Ceiling Designs

Due to budget constraints and climate behavior, the ceiling will be done first. The hot climate in the Philippines is very unforgiving and sleeping without a ceiling is unliveable. So, I am contemplating on various ceiling designs I see in the internet.


Our living room is a high ceiling area and I think it'll be worthwhile to put effort in designing this part. The rest of the house will probably have the normal plain ceiling because they are not exposed much unlike the living area.


I'm leaning towards the coved or dome type which will make the living room a more breathable and wide space. Do you sense that I'm addicted to wide and large spaces? hehe.


Here are some designs that I'm considering. I am consulting my newly licensed architect cousin for some design suggestions as well. End of August is my target date for accomplishment.

Next batch of construction

I am contemplating on going to the next stage of the construction. I think I'm ready, I better be. Otherwise, if the building stays this way for long, we wouldn't be able to appreciate it.


So, here's the next round of things to finish


1. Finishing of Ground floor toilet
2. Flooring of 3 ground floor bedrooms
3. Masonry work for back exterior wall
4. Flooring - balcony
5. Stairs wooden tread
6. A little fix here and there


I am doing a calculation if ceiling finishing fits the budget at this point and I'm also checking if I am talking the right person. Ceiling design is such as crucial part because it is the most visible part of the house. It is that thing that gives the wow factor when you enter your home. So, ceiling design is important.


I spoke to a contractor last weekend, after he's seen the house. He's the electrician that services our shop in Manila. He gave me a pricey quote, so I'm not sure if I will go with that. I would definitely negotiate because I know that this batch of work doesn't require much skills.

Cove, Dome or Drop?

I am now contemplating on the ceiling design, this next stage of my renovation project. I think this might be the reason why I can't have good sleep these past few days. I can't get rid of the ceiling designs in my mind and it's about time to start the next phase before I go nuts :)


The living area is definitely the highlight of the house because it has a high ceiling which is not a very common concept among Philippine homes. A high ceiling home is something that I have dreamed of, perhaps with some influence of the Australian home culture. It's also something that is unique in our home and something that will make difference in our home.


Having said that, it is therefore an accomplishment for me to make it special. Ceiling just captures that first impression when you enter any home. It can wow you or not. If the ceiling is well lit, then it can add more vibrance and life to your home.  I cannot forget that one hotel I went to the first time I went to Las Vegas. The Caesar's Palace has a very distinct design concept because of the way the ceilings were designed. When you're inside the hotel, you will feel light and as if you are walking under a pure blue sky. I literally said wow when I saw it. I want the same for my ceiling.


I'm now looking up different designs for cove, dome or drop ceiling. I'm leaning towards a dome ceiling, but I'm not sure if a dome will work because we have a long living area and a circle will probably make the place feel smaller...I don't know. I'll be busy for the next month because my target is June. Well, the rest of the rooms will probably have a normal ceiling, but this living area ceiling will take up a lot of design planning again.

Windows Grills are now in place

As I have shared in my previous post, after the long process of design and planning, the window grills have now been installed. I just want to share some photos of our new Japanese inspired windows.

The long process of choosing the Window grills

Finally! I've settled with the final grills design. This is the photo I initially sent to Engineer William. It's a photo I got from the internet when I was googling for Window Grills Asian design.


I also sent him this set of designs so we'll have options.

Prior to that, we've drafted over a thousand layouts. Hmmm, that could be little exaggerated. What I meant is we had A LOT of draft revisions. Fortunately, our engineer (who is also my mom's second cousin) is the most patient person on earth, so he stick with me while I fumble on designs here and there. I know, I'm very fickle minded and I hate it. So, just to keep this memory, I want to show parade of designs that our engineer patiently measured and drafted, changed and drafted again.


The first set of Kirribilli design options. There's a huge space in the arc part, so we have to close it.

Then, some more options were presented to me to close that space in the arc. We were very concern about security because of the news that's going around the area.

And so, we thought that we'll go after that design...We're wrong. I saw this photo in the internet and liked it.

This is a colonial inspired window which I got when I saw a very beautiful house. I find that this design has a lot of grills and it will definitely block the view.

As of yesterday, Jan 12, I submitted the final design to engineer and stopped thinking about it. It was such a hard and gruelling happy process choosing the grill.

I have been wanting to have a modern look eversince, but in the middle of the design, I thought of classical look, and then shifted to modern look again. Here's the evolution of our window grills. Sometime during the design process, I thought of mixing between Riverina and Kirribilli design and the Japanese effect. This is a proof that I was confused even at the beginning.

Recap of my trip

Let me see. Before I went home, I listed the targets to finish. I feel like reviewing the list and check if my trip was worth it.


Here's the list from November 3's post and their status.


1. Finish Plastering of windows and its respective wall - done on my first week. All windows have been plastered, but not completely finished in one week. With 4 masons working on it, I think the job finished in 1.5 weeks overall.


