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We “Poisoned” Our Workers :)

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It was the beginning of November and our house (or at least the wall) was being built. Janet and I discussed what if anything we should do for our crew for Christmas.

I asked the question, “Should we give them a little cash?” Other suggestions included a bag of simple groceries. Janet proposed that she cook them lunch.

As the date approached we confirmed with our contractor that we would provide lunch for the crew on Friday December 21st. At the same time our friend, Kevin, was having construction done on his lot using the same contractor. In fact it was he who recommended his contractor, Romil, to us. I asked him what if anything he was intending to do for his crew for Christmas. A bag of food – rice and canned goods was his response. We both agreed that food was probably wiser than giving out cash. We then agreed to combine the crews and have the shindig on our lot.

I asked our contractor, Romil, how many we should expect and was surprised that the answer was 30. Romil explained that many of the crew work 3-4 days a week and so while we rarely see 15 men working, all told between the two crews, the grand total was 30.

Janet knew that her youngest sister, Miaca, would be with us the week before Christmas, as well as two young nieces, Hannah, and Juliana. So it was agreed that our girls would prepare the meal, while Kevin would handle the food bags.

Now what to feed the crew? Menu planning is practically a sport in the Philippines. You’re not just going into the supermarket and grabbing whatever is on sale. OK, that’s what I would do but not Janet and not any other Filipina around here.

After much discussion, Janet decided that the girls would prepare a pork and vegetable dish, we would buy a bunch of lechon manoks (chicken) from the largest retail seller of such chickens around, and then each worker would get a large serving of rice and a Coke Sakto. There’s been lots of debate on the Philippines forum I frequent about the meaning of the word sakto. Janet says it means “good enough.” The Coke Sakto size is I believe about 6 ounces. Now giving an American a 6 ounce drink at a party would at the very least lose you a friend for life, but here in the Philippines it’s an economical and reasonable thirst quencher for a snack or lunch. In short, it’s “good enough!”

I suggested to Janet that we go to the chicken place the day before and order the chickens to be picked up before lunch on Friday, The man there said, “I’m sorry but I cannot guarantee it.” He would not be working on Friday. “Can you call the guy who will be working on Friday?” “He can’t be reached,” I was told. “How about leaving him a note?” “Yes, but I can’t guarantee, Sir.” Perplexed, I looked for a solution. “When do you close tonight?” After being told they closed at 9:00 I asked whether he could prepare the chickens tonight and we would pick them up just before closing. The deal was made.

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At 8:30 we arrived. The chickens were cut, wrapped in aluminium foil and plastic and boxed up. Janet put them in the fridge when we got home. The next morning we heated up the pork dish Janet had made, as well as the chickens. We set up a small assembly line where Janet, the kids and I filled small lunch containers with pork, chicken and rice. In all we made 40 meals, packed everything into the car and drove to the work site.

A rudimentary table had already been set up for the food, which we laid out. At 12:00 the workers took their lunch break and fell in line to receive their lunches. They were very appreciative, equally so when they got their food gift bags from Kevin and his family.

We felt like we had done a really good thing for the hard working crew; well that is until late that night. Janet woke up in the middle of the night complaining of stomach pain. When I got up that morning I was told that she and two of the three girls had spent much of their night on the toilet.

Janet hadn’t eaten the pork so determined “it must have been the chicken.” Later I received a message from Kevin that much of the crew had stomach problems. He did not but he also had not eaten the chicken.

I felt fine and bragged about my cast iron stomach, since I had eaten a lot of the chicken. Unfortunately cast iron only lasts so long and a few hours later the bug hit me as well.

I messaged our contractor and apologised; he confirmed that he too had stomach problems.

At the end of the day, as we usually do, we visited our job site. The workers confirmed that they too had had problems. Janet thoughtfully had brought a few Immodium tablets and passed them out. What was unusual, though not unusual here in the Philippines, was that the men all were laughing and joking, had worked well that day, and continued to thank us for our efforts, despite having been “poisoned” by those efforts. In the U.S. they’d have already hired attorneys.

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How Much Cash for a House in the Philippines?

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Here’s an addendum to my interminable series, Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines. The most common question I get asked is – how much?

Now, if you’ve followed this blog much you will notice that I try very hard not to talk specifics about money. I suppose it’s the generation in which I was raised, where you weren’t supposed to talk about money. When my son was a kid and even as a teenager, he frequently tried to find out how much I earned.  I never told him. He’s a young software/hardware engineer now and I suspect it won’t be long before he earns more than I ever did. I will continue not to tell him what I made – but now out of embarrassment!

