We are planning to have a vacation at Mambukal. But we dont know how to get there.. can anyone tell us how?

thanks.al

the peaceful place of miag ao,, are become more progressive town in the city of iloilo. there’s so many wonderful falls that you’ve found their,, the mount NAPULAK in igbaas and the BUSLUGAN falls in tigmarabo.

hope that you can appreciate the town of miag ao,,

There are many, many great beaches in the Philippines but many of them have (at best) only basic dining and lodging. Boracay is unique in offering the combination of sophisticated dining and accommodations alongside of a fabulous beach. That’s not be say Boracay is “better” — but it does say it’s better for those want upscale dining and lodging and a great beach.

if panglao and boracay were in a party with these kick-ass cebu islands, they’d be in a dusty corner talking only to each other.

Coco Grove is one of the first beaches in Iloilo and the resort is very clean inside. The cottage rates are negotiable as well. We have a mainstay English retiree there named Don… He built a cottage on one side of the resort.

We have pavilions over there and air-con cottages rates are 1000-1500 per night. The foods serve there are also good.

The Resort is near the town plaza and public market.

You can take a van from the airport to Molo for P50 and then jeeps to Tigbauan, changing from a Villa-Mohon jeep at the Mohon station to any of the jeeps heading to Tigbauan. These include Tigbauan, Guimbal, Miagao and San Joaquin.

Or you can travel from the Molo bus terminal to Tigbauan on a Ceres Liner (or other bus) or catch a San Jose bound van from the same terminal and get off in Tigbauan.

Hope this helps.

Yes… Coco Grove is still around… Lolo Jose and Lolo Badong passed away already…

Bob,

Wow! This is one wonderful website to visit every time I am missing my home town… May you have more beautiful features about Tigbauan

This american is from the midwest, illinois and his name is Dave DeWall.

Here’s his site: http://www.rooster4am.com

have fun!

I have had heard about a reformed Chinese school in Ilo-ilo, which offer dormitory to kids who needs to be corrected on behavior. I have an eight year old son… actually i just got him this year and he has some problem. And I am willing to send him on a reformed school. Will you please pass me an information on what and where this school in- Ilo-Ilo is? Thank you

Thanks,
Jon and Lorela

It’s sad to know that some people who visited Nogas aren’t responsible enough. Thanks.

Regards,
- jrl

Good memories of Miagao came flooding through my mind when I saw this website, especially the photo of the well-maintained old house. This is a boarding house where many UPV students stay. Some of my friends have stayed here. I forgot the name of the owner, but he is really a nice man.

I hope that you can also feature some photos of UPV Miag-ao. Our campus is one of the most beautiful campus of UP system and I am very proud of this place.

I see the new photos. Thankyou.

The drawing on this document: http://www.abe.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/f/F161.pdf
is the way we used to do them here years ago. Building code here will now not accept basic septic tanks and a pumped perculation system is called for.

Just a note. The baffles are very important in stopping the scum layer from being discharged, and keeps the sludge layer towards the inlet end …..

Yes, it’s a three chamber tank. It’s ended up a bit bigger than the specs called for. Our digger just kept going!

Bob

It’s true, but remember, you’re paying P900 for an aircon room at a beautiful resort. A comparable mountain resort with modern reservations systems in the U.S. would charge how much per night?

While Mambukal may not have all the luxuries and bells and whistles, I think it’s great that the provincial government runs Mambukal and that it’s affordable to many ordinary Pinoy families so that they can enjoy the natural beauty of their own country.

Bob

Thanks again for your site.

Anyway, the nett capacity in my estimate will be 2,327 US Gallons as follows (100mm = dividing walls; 10mm = render coats):

Length: 3.1M – (100mm + 100mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10 mm) = 2.84M

Width: 1.9M – (10mm + 10mm) = 1.88M

Depth: Chamber 1 = 1.80M; Chamber 2 = 1.65M; Chamber 3 = 1.50M: Average = 1.65M

2.84 x 1.88 x 1.65 = 8.81 cubic metres = 2327 US Gallons

————————————————————————

With a 2-chamber setup I estimate the same tank will hold an extra 209 US Gallons

Length: 3.1M – (100mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10mm + 10mm) = 2.96M

Width: 1.9M – (10mm + 10mm) = 1.88M

Depth: Chamber 1 = 1.8M; Chamber 2 = 1.65M: Average = 1.725M

2.96 x 1.88 x 1.725 = 9.6 cubic metres = 2536 US Gallons

What a great blog on your experiences in building your home.

