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Return of the Queen

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When last I posted to this blog, the subject was the sad passing of Janet’s 90 year old Lolo. Within a couple days the body was ready for viewing and the funeral was scheduled in Southern Cebu.

I asked Janet if she wanted to go. She did but must have told me 20 times that she could not leave me and so would not go. I was insistent and finally said, “Let’s find out what the process is and whether it can happen and then we can make a decision.”

I had actually encouraged Janet to go see her family on several occasions during the madness of 2020. I knew she missed them and now felt guilty that she hadn’t seen her grandfather just one more time. So this was the perfect moment to push her just a little bit (and Janet is not easily pushed) to go for the dual purposes of being at the funeral and seeing the family for the first time in nearly a year.

Visits to the Barangay Captain and the local health authority, known as the RHU, happened quickly. Janet was given a permission letter and documents from the Barangay and the RHU. But then the real question was revealed – what would the local Southern Cebu authorities require. Everyone, including me, assumed she would be required to quarantine, meaning she’d miss the funeral. If that was the case the trip might not be worth it.

To our surprise the local RHU where she needed to travel did not require her to quarantine. In fact they did not require her to be tested. They only required her to sign a form saying she would not leave the municipality.

So now how to go? The standard fast ferry out of Sibulan has been closed for tourist traffic throughout the pandemic. She could take the 7 hour Dumaguete to Cebu City ferry and then take a 3+ hour bus ride to her home town, but that was a PITA. There is another ferry out of Bato, about 10 kilometers from the Sibulan port. While some of that ferry traffic is for passengers most of it is commercial. It turns out that ferry had started running again about a week before Lolo’s passing.

And so it was that Janet had all her documentation ready and I prepared to drive her to the ferry. At the last minute she once again said, “I’m not going. I can’t leave you.” I pushed back hard. There were no more obstacles and who knew how long it would be for such an opportunity, so she needed to go.

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BTW, in case anyone wonders why I didn’t also go – here’s the reason. True, for those who know me, I am far more terrified of government’s responses and lockdowns than I am of the virus. But that doesn’t mean that I am not cautious. I knew I would be surrounded at the funeral by large numbers of strangers and that sounded a bit riskier than I was comfortable with. I am in the age risk category and Janet is not, so it made sense (at least to me) for her to go and me to stay.

We got to the ferry and there was a big snag. Turns out she needed permission from the local authority where the ferry lands in Cebu to be in their municipality, since her plan was to get off the ferry and grab a bus. Had she driven a car or motorbike there would have been no problem; she would have just driven off the ferry and been on her way. She waited an hour for an answer; an answer that was not coming. She finally sent a series of texts begging them to help her. And finally they acquiesced and allowed her to come.

For my part, I was confident I had done the right thing, but I knew it would be hard. We had never been apart for more than four days. I had agreed that she could stay through Christmas but I wanted her to come home before New Years.

As the days and weeks passed, I became more and more bored. This is unusual for me; I am rarely bored. Boring – yes; bored – no. I watched movies, I played the guitar hours a day, I worked on repairing guitars for those customers who came to see my shop around the holidays. I walked/paced in our lot. Hell, I even mowed the lawn a time or two lol.

The paperwork involved in ensuring Janet’s return was not complicated, but unlike Cebu, she was required to provide a negative swab test for Negros. That proved to be more difficult. She could only have it done at a hospital in Cebu City, a 3+ hour drive. I booked the appointment for her shortly after Christmas. They told her it would take at least a couple days for the result. In the meantime all the local authorities here in Valencia said they would be closed after Tuesday for the rest of the New Years week. On Wednesday I received the negative test result, emailed it to the Valencia Tourism Office (BTW, they were very nice and professional). But of course by then no one was there and we had to wait until today, Monday the 4th.

First thing in the morning, Valencia Tourism approved and forwarded the docs to Valencia RHU. They sent it to me, I sent it to Janet, Janet printed it and signed it, sent it back to me and I sent it to RHU. Piece of cake. RHU contacted Janet quickly to determine how she wanted to quarantine. A hotel for sure – I know my wife lol. Plus the hotel provides breakfast and dinner, so it shouldn’t be too bad, although 14 days is a lot for both of us. I expect I won’t get to see her, unless she sticks her head out the window.