But I understand why people are asking how much. Maybe you are considering building a house for your retirement in the Philippines, or a house for your wife’s family, or a shack on the beach. Maybe you already live here and are genuinely curious what it would cost. And maybe you’re looking for a loan from me lol!

While Janet and I still won’t be telling you exactly what we spent, I will try here to give you some details to help you make a determination of what it might cost you.

The overall theme here is that range of home costs are determined in ways not dissimilar from the way you might determine it in your home country. The old saying “location, location, location” applies to the Philippines, just as it does to your Western country.

Property: Everything is priced per square meter. I’ve seen lots in the provinces go for 200P/sq. meter and even less. I have also seen lots here in Valencia go for 6000P/sq. meter and more. The cost difference rationales are similar to your home countries. Factors include town or city, lot location, size of lot, beach property, overlooking property, and are the sellers desperate or not, etc.  Additional factors to consider include road location. We found a number of cheap lots in Valencia where there was no direct access to a road, but a contracted right of way. While these lots were invariably much cheaper, in the end we decided we had to have direct road access. So the conclusion is that you can get a cheap lot in the provinces with right of way access or a luxury beach front lot for big bucks.

House Construction: There are many variables here including size, construction style (native, Western or luxury Western), number of stories, and where you are building. Just as with the lot, house building is generally priced based on a price per square meter.  Construction ranges here from about 10k pesos/square meter – 25k pesos/square meter. I’ve known some guys who have done it for less than 10k, but assume that the houses at that price were very simple. Realistically in the Dumaguete area I would estimate 14k and up for a “foreigner home.” There are certainly luxury houses here over the 25k peso range but those probably include items I can’t imagine or high end Western fixtures and finishing.

When calculating the number of square meters for a house in the Philippines, understand that things like patios, balconies, car ports, etc. will be considered part of the total square meters here. In our case, the house we are building in Valencia is 180 square meters plus a 10 square meter balcony on the 2nd floor. So that equals 190 square meters of house. So don’t be surprised when the 180 sq. meter house you designed is priced based on over 200 sq. meters because you have a car port, balcony, etc.

When talking about a “foreigner” house the biggest cost factor (and possibly the biggest headache factor) may well be the finishing. Finishing work in the Philippines is generally considered everything but the actual structure. This means doors, windows, bathroom fixtures, kitchen fixtures and appliances, tile, paint, air conditioners, lighting, etc. The finishing work on a higher end “foreigner” house can be 50% of the project. So you can therefore save money or spend lots more depending on the type and quality of interior finishing you want.

One other factor is whether you hire a contractor or do the job yourself. As I’ve mentioned often, Janet functioned as her own contractor for the house in Alcoy but for our house in Valencia we have a contractor.

If you have a contractor, the finishing work is generally negotiated into the price, but we did interview one contractor who split the job between the basic building of the structure (which the contractor handled) and the finishing work (which the owner took care of). If the contractor is handling everything, you will want to be very specific about your requirements. Don’t expect him to understand that you need 3 AC units and all Moen fixtures.

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Also remember that there are some additional costs that either you will pay or that you may factor into your contract. These costs include blueprints and permitting costs. And of course most people in the Philippines want some sort of fence or wall surrounded their property and a gate to enter. This can add considerably to your cost, depending on the size of your lot.

There’s one other factor to mention, although I am reticent to do so. We all have different notions of what is acceptable housing. I know guys who brag about how inexpensive their house was to build or what a cheap rent they have. I go into the house, look around and think, “you couldn’t pay me to live here.” On the flip side I’ve seen 15-20 million peso mansions and I again shake my head. In short you have to know yourself well enough to know what is necessary for you to have, nice to have, or unnecessary and price and build a home accordingly.

So there you have it. The lot can cost nearly any price and so can the house. It’s the Philippines and you have many options.

BTW, I have been posting videos of the construction process in Valencia. For those interested in following the progress, you can see the videos starting here.

Addendum to the Addendum: While I covered some of the specifics of the two houses being built in other posts in the series, they aren’t here, so I thought I would capture them.

House #1 (Family house): Location – Alcoy, Cebu. Lot size – 500 sq. meters. House size – 70 sq. meters. 4 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, small porch, 1 small kitchen. The family built a dirty kitchen outside the interior kitchen.

House #2 (Our House): Location – Valencia, Negros Oriental. Lot size – 1355 sq. meters. House size – 180 sq. meters + 10 sq. meter deck on 2nd floor (yes, it’s a 2 story house). 4 bedrooms (including master), 3 bathrooms (including master), living room, dining room, kitchen, sala area on 2nd floor. Concrete and iron wall around the perimeter of the property. In addition there will be a 20 sq. meter shop at the back of the property.

