Building begins, some final design plans are finalized, others changed on the fly...

With the lot cleared, and the first floor level established, foundation footers and construction moves forward. We were initially quite pleased with the progress of the construction. Early on workers, supplies, and progress were all progressing at a reasonable pace. Construction of the first floor exterior walls, and even the second story slab went fairly well.

A temporary structure for the workers is constructed and footers, foundations, walls, and slabs rise before our eyes. During this early phase discussions continue on finalizing the interior arrangement. One major consideration I am pursuing is adding a second bathroom (directly off the master bedroom) and this is causing our architect to be challenged to meet my desires while preserving the access to natural light into each room. To my delight he presents a floor plan that meets all of our needs and it is quickly adopted. Another challenge I had for our architect was to completely recover the lost interior space currently being taken up by the carport. We all recognized early on that we preferred having that interior space over a carport; the challenge was in accommodating the building code standards which require space for one vehicle off street parking. This was accomplished by turning the driveway parallel to the street thus removing the need for the portion that infringed upon the living room and giving us back the space we truly desired. Another feature we wanted and which was rather simply accommodated was a second story veranda, an area where one could sit up high enough to catch the evening breeze and relax with a cool beverage or sip a hot cup of coffee in the early morning, this idea turned out to be very good and useful and we’re glad we made allowance for it. We were also able to arrange our front upstairs fire escape here through the railing and an extendable ladder. In the back where the water tank is placed we had a small ledge across most of the width of the house and in the corner a full slab to hold our tank and if necessary the outdoor portion of the split A/C unit. We quickly realized there was no reason to limit that ledge and commenced extending it to provide more ease of egress for the rear 2nd floor fire escape and to allow ample room for whatever contingency we might need in the future, a second consideration was that it would greatly reduce the opening to the downstairs dirty kitchen and laundry area and with some security fencing panels we could adequately secure the area while still allowing for natural light to shine in. This was born out of seeing the concept come together and recognizing how we could with minimal expense capitalize on the space available to make it more usable and more secure at the same time. Another feature which I was quite pleased with was that all of the sewage plumbing for both upstairs CRs was outside of the first floor living area, over the “L” shaped exterior passage instead. This is comforting since in the unlikely event we develop a leak it won’t contaminate the interior of our home. In further review of this during the latter stages of the build we decided not to conceal it by installing a false ceiling in this area, since first of all it is really considered outside and secondly my brother-in-law and I figured we could keep an eye out for any developing leaks and access the plumbing much easier if there was no ceiling. Again seeing the design in real time allowed us to make this simple decision that saved money during construction and will likely pay dividends in repair difficulty and time in the future. Once the walls were finished and it was all primed and painted it looked just fine to us.

New Foreman, New Workers, New Issues

Restored breakfast/service counter 36" x 62"

With the separation from our original architect/builder complete progress on our house gets underway in earnest.  Ideas for modifying some of the design elements were made without our approval (more specifically my approval) in a couple of areas which I had not expected.

Wall removed without my consent

Grade of interior and exterior floors were poured even contrary to design details