2. Install door jambs and Plaster Door on 1st Floor - this was the first thing I did when I arrived. I arrived on Friday evening, and we were off to the door shop by Saturday lunch time. By Sunday, the door jambs have been installed already. I'm proud of this accomplishment!


3. Install Roof and insulation - oh roofing! headaches and hassle with the roof supplier. Salesman is a big factor in the transaction and we weren't very lucky in getting a good one. I'm sorry to say that the sales person we dealt with doesn't know what she's doing. Ok, I'll drop the name for lessons learned purposes, it's Puyat Steel. My mom had a lot of encounters with her, either because she gave us the wrong quote, she doesn't respond to our calls or she's just totally lost. Well, we still end up installing the roof and the insulation, so I guess it's all ok now.


One problem is that there was a leak in the roof when it rained last week, so we now have to get in touch with this salesman once again. Great.


4. Install Window - I spent time to look for a good and affordable supplier. Searching the yellow pages and the internet for a list of suppliers, touring along Roosevelt Avenue (in foot or jeepney) scouting for aluminum fabricators. Normally, the fabricators work outside their shop, so you would know who among them is the busiest and you would also get to check out their workmanship. This is the most effective way to scout for suppliers, but not very efficient. I suggest that prior to doing an ocular inspection, you already have the windows schedule with the rough measurement. Because the shop owners can give you a quote right there and then, and you can negotiate right away. This extra step will save you time to choose the best supplier.


Anyway, we ended up with a supplier from a far place. We initially talked on the phone and I find her voice nice and someone that will not fool me (Yes, I am paranoid to scammers). I found them in a Filipino supplier forum, and they reply to my emails on time. They were ok - they met the timeline and the cost is the lowest among what I found.


They are Briones Glass and Aluminum located in Fairview, QC.


5. Plaster all walls - we made a pretty good job here. When I arrived in the site, they have just started the plastering. So basically, it was at 0-5% done at that time. When I left, we were left with the back part and ground floor part of the side. Not bad huh. We plan to start plastering soon so the scaffoldings can be removed. It could take 5-7 days with 2 masons and 1 laborer for this job.


6. Install doors - we opted to stick to one door supplier because it's more convenient and it's easier to ask for discounts if you buy in bulk. Our supplier is door.com.ph. Their advantage is they have a very efficient sales system. They are also online, meaning they can give you a quote via email, so the ordering process is easy. Well, we also check out Wilcon Home Depot, but the negotiating power if you buy in these places is very limited. They have a price tag for all their items and it's the final price most of the time. Not to add that their delivery charge costs more.
What we actually did was to window shop at Wilcon (because their shops are bigger so they have more displays), and then choose the design, check if door.com.ph has that design and order it. That's the tip.


7. Finish Bathroom - We were only able to finish 2 bathrooms because of budget constraints. They're not even totally finished yet. I plan to make the main bathroom a grandeur one, so I have yet to save more funds for this project...hopefully soon!


8. Install Lights - I went to Chinatown (Ongpin) to look for lights. Although there's home depot and Wilcon near our place, I opted to go to the other side of Manila to buy the lights. Well, it's way cheaper, almost 30-50% difference. I strolled along Soler to T. Alonzo to Benavidez streets to look for pinlights and motion sensor lights. There's so much business competition in that area, and it's so much fun to shop queueing in the bumper to bumper traffic, smelling horse poop, eating fried pork (or cat?) bun...it's all about the experience!


9. Kitchen - ooohh. This one I wasn't able to finish. Though the rough layout of the countertop has been started already. Now, there's no flooring yet ...there's still so much work to do here. I plan to hire a kitchen maker to take care of everything because the design details is very crucial and I cannot afford to go home again anytime soon.

We have moved in!

My apologies. I have lost track of the whole renovation blogging because I've been quite busy doing the 'actual' renovation activities. I know, no excuses, but that's what really happened for the past 2 months :)

So, where are we?

My last post have just been 2 months ago, but the pictures of the home looked jurassic already. I have both good news and bad news - the good news is that we have moved in yesterday, January 10, 2010 - in binary language it's 011010. Cool eh? So, all things, most of them old stuff have been hauled to the new house. I imagine that most of them needs to be replaced because they have been with us for I don't know how long or perhaps since birth? SO, yeah, new house, new things - sounds good.

The not-so-bad news is that because of budget constraints, the finishings are not yet finished and there are quite a few things that needs to be done. I guess it happens to most projects where money runs out and some sacrfices has to be done. In our case, we really have to move in, so we have to sacrifice a bit to live in a house with unfinished floors and walls. I've been trying to draft a set of activities (or work breakdown structure in PM terms) to include in the second batch while we raise the money to fund this second round of activities. I'm eyeing August - September of 2010 to finish all what's left, but we'll be doing some stuff in between. Besides, we have to prepare for the storm season between June and July, so that means the downspout and plastering have to be done by then. Anyway, I'll be posting the finished WBS when it's done.

While I do that, I will post some most recent photos of the house. I'll try to recap on the details of how they were done in my next postings. So, this blogging type is similar to Star Wars narration - present to the past.