I should add that we agreed with our contractor that all fixtures and amenities should be purchasable in the Dumaguete area. This is significant because I know guys who used imported tiles, plumbing and fixtures. If you require all Western brands or the best there is, you have to realistically expect the price to go up – way up. Now, we will end up with nice tile, bathroom fixtures, etc. but I’m not expecting my contractor to pay for imported Italian marble lol.

2nd Addendum to the Addendum: For those genuinely interested or beginning the process of building a home who need more information or details, feel free to email me through the contact page on this blog or through Facebook, if we’re FB friends.

 

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Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – Part 5

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Here’s an update on the two lots we purchased in the Philippines! You can see the previous posts on this series here:

https://www.marriedafilipina.com/2018/07/why-the-hell-would-you-buy-property-in-the-philippines-part-1/

https://www.marriedafilipina.com/2018/07/why-the-hell-would-you-buy-a-lot-in-the-philippines-part-2/

https://www.marriedafilipina.com/2018/08/why-the-hell-would-you-want-to-buy-a-lot-in-the-philippines-part-3/

https://www.marriedafilipina.com/2018/08/why-the-hell-would-you-buy-a-lot-in-the-philippines-part-4/

The house that Janet built for her family in Alcoy, Cebu is complete! The project started about a year ago with the purchase of the lot. The building of the house itself took about 3 1/2-4 months, which is pretty damn good in the Philippines. As other blogs in this series detailed, Janet functioned as her own contractor, hiring an architect (mostly just a guy who drew up the blueprints), a foreman named “Boy” who hired and oversaw the crew. She purchased all the materials herself from the few sources available in the area, always complaining to me, “I could have gotten this cheaper in Dumaguete!”

As for me, I visited occasionally, inspecting the work and nodding wisely, as if I knew anything about construction, let alone construction in the Philippines. The Foreman, crew and Janet’s family acted as if I was the big cheese, despite the fact that I insisted that it was funded mostly by Janet. Members of the family worked very hard to assist the crew. Her father was there everyday, all the while still managing to work his farm. I have no idea how he does it; he’s not that much younger than me and I have barely enough energy in the day to go to the mall.

Janet’s brothers all pitched in and the sisters and kids worked every weekend. I mostly sat and watched and nodded approvingly.

Several brothers and sisters kicked in cash for some things that were not in the budget, like tile and bedroom doors and we really appreciated their efforts.

Yet still, our original budget turned up pretty short of the goal. Janet ended up kicking in some extra cash from her personal bank account. I managed to kick in some extra cash without touching our bank accounts which I was determined not to touch. I can make a snide remark about my heritage and upbringing but the truth is I have always been pretty good at this finding extra money business. And for all you wiseasses, the means I employed were completely legal!

The building process was frustrating. Janet went to Southern Cebu every weekend to inspect progress, meet with “Boy” and purchase the next week’s materials as instructed by Boy. Invariably his estimates were wrong. If he asked for 20 bags of cement, you could bet that by Wednesday, Janet was receiving a message that they needed another 10. Yells and curses would ensue. Finally Janet starting to leave a little cash with her mother for these weekly emergencies.

When it was all finally done Janet asked her mother how soon they would move in. “We can’t move in. There’s no kitchen.” “Of course there was a kitchen,” Janet replied, including a new gas cooktop donated by sister, Jonna. “But there’s no dirty kitchen,” a near necessity in the Philippines. So the men took up the task to build a dirty kitchen, behind the interior kitchen.

In the end the local Alcoy priest was brought in for a house blessing and a party was held, including two pigs that Janet had raised for just such an event. We think that at least 200 people were fed.

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To see a video of the house and blessing party, go here.

Now that we’ve gotten the Alcoy house out of the way, let’s talk about our house, in Valencia, Negros Oriental.

It’s taken about three months to prep the property, get the permits and build the wall around the perimeter. Now, while this isn’t quite the size of Trump’s wall, it’s a big wall surrounding a 1355 sq. meter property. The wall is roughly completed; the gate should be done soon. In the meantime the house has been laid out and the crew is struggling to dig the holes for the 16 concrete posts. I say struggling because the property is filled with huge rocks bordering on boulder size. Our contractor is considering renting a jack hammer to break up the rocks, an extreme measure for house construction in the Philippines.

