Broken Promises

The two shots on the left show the steel trusses being assembled at the vacant lot next door.














The picture above shows the wall foundations
of the master's bedrooms on the background
from the rearview of the house. The current
height of the cinder blocks is where the floor
of the rooms will be.


I broke my promise to keep the excitement up. Here's a taste of what's to come. I was told by Kong Naring, all the inside wall foundations will be up by tomorrow, which will be Saturday. Next week, they'll start to pour the concrete for the columns and the week after, the steel beams where the trusses are going to sit on will be put up.

Week 3 Updates - Cont'd

This picture shows the start of the wall foundation
of the kitchen and dining room.



We were expecting the lack of water and/or power to be the reason of creating delays in the construction. Neither did. Yesterday, we got a water tank, then Rommel drilled a pipe and got some water. Today SFELAPCO, the local power company installed our meter and hooked us up. The problem? Our 300 bags of cement did not get delivered yesterday as promised. Nor did it get delivered this morning, noon and afternoon. It got delivered at around 6 pm today! We were told at around 12:30 that the truck has been loaded and already left their location - Macabebe, which is around an hour to an hour and a half away depending on the traffic. According to the driver, two of their tires blew out, thus the delay. But we got a used cement mixer for P20K which will enable us to go full blast tomorrow. Check out the first glimpse of a wall in the attached picture! YAY! Tomorrow I promise I'll post more 'dramatic' pictures.

I probably won't be able to go to the site tomorrow morning like my usual routine because I'm planning on going to the LTO (the DMV here) and turn in my almost-expired California license to get a current Philippine driver's license.

Week 3 Updates

It’s been pretty hectic within the last several days. We were anxiously waiting for the inspector from the SFELAPCO and finally last Saturday at around 11 am (they only work till noon!), he shows up. The only comment was the size of our wiring. Instead of having us replace it, he recommended that it be doubled up. Jonar easily fixed it as soon as the inspector left. I didn't have time to go to the office to make my payment. The guy said to go today after 10 anyway.

Kong Naring decided to rent a water tank so we can start pouring cement for the fence, posts and walls.

Friday night I went to Kong Romy's house for a San Jose fiesta eve dinner. They served lots of food. Kong Naring and a small portion of his family were there when I got there.

After church yesterday, we went to Gerry's Grill in SM to have lunch for Jen's birthday celebration. After lunch, we took the kids to Tom's World - their Chuck E Cheese over here. While the kids were playing, we went and packed ourselves into a videoke booth and sang our hearts out.
.
Today, I went to SFELAPCO first thing to make my payment. I was told Tuesday, Wednesday the latest we'll be powered up. But I got to the site and the water tank was already there along with Rommel drilling for a temporary water supply. We were able to hook up an extension cord through the kindness of our next door neighbor. They've started mixing cement, gravel and sand for the construction's first taste of concrete. When I came back from lunch, they're already pumping water out - WE'RE IN BUSINESS!! Later in the afternoon, Kong Naring was expecting a delivery of 300 bags of cement which he got at a great discount of P151 each. The regular price of a bag of cement is about P165.

I have to tell you of an incident that touched me deeply. But first of, Donna called me while I was on site last Saturday morning saying she saw the pictures I took and she felt sorry for the workers working in their flip flops in the heat of the mid day sun. After lunch we went and got a styrofoam cooler, some ice, pastries and a bunch of juice drinks which was greatly appreciated. Let me get back to the incident - Saturday is payday so Armin and Kong Naring figured out how much I owe them for the week's payroll. I gave them the cash and they each filled out everyone's pay envelope. When everything was done, we were short about P230. It was getting late so I gave them the extra amount but I firmly told them we cannot have money discrepancies and that they have to figure out what happened. He didn't have time to hand them their pay so he told them he'll pay everyone in Masamat.

Today he told me what happened. I think I've already told you how much I'm paying these people and how hard they're working, blah, blah. He said Sunday night, one by one, they went to see him saying they got overpaid, thus the discrepancy. It wasn't much money involved but I thought the idea of them coming forward like that was just great.

We don't have a mixer yet but someone mentioned once we do, we won't need as many helpers. I told Kong Naring not to lay any of them off and find something for them to do. He said that shouldn't be a problem because there's work for them to do anyway.