The EXIF data of the photo below says it was taken on February 16, 2006. That’s how long we have been planning on giving the house a complete paint job inside and out, tear down two walls to replace the windows with French doors that will open to the front and back gardens, do something about the crappy ceiling and the quicky paint job it was given days before we moved here in 2001.
February, 2006 was one year and four months since we had an extension constructed because the original kitchen was no bigger than a closet. When the new kitchen was built, the foundations were laid out to hold additional rooms above it. We figured that with a couple of more posts, we could have an entire second floor built later on. That was really the intention.
But the construction of the kitchen in 2004 was a traumatic experience. The mess, the dust, the comings and goings of the workers and delivery men… shucks, it’s easy to have a house remodelled if you are not living in it. But we were living in the house then and we had no house helper. Not much different from our situation today. Living here. No house helper.
As unbelievable as it may seem, for the last year and a half, the farthest we’ve gone with the remodelling project was to agree on what the color of the house and rooms should be. It’s not even total agreement because Sam wants murals and frescoes inside the bedroom instead of flat paint. Where we’ll find a Michaelangelo, I have no idea. Alex, on the other hand, wants vinyl wallpaper because she misses their wallpapered bedroom in our old house in the city.
What we’d really like right now is to move elsewhere. But even if we do, we’d still need to fix this house so that we can sell it at a good price. Of course, if it were up to Sam, this house will never be sold. It will be transformed into a shelter for unwanted dogs and cats a la PAWS. I don’t know if it’s her love for animals that gave her the idea or whether it’s the history of the house itself — we have adopted far too many stray cats in the six-and-a-half years that we have been living here.
Anyway, I’m at that point when I’m getting depressed over not being able to have the house fixed. That’s what we really ought to get done. It’s the house that needs new everything, not the layout of this blog.
I have a thing about aesthetics — colors, proportions, dimensions, textures and space. When we were living in the city, in the house I grew up in which we had to ourselves, it was a never ending interior design project. Not a whim, mind you, but because my mother never fixed the house for something like two decades. She just wasn’t into that kind of thing. When we moved in, the paint was peeling and Alex, a crawler at the time, would take the dry paint that fell off the walls and put it in her mouth. That was what made me decide that it was time to do something.
Renovating that house was done in stages. First, the ground floor. Then, about two years later, the entire second floor and the exterior. Those were fun times for me. Sure, I hated the mess but, you know, when the results started to show, the feeling of accomplishment was tremendous. I was saving a 30-year old house from over 20 years of neglect. The bonus was that I could re-define the house according to my taste. And the girls, around 5 and 4 at the time the second floor was remodelled, had as much fun because they chose their room’s wallpaper, curtains, their bedsheets and even some of the furniture.
That was a big house — almost thrice as large as this one. There was a lot of space and I could re-arrange the furniture every few weeks. Speedy and I had fun doing that — we called it rigodon, moving and re-arranging furniture in the dead of night. Well, there are too many things that we can’t do here because there isn’t as much space. But we can still do something to ease the shitty feeling I get every time I look up and see the dry thin paint on the ceiling.
It’s no secret. In the Philippines, construction laborers are not licensed professionals. A lot of men market themselves as plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters… but, shit, the quality of their work can be, at best, a trial-and-error system. I guess the painters hired by the developer of the subdivision fall into the lowest level of semi-professionals. I did specify what colors I wanted but when we saw the house after the paint had dried, the colors were all wrong. What’s worse, it was obvious that the ceiling had only ONE coat of paint. After a few weeks, the joints and the grain of the plywood were already visible through the non-existent plaster. You should see the difference between the original house and the kitchen extension we built in 2004. It makes a lot of difference when you’re there and able to supervise the work at every stage every single day.
Oh, well, I can’t keep staring at the photo of paint swatches. The colors won’t transfer to the walls and ceilings if I just looked at them. If we can get the work started soon, I just know that I’ll stop re-designing this blog.
hi ms connie.. am an avid reader of ur blog.. this will be my first time to comment.. just want to give u info re murals:
saw an article in shopcrazy.com.ph, maybe it could help… here’s the link
http://www.shopcrazy.com.ph/2006/08/31/mural-of-the-story/
haven’t tried putting murals yet, though i’m also interested… IF i could have a house of my own…=)
by the way, i think you know my bro.. elbert or… he also has his own blog… =)
Love beige,cream & gray color scheme! Right now,we have typical german plain white painted walls.Boring noh?