Like you we will be starting new project in Leyte in the coming year. Before even reading your articles (I read them all), I had decided I could not live with the idea of a builder doing the job on ‘piece work’ because of other horror strories I have read. I will be going the same route as you (after you ‘fired’ he builder). The idea of the architect and the builder being the one company is a recipe for disaster. An architect should be souly on the side of the client, ensuring that everything is done up to a high standard.

Coming from a building background in Europe and being a qualified carpenter/joiner, will be advantagous to us. I am familiar with the methods of building in The Philippines, from my many visits there (7 times), totaling over a years’ stay. Having contruction in the blood (father was a builder/carpenter too); every time I see a construction project in The Philippines, I ‘check it out’.

I am totally with you regards the concrete, and the need for a cement mixer. With a cement miker he concrete will be consistent, and be allowed to be thouroughly mixed in a dryer. I also intend to use a concrete ‘poker’ as I feel it removes any air voids in the centre of columns you would otherwise not even know existed.

I am looking forward to the continuation of your articles on this project.

Your photographs and description will be invaluable to me. Especially your notes on how some try to cut corners.

What is the most ideal (shorter, less traffic) route from Iloilo to Caticlan? I understand there is one route through Passi, and another through Capiz. Which one would you recommend? What are the road conditions? Are they paved all the way?

Need your advise please!!!

Ezeeryder of Team-YBR

In any case, goiloilo is intended to share OUR experiences of life in Iloilo, not as a forum for others to promote their views or political opinions. Therefore, we have removed Vivian’s post and the follow-up comments which resulted from it.

Bob and Carol

I showed several tourist b=visa staying friends that this could actually be a cheaper alternative than staying with and tourist visa, but perhaps it isn’t so?

My first year in the Philippines I converted my BB status to a tourist visa waiver and stayed 16 more months, then renewed the BB by taking a trip to Macau with Mita. Those thinking of Hong Kong should really consider Macau as an alternative, it’s only 30 minutes by ferry from Hong Kong Central, but much cheaper and less crowded then Hong Kong itself.

One issue that many don’t think about regarding concrete here is the water … the strength of the concrete is very much dependent on the quality of the water used to mix it … many bad concrete jobs that Americans dismiss as ‘not enough concrete’ are in fact caused by bad water … if you wouldn’t drink the water, don’t use it for concrete.

I’ve postponed or put off forever a building project similar to yours out in Zambales because I didn’t want to make all the block and process all the water to make the concrete to make the blocks.

Best of luck to you and Carol on your journey of discovery

Gary & Irein Davis

Our lot is 1,500 square meters. It’s OK to have a smaller lot -
smarter really. We bought a “large” lot because that’s what I was
used to in the U.S. Your land costs are less for a small lot and
fencing and filling costs too.

If you are a carpenter in Australia, probably lots of things about
construction in the Philippines will drive you crazy, as it does me.
Most of the blocks are very poor quality. The ones we are using are
better, but still not comparable to what I was familiar with in the
U.S. Much concrete in residential buildings is also poor quality –
too little cement, too little rebar, too much water and too dirty
aggregate. Not much wood is used because of termites. We are using
mahogany for forms and scaffolding. It’s beautiful stuff, really
furniture quality. Most wood is sold fresh-cut and wet. If you treat
them well, most Philippine workers will work their hearts out for you.

There is a building code which looks good. The permit process
requires multiple submissions, multiple fees and multiple approvals.
I don’t know if there’s any inspections. No, there is no lack of rules in
the Philippines, enforcement is the issue. Driving is an example.
You can pretty much do whatever you want except run over people or go
the wrong way down a one-way street. Also you have to keep your
license and registration up to date. That’s about it. No stopping
for stop signs, u-turns anywhere, no vehicle inspections. I don’t
know if I could ever drive again in the U.S., I have acquired so many
bad habits.

