Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So, now Janet and I (mostly Janet) own two lots in the Philippines. I can hear some of you mumbling, “they’re nuts,” and you would not be completely wrong.

While the lot in Southern Cebu was a very good deal, by the time Janet paid the taxes (the ones that were higher than expected) it had taken a chunk out of her savings for the project.

Janet researched house building here and really learned a lot. She must have drawn up 10 different versions of a potential house design. Occasionally I would say, “You know you could get everything you want and save money by reducing the overall size of the house.” And she did!

We went to her hometown and spoke to a couple of “architects” about drawing up blueprints; architect is a misnomer; mostly they just draw up the blueprints. A blueprint is a requirement to get a permit and while some people do not bother to get the required permits, Janet was determined to do it all right. But the reality that we found out is that the blueprint and associated cost estimates are a formality that might not be used much by the builder or foreman. The first architect we interviewed seemed competent but was expensive for a provincial town. We went with guy number two, since he was cheaper.

Now, how to build the house? You can hire a contractor and certainly that’s what we will do for our own home here in Valencia. But for a simple house in a provincial area, that just adds expense and we already weren’t positive whether we could afford to build the entire house.

So in the end we hired a Foreman and Janet functions as her own contractor. Here’s what that means. The Foreman, aka Boy, oversees the crew. He tells Janet every week what materials he needs. Janet purchases those materials and arranges to have them delivered to the job site. Unfortunately in her home town there are not a lot of options for where you can buy material, so she’s pretty much stuck with the vendor and whatever price is charged.
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Every Saturday Janet has to pay the crew for the week’s work. General laborers earn 250 pesos a day (about $5). Skilled labor (masons, electricians, plumbers) usually cost 400 pesos a day but Janet had Boy negotiate 350/day, based on the fact that the laborers would have consistent work. In the provinces often projects are done in fits and starts, but Janet was determined to go from beginning to end without let up. The Foreman earns 500P/day. He mostly oversees and does some labor. Our Foreman, Boy, seems quite competent. Janet had actually hired another Foreman, a cousin of hers, but just a few days before the building was to commence he took another Foreman job and bowed out. Fortunately Boy was available. And BTW, he’s a lot older than his name would imply; I’d guess close to my age.

In addition to the paid labor, Janet’s older brother works full time on the project. Her father works his farm during the day as usual and then goes to the job site and works till dark. Every weekend the kids go to the job site and help! It’s amazing to see and you can check out a brief video to see them all at work here.

At this point, at the beginning of August, the house is really coming along and if I had to venture an uneducated guess would say we are at least halfway finished. The foundation’s been done, the concrete floor has been poured, the walls are up and soon they’ll start working on the roof.

The workers, despite their modest pay, work very hard. Now they don’t necessarily work efficiently but they work hard and earn their money. When I say the work is not that efficient I mean that the basics are not there and are substituted with hard labor. There’s no wheelbarrow, for example. Almost nothing of what you’d call jigs and fixtures; things that in the West would be done for items that had to be repeated.

Everyone in the family is excited with the house. It reminds me of the last time I had any involvement with the building of a new house. I was 6 or 7 years old and my parents were building a house in the suburbs. Every weekend we’d go and check the progress. At first I thought it was all a big nothing but as the weeks went by and I saw my bedroom framed it all got very exciting. I would imagine that’s how they are all feeling now.

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There’s no point in arguing with expats here who say they would never do what we are doing. I get it – really I do. Whether or not they like their girl’s family they have no interest in helping them in such  a way. Like I say I do get it. As the mantra goes, “they did fine before I came along, didn’t they?”

The truth is compared to Janet, I’ve done very little. Mostly I provided a stable environment where she could pursue her dream; a dream that her parents and family would have a decent home to live in; a home of their own. Maybe I also provided some guidance but I’m not even sure of that. After all Janet has a B.S. in Business and is quite capable of tracking the money, labor and supplies. Mostly I just look on and have people give me credit for what I mostly haven’t done. It’s a pretty good life!