Goodluck sa renovation Con! have a nice sunday to you & family!
eilyn, wow that you for the link. My daughter will be very thrilled. She was actually considering doing the paintings herself. Re Elbert, I almost met him once, how shall I put it… Marcelle Fabie invited me to watch his magic at Elbert’s birthday, but I wasn’t able to go.
Cheh, naku, my first rule is NO PLAIN WHITE hehehe But it’s popular because anything matches with white. The kitchen I had it done in cream, like Coffeemate. Still whitish but not flat white and the effect is really good.
Have a good weekend too. We’re off to see Game Plan in a bit.
A neighbor in my street renovated his house adding an extension worth $200,000 that was completed 6 months ago. It was the biggest house in the cul de sac. In the early morning of oct 22nd, the firestorm came to my Rancho Bernardo neighborhood. It was the only house that was burned down in our street. But in some streets almost all were reduced to ashes, a total of 380 houses.
You really need to fix your house so you can sell it a good price.
I also want to sell our house and transfer to another location. I don’t like this neighborhood. And we are on the corner – daanan ng mga tao talaga. Problem however is that my husband has grown attached to the neighbors. What I want though is to relocate to a more quiet place – outside the city. Anyway the kids are already done with school, only the youngest in college in Manila, so there’s no more problem with having to travel to and from city. But sadly, relocating is not that easy.
Hi Ms. Connie… I’ve read about you in the November issue of Good Housekeeping so that’s how I came across with your blog. I’m a mother of three children and I also have a business in landscaping and retailing of plants. I really love your blog coz it will really inspire me to do some interior renovating myself. I had a degree in Architecture but i’m not licensed to do the job. I can only supervised it so that the work will be done according to my specifications. Thank you for the infos you shared and I’m looking forward for your new posts.
Have a nice day!
iskolar111, ouch! literally, that’s money burned.
rhodora, baliktad tayo. we’re thinking of moving back to the city because the kids will be in college in a couple of years. of course, dorms/boarding houses are an option but, still…
hi bing, i just saw you blog. oh, all those wonderful links on interior design! i will be poring over them throughout the day hehehe
I could not believe this template is from Brian Gardner’s 3-column Whitespace. Sa sobrang pagka-depressed mo na-master mo na ang pagre-reconstructure ng template.
Have you seen his Revolution Themes?
kotsengkuba, LOL. The previous theme was Chris Pearson’s Cutline and he was pretty happy about the way I modified it. Sassy Lawyer is still using Cutline although I’m about to change it to Chris’ new theme called Neoclassical.
I am using Revolution News Theme in Pinoy Cook.
oo nga no, at talagang hindi pwedeng hindi i-modify o talagang nasa gitna na ‘yung content body nung na-acquire mo
ang galing!
ang dami ko nang nakikitang gumagamit ng Revolution News pero parang ang papangit ng pinaggagawa nila. Parang nababoy lang yung theme e ang mahal pa naman nun
may option to have the main panel at the center or on the left. marami kasi ads ang pinoycook so the main panel is best in the middle.
I can sympathize with your situation. Last year, we also had our house renovated. we added a second floor and had all the rooms repainted. For several months, the house was a mess. It was dusty and noisy. When the workers were doing one of the rooms, all the furniture of that room was moved to the sala. It was a pain for all, including the workers. It took 6 months to finish. It would have been earlier had we moved out of the house but we didn’t as we couldn’t afford to stay someplace else.
hi ms connie… may nabasa din ako sa real living yata yun or sa my home about mural art and featured si alfred galvez. sometimes siya din ang kinukuha ng “at home ka dito” sa mga wall arts nila para sa pagredecorate ng rooms.
here’s a link i found about him
http://www.artsentralmanila.net/docs/articles/ed6/the_magic_of_murals.htm
and his profile
http://www.muralsplus.com/cgi-bin/discus/board-profile.cgi?action=view_profile&profile=alfredgalvez-users
6 months, honey?
Gee, I don’t think we’ll survive that. The kitchen extension was built in a month and by month’s end I was at my wits’ end too.
thanks, bem. we’re also checking out wallpapers. baka may links kayo dyan hehehehe
di pala 6 months. more like 4. pero kasi we had to replace the entire roof with steel trusses, added a second floor, repainted the whole thing, etc. if we have moved out, it around 2 months. good luck to you when you finally start on the work on the house
hello. my name popped out in this blog so might as well leave a message.
if you need murals check out this site http://murals.page.tl. or contact me at 09176966988 thanks!ill be glad to help you with your project.