Final second floor design showing the good air flow

   Apparently the new foreman thought he knew better and decided to deviate from the approved plans without our concurrence.  This was met with some surprise and required some rework which all agreed the cost would be bared by the new foreman and his crew.  In the design we had included an overhang of 10-12 inches for a breakfast nook area/service counter (the nook is now 36in x 62in) which faced the dining area the foreman was not familiar with this concept and decided it was not needed so had it removed!  In addition to the breakfast nook we had a full (interior) wall separating the staircase from the dining area; the purpose was to allow for an area to install a floor to ceiling A/C unit that could cool the entire open first floor should we decide one was needed.  With the electrical distribution panel just a few feet away in the bodega on the other side of the wall this would be a pretty straight forward addition should we find it was needed. This wall would also allow us to install hand rails on both sides of the stairway to provide better stability for our small children and elderly members of the family to transit the stairs without fear of falling.  The foreman was not privy to these long term plans and once again decided it was not required and removed the wall!  The third change made without our consent had to do with the front bedroom windows, the design afforded us large windows for the dual purpose of providing more natural light and plenty of opening for natural breezes (when the A/C is not in use).  Our new foreman decided he would reduce the size of the window and move the A/C opening down to the lower area beneath the window, something I was not happy with.  But once again after insisting we follow the blueprints and conveying to him our reasoning things were quickly restored to the original design.  We felt it would be better to position the A/C units high on the wall since heat rises the unit would first begin to displace the hotter air near the ceiling and drop to the floor giving a more timely and efficient effect to the cooling and this has been very successful, though I cannot ascertain how much more effective this arrangement is I’m comforted by the fact that at least in my mind it makes good sense.  The additional window area has pleasingly added more light to the room as well.  To my surprise when a recent batch of pictures arrived I noted these changes with shock and concern.  In discussion with my family arrangements were made to restore these features and thus recover our original concept.  Another non-conformance to the blueprints that occurred during construction that I only discovered late in the build (really too late to correct) was that contrary to the detail of the blueprints the floor of the exterior “L” shaped passage was to be 5cm lower than the interior floor height but when the slab was poured it was all leveled to the same height.  Though this oversight was a bit disappointing it hasn’t been too problematic thus far.  With the new crew working at a good pace we realized that we were progressing more economically than we had anticipated, this allowed us to create a third floor room with a window and electrical outlets to be used as overflow and in a pinch as a fifth bedroom.  The room is very large covering the entire width of the house and having full height in the center and sloping ceilings on the sides that conformed to the angle of the roof and ending with walls approximately 3 feet in height.  The floor area is about 20ft by 15ft, quite spacious for a house this size.  In all of these instances I realized that my family were probably not all that familiar with the details of the blueprints and probably did not realize the forethought and effort that went into the design and more than likely did not think the changes were going to raise any alarm.  This I believe is one of the areas where I wished I had spent more time conveying the concepts and design features to my family, it was also surely a result of the challenges of a long distance build that I had not considered.  I had the understanding that blueprints would be followed and where issues arose or design alterations were brought up they would be discussed by all before moving forward.  Unfortunately this probably occurred without me and having knowledge of the reasoning behind this design elements myself and having not conveyed them adequately to my family I was left out of these conversations until I discovered the results in pictures sent to inform me of the progress.  With the final floor plans in place one can easily see how the alignment of doors and windows allows for full flow of air through the house which has allowed for a large reduction in the use of A/C units for a good portion of the year.  The leveling of the outside “L” shaped passage with the interior floor would prove to be somewhat bothersome when flooding events occurred after the build was complete but more on that in another post.

Trouble Comes a Calling...

Our Permit is finally issued!

