An Almost Empty Shell

If you passed by in front of our house, you won't think it was being demolished. The front area stayed intact for a long time. The roof was left untouched also to provide shade for the team. 

It was possible to do that because we chose to make the house a bit smaller and have at least 2 meters of easement. This allowed the team to dig a new foundation without removing the old one. It helped keep minimal work disruptions. 

It was still surreal to see the house in shambles. There was no longer a trace of what it was and what every corner contributed to my core memories. I lived in it for over 30 years and I could easily imagine what each nook and corner looked like. 

It took a while for me to grasp that my childhood home is almost gone. At least the demolition wasn't too drastic. It gave me time to process losing the physical house. Anyway, the memories will always be in my mind and heart. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Groundbreaking and House Blessing

Our foreman advised it was best to do the ground-breaking and house blessing ceremony once they've dug the foundation. We waited a few weeks and finally Manong Val messaged us to go ahead and plan for the ground-breaking and house blessing. We also got advice from him on what usually goes on and we did some research too. 

We first secured a priest who would be available and then worked on the other stuff as the date drew near. Here's a list of what we worked on:

• 
  Candles
• Food
• Tarpaulin printing of the perspective made by architect
• Time capsule which included the perspective, drawings, religious items, and coins. I had Miggy paint the container gold. I checked my photos, of course, I forgot to take a photo of what I placed inside the time capsule. Whoever eventually demolishes the house in the future would find out, haha.
• Shovel (also painted gold) and hard hats

We went a bit early on the day of the ground-breaking and house blessing. I had met an accident and was still hopping around, so the boys had to assist me in going to the basement where the blessing was going to happen. It was surreal to see a huge part of the house gone. In my mind everything is still the same. I think it will only change when we've finally moved in. 

Fr. Marvin arrived and we had a simple blessing and celebration with the construction team. It was a happy occasion and it felt right. I was really sad when they started demolishing the house, but that day I felt light. The blessing brought in a new energy to our future home and I felt everyone who lived in it and passed were happy for us. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

First Month of Demolition

It was surreal for me to see my childhood home be "unwrapped". That's how it felt during the first month of construction/demolition work. My siblings said they got to see the house built from the ground up. I'm witnessing the opposite -- the unraveling. 

Here's what happened in the first month:

Week 1: Removed all the "add-ons" including cabinets and big furniture we were planning to keep. They moved the big items to a hut in the garden. Bedroom walls and the bathroom were also removed. All inner doors were also removed. They worked fast!

Week 2: Started removing the flooring.

Week 3: Removed all the windows. It was during this week that the CCTV and server was relocated to a booth outside.

Week 4: After 4 weeks, the whole house felt decidedly empty. The "second floor" was almost gone. Everything left in the house was either in the hut or moved to our place. Our architect checked the development in-person weekly and kept in touch with the foreman everyday. 

If you noticed, we didn't have the site blessed at this point yet. The foreman suggested doing the blessing after they started to work on the new foundation. From the outside, it didn't look like something was being done to the house.

Mom's trees and plants effectively covered the house and nothing was done yet on the front area. That came months later.

Next week: site blessing!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Keeping Tabs on the Construction

We wanted to keep an eye on the developments and since we installed CCTV a few years ago, we had it moved so we could see all the sides of the house. We also added some cams indoors. Through the cameras, we were able to see how the house was slowly chipped away. 

Since the house was being demolished, the team created a "server room" which reminded us of Dr. Who's telephone booth. The booth even had a door and was made from materials that came from the house. The team even found wallpaper and decorated it, haha. 

The CCTV has been very useful in making sure the site is secure. We also use it to ask architect questions especially when we need something adjusted. Some funny moments were also captured by the camera and sometimes we chance upon Manong Lito singing especially on weekends. 

Thanks to Netoy for making sure the CCTV we invested in a couple of years ago is still useful :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

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?

