Exciting Start

My next project is something I'm very, very excited about and something I've been dreaming of designing and constructing: a small compact home atop an old truck chassis. My Mom originally wanted a mobile home and we took a look at one imported model that cost astronomically high for a non-tropical friendly design.  These camper type homes would be good for America or other cool places but for the tropics, something that allows more natural air in is more appropriate.  So I offered to build my Mom this beach room with toilet for about a third (hopefully) of the ready-made trailer home's price.  

My Mom had an old truck that didn't run anymore so it was taken apart and we're using the chassis as the base for the house.  We're not even sure if the wheels can run and if we can pull it to the beach because it has to traverse some bumpy, curvy and steep roads.  But we'll try and find a way.   

The site would be just behind this clump of trees on the grassy area right after the beach.  The view of the house would be the infinite sea. 

More than ten years ago, my Mom and I designed and built a house on a hill just a few minutes walk from the beach.  It's made of molave and other hardwoods my Mom has been collecting and was constructed by my Mom's craftsmen carpenters.  It was the time when I was on my last years studying architecture and I had a blast designing the details.  

Now, my Mom doesn't want to climb all the way up the hill as she prefers to stay by the beach, thus the need for a mini home for her there but this little house on the hill is quite an inspiration on graceful weathering of materials and sensitivity to the site.  

This is the bathroom detail my Mom was not too pleased about because she thought it exposed the person inside.  So for this next project, I'll remember to keep having fun designing the details while bearing in mind, it has to be pleasant and convenient to use for my Mom.

Finished Guardhouse

It may be a small project but it has lots of lessons on natural ventilation and monitoring construction work quality.

Guardhouse before the renovation:

Guardhouse after the renovation:

Jagged Edges

The old guardhouse used these broken mirrors with jagged edges to be able to see the oncoming vehicles.  We've replaced them with decent car side mirrors.

Putting all that glass in this tiny space made it a virtual greenhouse that heated up when enclosed so we added louvred windows.  I wish that in my original design, I was able to anticipate this and plan more properly.  If I could redo this over, I would put in more louvres but then it would be too costly to overhaul the design at this stage.  The measures put in place seem enough to ventilate the room.  

 I had this shoddy work repeated.  If you look at the original guardhouse, the carpenter took care hammering the nails in evenly spaced and the GI sheet is applied flat on the hardiflex.  I should have called attention to this earlier because I was already observing something was wrong before this was painted.   However, I think my reflexes are a bit slow to react and it takes staring long at pictures before I spot the mistake.  But at least, there's still time to correct it.

Before & After Pics

Here are the "before and after" pictures of the recently concluded project:  

Before the renovation, this is how the room looked like on the second floor:

After the renovation, the room looks like this:

This is what the space originally looked like before we added the spiral staircase and walled it in:

The yellow wall behind the big blue post is where the entryway to the spiral staircase is now located.

Here's the final spiral staircase:

I couldn't get the angle I wanted because the area was filled with boxes so I just made this Frankenstein of a photo montage:

Most important take-away from this project:  choose your supplier carefully.  Don't rush in choosing or else if you pick the wrong supplier, you can end up paying more.

Hooray!

 Last Sunday, the temporary wall was taken down and we were able to cross the project finish line!  We can finally enter the spiral staircase from below and the pantry upstairs can be used. 

The stainless steel kitchen counter and shelves arrived Saturday and the workmanship was quite shoddy.  The shelves weren't on straight and the underside looked a bit ugly.  They didn't even bother to remove the pentel pen marks. I had asked the supplier if I can visit their manufacturing site while the counter was being made and they said they don't allow customers in the workshop.  Hmmm.  I wonder if there's a stainless steel fabricator who lets their client view their work because next time, I'd like to make sure I can see the job while it's done to ensure quality.  The problem  with suppliers is when they have a lot of job orders, quality suffers and there's no sense of responsibility.  When they deliver, they just take the payment and go. 

At the other side of town, work continues on the guardhouse.  I had the front window changed into louvre type because when all the doors are closed, it gets hot inside.  There has to be a way for the hot air to escape.  We're currently putting in more louvres in spots where we can. 

 The rain still gets in through the wood and glass joints so this still needs to be solved.