Building a Home in Davao

[Tommy T.]

43 minutes ago, graham59 said:

You could also just put sections of rubber mat down on the tiled steps, during rainy season.  

Yeah...that's actually our plan. We'll wait and see what happens...

[Jollygoodfellow]

18 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

but the front porch is under the pronounced overhang from the 2nd floor terrace. That should keep it dry in non-windy rains.

Won't make much difference if your shoes are wet on the walk to the door 

[Tommy T.]

On 8/25/2020 at 12:44 AM, Jollygoodfellow said:

Won't make much difference if your shoes are wet on the walk to the door 

Yeah... that's a good point. Maybe the rubber mat will be the ticket? But I will test it first.

Meanwhile, we visited the house Monday and Tuesday this week already. There are lots of things happening.

The kitchen cabinet installation is not complete and that's actually a good thing. We inspected it all closely and discovered that some of the panels and shelves are not white, but pink! WTF? So we paid OTR a visit yesterday afternoon. Even they  were shocked to hear that and see the photos. They also did not allow for a complete range unit that we are buying verses the more standard range top and separate oven - if included. Also, there were already a number of small scratches on some of the cabinets.

So they need to reconfigure some of the cabinets and replace or rebuild several to lose the pink. Lastly, the installers, for some reason, cut a large hole for the range hood to exhaust out the top and through the wall. The hood we have exhausts straight through the back. So some of these issues seem due to the compartmentalization of the sales, manufacture and service. L was rather pissed and, unusual for me, I took it in stride. They were very apologetic and pledged to have everything right by the end of the week. This will mean that everything installed must be removed and much of it replaced by new.

The internet line will be run from the highway to the house today and service will be activated tomorrow. I did not want to pay for a month or so when we won't be living there, but the installer explained that connections are limited and may be taken by someone else and leave us hanging. Okay, okay...so I add P1,700 to the installation cost in my head. Maybe we can use the internet a bit when out there? I can always bring my laptop for the huge Window's updates and let our unlimited service take care of that instead of the cell data service here?

I know this is likely since this already happened to L when she signed up for Globe fiber service and there were no connections available...

The living room sliding door is installed. It is huge! It is the top dollar (peso) version and you can tell by how smoothly it slides on the rollers, and it is very heavy. The master bedroom slider is the same. You cannot see in this photo, but the handles are way cool and very solid.

Speaking of doors, this is one of the fairly high security door latches for the front and back doors. They use a special proprietary key that is - almost - impossible to duplicate at all and truly impossible for any regular key duplication service because it requires special equipment. It is Yale/Assa.

Next to the bright reflection from the stainless hand rail is one of the soffit vents that we had varnished since they are wood. Of course, Solignum was applied first, and there are mozzie screens inside.

The sewer access boxes set low enough that we can cover them with soil then plant covering.

Preparations for the electric sliding gate and junction box for doorbell, intercom and lights on one of the entrance posts.

L and the foreman enjoyed playing with the kitchen backsplash tiles to find a pattern that would efficiently utilize the limited supply of tiles. Wilcon's stock of many things is limited due to difficulties in transportation from Manila or Cebu.

If you look closely, you can see how the bottom shelf is pink underneath. While this one shelf is an easy replacement, several of the panels outside are also pink as are the bottoms of the cabinets.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Tommy T.]

Yet another visit to the home site yesterday...

They are beginning to construct the sliding gate for the main car entrance.

And they are testing the location for the ground rail for that gate.

They have been installing the door latches. Interesting to compare with some other posters regarding door latch installations... Here, they are using hole saws and not just chipping away at the wood with chisels.

For @Viking, these are the Yale/Assa door latches I found locally, available at several hardware stores. The quality seems good to me.

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Yet another visit to the home site yesterday...

They are beginning to construct the sliding gate for the main car entrance.

And they are testing the location for the ground rail for that gate.

They have been installing the door latches. Interesting to compare with some other posters regarding door latch installations... Here, they are using hole saws and not just chipping away at the wood with chisels.