Anyway, the bottom line is that in 2 weeks we will be back together. We’ve never been apart for more than 4 days so 6 weeks has been a bear, but we’ve survived. Her friends miss her and tell me that often, but they miss her nothing like me. One thing’s for sure. She ain’t leaving my side again any time soon.

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House Project – The Good, Bad, Ugly – and Ugliest

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We have officially started the last week of the house portion of the project. Our target was that the house itself would be completed by September 30 and that October would be reserved for issues outside the house: completion of the wall and spikes, completion of the shop, completion of the canal, etc. We “might” actually hit our target, so this looks like a good time to review the entire project and call out some of the problems I have only hinted at before.

The Good: The contractor that we eventually hired had an architect/engineer friend who came up with two modern designs, both of which we liked. We asked for elements from both designs which he combined to create a final design. We were excited.

The contractor came up with a bid which I thought was OK but maybe a bit high. He ultimately agreed that his bid would be a fixed price; meaning that there would be no cost increases from inflation. As you will soon see, this became irrelevant. Nonetheless the negotiations went well and soon we were signing a contract with a lawyer.

Not long after, the construction started. While I would hate to categorise the entire subsequent process as bad, this was the end of the honeymoon period.

The Bad: Our contractor hired a foreman and work commenced. We were soon to find out that the foreman was only hired for 2 days/week. We complained about that but the contractor assured us that between he and the foreman there would be plenty of supervision. There never was.

A small crew, averaging 6-8 began the wall (or fence as it’s called here) surrounding the property. Janet and I would come over daily to check the progress. Sometimes progress was being made and sometimes not so much. More complaints to the contractor, more assurances, and the wall progressed, though slowly.

Three months later the wall was mostly done and they switched to work on the house. The crew expanded to about 12-13. It was quickly clear to us that a crew of a dozen would take two years to finish the house. More complaints, more assurances but the crew was rarely large enough.

There were ups and downs, mistakes and more mistakes, but yet the house did begin to take shape. Within six months we could see that these guys might actually be capable of building this house; we really weren’t sure before. But by the six month mark, money became a worry.

The contractor’s money methodology was simple. He would ask for a certain sum of money monthly and I would give it to him. After a few months the pattern was set but I could do the math and confronted him, “At the rate you are asking for money, the money will run out before the house is completed.” He assured us the first few months were the larger portions of money required because of steel and concrete, etc. and that later requests would be smaller. This never turned out to be true.

As a certain point Janet and I had one of those “Come to Jesus” meetings with the contractor. Janet said, “We have given you half the budget but we only have 25% of a house.” He again reassured us, showing us the numbers of what was still left to buy and how much got paid to the crew and that we still had money to complete the project. I was skeptical. Similar conversations and similar assurances would occur monthly.

Janet would try to assure me. “We have a contract. We can sue him if he doesn’t finish.” As the more experienced and more cynical partner I told her “A contract is only good if the person you are suing has money to pay you.” Nonetheless since progress continued we remained cautiously optimistic.

As I have documented in other blog posts, not only was supervision of the crew hit and miss, so was material purchasing. The crew and foreman often complained to us about not having the materials they needed. We would complain to the contractor and eventually more materials would arrive. But this clearly slowed the project. And less efficiency meant more cost.

We tried to help the contractor save money. Whenever we would see a needed piece for the project on sale we would contact the contractor. “Robinsons has overhead fans on sale for a great price.” We would buy the sale items and minus that amount of money from what we owed the contractor. While this should have been his methodology all along (shopping for deals), in the end it didn’t help him.

We also tried to help the contractor schedule the job. In June we went to the contractor and told him we needed the house done by the end of September so that we could move in during October. He agreed that it could be done. He told the workers that if they finished by September 30 he would give them a lechon party. Lechon is very big in the Philippines and for a few weeks the crew was excited. Pretty soon they knew the truth; that there would be no lechon.

The Ugly:

And then the fateful day occurred (cue organ). The contractor asked to meet with us at our rental home, which he never did before. He explained that he had no more money and had used some of our money to buy himself a piece of property. He couldn’t sell the property because the title was not finalised and the economy was soft.

