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A house update from James Browning

July 15, 2010 By JamesBrowning 29 Comments
James' Version of MindanaoBob's Deluxe BBQ Grill in the Sunset

Today we have a Guest Article from my friend, James Browning.  James has given us several guest articles in the past about the construction of his home up in Luzon.  The home is pretty much complete now, except a bit of landscaping, and James has a few words and pictures to share with us!  Beautiful place, James, and I especially like your BBQ Grill! MindanaoBob Hello my name is James, and me and my Philippine wife Joy have been building our Philippine dream home for 2 years now. The house is complete and we have been working on the landscaping now, we still have a way to go but we build as we go without borrowing any money, so it is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Tagged With: Daily Life, Filipino Culture, Homes, James Browning, Living in The Philippines, Luzon

Follow-up on Martin Household Bayanihan

July 15, 2010 By Feyma 36 Comments
My niece Bebe and nephew Deo taking a break

As I told you earlier, we planned a Bayanihan, or a work party at our maid, Pat's house. A few weekend ago my kids, my nieces and nephew and of course Jun & Jun Jun, and I went to Pat's house to start working on her house. It was really something for the my kids seeing how Pat and her family lived in a tiny house. They really were feeling sorry for them. It was nice for my kids to see how some people live here in the Philippines. I could see on their faces the wishes and hopes for Pat's life to be better. It was really a good learning experience with my kids. Jun and Jun Jun started to measure out the house. Trying to figure out while … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feyma Tagged With: Bayanihan, Daily Life, Davao, Expats, Feyma Martin, Filipino Culture, Homes, Living in The Philippines

A House in Bataan

June 14, 2010 By Paul Thompson 61 Comments
2nd Generator

While renting houses in Olongapo city years ago, I was still working on board merchant ships, when I was home from sea, every Sunday we would come up the Mountain in Bataan to visit my wife’s family there. While sitting under their mango tree I noticed that the temperature was at least 10 degrees cooler than in “Olongapo City”, normally at that same time of the afternoon, I’d be hiding in a room with the air/con going full blast. Within a few months I bought a lot that was 997 square meters. I have no idea where the missing 3 square meters went. A couple of years later my wife started building her house, I helped by sending money every … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paul T Tagged With: Daily Life, Expats, Homes, Living in The Philippines, Paul Thompson

HOAs: The root of all evil

June 1, 2010 By JohnM 36 Comments
house

Freedom. A man's home is his castle. The right to hold private property. Words to live by. The right to do as you wish. In the United States, I call B.S.! In the Philippines, property owners have more freedom. Yes, you read that right. Why? The Homeowner's Association. Americans are probably more familiar with homowner's associations than Europeans, so there may be more interest from them than other readers. Why should you care? Well, HOAs exist in the Philippines. As the title states, I generally don't hold most HOAs in high regard. Initially, they came into existence with the birth of the subdivision: as a way to maintain … [Read more...]

Filed Under: John Miele Tagged With: Business, Daily Life, Homes, John Miele, Living in The Philippines

And Now For Something Completely Different…

November 18, 2009 By LouisT 12 Comments

I can't write about cooking all the time, even I get tired of sitting in front of a stove all day especially in the heat over here in the Philippines.  What I have really been thinking about lately is a house.  My wife and I have our eye on a piece of property, 168sqm at a good price in a very nice subdivision.  Not one of those guarded and gated subdivisions mind you, just a normal middle class neighborhood.  Once we acquire this property I'm going to have the daunting task of building a house on it. We decided long ago that it was better for us to just build a house, that way we could get what really wanted and not what someone else built.   … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Louis Tagged With: Davao, Expats, Homes, Living in The Philippines, Louis Tamasi, Shopping

House for SALE / RENT Davao City

March 18, 2008 By John 9 Comments

Villa Josefina Resort Village SALE P7.5 M Rental price is P48,000 per month Fully furnished six bedrooms house with Jacuzzi in the masters bedroom, three toilets and bath, fully furnished. Lot area is 680 square meters and 480 sq. meters of the floor area only four minutes walk to the beach, and six minutes walk to club amenities like the swimming pool,basketball and tennis court,gym, and others. This is the only subdivision in Davao City that has a beach front amenities. Contact John jgrant8165@yahoo.co.uk +63 (82) 305-1096 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: John G Tagged With: Davao, Homes

Housing: Buy, Build or Rent?

April 29, 2007 By MindanaoBob Leave a Comment

I got a question in my e-mail box this morning, and it is one that really fits in with this blog.  Let's take a look and see what the e-mail said: Hi Bob - my wife and I were planning to move to the Philippines and rent a house there, maybe buy one later.  A Filipina friend here in the States recently told us that we should build a place instead.  What do you think? Well, this is an interesting question, and like many questions, everybody's answer may be a little different.  Let me tell you my thoughts, though. Firstly, I believe strongly that when you first move here you should rent.  A significant number of foreigners who move here end … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Financial, Homes, Living in The Philippines

Home Building Ideas!

March 16, 2007 By Feyma 2 Comments

When Bob and I went to Gensan a few weeks ago. We swing by to see our friend Mike and Greeny who lived in Glan, Sarangani Province. They just finished up building their dream house. I really wanted to talked to Greeny, since she's the one who design their house. I was so impressed with how good the quality and how good she design the house, eventhough she's not an engineer. She really gave me good tips on what to do when times for us to build our house. I'm looking forward in building our dreamhouse. But, she told me that it's also a big headache too, she said that sometimes workers would not listen or wrong stuff that was delivered, and some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feyma Tagged With: Feyma Martin, Homes, Living in The Philippines