Other Home Building Expenses

There are a gazillion other expenses when it comes to building a house. We had additional expenses too since an old house exists and we're within the airport zone.

Here's a list we had to pay aside from the construction building materials and professional fees:

Requirements for Building permit (our Architect included these in the construction cost)

- Barangay clearance fees

- Homeowners clearance fees

- Survey and CAAP requirements done by a geodetic engineer (we had to spend additional for the CAAP requirements)

Building permit (partly covered under construction fees, but...)

- liability policy 

- fire extinguisher 

- CAAP clearance 

- planning fees

- plumbing, roofing 

- contractor's tax

Homeowners fees (not included in construction cost)

- Demolition bond

- Construction bond

- More homeowners fees (this one is not reimbursable)

Monthly fees

- water utility 

- electricity

- PLDT (we set up CCTV so we could monitor the property)

- weekly food for the team

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Shopping at Wilcon Depot for Home Needs

Last Friday, we went to Wilcon Depot to buy a couple of needs for our plumbing system. I'm actually glad that the master plumber, Manong Roy, installed a filter system for our water tank. With frequent water interruptions by Maynilad, we see how much dirt is accumulated monthly on the filter. This helps clean the water that goes into our water tank. Having a filter helps keep your tank clean and you avoid the cost of having a water tank cleaned (at least PhP6,000 per service). 

Anyway, we just buy the replacement filter at Wilcon Depot. The same filter is much more expensive at Ace Hardware. Usually, Sweetie buys it, but this time he allowed me to go with him since the branch is fully air-conditioned (last time I went to a similar store I got heat exhaustion). We also went because we needed to replace a part for our toilet. 

We went around after getting what we needed and I was enthralled with the many items they carry. I've been making a list for our future house and took note of the cost of construction materials. It was overwhelming, but a good place to see different kinds of materials. We were also pleasantly surprised to find bigger cat crates (haha). The ones at malls are quite expensive and smaller, so it was good to know you can get bigger crates at Wilcon Depot. 

The staff were also very helpful. They were more knowledgeable than mall based hardware stores and that's a good thing since they helped us find the right part for the toilet we needed (which thankfully got fixed the same day by a plumber). 

I'd like to go back soon to see what else they have so we can plan things better. I'll probably go earlier in the day or later in the afternoon. The blast of hot air when you step out isn't good for you. 

*I've also looked around online for home items, but prefer to know and hold the actual materials before purchasing anything. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Complain When You Need To

I see a lot of posts of homeowners on Home Buddies who ask if their contractor did the right thing. Oftentimes it's about tile work, stairs, windows, roof, walls etc. Most of those who comment say the work is unacceptable and should be fixed. I guess people ask because most of us are first time homeowners. It is indeed rare to go through building a house more than once (unless you're very rich!). 

Our supposedly simple renovations dragged on. We were told that the work would finish in just two weeks. It's been two months now and it's supposed to finally finish today. Well, it was supposed to be finished in early May. We found a couple of issues with the work mostly because the last set of workers hurriedly finished their task. 

We waited a few weeks before we allowed them to come. We had to get well and have the house disinfected even though the virus likely came from their group. The good thing about our contractor is they do back jobs if there are issues. Oftentimes though we had to wait since they quickly move on to other projects. 

Looks fine, but there were issues with the drawer and floor. 

The project would have finished in two weeks if they provided materials on time and if they did the work properly the first time. There are many horror stories with bad contractors. We've so far stuck it out with this one since they do get the job done with supervision. I think that's required anyway for any work that you have done. Among all the work they did for us the best one is the plumbing and the garden work. It was outsourced to another company (haha). 

I know a lot of us tend not to complain when you have work done. I learned to give proper feedback and complain after working for an international company for 15 years, haha. I don't bottle things inside anymore especially when I pay for it. Demand the worth of your hard earned money. Just a few more tweaks and we should be done.

#BeKind #StaySafe