Found the Original Plans for My Childhood Home

While clearing my childhood home, I found the original location plan and house plan. Being over 50 years old, the plans were brittle already. I carefully scanned them and have been trying to stitch the huge paper together. 

It's an amazing find since I wasn't even born yet when the house was built. My Mom told me they originally did not plan to have a basement. It only happened because the architect, my Dad's brother - Tito Bert, told them that it would be very expensive to buy panambak to cover the area. It was cheaper to add windows and doors. That fact is still true until today*.

The plans were hand drawn. Nowadays, they are made with a computer application and printed. I've seen architects still hand draw initial plans and they just re-draw them when it's finalized and submitted to the building official. 

The colored adobe veneer

 I also found an old photo of the house when it was being built. It's the back side though. 

And here's a photo from the 90s. The newer ones I have doesn't really show the house because of the huge bougainvillea my Mom planted in front.

I'll probably find some older photos eventually. It's just fun to see the original plans of the house. One thing you should keep on hand also are the electrical and plumbing plans. 

*It will be almost x3 the cost to just add doors and windows to cover the basement.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Happy Sunday

Have a restful Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

It Became a Jungle

Miggy has been managing the pocket garden the past few months. I just go there to give the plants some fertilizer monthly. The rain though made the plants grow faster and Miggy said he was having a hard time getting around.

Luckily, it didn't rain last Wednesday afternoon, so Sweetie and I went to work on the pocket garden. It was a huge mess. I trimmed plants by section and terminated some that drowned from the rain. Sadly, our bell pepper plants needed a lot of trimming. They seem to have been infected by something. If they don't recover in two weeks I'll just uproot and start over.

The tomato plants needed a lot of trimming too, but without full sunlight it will be hard to get them to produce blooms. I gave them a bit of fertilizer, so we'll see.

The biggest surprise for me are the cacti and succulents I re-potted. They grew a lot and I noticed most of them are flowering despite being ignored. They don't really get wet, but I guess the moisture from the rain help keep them hydrated. I'll have to clean them up again and possibly move them to bigger pots.

Grogu spent the afternoon with us. He made sure we took breaks in between the clean up. Of course, he got a lot of treats for keeping us company. The next day he also did a full inspection of our work, haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Made Porchetta Wrap from Leftovers

My birthday celebration left us with some leftover porchetta, so I researched to see how best we could eat it at home with just a few pieces left. I thought about making some paksiw, but the boys are not fond of eating paksiw. It can also be made into a sandwich, pasta, taco, ramen topping or fried rice. 

I decided to use it for a wrap. I first made a small jar of pickled red onion and got the other ingredients. We decided to buy wraps instead of taco shells, sour cream, salsa, lettuce and cheese. Here's how I prepared it:

It's been weeks since we had it and I'm now craving to have some again.

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/09/recipes-for-my-son-porchetta-wrap-from.html 

Happy Friday!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Mount Isarog View

When I was a young child, when we'd visit the ancestral house in Naga City (where my Dad grew up), he would bring me to the room which had access to the roof. That would usually be early in the morning when you can see Mt. Isarog and sometimes the Mayon Volcano (on clear days). 

I remember my Dad would also sing the Ateneo marching song (Regnum Dei). Mount Isarog is part of the song and I guess it was my Dad's way to teach me about Naga City. It was effective since I still remember it to this day. 

I brought this up because my "cousin" (he's actually technically my nephew but we're almost the same age), recently posted a photo of the area. It apparently eventually became his room. I remembered it and also scanned the photo again a few weeks ago. (My brain likes connecting pieces of information). 

Miss you Dad!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Some Gardening Exercise, Finally!

We've been waiting for a clear day to do some much needed gardening. At 2pm, the sky started becoming noisy. Surprisingly by 4 in the afternoon it didn't rain yet. We headed out then and went through the plants that badly needed trimming. 

It's been raining like crazy the past two months and that gave the plants a lot of extra vitamins. They all grew and badly needed trimming. We filled up an extra large trash bag with stems, leaves, and dead plants. 

Grogu and Meredith provided motivation. Meredith looked satisfied with the clean up, while Grogu asked for a lot of chin and belly rubs. We had to be careful walking around to avoid accidentally stepping on him. If not for Grogu, I don't think I would have lasted long working in the garden. He made sure we took breaks by rubbing our legs and asking for belly rubs.

I had a good workout and Sweetie helped a lot. The garden is back to being more spacious. Miggy said he had a hard time watering plants because the garden was starting to look like a jungle. We're not done yet since we still need to trim the maki plants and Eugenia. 

Day spent well :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Favorite Rubber Stamps

Sweetie and I have a collection of rubber stamps. Actually, Sweetie owns the majority of it and I only bought the Papemelroti Christmas rubber stamp set and a Frixion stamp set.

I love the Frixion stamp set. I got it in Tokyo before the pandemic and I used it sparingly. It was only when it started raining last July that I started using it everyday. I started tracking the weather when the habagat started going crazy. It helped me realize we had rain everyday for 3 straight weeks.

I got the set in a shop in Ginza. It's actually just about 2 inches each with a small icon. You also don't need stamp ink since it's self-inking. I had about ten and I added a few more, so I can stamp more "occasions" and activities.

The Frixion stamp set works perfectly well with the small Starbucks planner I got last Christmas. The planner is the smallest I've ever had and TBH you can barely read what I write everyday. Think size 8 font to list what I ate and did everyday, haha. The stamps help give it a bit more color.

I'm hoping to find one stamp to represent gardening. I think that's the only thing I lack from the set :)

#BeKind #StaySafe