of my decades-long stay in my childhood home. 

I have so many memories in my childhood home and my friends told me they also have a lot of happy memories in our home. We had a lot of gatherings there, birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas family reunions etc. We always had a lot of neighbors come and visit. I think everyone loved my Mom's beautiful garden.

Last year, my childhood home reached its 56th year as our OG family's home. It was time to move on and build new memories. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sunsetting My Childhood Home

I dreamt I was back in my childhood home last night. I remember every nook and cranny of it since I lived there for almost 35 years. 

Sunsetting the house was very hard. It took more than two years to clear it. Mom kept telling me before she passed that she wanted us back there. After several consultations with architects and engineers, we decided to demolish the house.

We learned a lot about sunsetting an old home. The house was 55 years old, as much as all the materials used when it was built was still solid, the wires were already tried and there were a lot of leaks. The roof also was leaking even though I had it fixed in early 2022.

It was a long process that involved a number of professionals. We worked with several architects, engineers and a decluttering coach. Sunsetting an old house is something that's not taught at school. It's a long process and you have to make sure you work with people you can trust.

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Path to Our Current Home

After our wedding, my sister gave me very sound advice. She said, "Your first home doesn't have to be your forever home." She said that circumstances change and sometimes you have to move. I guess she gave me that advise because it was my first time to move out since birth. 

Sweetie, Miggy and me moved to an apartment a few streets away from my parents. We decided to live near my parents because it was close to Miggy's school. We tried to look for a home closer to his school, but rent in the area was more expensive. TBH, we got so busy with wedding planning we forgot to plan for our first home. 

December 2009

We stayed there for almost a year and decided to end our contract earlier because of plumbing issues. Luckily, our landlady was my Mom's friend so we did not get penalized. Mom heard about a duplex that was being rented out a hundred meters away from her. The place a bit bigger and it was easier to manage since if we were still at work we could just pick up Miggy from his grandparents. 

December 2010

We stayed there for more than two years. It was a nice home since it had a lot of space. That was when we learned it's really hard to move homes. We made the mistake of hiring a small vehicle to help transfer our things. It took a lot of trips.

During our stay at home #2 I suddenly got an offer to move to Singapore. After a few months after reviewing our finances, we decided to invest and buy a condo unit. Since turnover kept moving, we ended up extending the rent of our second home. Luckily, our second landlord was also very kind. I moved all our stuff by my lonesome self with help from a professional moving company. 

Early 2013

Moving to the condo was much easier for the boys. The timing though was very hard. It was Christmas, so we were not able to furnish our new home properly. Our old furniture were too big, so that went to Mom's house. I also had heart surgery in Singapore a few weeks after we moved. Well, at least we weren't paying rent anymore.  Our furniture was finally complete just before I was allowed to go home to recuperate. 

We lived in a couple of other homes in Singapore. All of those were rented. As a family we always talked about eventually having our own house. The condo eventually became too small for us. It was during the pandemic when I was convinced by my doctors to retire when we started to watch house and lot videos. One house caught our eye and I found out a friend was the agent for it. 

Will it be our forever home? Probably not. As my sister said, circumstances change and sometimes you just have to move :)

#BeKind #StaySafe