The local power company visited the property this week and told the contractor he had to construct a permanent concrete pole for electricity. Everyone else in our area has falling apart temporary wooden poles (more like sticks) to hold up their power lines. But the crew is now building the steel reinforced concrete pole and hope to have the electricity installed early next week. We’ll see!

The estimate is that it will take three months to complete the basic concrete structure of the house, which would be about the end of February. Again, we’ll see.

In the meantime Janet gets to spend lots of time looking at tile and colors, and appliances, and all the things that go along with building a dream house.

Although I know nothing about home construction and construction in the Philippines I am having fun watching the process. For those who would like to see videos about the building process, please go to my vlog and subscribe: https://youtu.be/_OwI88GeZpo

 

 

 

 

 

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Stinking Rich in the Philippines

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It should come as no surprise that most Americans, Europeans, Australians, or UKians (sorry – I know that’s not a real word) – aka most white guys – aka most kanos, are considered rich in the Philippines. And the assumption is right. Even the guy who makes the proverbial $1000/month in a pension or Social Security check is by Philippines standards well into the middle class.

When I first met Janet’s family (just days after I’d first met Janet) I was seated in the family home explaining to 50 relatives, friends, neighbors, and hangers on, what Janet and I were planning to do with our vacation time together. Everyone knew this was serious stuff. I asked her parents whether they had any questions. Her father quietly asked (translated by Janet) what problems I foresaw since I was rich and Janet was poor. I tried to explain to him that by American standards I was not rich. I realized halfway through my diatribe that my rant was ridiculous. Of course I was rich. I had flown halfway around the world. I was carrying a camera, tablet, and iphone worth more than they could imagine. I gracefully got out of my soliloquy and just stated that I foresaw no problems.

Now that we live in the Philippines it’s no different. OK, I take that back. It’s a little different; now everyone thinks that Janet is rich too. The family says it, not as criticism or even as envy, but just as a statement of fact: “Uncle Dave and Yaya Janet are rich.”

After all, we have a car, and a new one at that. There’s no point in saying that if I drove my Ford into the parking lot where I formerly worked, loaded with Bimmers and Teslas, my little Ford would make me appear like I was borderline homeless.

I have found myself a time or two trying to explain to someone that by American standards we are not rich. Janet has told family members how high our bills were in the U.S. Looking back on it, such explanations seem silly. By the standards of where we now live – we are rich – stinking rich. I never thought I’d be able to say that in my lifetime.

What’s my point in all this? I have a few. First off, accept your “wealth” as a reality. I know several guys who kid themselves by saying, “They know I am not rich. I live simply and drive a motorcycle.” Nonsense – everyone still thinks you’re rich – just kuriput!

Another thing that I hear a lot of foreigners rail about is the fact that Filipinos don’t seem to know the difference between Americans, Europeans, Australians, and those Brits and often just lump us together as kanos, and non-Americans flip out. It’s not that they don’t know the differences; they don’t have any reason to care about the difference. Rich is rich. What difference does it make if you’re a rich American or rich Canadian?

Doing things right viagra brand 100mg in the beginning will boost your success later. The prolonged use of these products discount bulk viagra doesn’t have any side effect. All a few medication are in a lot of stress due to levitra online this. Not only men, but their partner who is caring and sensitive enough to take you to the best of their ability, they will need to make find out that pharmacy cheap viagra the right choice. And my final (and possibly most important) point is that overall, being considered rich is good. This is true the world over. A quick story. Back in the US I had the same bank for over 20 years. For about half that time I ran a small business. I rarely had enough in the account to even pay a month’s bills. The bank people were polite but no more. Years later, working for a higher paying job at a Fortune 500 and throwing all the money I could manage into my account in preparation for retirement – well let’s just say their attitude changed. They’d pull up my account, look at the balance and kowtow to me and Janet with more ass kissing skills than you’d expect bankers to have. Pretty soon the bank manager was our personal banker.

The same is true in the Philippines except the amount you have to transact anywhere to be viewed as rich is about 1/10th of what you’d have to do in the US. The Bank Manager here says hello when we come into the bank. She always remembers the last issue we spoke about and questions whether it got resolved for me.

When I go into a mall every Filipino (including Janet) is searched. They rarely do more than pat me on the ass; no comments on that! Now you might think that’s because I am Caucasian, American, and old. I think it’s more likely the false perception that I am rich and the notion that a rich old, white guy’s not a thief or terrorist.

Now contrary to constant complaints about the Philippines on a variety of forums, I get excellent service here. I’m not talking about the competence of those serving me, which can be hit and miss. I’m talking about the fact that 95% of the time, people want to help or take care of me. Of course, part of that is general Filipino friendliness, but part is the notion that they’re helping the rich kano.

