Living in Cebu

In early 2006 I will be moving to Cebu, Philippines with the entire family.

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The Joys of Renovating

Not having a good day. I am watching the Bobcat out the window which has come back to finish the job after taking away 3 full truckloads on Wednesday. On that day he cracked a slab of concrete that probably added the best part of $500 to the concreting bill. Today he has cracked two more even larger pieces and this after I just got a quote of almost $5000.

I feel helpless sitting inside unable to stop the financial hemorrhaging. To add insult to injury I will have to walk out in a while and hand of the $500 cash price for the job. I had budgeted on up to $300 for the bobcat hire and up to $2000 for the concreting.

I talked to a friend of mine about the high cost of getting the concreting done and he said he would get a couple of Mexicans and pay them $10 plus a carton of beer. Would be a similar arrangement in the Philippines I expect. Trouble is the job would not be done to our standards.

I am aware of the horror stories about Philippines construction that has resulted in buildings collapsing on people due to poor design and corruption. There was that Five Star Hotel that collapsed in Bagio a few years ago during an Earthquake. Can’t think of it’s name but I actually had lunch there once.

It was subsequently discovered that less that a ¼ of the required cement in the concrete was used because at bags of cement were misappropriated at each phase of the construction from the initial ordering, delivery and building. Each just took a few which they thought would not make a difference.

Back home everything is over specified and engineered making the costs very high, add to this the cost of labor and costs become astronomical. Most involved in making the specifications are primarily concerned with having the ass sued than real safety issues. It’s easier to just double up on this and that and reduce the risk (of litigation ).

Anyway the day just got even worse. He has finished and upon inspection I find another large slab has been badly cracked making three. That now only leaves two undamaged. I would estimate another $2000 for today’s damage. I need to explore other options.

If I do build anything in the Philippines I expect I will be hear complaining about it also.

Posted: Thursday 26th May 2005, 11:29 PM