14th week : still going

Yes, I'm a bit stressed out.

It's the 14th week already, but I feel like we're not achieving something. Nothing's being finished and it looks like it will take at least 3 more months to finish the house. This is far later than what I originally expected. And when I say finish, I don't mean really finish, just plain finish, no paint and no complete furnishings yet. I don't know which specific part we didn't do very well. I guess, everything. Is it obvious that I'm depressed on what's going on.

Well, what has been done so far.

All rough structures are done
Steel trusses finished
Plastering is started on some of the windows
Electrical rough in is done, now electrical wires being installed
Plumbing rough in is half done, now plumbing fixtures are started

Still not finish
Site still full of grubble and trash. This is what pisses me off. I don't understand why we can put up a structure and throwing trash seems to be the most difficult job in the world.
We haven't decided on the finishes yet. Still looking for inspiration on the designs.
Still looking for a kitchen contractor that will do the kitchen
Still need more funds.

What we're up to for the next 2 weeks
15th week - continue plastering of windows. Finish all windows.
15h week - measure and get ready for windows fabrication
16th week - Install insulation and roofing
17th week - start installing windows
18th week - the house should be sealed and closed - all windows, doors and roof are in place.

I filed for quite a long leave to personally take care of things, because it looks like there's mismanagement somewhere. Hopefully, things will be finished before we run out of funds.

This is one of the downs of being a renovator. Trying times.

Here are some pictures of the 14th week.

Week 13 : Plumbing rough in and more plastering

2 more days, and it's officially the third month of the building process. We started with site preparation on July 21.

The plumber is supposed to be on site today, but I haven't spoken to my sister yet, so I don't know what happened. Last night, I finished all the drafts and designs of the plumbing lines, talk about cramming.

After months and months of going to Borders every weekend, and browsing through every home magazine, we've come to this point. Every bathroom design I see is as pretty as the other, and I just want them all. It's just hard to decide on bathroom layouts if you're designing for three different bathroom profiles - 1 large family bath, 1 small bath, and 1 masters bath. We still have time to come up with the final decision - I think.

Hiring a tradesman in the Philippines

The rough-in of plumbing should've started 2 weeks ago, the same time as the electrical rough in, but it's hard to find a reliable plumber. I've searched all over - from my relatives to the plumber of a friend of a friend, to Facebook! The simple thing of hiring a plumber is so stressful.

The culture in the Philippines is quite unique when it comes to hiring a tradesman. Here in Australia, when we need a plumber or a person to fix something at home, we just call them up or look their names from truelocal.com.au. We are more or less assured that the person can do the job, and do it well. Otherwise, we can always call Fair Trading to complain if the tradesman is a scam or did a very crappy job.

In the Philippines, we always look for a tradesman referred by a relative or by a friend, or by a neighbor, as long as somebody we know gave the referral. The tradesman should be a 'kakilala' before we can even trust them that they can do the job and not run away with the money. It's just the way it is, there's no system to certify trade skills or perhaps there's one but I'm not aware of it. There's no reference to check if the tradesman can really do the job and there are a lot of cases where the tradesman runaway with the money without doing the job. It's worth to ask around even if it takes a lifetime, rather than hiring somebody you just randomly picked from the yellow pages. Oh well, it's all part of the excitement, isn't it?

Week 12 : The beginning of electrical and plastering

Bay Window

Front Picture Windows

C-purlins and Trusses

Front window

Office Room - Plastered

Rommel clearing the hallway

The main door - still raw

The "Grand" living room window - still in progress

Laundry Door - Plastered

Unfinished kitchen window

Backdoor plastered.

Kitchen right wall with electrical holes and plastered, breaker is there also!

Laundry Wall Window part has been plastered

Labor day weekend and the coming of the 12th week

Tomorrow, I’m back to work. I totally enjoyed the 3 days weekend that past. I think I did a lot of things, or...reflected about a lot of things. Hmmm, mall, gym, Borders (5 hours!), grocery, arranged iPOD files (after years of trying, I did it!), eat out at fave restaurant, cooking, house cleaning, tax return (gruelling 2 hours, it’s not my favourite thing to look over documents of the past year), cooking favourite Sinigang, sleeping more than 8 hours, and many others to mention J
Those were the ‘did’ part, the reflection part are all still floating around my mind and up in the air. I will try to write them, whenever I can. I think it’s more effective that way – to write what you think as soon as you think about it. Who knows, it will be years before I can write my reflection, just like what happened to my iPOD files.

Oh, one reflection I can remember is that I spend too much time in Facebook. Yes, that creepy social networking site. I don’t like the thought that I find myself always logged in on Facebook browsing stuffs that I don’t really care to the point that it seems like I don’t have other better things to do. I should just cook or read that The Intelligent Investor book, but no, I am in Facebook. I should just do Yoga or research about my business prospects, but no, I am in Facebook. Argh!

I could have just use the time to hen I can spend it in a more useful way. I know, socializing is part of humans, but I just can't help but feel guilty if I spend so much time facebooking. The worst part is that realization strikes after, not before.