For @Viking, these are the Yale/Assa door latches I found locally, available at several hardware stores. The quality seems good to me.

I lent our carpenter a hole saw attachment with my electric drill - he used it for 1 door and then went back to his own method of chipping away with a chisel! 

[Tommy T.]

I thought I had posted another update, but it does not show...so maybe I forgot to hit "submit?"

Anyway... I had a brief meeting with the people at OTR on Tuesday. They said they would take care of any and all problems with the cabinets, and do that quickly.

They also told me that the pink I was complaining about was a surface that would be cleaned up and be white afterwards. Apparently, according to them, it is some sort of coating they apply to permit markers to make notes about which pieces go where... There were still some scratches, but they were very minor and might be buffed out easily. If not, those pieces will be replaced.

Yesterday we visited the site again and the installers for OTR were there. They had already made the accommodations for the stand alone range/oven. However, they still need to adjust for the range hood and cabinet to move to align with the range/oven since there needs to be a gap for heat dissipation around the oven...

Yeah... they messed up on some of their communications and construction...but they seem very eager to make it right. So, when it is all said and done, I will make my recommendation about whether they are worth the cost for total quality and service... 

I discovered yesterday that one set of door latches was installed upside down!!!! WTF!!! I was really pissed... However, I visited Wilcon today with one of the offending latches and the "expert" there smiled and said, "Sir...this is a common complaint...I can fix that for you now..." And fix it, he did. It is a simple process of just switching one side to the other on the handle axis - took him five minutes to make it right. So I have one more to take to him to fix. The problem is right hinge verses left hinge. All doors are right hinge except for two... I never noticed that or knew that before...

So another issue solved!!!

Edited August 28, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Tommy T.]

Yesterday, during our visit, I took note of the ditching that the sparky and his helper were digging for electricity, cable and internet connections (water will also share part of the ditch).

I saw that the ditch did not look like it was in the right location (along a right-of-way on the division plan). I proved myself right after a while when I (fortunately) found some property markers set by a surveyor. The access road winds around a bit and does not follow the survey track. Their ditch followed the existing track...

So, unfortunately, for the ditch diggers, they had to dig again in the right location. I felt bad for them since they were just following instructions from the foreman... but he did not follow our instructions or the map I had provided... So more double work... I hate to see that... It will be made right, but I am sad to see the double work for these boys.

So I made sure to pay for snacks and a couple bottles of Tanduay to maybe help them feel a bit better...

[Yeochief]

Love it that you are sharing with us Tommy.  At first I asked myself, self why do you need to follow someone building a house.  Then I realized that I'm learning a lot of things to look for when we are looking for a home to buy.  The deal about your floors not being off centered, I have noticed in most of the pictures they are just like yours.  The little rental we got, about 36 sqm, one of Olivia's friends we are renting from, installed a water heater for the shower (I had to many cold showers in the Navy), three wire from the heater going into a 30 amp breaker in the shower.  Thanks again Tommy and all who have made comments.  

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Yesterday, during our visit, I took note of the ditching that the sparky and his helper were digging for electricity, cable and internet connections (water will also share part of the ditch).

I saw that the ditch did not look like it was in the right location (along a right-of-way on the division plan). I proved myself right after a while when I (fortunately) found some property markers set by a surveyor. The access road winds around a bit and does not follow the survey track. Their ditch followed the existing track...

So, unfortunately, for the ditch diggers, they had to dig again in the right location. I felt bad for them since they were just following instructions from the foreman... but he did not follow our instructions or the map I had provided... So more double work... I hate to see that... It will be made right, but I am sad to see the double work for these boys.

So I made sure to pay for snacks and a couple bottles of Tanduay to maybe help them feel a bit better...

And you can only imagine (but best not to) what has happened when you weren't around to monitor, Tom! 

[Tommy T.]

15 hours ago, hk blues said:

And you can only imagine (but best not to) what has happened when you weren't around to monitor, Tom! 

Yeah... I know...