HOME: Making your DREAM HOUSE a Reality

Everybody wants to have their own place, especially if you know you can live independently, and you have enough savings to have your own space. And when that time comes, you will be so excited thinking all the ideas, experiment with design, deciding who will be your architect, and lastly, creating your own interior design, making sure that the result will give you comfort and serene ambiance.

It’s “easy” right? But in reality, it is a little bit confusing. Know why? Because that is what I am feeling at this moment (lolz!). You want your home to be different but will give you a relaxing day after your work, a home with complete stuffs that you need, but still spacious and roomy. So me and my hubby did a little research with what’s the latest innovation when it comes to building homes. I admit, Yeah I am engineer, and I am involved with Architectural works. That’s why, I need to explore and learn the latest craze, and maybe, we could innovate them.

Living, dining, kitchen, toilet and bathroom, terrace, bedroom. These are the most common areas. Meron ka lang nyan, okay na ang bahay mo, not to mention of the doors and windows of course. But Filipinos are maarte, admit it hehehhe. We want to put space for this, space for that, space for so on…  On this kind of situation, you have to consider some factors that will make you planning easier and somewhat, hassle free.

Budget is perhaps the most important thing to consider. Knowing how much can be spent on labor and material can significantly affect the outcome of the home construction project. Because of how important the budget is in home construction, it is important for the budget to be closely monitored in order to make sure that only the materials that were specified in the design were purchased. Don’t forget to consider contingency in the event that some unexpected expense arises. 15%-20% of the cost for the labor and materials is considerable contingency percentage.

Location is the next one. Location can mean everything to some people. Some wants a house by the beach, near the field, or city, or at the top of mountain. Location creates an important role since some times, Filipinos move from one place to another, and they will decide to sell their house sometime in the future, location of the house adds value to it. But be careful on this one. You might need some help from professionals to check that the soil or foundation of your chosen location is suitable for home construction.

Time / Season. In Philippines, they always say “dapat sa simula ng taon, para maswerte” or, “basta sa hindi maulan gaya ng May or June”. I am not sure whether it’s because of pamahiin, but somehow, these things are right. Rainy season will prolong the construction period thus’ will give you more expenses since you have to consider the barracks of your manpower, and storage for your materials. It would typically take an average of 6months to finish a house construction project  so if you will start at the beginning of the year, by the time rainy season comes, your house is almost finish.

Think about the Style, Size and Plan for your house. You are 12 in your family, and you will design 2 bedroom only and 1 bathroom and toilet. Come on, you can do better than that. =) This steps involves everything else such as number of room, hardware supply, and aesthetic appeal. You’ll also need to make as decision as to how many square meters you want, how bedrooms and bathrooms, the size of each room, and any additions you would like such as a garage to keep your discount home improvement supplies.

So these are the important factors to consider. And yours truly is now preparing and designing  for her own house (yehey!) we already have, actually, but me and my husband want to add and change some of the details, since aside from the common areas I mentioned earlier, we want to add some areas and ideas that for sure, you too would like to have in your home some day.

Note: if you know the owner of these photos, please tell me so, so that we can give credits to them.

Kids' Room

 

Pantry / Kitchen Storage

Under Stair

Walk-in-Closet

Wall Design / Partition

 

Wine Cellar / Bar