Frankly we already knew that he had purchased a piece of property. This is the Philippines and everyone knows everyone’s business and so we had been told months before that the contractor had bought a lot. At the time my attitude was, ‘Well he’s entitled to make a profit and if he uses some of his profit to buy a lot that’s his business, as long as I get my house.’ But now it was clear we were not going to get our house.

Our first step was to take over all purchasing for the project; we simply felt we could no longer give the contractor any more money. What was shocking was how little materials were at the project. The crew needed everything. I made a list of the major elements I knew still had to be purchased, but that list turned out to be a fraction of what they really needed. Janet and I were going to stores all day long every day and cash was flowing out of our bank faster than I could keep track of it. My desk had a stack of receipts which I tracked on my spreadsheet and soon it was official; the budget was spent and we were in the red.

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For the next few weeks we gave a modest amount to the contractor weekly to pay the crew. Then one day I was contacted by a guy who was also using our contractor. “Is your crew being completely paid? Mine isn’t and they are ready to quit.” I said, “I think they must be – no one’s complained.” The next day Janet and I went to the site and asked each crew member. BTW, by this point in time the crew was over 30. Every crewman was owed some money. One poor guy was owed back pay for three weeks.

At that point we took over the payroll and paid everyone everything they were owed. It was the equivalent of an extra week’s pay.

For all intents and purposes we took over the running of the project. We asked the foreman if he could temporarily work more days and he agreed. Janet spent 8 hours a day on site watching the crew and yelling at them; she does this well. I ran around daily buying stuff. We were and are busy busy retirees.

We brought in Janet’s oldest brother, Marlon from Cebu to work. He’s worked very hard and really shown some of the crew members how work is supposed to be done. This has turned out to be a good decision, although our little rental house is now a crowded little rental house.

While there have been plenty of glitches everyone can see that the crew has worked harder and gotten more done. With luck (fingers crossed) this week the final elements of the house will be done. On Saturday Janet is giving the crew the promised lechon party.

Next week the air conditioners get installed and the crew moves to the outside projects and shop completion. With even more luck those elements will be completed in October.

In the meantime we know that there are a hundred little touch up jobs required in the house, mostly involving paint. I will be finishing the doors and there are a lot of them. Janet plans to bring the kids up from Alcoy on their school break to clean. Only in the Philippines do kids get excited to come to an overcrowded rental house to be worked like dogs.

The Ugliest: I may be conning myself, but I pride myself in telling the truth. It may be my truth or my interpretation of the truth but still I tell the truth. I ran a business for 14 years and when problems occurred I told the customer the hard truth. I worked at Intel for 15 years and told my accounts (Fortune 500s all) the cold hard truth and they accepted it.

I have become angered and depressed by how often I have been lied to in this process. Sometimes the simple lies are lies of omission, sometimes the gentle lies of ‘we don’t want to admit there’s a real problem,’ but many times bald faced lies were told to my face. It was infuriating and at times deeply depressing. I have no conclusions and no interest in globalising my experience but when I say “two plus two is four” and am told “no it’s five” – well as I say it’s infuriating.

While I don’t have final figures yet it looks to me like we will end up 20% over budget. The contractor promises that when he sells or mortgages his property he will give us some money. It might happen but I’m not holding my breath. He’s actually not a bad guy but got in way over his head.

Conclusions: Assuming you still want to own a house in the Philippines after having read all these blog posts, here are my recommendations:

  1. Buy an existing house. There are plenty of “foreigner houses” for sale throughout the Philippines and often for good prices.
  2. If you must build your own dream house, function as your own contractor. Hire an engineer and or foreman to run the project, while you do the purchasing. You will spend a year or more of your life going crazy, but it is probably the safest way.
  3. Did I mention that you can buy an existing house here and let your wife remodel it?

A funny (in my warped way) story: We did know for months that our contractor was in financial trouble because he kept listing stuff for sale on FB Marketplace. Generally it was stuff I would have no interest in but a few weeks back he listed a high end Canon camera with a couple lenses; a model that would have been a professional model a few years back. I like photography but sold my Nikon gear before I moved here. BTW, when I worked at Intel there were practically fights in the hallways over the Nikon vs. Canon debate. Shows you what nerdy engineers will get excited about.