Now I do my part as well. I’m polite, I try not to act like an Ugly American, I don’t condescend, and I do tip, if modestly.

I find nothing wrong with taking advantage of advantages you have in life. Hell, there’s enough things that I have going against me, that I might as well enjoy being perceived as different – and so should you!

 

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Videos of our House Build in Valencia

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I am doing a video series on building our house in Valencia, Negros Oriental. We’ve just begun so come along for If you are going for buying viagra in canada a normal male enhancement supplement, it is always suggested to examine with a physician before purchasing them. Other less common cute-n-tiny.com order cialis side effects which might occur include temporary changes to your vision, blurred vision, and sensitivity to Light, Headache, Facial flushing and Upset stomach. However, during the study, researchers did note the presence of a bacterium called Bartonella Henselae. http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/baby-bats/ ordering levitra online It’s been approved by levitra tabs simply US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) intended for healing pulmonary arterial hypertension. the ride. The 1st video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/9sYod6SB7Ak

There are several more already posted and lots more to come!

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Burglary in the Philippines

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It took me a couple weeks to get up the energy and courage to write this:

It started off pretty funny. Janet and I spent the weekend in Southern Cebu. Now normally when we do this we take the ferry and bus, but in this case we drove our car, carrying a car load of stuff for the house Janet is building for her family. We returned to Valencia with two sisters and a niece in tow.

Arriving home the kids were hungry and thirsty. Janet went to the fridge. “Where’s the juice?” she asked. She reminded me she’d bought two cartons of juice the day before we left. I looked in the fridge. “Where’s my root beer?” I had bought 2 cans at the same time. “You must have left them in the cabinets,” I said.

“No I didn’t,” she insisted. I started looking through the cabinets positive I’d stumble onto the allegedly purloined refreshments.

“Someone was here,” she insisted.

“So, let me see what you’re telling me,” I responded giggling. “People broke into the house to steal our juice and root beer?” My SIL laughed.

But I knew the power of Janet’s inner antenna well enough that I started to look around. I entered the 3rd bedroom of our house; the one I use as my shop. I spied the window. It was open just a crack. I vividly remembered locking it before we left. “Oh uh.” I was no longer laughing at my wife.

Janet came out of our bedroom. “My necklace is gone.”

Normally we never leave cash around. But we had a little extra and didn’t want to be traveling with it, so we left it behind. Gone! By US standards it wasn’t much but by Philippines standards there were some happy burglars.

The burglars were the neatest, most meticulous thieves I’ve ever heard of. While it was evident they went though everything, they moved nothing. Had it not been for those missing juices we could have gone many hours before realizing we’d been robbed.

They took none of my tools. Actually I take that back; they took one ruler I use in guitar making. Who knows why that was the only thing of mine they grabbed.

Really, when it comes down to it, outside of the cash, they took very little. Besides the necklace, juice, root beer and cash, they took an unopened pack of toothpaste and unopened bars of soap. These were very clean burglars.

Piecing the whole thing together we determined that someone had noticed the car gone the first night and by the second night, decided to strike. They entered a rear window, prying the lock apart with a screwdriver. They even covered a light I had installed outside with a t-shirt conveniently left on the clothes line.

We went to our neighbors who are our landlords and then all of us proceeded to the Police Station. The police grilled my elderly landlord pretty good, assuming she had spare keys. At 75 she doesn’t look like much of a culprit but they were taking no chances. They wrote an extensive report and then several officers came with us to inspect the scene of the crime.

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The police immediately noted the problem; no bars on the windows. When we rented the house, we knew this was its prime weakness. In the Philippines many property owners have bars on their windows, but our rental house did not. We told ourselves that the walls and gates were good, the doors were double locked, that having our landlord as next door neighbor was a good thing, and that in general it was a pretty nice neighborhood. But we always knew it was possible.

Now what to do about the future. Being a guy and a problem solver I contacted someone and asked if he knew a contractor who could install bars. The next morning that guy came over and measured all the windows. By the end of the day I had an estimate which sounded like a pretty good deal to me.

We told the elderly landlord (who is in fact the mother of the actual owner) that we needed bars to feel safe for the future. I hoped the owners (who live in the UK) would agree but had my doubts.

By the next day Janet was adamant that bars or no bars we had to move. I was still hoping for a solution and was more than willing to share the cost of the bars. Hell, truth be told I would have paid for the whole damn thing.

The next day the landlord came over and announced her son in law would not put bars in, since he didn’t want to spoil the view from the windows. I mumbled, “How’s the view gonna look with no tenants?” We stated we would be leaving and that September would be our last month and that since we’d already paid first and last month’s rent, there would be no more rent paid.