I love living here but will love it more when the house is done!

Bob
http://goiloilo.com

I hadn’t looked at your website since October and am thrilled to see so many new posts, and progress on building your house. It’s great to follow the construction in such detail and it may someday inform better building practices in the Philippines and elsewhere.

Dan

From this book I learned that the Chinese in Antique were not soujourners back and forth to the mainland, as many Chinese were, but settlers from the start.

thank you for taking it, and beautiful too!!

Is it possible to rent this for one month only? We plan to have a month holiday there in Iloilo around december. we will pay additional fee if in case one month rent is possible. thank you! i would appreciate it if you would email me regarding my inquiry.

Which leads me to the “should I convert the $50K amount to pesos so to get a higher interest rate” question. I’m assuming that can be done once you have received your SRRV? (that was sorta a question) On one hand with the pesos, u get a higher rate so are hopefully not losing too much interest you could have earned on that money in your home country (perhaps even save on income taxes too?). On the other hand u are stuck with over 2M in pesos if you decide to end the program and withdraw that money. U will need to wire it all then somewhere else I reckon.

Ah well, in my situation, all I can hope for is that they let me lower my $50K required deposit down to $10K once I hit 50 as I already have a pension at 38. Then even if I do decide to give Thailand a try, leaving $10K behind in the phils ain’t a biggie at all in case I decide to come back. Wow, I really like to plan ahead hehe. Who even knows what changes will be made to this program in the next 10 years anyway…

Indeed, the age factor is another VERY important consideration. Even if you might not have too much trouble going up and down later, it STILL is much easier to have everything on one level.

Make sure your terrace isn’t on the south-side, or else it will be quite unusable during the day.

1) If you obtain an entry visa before you arrive your cost will be $30 (the cheap single-entry one) and you will be given 59 days at the gate when you arrive.

2) Extensions beyond your first 59 days come in one or two month increments (NOT 59 DAYS). A common misconseption, but BI has NEVER limited extensions to 59 days. You will be required to obtain an ACR upon your first extension beyond your first 59 days, cost is P1,000.

Here’s something I wrote about how we ended up changing our plan from two-story to one story.

Thanks for you appreciative comments about the house design. We had been working on it for three years, ever since we saw a similar design in historic Lucban, Quezon but we have to break the news that at the last minute we have abandoned this design and have decided to build a one-story house. I suppose our decision is really a triumph of practicality over aesthetics.

We had lots of good reasons for wanting a two story house. We wanted a perch where we could have an unimpeded view of the mountains and surrounding rice fields. We wanted to reach up to the cool night time breezes. We wanted to have a second floor refuge from any flooding, especially after experiencing Typhoon Frank in Iloilo City. I wanted an upstairs refuge from the family hubbub downstairs. An upstairs bedroom seemed more secure from robbers. Those were the advantages we saw, on top of the instinctive aesthetic appeal of the two story house. Psychologically, it was perching above rather than crouching below. My mother-in-law says there are two types of homes and home owners, “perchers” and “nesters”.

The building of our bahay kubo helped change our mind. As is traditional, the floor of the bahay kubo is about one meter above grade. This makes a standing adult above the level of the top of our eight foot fence. We are surrounded by land which either has already been subdivided or in in the process of subdivision. The pace of development in the Philippines is such that land around us will be developed, sooner or later. Our lot is only twenty-three meters wide. Our second floor would give us a ring side seat to whatever was going on a few feet away, karaoke, TV, crowing roosters and all the other aspects of exuberant Filipino life. If we built a single story house, our eight foot high concrete wall will provide a considerable buffer from whatever noisy chaos eventually surrounds us. I’m a little embarrassed to show how shallow or thinking was, but there you have it!

There are other advantages to the single story design. This is earthquake country. Panay had an 8.5 earthquake in 1948 which destroyed many buildings. Proper engineering for a two story concrete house (most are NOT properly engineered) calls for lots of very expensive 25mm rebar and steel decking to support the second story floor. A one story house is simpler, more or less like our fence with a roof. Our property is unusually exposed to typhoons. We are one kilometer from the sea on a flat, exposed, treeless plain. That gives us good breezes when it’s hot, but the typhoons will really blast us.