Well as I had briefly mentioned in the first post we had to separate from our original architect/builder due to his inability to progress the job, and not wanting to incur any liability on us I waited for the 180 days to expire (plus a few more weeks that we had agreed upon earlier to accommodate for weather delays) that was agreed to in the original contract for the term of the build. As a whole I believe we were very tactful in the manner in which we maneuvered this coup. You see we were certain from our investigations that this architect and representative for the firm was not being forthright with us for quite some time. Since I had a good sum of money tied up with him for the building of the house I wanted to extract everything I could from him to minimize our losses. Luckily our payment arrangement was incremental so we never got too far ahead of the progress though against my family’s urging I did probably extend one to many payments (I guess it’s my natural tendency to trust others). With continued urging and constant and somewhat forceful badgering we pushed him and the on-site Foreman to continue to progress the house which they did but only marginally, enough though for us to believe that we had gotten from them about as much as he was willing to do. With this in mind we approached him with a good faith arrangement, which was that as a condition of payment of our next installment (which we did not intend to pay but instead used it as an incentive) he would gather the materials he said he had purchased but were still not onsite (he claimed they were being held in one of his warehouses) and we would then have the chance to inspect/inventory them and if we were satisfied we would release the next installment. Well it worked out pretty good; he delivered practically all the interior fixtures; toilets, sinks, switches faucets, with the exception of some lighting and of course the windows. When we thought we had all we were going to get from him we kicked him and his crew off the premises and delivered a letter of dismissal along with a notice of filing with the PRC for his misconduct. Surprisingly he didn’t put up a fight; sure there was the email and phone call urging us to stay the course which we politely declined, having already given him ample time to resolve the main issue which was to obtain our building permit. You see once you file the initial paperwork you can begin in good faith the construction until the permit gets issued, and it was under this premise we began our project, not realizing of course that since our architect had been released from his firm he did not possess the requirements to obtain one. It was later conveyed to us that he had been trying to get one of his former co-workers to file and obtain it on his behalf, which never happened. Another issue which caused some confusion surrounding the issuance of the permit was when one of the city inspectors came to our job site and discovered we had changed the plans. You see originally the driveway was perpendicular with the street and cut into the living room effectively reducing it by about half. Recognizing we would rather have more living space we worked out with our architect to rearrange the driveway and make it parallel with the street thus preserving that big area where the driveway would have been as living space, something everyone was happy with. Well he had not submitted the updated blueprints to the municipal office even though he provided them to us, and he claimed he was having difficulty convincing them that the new design met code (must have one car off street parking). With our successful break from the original architect/builder completed we took the recommendation of one of the senior municipal inspectors and hired a well-known foreman and crew to complete the house. My brother-in-law would act as the general contractor so to speak and make all material purchases and pay out the agreed upon salaries weekly, something I wish we had done from the beginning. Though this arrangement did put a lot of burden on my family, which I was initially unwilling to place on them since I knew they we already busy. They did however preform flawlessly once all the agreements were made. My family did the leg work and resubmitted the (revised) plans and finally obtained the requisite building permit, this was a very happy occasion since it meant we would now only be hindered by the pace of the workers and the delivery of funds and supplies, something which had never been problematic. With our official filing with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) specifically the National Board of Architects our former architect/builder was found by the PRC to have intentionally mislead us and was given the stiffest possible action under the law which permanently revoked his license, put him on a watch list and basically removed any legitimate claim to his profession so if he tried to do this again and the potential buyer made any inquiries at all they would find him to be illegitimate and unable to do business within this area. Of course it is buyer beware so the buyer must make inquiries of their potential architect/builder, we did and at the time of our investigation he was legit and working for a larger company (who let him go early in our project). When we queried them as to why we were not notified they told us that although he had used their letter head and name our project was not on their company list so they did not know he had entered into an agreement with us. He was apparently aware of his pending departure from the company and was working side jobs using the company name. Live and Learn! So as I have said although this did create plenty of turmoil and strife during the middle portion of the build we were able to get through it without too much expense beyond what we had budgeted and it definitely made us more careful going forward since our trust had been damaged. With a new crew and foreman came some new challenges which I will detail in a later post.

Let there be light! (We plan out our electrical distribution system)

My experiences with the electrical circuits in homes in the Philippines have led me to believe that in many cases it is an afterthought. Our neighbor has exactly two circuit breakers, one for upstairs and one for downstairs and that’s probably twice as many as most homes have (except for the newer homes being built in housing developments). For our house I wanted a simple yet comprehensive plan. I believe that as time progresses more and more demands would be placed on the electrical system and wanted a system that would accommodate these added demands. Once rice was cooked on a stove top, now we use an electric rice cooker and so on. We ended up with a twenty circuit distribution plan that has served us very well. In fact when the electrical inspector came to certify the work he was very surprised by the number of distribution circuits we had and insisted we up size the feeder cable leading from the service pole to the house! Although we tried to explain that though there were more distribution circuits the overall amperage was still just 100amps, something which our Electrical inspector apparently couldn't get his head around. Rather than argue with him we decided that the fastest way forward to getting our certificate was to replace the main feeder wire, which we did and soon secured our electrical cert. Small yet helpful features were planned in such as having a second light switch in the second floor master bedroom to control the front exterior floodlight, a handy feature readily available so that it can be controlled without having to leave the bedroom late at night and from that position gives a commanding view of the area below while still remaining safely out of harm’s way. We installed cable and electrical outlets high on the wall in the front corner of the living room anticipating mounting a flat screen TV on the wall and not having the cable and cords run down the wall. We planned for and routed conduit for speaker wiring so that we could properly distribute the speaker system (again high up on the wall clearing up valuable floor space) for surround sound and the inevitable Karaoke night. This was another plan that has been a pleasant addition, now we don’t have that unsightly wiring strung around the walls. One thing is certain in the construction concept of concrete hollow block with the electrical conduit placed right into the slab and walls you want to plan for many contingences since it would be an enormous job to do after construction is complete. For the most part we kept our distribution plan very simple, only one voltage and no backup generator (though it can be added at a later date should we need one). We had plenty of outlets installed sufficient enough we believe to allow for new electrical demands and relocation of components without fear of not having an outlet nearby.


