At the Corner of Serendipity

Today, I purchased P62,000 worth of electrical, plumbing and masonry materials as well as made the P23,000 downpayment for the labor.  It may be a lot or little depending on one's experience handling these sorts of amounts but for me, it was a lot considering I actually didn't know every little single item I bought. (I'm putting them all on Excel as future reference and as a way to double check expenses.)  I trusted the head electrician, plumber and mason-carpenter knew what they were doing because they were referred to me by my architect friend who has previously worked with them on some restaurants and other projects which I visited prior to choosing them.  I would not entrust this scale of a project to the ones I just met in the last renovation work because this one entails extensive repair and renovation.  The whole unit will be rewired and re-piped.  

The truckload of materials arrived on time.  I canvassed five different hardwares and resulted in relying on the one nearest us since they had the best price, lending credence to that adage about looking afar only to end up with what's in front of you.

The long pieces of metal for the ceiling frame and gypsum boards had to be hauled up seven flights because they couldn't fit the elevator.  Turning the corners was a challenge and for the metal channels, they were passed "assembly line" style through the staircase.

While I was waiting for the elevator, I was extremely lucky today to run into the contractor who worked on the renovation of the apartment beside ours.  She's the cousin of the owner of the unit I've been wanting, itching, craving, dying to see because the building administrator told me they spent a good amount renovating it.   The building administrator also advised me to put insulation on the ceiling like they did because the place heats up in the afternoon.  I've been getting various opinions from architect and designer friends about insulation and up till today I couldn't decide what to do.  So it was quite a stroke of serendipity to meet Judith, the contractor next door who gave me sound advice I needed to hear.  In this case, I could skip the insulation because the gypsum board can act as an insulator (unlike plywood) and she said that the insulation they themselves placed in the condo unit wasn't useful at all in reducing the heat.  

The work she did on the neighboring apartment was indeed impressive.  She made creative use of the owner's collection of antiques and the apartment felt warm and homey and not at all stiff or indentity-less which is what modern condos usually feel like.  Some purist designers and architects may disagree but "to each his own."  I wish I could take pictures of the place but I was too embarassed to ask because we actually ran into some trouble with the neighbor when we were hauling debris from our unit.

An architecture classmate of mine requested that I put down on this blog lessons learned from the first renovation so here they are:

1.  Hire construction leaders/subcons/foremen who are tried, tested and you've seen their actual work.  I disregarded this lesson in the first renovation because I was in a rush so I ended up overpaying for the door, door jamb and laundry hanging area.   I didn't know how much time would be needed to accomplish these things so that's the other lesson -- get an idea how long it takes to finish tasks.  This only comes through experience, lots of it and in the absence of such abundant experience, asking experienced people is good but nothing beats experience . . . which comes with a price tag.

2.  There are so many things I don't know about construction.  What I know is quite superficial because I'm clueless about the many parts that go under the sink, behind the walls and whatever is hidden.  I'm familiar with the parts you see when the work is done but it's almost like an iceberg where there's a lot more going on underneath the tiny part visible to eye.  So the lesson is to just keep on doing, learning and making mistakes along the way.  It helps if you've got people who share their knowledge and in this regard, I'm pretty blessed with friends who have been in the industry for a long while.

3.  Next time, I've got to get the varnishing right and enough period should be allotted to perfecting the painting and removing all the "lampas."  In the previous renovation, I didn't have the budget nor time to do this but I'd like to cling to the "no excuses" philosophy where you don't cite budget nor time as a reason for bad quality.  Don't mention ignorance, too.