I sent him a message. “Why don’t you just give the camera to me, as part of what you owe me.” He agreed, but could I give him a little bit to pay off the last of the workers. I agreed. When Janet and I inspected the camera I asked, “How long have you owned this?” “Eight months,” was his reply. Janet and I caught each other’s eye. I knew I was basically getting back the camera I had paid for.

So, I don’t have a house yet but I do have a nice camera.

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Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – More Tips and Landmines

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I should once again make clear that I am not a contractor and know little about house construction in the U.S. or the Philippines. I should also say again that despite any complaints I might have, our workers work hard and, let’s face it, work hard for small pay.

The following are more layman’s observations.

Can Anyone Count?

While in our last episode I complained that our contractor never bought all the materials needed, in this episode I will complain about the corollary. Now that we have taken over purchasing, we have asked all the key people (including the contractor) for lists of material needs. This has worked much better but still can be a nightmare. “We need 120 of this color tile, Sir.” So Janet and I dutifully buy 120 only to be told a week later that we need another 80. Counts are consistently not just a little off but 50-75% off. When I have time I count myself but sometimes I just get the number requested and go ballistic when I discover that someone simply couldn’t count. The conclusion: make your own count or resign yourself to the fact that you will be returning to the store multiple times for the same item.

The reverse is also true. “We need X,” I am told only to discover days later that boxes or bags of X already existed, buried under something else. It’s not the end of the world, but annoying as hell.

Finishing Something

I really don’t consider myself to be too anal (no comments). For the last 23 years in the US I lived in two old homes and accepted their flaws and imperfections. What I find in construction here in the Philippines is that nothing is ever finished 100% before the crew is moved to another task. I would estimate that our project is 80-85% completed but there is no one area that I can point to and say, “This is finished.” Painting is maybe 75% done, tile 95%, electrical 80%, plumbing 75%, etc. etc. But it seems that for whatever reasons nothing is ever completely finished before the crew is moved to another task. I am sure there are some reasons for this, such as materials running out. But in general there seems to be an “it’s almost finished” attitude that permeates. Yesterday I was told that the closets were painted and finished. When I looked I pointed to unpainted spots and areas covered with paint dust that should be cleaned. “It’s mostly finished, but not completely finished,” I said. “But it’s basically finished,” I was again told. This becomes particularly sticky when a pakyaw worker wants to get paid.

We had a welder on pakyaw for the past month. In fact he contracted to do 4 separate pakyaws. Each time he would finish 90% of the work and move to the next assignment, because that was where the money was, assuring us he’d come back and finish the previous job. When all four were 90% done and almost all the money paid out he was told to go back and finish. He spent a couple days halfheartedly finishing the assignments and doing poor work. By the end of the day Janet and I handed him a few more pesos and told him he was done. I spent my Sunday morning finishing some of what he hadn’t. It’ll get done but will just take some time and wear and tear on my ancient body.

The conclusion: Whenever possible make sure that something is done before moving to the next assignment. And don’t do pakyaws.

Do You Want Paint to Go With (or On) Your Tile?

We knew from observation and hearing stories that in the Philippines tile is laid down before the house is painted and the tile is rarely covered. From early on in the project we asked the contractor to schedule the project so that the tile came a little later but if he couldn’t do that to lay down plastic or something to project the tile. He agreed.

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Sure enough the tile went down first and despite numerous complaints nothing was done to protect it. The view is that it’s easy to clean later but the fact is that it is not. The contractor’s view is “it’s water based paint. It’ll clean up easily.”

The same attitude seems prevalent everywhere. If you have to step on, scratch or damage someone else’s work so that you can perform your work, then that’s what you do. I have given up on complaining about it. We will clean it and fix it as best as we can as we go along or at the end of the project. Janet already plans to have the kids come to Valencia on October break to clean.

Be Careful of Friends and Associates:

One of the advantages of the Philippines is its social nature. Everyone knows everyone. I swear that everyone in Dumaguete knows our contractor and visa versa. There are advantages to that and disadvantages.

The biggest disadvantage is how to discipline or even fire your friend, relative, or someone you go to church with. I know for a fact that there were people hired on the job because the contractor knew they needed money and not necessarily because they were the best person available. Now when it comes to general labor, this might be a good thing; someone motivated to work hard. But when it comes to the skill positions my preference would be for the most skilled person that can be obtained.