Distribution panel getting wired

We have window style A/C units (placed in their own purpose built wall openings) in each bedroom with a dedicated co-located outlet and on-demand hot water heaters in each CR all having their own dedicated circuits. We also have vent fans in each CR as well as wall mounted oscillating fans in each bedroom to aid in air movement. Ceiling fans with lights for the downstairs living and dining areas as well as the upstairs family hall all intended to keep the air in motion. The distribution panel is located in the bodega beneath the stair case on the first floor making it readily accessible yet out of the way. Though in hindsight and strictly due to my conservative nature of wanting to plan for any contingency I would have moved the first floor outlets up a little higher on the walls thus far we have had no concerns with the flooding getting anywhere near them.

Water, so many choices, nothing is ever simple...

Just before the house construction was to begin we hired a well driller to establish us a well. In conversation with the locals we had heard to well water was quite mineral rich and consequently tended to cause a buildup of scale in all the plumbing fixtures. With this in mind and not wanting to invest in a water filtration system we decided to go as deep as possible with our well to allow for as much natural filtration as possible in the hope of mitigating the hard water problem. When drilling was complete we had gone to within 6 meters of the commercial depth! We had good flow and decided this was the best we could do and that it would also aid in the water requirements needed for the construction. We installed a hand pump for now and began researching pumps for a future installation when the house was near completion. Of note, the community well not far from our well has run dry on a few occasions since my family has been living there and ours has continued to maintain water throughout these dry periods which has given us comfort that we made good decisions regarding the depth and we continue to be quite satisfied that we have at least somewhat reduced the adverse effects of the hard water, since our fixtures seems to be lasting far longer than our neighbors, though without a dedicated filtration system eventually they will require replacement due to the scale buildup. I had many conversations with my brother-in-law regarding the water plan. We had various options for supplying water and the pro’s and con’s of each were discussed at length. Ultimately we agreed that placing the water tank on the roof was probably not in our best interest. Problems with roof leakage can occur if not well planned, as well as exposing the tank to the full force of typhoon winds didn’t sound to comforting either, and lastly access for maintenance and repairs would be further complicated if the tank were to be placed on the roof. Alternately mounting the tank lower (say at the second floor level) mandated we use a pressure pump and tank to supply the second floor CR’s vastly complicating the supply system from a simple gravity feed system originally conceived. Thinking long term and trying to accommodate our own ability to effect repairs ourselves in the future we felt mounting the tank on the roof would not be in our best interest. Since we did not desire to mount a water tank on the roof we opted for what is perhaps a more complicated water system but one that allows us to install the tank at the second floor level rather than on the roof. We will utilize the head pressure from the main tank to supply the first floor, and have purchased a second pressure tank and pump to draw from the main tank and provide boosted pressure for the second floor CRs. We have situated this tank on the first floor in the back just beyond the kitchen wall. It would have been easier to install it adjacent to the main tank but that would have placed it outside of one of the back bedrooms and we thought it might be a nuisance for the evenings when we’re trying to sleep since it is an automatic pressure regulated pump and it is quite loud. With this arrangement we have plenty of pressure upstairs and adequate flow downstairs and best of all no requirement to work or access the roof for maintenance and repairs in the future for the water tank, all of which is very easily reached from the second floor. Since the house was completed and the housing development which we are in has been turned over to the municipality they have run city water. We have since hooked into it to provide for the CRs and kitchen but have kept the well water for the laundry and hose bibs for car washing, watering plants etc… We think this is a good compromise in that the city water in less mineral rich, further preserving our fixtures. We also continue to use our well and always have that as a viable backup should we experience any city water interruptions or low pressure issues. I am happy to say that thus far city water has been consistent and reliable but having that back up is always a comfort.