In the meantime we spent the day finding a new house. Our normal methodology is much more meticulous but in this case the first house we found that was gated and guarded made Janet happy. It’s not as nice by a long shot as our current house, but it’s not bad and the agent announced all the improvements that were being made. We said we’d return in a week and if the improvements were being done we would take the house.

By the next week even I was impressed. There were 2 new aircons, new shower heads, a new kitchen sink and a kitchen cabinet, since Janet kept wondering where she would put all our kitchen stuff. They’d put down cement on the tiny driveway and behind the house for the washing machine. There were new lights inside and out. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all; well except for having to move all our crap!

Several days after the robbery, the Barangay Police showed up; 5 of them. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. They looked over the entire property and gave us their phone numbers. They told us if we leave again for an extended period we can call them and they will keep an eye on the property. OK, I know this is no guarantee but it was nice to know the neighborhood tries to police itself.

At some point I sat down feeling a bit sorry for myself and counted the number of times I’d been robbed in my 65 years. If I count the time my parents were robbed when I was a teen, the number is now five. In that particular robbery in the 60s no one in our suburban neighborhood locked their doors or cars. Since the burglars simply walked in, I remember my father broke the glass door so the insurance would honor his claim. Needless to say from then on we locked the doors. It’s amazing how different the world was then or at least our perception of it was different.

In the meantime since we are about to build our own house, we decided to spend some more money upgrading the security of the original design. I’m considering a moat.

 

 

 

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Individual Rights in the Philippines

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I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago over beers. While the conversation wasn’t political (thank God) he did say what I already believe; that most American expats in the Philippines are of a more conservative bent.

There are a variety of reasons. Many guys first discovered the Philippines while serving in the military. So there’s a lot of ex-career military guys here and I suppose you can make the case that ex-career military guys are slightly right leaning and big fans of Atilla the Hun.

But the biggest reason seems to be an idea I hear often; that the U.S. (and other Western) governments have so restricted personal liberties that many of the expats here were looking to move to a place where they felt freer.

Thinking about it, I would have to say that most major issues plaguing the Western world do come down to the notion of individual rights vs. the rights of others. Do I have the right to own whatever I want in my own home (gun rights) vs. does society have the right to not get shot in the ass by your rights (gun control).

Do I have the right to do whatever I want with my own body (abortion rights) vs. society’s rights to force me to have the child and dump it into the social safety net.

Do I have the right to sleep with whomever I want in the privacy of my own bed vs. society’s need to know who we’re all sleeping with (and in the case of Filipinas) how young she is and how often we’re – you know, sleeping.

The list goes on but if we continue on this path we will eventually get to the most important individual right imaginable, and one that I get really hot over; do I have the right to burn leaves in my yard?

When I was a kid back in the 20s most people burned their leaves. I am sure there were laws in place but come on, they were just leaves; they weren’t a protected species. Some nuts said that burning leaves polluted the air, but that struck me as crazy since I always liked the smell of burning leaves. How could that be bad for you.

By the time I grew up enough to own my own home, leaf burning was completely verboten. I had the largest oak tree in my neighborhood. Every fall it dropped a ton of leaves; enough to fill 10-15 leaf bags full. We’d throw the bags into the garage and put them out with the recycling a bag or two at a time because you couldn’t put them all out at once without getting a big overcharge and I’m fundamentally a cheap bastard. Each year it occurred to me that an hour of burning and problem solved, but no – we had to save the goddamn environment as if leaves were the primary cause of lung cancer or something.

While there are laws on the books here in the Philippine, and the society is getting more serious about them, in reality people express their individual right to burn leaves, debris, trash, dead animals, or whatever. Janet loves gardening and gathers her clippings weekly into a small, neat pile to burn. Watching her do this I can’t help but think that it’s a hell of a lot easier than buying something to put the crap into, have a government agency waste gas to pick it all up, dump it all into a landfill where it will decompose and probably spontaneously combust.

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I have to say that I like watching Janet burn the leaves. Just as when I was a kid, I like the smell and mostly like that I don’t have to rake up the shit. My back should be the protected species.

So, despite not being all that conservative, I do like the individual freedom in the Philippines. I’m a pretty quiet person but if I chose to make noise, play my guitar or the stereo loud – I can. Back in Portland, if I went into my yard and cut a loud fart, my neighbors would report me and I’d be arrested for noise pollution.

Back in Portland, if I went into my yard and cut a loud fart, my neighbors would report me and I’d be arrested for noise pollution.