Supervision

One of the biggest differences between the construction of Janet’s small family house in Southern Cebu and the construction of this larger house in Valencia is supervision. Janet had no contractor in Cebu and functioned as her own contractor, but she did have Boy, an older Foreman who was on the site 5-6 days/week. While there were exceptions he mostly made things flow smoothly.

On our project a Foreman was hired but for only two days/week. I questioned that decision from the get go but was told that between the Foreman and the Contractor there would be plenty of supervision. Wrong! It was quite common for the majority of a day to go by without a supervisor onsite. Workers made their best decisions but sometimes didn’t know what to do. And of course unsupervised they did not do their best work. I complained constantly but there was never a real solution.

When Janet and I took over direct supervision of the project the first thing we did was ask the Foreman whether he could give us any more of his time for the remainder of the project. We like him and find him competent. Happily, he said he could do 3.5 – 4 days/week. Since then things seem to flow smoother and frankly the Foreman seems happier. He’s actually allowed to use his skills.

The conclusion is obvious and not unique to the Philippines. Get a good Foreman and hand him the reigns.

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I’M Here – You don’t need to Follow :)

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It’s deja vu all over again. 44 years ago I moved to Portland, Oregon. At the time Portland was a hot bed, a hub. Young people from all over the US were moving there. Middle aged Californians were selling their overpriced houses and with the profit, buying a Portland house with cash. It was a flood of humanity that everyone assumed would end – but it never did.

The first few years I was there I assumed I would move “back home.” Back home was the East Coast. But after 2 or 3 years in Portland I stopped thinking about moving “back home.” In fact an interesting thing happened; after those 2 or 3 years I started thinking of Portland as “home.”

The next step was even more interesting. I started to resent the throngs that kept moving to Portland, ruining “our home.” In the 70s there was a popular bumper sticker in Oregon that read, “Don’t Californicate Oregon,” and I was a big proponent of that philosophy. I had my Oregon dream; the rest of you could go somewhere else (hell, came to mind).

So what does this all have to do with Dumaguete and Valencia where we now live. About a week ago were were waiting for the ferry to take us from Cebu back “home” to Dumaguete. We were tired and wanted to get home. The port was mobbed and Janet was told that one ferry was broken and so the other ferry was taking people back and forth and therefore we had to wait for the next trip. The wait would easily be an hour. I looked around at my fellow waiters – and sneered. There were back packers all over. What the hell do backpackers want to come to Dumaguete for, I wondered. There aren’t any white sand beaches where a backpacker can pitch a tent. The place, while not expensive, is not a cheap backpacker haven. And Filipinos here are pretty cleanly and even use deodorant. So what the hell are backpackers doing coming to spoil my lovely little city?

And then I spied a group of Chinese tourists. Each wheeled a piece of luggage the size of a small boat. Why would they leave the more metropolitan Cebu for our sleepy little city? Again no white sand beaches to sun bathe on. There’s not even a decent Chinese restaurant; no offence to one of our faves, Chin Loong, which can’t decide whether it’s a Chinese or Filipino restaurant.

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They all loaded on the ferry and those of us without a ticket (waiting for the next ferry run) watched them sail away. Again I sneered. I’m usually a fairly nice guy but I imagined the ferry in those choppy waters, might well, sink. Then I amended my fantasy. I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to my fellow residents of Dumaguete. Perhaps, I thought, the ferry could sink only on the side carrying the backpackers and tourists.

And then I realised it was official; Dumaguete was our home. We made it here, we are settled here and building a house. I suppose the expats that were already here when we arrived a year and a half ago can stay. But for anyone new? The place it a shithole and you don’t want to come. Stay away! You have been warned.

Now just as with Portland 44 years ago I know my fantasy will not happen. How could it, when magazines and websites declare Dumaguete to be the best place to retire in the Philippines. They should check out Portland, Oregon. I hear it’s a pretty nice place to retire.

I’m not a bad person – really I’m not. But perhaps those magazine and website writers could take a ferry ride and have just a little accident.

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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.

 

Video

Videos of our House Build in Valencia

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