SAER 1HP jet pump (Italian Made)

Gravity feed & storage tank (1000 liter)

                                                              Pressure tank & pump for 2nd floor CRs

Preparing Our Lot & Firming Up the Design

This was the condition of our lot before construction began...

After some final mods and further clarifications to the chosen design we entered into a contract to have our house built. So now we had a suitable design to fit on our lot we decided to move forward with building a house in Bacoor. The first thing that needed to happen was to clear the lot. Our lot had become the local dump site so we had plenty of work ahead of us in getting all the garbage removed along with a few small banana trees. We hired a few locals and got to work. Once the lot was cleared we canvassed the locals about flooding and the highest levels they had experienced, all this was in an effort to establish the ground floor elevation. With that information in hand we determined to set the ground floor height 28 – 30 inches above grade, this was to help prevent taking water into the ground floor during the worst flooding. We would have gone even higher were it not going to become increasingly challenging to manage the extra height on such a small lot. The grade up from the street would be quite steep if we were to go any higher. Next our contractor began laying out the house and establishing the main foundation location and digging began for the footers per our approved blueprints. With the footer dug and rebar inserted we began mixing and pouring the concrete that would form our footers. These were constructed to hold a three story structure even though our design was only a two story house. You see we were still not settled on the type of roof we would employ and were strongly considering a flat concrete roof. With a flat roof we all figured there would be a logical progression to add onto it and someday complete a third floor, and with this in mind we built our footers for this contingency. I have included some of the conceptual renderings of our house design, there would be one major change that would ultimately cause us plenty of heartache but more on that in a later post. Conceptual design renderings

Two of many concept drawings provided during the proposal

In the beginning...



View from Dining area into Living room on nearly completed house

My wife and I embarked on an endeavor to build a house in the Philippines a few years ago. I regret not documenting my experiences from the beginning real time but since it has now been completed I still wanted to reflect on some of our experiences and kind of get a feel for the whole blogging thing while possibly lending some useful information to those interested in or planning to build a house in the Philippines now or in the future. We started out on this adventure without any real planning, there was some circumstances surrounding our family that prompted us to look at building on a small lot we had helped them acquire some decade earlier. It was quite by coincidence that at that same time we were in the planning stages for a major renovation of our home in Virginia when all this transpired. We realized that while improvements to our home would be nice that money would be far better served in providing a permanent home for our family to enjoy and to pass on to future generations.   So with that decided I began to draw up some simple floor plans that I thought would be well suited to our small 104sq/m lot. With those in hand I had my brother in law canvas some architectural companies and see what they could propose based on my drawings and within a predetermined budget. We looked at the top three and selected the design we thought offered the best solution for us. Since we were going to be building in close quarters we thought it would be important to try to employ a design that brought in as much natural light as possible, knowing that it would be limited due to the closeness of the adjacent structures. The design we selected managed to bring natural light into every room, and was arranged to take maximum advantage of the air flow through windows and doors to provide as much opportunity to provide some relief through natural means. The basic design provided for four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs and a living/dining/kitchen space down stairs as well as another full bathroom and a bodega under the staircase. Another feature was an “L” shaped passage along one side and the back of the house that would be nearly fully enclosed that would accommodate the dirty kitchen, laundry area, water pump, LP tanks, plus storage for mopeds, bikes etc. this has proved to be a great feature of the house since it prevents a lot of traffic into and through the house. Another design decision we included was high ceilings, in fact we did not install ceilings on the first floor at all, and this is another idea which I believe has been a big contributor to keeping the first floor as cool as practical by allowing hot air to rise above head level. Before I go any farther I want to thank my family who spent countless hours and put their lives on hold to supervise and oversee the construction in my absence. In particular my brother-in-law without whom this project could never have come to a successful conclusion without his constant and untiring vigilance to ensuring things progressed as intended and who along with his daughters kept their best interest and my finances closely monitored and well protected even when the original contractor was found lacking and was able to preserve the value of the already invested funds and navigate through dismissal of the original contractor and hiring of a new workforce to complete our home. Without a doubt this was the key to the success of this project. Pictures