Zkribbler's Retirement House - Watch it being built!

[Lancer]

From outside...

[Lancer]

You can see your posts in this shot I think.

[Lancer]

Hey! Look what I found.

[Lancer]

The earlier pics of Zkrib's place were from yesterday. These are from this morning...

[Lancer]

Imageshack took so long I went and played a few turns. In the process Poly forgot who I was and I needed to log in.

his pic was the one loading and I don't remember what it was.

[Zkribbler]

Q: What about underground water lines, sewer lines and electrical lines? Will these be affected? (One of my concerns is that, in three tries, Tito has yet to put a showers into either bathroom. I don't recall where he put the sinks and toilets, but I'll be they're in the wrong spots.) Do we need to figure out where these lines will go before you do the work you describe above, such as adding the limestone fill?

My best guess is that the limestone fill cannot go in until the sewer lines, the water lines and the electrical lines are set in place. Right?

[Zkribbler]

The dining room.

That's the living room. The dining room is at the other end.

[FrostyBoy]

I want a house too, how much will you charge me?

[Lancer]

Dining room? Who said anything about a dining room?

That's the living room. The dining room is at the other end.

Frosty, it depends on the property you want. Also, I'm not charging Zkrib anything. He hired an accountant and pays all the workers directly through her. So, regarding cost, .

Zkrib, they fill the whole thing with limestone then dig little trenches for plumbing etc. Doesn't make sense but in fact it does. So to answer your question..."My best guess is that the limestone fill cannot go in until the sewer lines, the water lines and the electrical lines are set in place. Right?"...Wrong.

[Lancer]

Filling buckets and cement sacks with limestone.

[Lancer]

Removing the step form. Only two more to go!

[Lancer]

That's it!

[Zkribbler]

Zkrib, they fill the whole thing with limestone then dig little trenches for plumbing etc. Doesn't make sense but in fact it does. So to answer your question..."My best guess is that the limestone fill cannot go in until the sewer lines, the water lines and the electrical lines are set in place. Right?"...Wrong.

Ah! No problem then.

I want a house too, how much will you charge me?

FrostyBoy -- Tito's preliminary estimate of my house was a little less than 700,000 pesos. His more refined estimate was a little over 1,000,000, or a little over $20,000. The house will be about 1500 sq. feet, not counting the rooftop garden or the balconies.

The million pesos does not include cost of the property on which it stands. Nor does it include the costs not associated with the house: the seawall, the circumference wall or the laundry room.

[Zkribbler]

Lancer!

Hold on to your socks! Have you got a grip on them?? --Oh, you're not wearing any socks. Well anyway, what do you think of this idea?

I'd like to add another room onto the house, on the street side. It's a semi-circular room, beginning at the 2nd post, and swinging around to the 4th post. (The 3rd post will be the center of the semi-circle.) The wall between the 2nd & 4th post will not be built [but I'll probably build a bookcase instead, so the 3rd post doesn't get lonely]. Probably three posts equidistance around the circumference of the room--not double-thick posts, just the regular single posts.

No trees should be chopped down. If there's a tree in the way, we can let it grow through the floor and roof, as you do at your beachhouse. If a tree is in the way of a wall, we adjust the position of the wall.

One door will be at the 2nd post, facing your beach house; a second door at the 4th post, facing the stream. We'll need some kind of overhang over the entrances, to protect people from the rain as they're searching for their keys, (but I don't yet have a firm grip on this aspect). Windows all around, where there are no posts nor doorways.

The roof of this room will be a sundeck for the 2nd floor, instead of having a streetside balcony. No flying room will be over the sundeck, but...there's a one meter overhang from the roof garden, which will cast shade over much of the sundeck. I'm pretty sure there's a couple of trees in this area, which will cast shade. And, the sundeck itself will be of white tile, to reflect any remaining sunlight.

This room will be my livingroom. I'm not quite sure of what I'll do with the old livingroom. Perhaps a second guest room, or a maid's quarters, or perhaps a den.

Let me know if there's any problem with this that I don't see.

[Lancer]

Why not? We can do that, I'll talk to Sho about it when he gets here.

The only thing is tieing the wall into the 2nd and 4th posts. If we know that there will be a wall coming out of a post the workers put metal bar in the post cage that gets buried in the post that, after it is chiseled out from just under the surface of the post before the cement hardens connects to the new wall and supports it. For this wall there is no metal buried in the post, and those posts are hardened up. What the workers have to do now is chisel through hardened cement right down to the outer post cage and tie in a metal bar. That's doable, just takes extra labor... Or Sho might elect to drill holes and not chisel down to the post cage. Each has advantages and disadvantages. If you chisel down well you weaken the post. Yours are strong nuf that it wouldn't matter much I think. If you drill you don't weaken the post but the wall tie in isn't as good as metal to metal. Anyway, you've got a great mason and it aint me and the thing is doable and done here in the Phils every time someone adds a room.

If you wonder about the metal bar in question its the one I have my hand on in an earlier pic taken by Tina.