So let’s review the individual freedoms we have in the Philippines. I can drive like a maniac. Not only can I drive that way, it’s expected. I can sing karaoke at 3:00AM. Yes, President Duterte says not to do that but even he’s not powerful enough to stop it.

I can burn the aforementioned trash, let my dog roam the countryside and crap wherever it wants, shoot off fireworks even without a holiday. Guys smoke here in public, despite the fact that Dumaguete is a smoke free city. Guys get hammered and stumble around town. I can sleep with whomever I want, and, you know, sleep as much as I want. OK, I can’t do this, since you know, I’m married and Janet is a bolo master, but theoretically a guy can do it 🙂

But there is a irony here that guys express often. Sure, we can come here and do whatever we want. But guess what – so can the next guy. So, your neighbor sings karaoke at 3:00AM, burns leaves and cuts loud farts. And some of these conservative, individual rights loving guys aren’t happy about it and complain to their Barangay Captain. I have no real conclusion but as I said, it’s an irony.

All these thoughts have come to a head recently as Janet and I bought a fairly large lot. Back in Portland the trend was for larger houses on much smaller lots. There were a lot of reasons for this trend including the rising costs of land but I think the real reason was the growing recognition of what was the point in having a nice big back yard when you couldn’t make noise, dance naked or burn shit there.

Here we’ll have a nice sized lot, I’ll have a workshop and in our walled yard we’ll be able to burn leaves, cut loud farts or dance naked as much as we want. Life is good in the Philippines!

 

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How Much Does it Cost to Live in the Philippines – An Idiot’s Guide

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Preface: You will have to determine whether the “idiot” I referenced in the title is me or my potential readership. It’s a close call 🙂

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If you’re a Philippines blogger or vlogger one thing that is expected of you is to post a Cost of Living piece. I know guys who do it annually or even more often. Why? Because they know that all of you want to read it and it drives up their readership/viewership.

So, that’s why I’m doing it 🙂

Of course, unlike a YouTube vlogger, there is no income for my doing this; only the satisfaction in knowing that several hundred (sometimes several thousand) of you wasted five minutes of your important life on my dribble. Life is good!

I have seen or read dozens of such Cost of Philippines Living posts. Let me summarize my opinion for you: they are all unadulterated nonsense. So, I’ve just saved you time and as they say time is money. So, by all means send me some.

OK, back on point. Why are such postings normally BS? Imagine I were to ask an American, “How much does it cost to live in the United States?” He might answer, “How the hell do I know? Do you mean live in a small town in the South or the San Francisco Bay Area?” “Do you need to own a car and what kind?” “How’s your company’s medical insurance.” “How many girlfriends do you have and how many does your wife know about?”

Sorry, I got side tracked.

In short you can live in the U.S. for $15,000/year or less and yet others claim in all seriousness that they cannot live for under $150,000/year; and they are not kidding.

The same is true in the Philippines. Do you live in a condo in Makati or a nipa hut so deep in the provinces that carabaos are beginning to look very very good to you?

Do you drive a motorbike or car or are you happy with trikes and jeepneys? Do you drink San Miguel or Red Horse? OK, there’s no financial different between those two.

Do you have one girl or five? While logically 5 should mean a higher budget, one can sometimes be more expensive. In my case the one I have would kill the other 4, so for me 1 is cheaper.

I can hear you all murmuring now: how much, how much, how much. So let me give you a few Dumaguete details and later on tell you why I think the question of “how much it costs” is irrelevant.

Rent: In Dumaguete it’s easy to rent an apartment or house for between 10k – 15k pesos, sometimes even less. Alright, for the lazy unwilling to Google the exchange rate, that’s about $200-300/month. You can certainly spend lots more, but you don’t have to.

Food: If you like to cook and eat simply, it’s easy to eat for between $100-200/month. If, like Janet and I, you like restaurants, it is actually not that much more expensive; perhaps add $100 to the budget. Janet and I rarely spend over 500P ($10) for dinner for two and often spend closer to 300P. Therefore sometimes it’s easier to eat out rather than cook.

Exception 1: If you require your favorite Western brands, and/or a weekly Australian steak, your budget will go up considerably. I hear British and German friends talk about obtaining their fave homeland foods and how much it costs. I roll my eyes. As an American there are three McDonalds and a really good sub shop in Duma, so I’m all set for American haute cuisine!

Exception 2: Do you have those 5 girlfriends I mentioned above? Then you’re not only feeding the girls, which isn’t that bad (they’re all tiny and eat like birds) but you’re feeding their friends and anyone in the restaurant who claims to be a friend. Expect your food budget to go up considerably.

