House Renovations

[OnMyWay]

So I finally closed the deal on a long term lease here in Subic.  I thought the interior was in better shape than it is.  The previous owner had the house clean and nicely decorated, so I overlooked a lot when it was still occupied.

The deal got pushed out a bit, crunching our time to do interior renovations.  My wife will give birth on May 25, and we hoped to be moved in well before that.  I thought maybe I could do the basic painting, but after I saw how much prep work there was, no way.  So we scrambled to find someone.  Here in SBMA, only approved contractors can be used, so that limits choice and raised costs.  Our contact at SBMA recommended one (part of her nepotism network, of course) and we met with him.  I like him but like most decent contractors, he is juggling a few balls and sometimes hard to contact.  Found out his two kids go to my daughter's school so he can easily run off!  

So he comes back with his first quote.  3 weeks, about p265,000!  My wife is livid.  Me, not so much.

I go over the quote in detail.  A lot of the cost is paint and he has calculated the square meters much, much higher than I did.  We schedule a meeting to go over the quote, and I point out many things.  There is a nice chunk for him supplying the electrical fixtures (switches and outlets) which we agree I will supply instead.  And he will review the SQM and paint.

New quote.  P165,000, about 3550 USD.  Quite a drop!  He revised the SQM down to almost what I had, reducing the painting cost by a lot.  Reduced long nose tax or honest mistake, I'll never know.  After clarifying that all other things remained the same (paint quality, etc.), I accepted.

That might seem still high to some but this is a lot of work, about 2000 sqaure feet, I think:

Painting all interior surfaces; walls, ceilings, baseboards, cornices, cabinets, closets, with our colors, Boysen paint.

Prepping all surfaces to be painted.  Lots and lots to do here.

Texture paint on ceilings to match some that have already it.

Replacing all door hardware (I supply)

Replacing all lighting (I supply)

Replacing all electrical switches and outlets (I supply)

Replacing some damaged cornices.

Repair / replace damaged hinges on cabinets.

Close off the old central air con vents.

Etc., etc.

They have been working 2 days and seem to be doing well.  Basically they gutted all that stuff I mentioned and are working on surface prep.

I will post some updates with time allows.

I would like to do the kitchen over some time in the future but that will have to wait.  Just a fresh coat of paint for now.

 

[scott h]

Congrats OMW.

  Here in SBMA, only approved contractors can be used, so that limits choice and raised costs.

But that really sucks, one of the biggest advantages of living here is the low cost of labor. Having to use only "approved" contractors really blows lololol. I bet you could not just contract for labor either and supply the materials yourself. (unless I read your post wrong) I found that this was another huge cost saving when we built.

But bottom line is that as long as the Spousal Unit is happy,,,,,,,,,,your life just got a whole lot easier

 

 

[OnMyWay]

28 minutes ago, scott h said:

Congrats OMW.

  Here in SBMA, only approved contractors can be used, so that limits choice and raised costs.

But that really sucks, one of the biggest advantages of living here is the low cost of labor. Having to use only "approved" contractors really blows lololol. I bet you could not just contract for labor either and supply the materials yourself. (unless I read your post wrong) I found that this was another huge cost saving when we built.

But bottom line is that as long as the Spousal Unit is happy,,,,,,,,,,your life just got a whole lot easier

 

 

The wife can settle with a lot less than I can.  She had "carpenters" work on her house in Laguna and I have see those types of results in many Filipino houses, businesses and schools.  Not for me.  A famous one I see all the time is running a pipe across a floor or walkway, putting some quickcrete on both sides, and calling it plumbing.  I call that a speedbump!  

The limit on the contractors has pluses and minus.  Yes, higher cost but better work with contractors who are more familiar with the American style housing here on the base.  It is not supposed to be allowed but some do bring in unapproved workers for smaller jobs.  If they allowed just anyone in, the neighborhood would be downgraded over time with shoddy work on refurbishing.  The house next to us now is being worked on by a crew from Manila that I don't think is approved, but the work I have seen so far is very good.

Most of the refurbished houses we have looked at have been done to a very high standard, which is great for my investment here.  Our place is a duplex and the other half is really dilapidated, but was recently bought by a Korean who will do a complete rebuild, adding value to my half.  Our half got an expansion and new roof about 10-12 years ago, so most of the work now is cosmetic.  On the other side of our house, an American I have not met yet has the nicest house on the base.  Converted duplex to single house, triple level, 3 car garage, all clay brick construction in the front (I don't think it is a facade).  A showcase home on a our section of street that has many nice homes.

So, I hope I have made a wise investment but only time will tell!  Keep in mind that these long term leases can be resold, so if you add value to the property, hopefully you can increase the value to your lease.

[OnMyWay]

The renovations are going along quite well.  I'm not sure if they will be finished Friday as planned.  It will be close.

I am very happy with the work so far.  They spent almost two weeks on just prep and repairs, and they did a good job.  Some of our walls already had texture.  They have made repairs and then re-textured to match the old texture quite well.  We had a channel cut in the concrete wall for the new air con piping, and an old window type A/C hole was filled in with concrete block and plaster.  You can't really even tell where those repairs were.

Some of our ceilings were already textured, and they closed off the old central air con vents, sealed them up, and re-textured.  Also a very good job!  The bedrooms and dining room ceilings were not textured, and you could see the seams of the boards.  They sealed all of it up and textured it all.  I'm impressed!

They are using a compressor and spray gun for the enamel on the cabinets, and they are doing a lot better job than I ever could.  Very smooth and shiny with no drips or runs that I have seen.

The paint colors we chose on the computer (on the Boysen web site) came out quite dark on the first coat, so they are going to lighten up the second coat.

I will get some pictures when they are done!

[robert k]

33 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

The renovations are going along quite well.  I'm not sure if they will be finished Friday as planned.  It will be close.

I am very happy with the work so far.  They spent almost two weeks on just prep and repairs, and they did a good job.  Some of our walls already had texture.  They have made repairs and then re-textured to match the old texture quite well.  We had a channel cut in the concrete wall for the new air con piping, and an old window type A/C hole was filled in with concrete block and plaster.  You can't really even tell where those repairs were.

Some of our ceilings were already textured, and they closed off the old central air con vents, sealed them up, and re-textured.  Also a very good job!  The bedrooms and dining room ceilings were not textured, and you could see the seams of the boards.  They sealed all of it up and textured it all.  I'm impressed!

They are using a compressor and spray gun for the enamel on the cabinets, and they are doing a lot better job than I ever could.  Very smooth and shiny with no drips or runs that I have seen.

The paint colors we chose on the computer (on the Boysen web site) came out quite dark on the first coat, so they are going to lighten up the second coat.

I will get some pictures when they are done!

Good prep is important, the surface can be reskinned. As for the paint color, I have never gotten an accurate color representation off of a computer monitor. I wish I knew how that could be done.

[OnMyWay]

29 minutes ago, robert k said:

I have never gotten an accurate color representation off of a computer monitor.

Yes.  What I did was print out each color from Boysen's Mix and Match website, and also made a list with the codes and colors.  They took the codes to the paint store to have them mixed.  He said Boysen always comes out darker than expected.

The problem here is that the paint stores (that we went to here in Olongapo) only have 1 or 2 sets of the sample paint swatches and you can't take them home.  In the U.S. a place like home depot has large racks full of the samples and you can take as many as you like home to compare.

Edited May 3, 2016 by OnMyWay