News from Calatagan

I don't like mistakes and having something repeated in construction -- who does?  But this particular one, the metal plate steps had to be redone.  The height between steps varied -- 8", 9", 9", 6" -- so I had the welder make it consistently 8".  The width of the step was only 8" but that was my mistake in the drawing because I was indecisive about the first step.  Anyway there was space to make the step wider so it was redone at 9 and 1/4".  

These are the views from inside the trailer home.  Sometimes, I feel like not wanting to close any of the walls up so that you'll always have a complete view of the outside.  If I were building this mobile home for myself, I could probably do that but since this is for my mom, it's a different design story.

 We have to re-adjust the bathroom ceiling height to try and lower the roof.

 My friend, Mia and her architecture class visited the farm for their design project.  They trekked through mud under the heat of the sun to get from where the road ended to the beach.  We showed them three possible sites for the beach house:  1) the tower-meteor-avatar site, 2) beach one and 3) beach two.  Beach one is where the mobile home is being constructed now.  Beach two had a lot of dramatic mangrove trees while the tower-meteor-avatar intrigued and tickled the students' imagination the most. 

Joshua enjoyed being with so many noisy, happy, energetic kids who catered to his every whim for junk food, Mountain Dew and endless supply of playmates.  He had such a sugar rush that he was a pendulum swinging from being hyper-gleeful and hyper-cranky on the way back to Manila.

We've re-adjusted the place where the water tank sits to bring the roof down a bit.  We'll see again next time if it works with the GI roof in place.

We visited the project of a local contractor who did this house for an Italian married to a Filipina.  I was wondering if I should have chosen local foreman, carpenters and laborers to do the job since costs are mounting, however, after seeing a sample of the local contractor's work, I thought it was also okay that I got people from Manila.  I didn't like any design element or finishing style of the house except for this part of the balcony on the second floor which mirrored oh so clearly and perfectly the beautiful blue sky and sea.

On the other hand, I should go around more and meet more people in the area.  In time, I'll hopefully be able to better source requirements locally so the labor and operational costs are more reasonable.