Utilities: In the U.S. my electric and gas bill combined for about $200/month. Here I spend between 2500-3000P ($50-60) for electricity and that includes running an aircon most of the day. Our fiber Internet is about 2000P ($40). Janet and I pay about 600P ($12) for phone service. Garbage pickup is free in Valencia. Our Valencia water bill (and I am not making this up) has never been over 50P ($1) and sometimes there’s been no bill for the month at all. Of course Valencia water is only on about 2/3 of the time, but I still giggle whenever I get the bill. They actually pay someone to hand deliver the bill and pay cashiers to take your payment. It’s clearly a big money maker.
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Vices: If you smoke, cigarettes are dirt cheap. If you like beer, local San Miguel and Red Horse cost about 40P.  In short you can become a chain smoker and raging alcoholic without breaking your budget. I gotta get on it!

If you have a more sophisticated drinking habit, you can get nearly anything here. Johnny Walker Black Label is (I kid you not) available in any 7-11. Apparently there are many expats throughout the Philippines who go into 7-11s and get a pack of smokes, a bag of M&Ms, and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black!

Transportation: Trikes and Jeepneys are ridiculously cheap here in Duma and go most everywhere. OTOH gas is more expensive than in the US, so since I have a car, that is an expense. But my insurance bill is about half of what I paid in the U.S.

Most expats here have motorbikes, not cars. A lot of guys have told me they don’t have insurance because when you’re 75 and fall off a bike the last thing you’re thinking of is, ‘Yeah, but at least I’m well insured.’

Medical: Your view on medical expenses in the Philippines will vary dependent upon whether you are from the United Staes or nearly any other civilized Western country. If you’re from the U.S., Philippines medical expenses will seem dirt cheap. A doctor or dentist appointment will be $10 or less. Hospitalization will seem quite reasonable. But, if you’re from one of those Civilized countries where medical care is free, you may find the cost in the Philippines to be expensive. After all nothing can beat free.

Last week I had a doctor’s appointment. The visit was 500P (under $10) but the procedure she was going to do cost. The doctor apologized profusely about the cost. I wasn’t sure why. Turns out she studied in Canada, where the procedure would have been free. I explained that in the U.S. it would not have been free – far from it – and by all means let’s do it. I was not unhappy with the total price.

So depending on your budget and whether you have any kind of medical insurance (including PhilHealth) you may at some point find yourself hit with some serious  medical bills.

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So let’s get back to why I think all the other estimates on costs in the Philippines are so nonsensical. Because, folks, it’s the wrong question. Most of us are retired and on some sort of fixed income. So the question isn’t “How much does it cost to live in the Philippines?” The question ought to be, “How much do I have and what kind of life will that support in the Philippines.”

Let’s say your Social Security check is $1000/month. That’s what you have and that’s all you have. There’s no point in wondering how much condos cost in Makati. So, can you live here on $1k/month? In Dumaguete you can. Now you won’t be living high on the hog and you can only afford one girl (OK, maybe two if you’re frugal) but you can do it. If you have an income of $2k/month you can live very well.

If you have followed this blog you know that there is no way I will ever tell you how much Janet and I make or how much we have. What are we – idiots? But while it’s not a lot, we have enough to deny ourselves nothing, have some extra for travel, and Janet gets to eat lechon at least occasionally.

There’s another fault that I see guys make when calculating a budget. They only take into account their standard monthly bills: rent, utilities, food, gas, medical, etc.

I’m not just talking about major medical emergencies, which can be budget killers. I’m talking about normal shit that happens all the time, but when you worked you had enough extra to cover it: your phone dies, your car breaks down, you need new tires for your bike, you have to pay to extend your visa, you need to hire someone to clean your pool (ok, bad example).

If you’ve budgeted well you’ve added a pad to cover those life extras. If not, then pretty soon they eat into your monthly bills and that’s when you hear guys complain about how it’s really expensive in the Philippines. It’s not if you apply just a little bit of caution.

 

 

 

Photos

Pillazo Family Home

Gallery 2 Comments

Images from the ongoing work on the Pillazo Family Home!

Here’s how the house looked a week ago, 8/5/18

The foundation going up

The only jig on the project. Can anyone guess?

Janet and the kids pitch in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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It’s getting there

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah fills bag with rocks

Mia’s domain

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A quick video of the boys with home made wheelbarrow

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Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – PART 4

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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!

 

Humorous, irreverent, occasionally informative look at a no longer newly wedded Fil-Am couple