We slept in the room that will soon be included in our unit. My bed is small (twin) so the girls had to sleep on the floor. I don’t want to clean the usual room where we sleep in the main house. I wanted to get the feel of the size of this room and the overall atmosphere since this would be my forever room from now on.
Anyway, so I got to talk to this new contractor whom I went to high school with but he is one year ahead of me.
The contractor did an ocular and we discussed the layout, the materials, the logistics, etc.
My contractor said the total size is ~50 sqm, which is the typical size of a two-bedroom condo in Manila. The bedroom we’re sleeping in now will add 10 sqm and will be my future bedroom/office. I reconciled to have it both inside this room and my closet will just be outside. The girls will have the bigger room.
I will no longer have vaulted ceilings as my contractor said dropped ceilings would make the house cooler since vaulted ceilings would just let hot air be confined at the top and have no way to escape if I don’t put exhaust fans there. I don’t want fans up there; they’re hard to clean. So dropped ceiling it is. He’s just going to give me big awning-type windows that is almost floor-to-ceiling that would be ideal for airconditioned rooms. While I intend to have natural air to circulate within the unit, it doesn’t hurt to design it as a fully airconditioned home. It’s better to be flexible. I initially plan to have only the bedrooms airconditioned since I have fresh mountain air outside my home to flow within my TV area and kitchen to keep it cool. But climate change—-you’ll never know.
The forest in my backyard would become my vegetable garden and whatever I want to do with it (a separate office and art studio perhaps in the future?). On the ground level would be a porch and laundry/utility area. I asked my contractor if he can put high quality polycarbonate roofing there. The kitchen will have granite countertops and drawers under it. The upper cabinets will be covered since Filipino/Asian cuisine is high on oil content, thus, could make stuff greasy if I have open shelving. The floors will remain the same except for the bathroom, of course. I told the contractor I want provision for mounting a heavy chandelier, if I fancy it, but likely it will just be big pendant lights.
He told me the fastest construction period will be 3 months. Soooo I have the option to start construction now that I can lock in the prices of materials since the economy will turn for the worse in the coming months. If I start construction next month, by December I will have a rest house and don’t have to bunk with my mom. I can bring stuff bit by bit until we move in totally by May 2023.
Earlier this evening, my girls and I had dinner and milk tea with the daughter of one of my bffs. The girls had a nice time with her.
I didn’t want to cramp the kids’ style so I stayed away while they gossiped the night away…until one clumsy kid of mine spilled her milk tea and made everyone sticky.
We’re running out of clothes. We need to go home to QC tomorrow.