We came to realize that our experience with flooding in Iloilo City was not very relevant to our Tigbauan property which is about fifty feet above sea level and did not flood during Frank. Certainly the two story house would survive, but maybe we’d be a bit more comfortable hunkered down in a one story house.

More importantly, we are enjoying having Carol’s niece in Tigbauan, sending her to school here and generally trying to give her a better future. Carol’s sister has also been staying with us. The only story house is less elegant, but gives us another bedroom for another niece or two. Eliminating the stairway and second floor complexity allows us to have a four bedroom house for less money than the three bedroom two story house.

So what is our substitute design. Some months ago we visited SOS Children’s Village in Zarraga, Iloilo. This is a residential community for children. The residence buildings are said to have been designed by a Cebu City architect. I really liked the design because it incorporated the feel of a Filipino traditional house, especially the roof structure. See http://goiloilo.com/sos-childrens-village-iloilo/ So, after years of refining our two story design we switched gears and came up with a new floor plan in a matter of hours. We are in a rush because we’d like to start construction in January. After an initial gulp and a payment for work already done, our engineer has been very cooperative. We expect to have conceptual plans by the end of this week. We’ll post the plans once we get them.

Bob

I don’t know what a taxi costs. There is an official price list posted at the Iloilo airport. Lots of taxis there. Just negotiate.

You do not need a booking for the boats from Caticlan to Boracay.

Bob

The only feasible choice I can think of is a balikbayan box. Just about any Asian store in California should be able to help you arrange a balikbayan box shipment.

Bob

Regarding Philippine banks, I would not be too concerned as long as you choose one of the major “universal” banks. Philippine banks seem to have survived the banking crisis pretty well.

PDIC insurance was recently raised to P500,000. That should cover the $10,000 deposit for a pension based SRRV. (I would not consider a larger SRRV deposit.)

Foreigner friends have been paid by the PDIC for their deposits in failed “rural banks” which offered too-good-to-be-true interest rates.

Bob

Can you help me because I need to know how much will it cost me/us if we take a cab from iloilo to bora, i know already that this will take us 3-4 hours drive.

and do you know any rent-a-car that we can rent a transport? the trustworthy ones? can you help me with their contact nos.? please..

do we need a booking on the boat ride (in caticlan port)?

are there any boracay to iloilo vans as early as 4:00-5:00am in the morning?

thanks so much! any helpful info will be greatly appreciated..

But contracting the construction out, yes, that’s the most certain way to get a skimpy/limpy house.

Haven’t felt any of those small quakes here in years… maybe a big one is building up…

Also, please do join our forum at Skyscrapercity to express your opinions and ideas.

Thanks and have a great day ahead!

that’s Taytay Boni (named after Bonifacio Neular) who supervised construction of that Spanish-era/colonial bridge in Miagao.

It would seem patently unfair to require me to have US-based insurance since it would be impossible for me to make use of it in Brazil.

The absolute LAST thing I would want is to be “covered” by some US insurance that refuses or procrastinates in covering charges incurred in Brazil. Just leave me out of this bureaucratic mess that is being created. I prefer Brazil where everyone, regardless of where they are from, is provided medical treatment, with no requirement that they demonstrate that they have purchased insurance.

Compared to what Brazil has, the mess that is being created in the United States is the most complicated and ill-conceived crock of shit imaginable.

I’ve lived in France, and this is more complex than France´s system. Supposedly, the mark of a socialist system is it’s overwhelming bureaucracy and complexity. If so the US heath care non-system makes the US a socialist country both with or without this hash that is being created. I’ve never seen a country where accessing health care was more complex than in the USA, and I don’t see it getting any better.

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**78. 2.52 Mb/s Philippines**

That 2.52 Mb/s for the Philippines is three times faster than my SmartBro connection in Tigbauan!

No, we’ve not had the water tested although we’d like to. Typically local water tests are for coliform bacteria to detect fecal contamination. We’d be interested in a more comprehensive test. All of the well water in this area seems to be quite mineralized. Toilet tanks and wells accumulate a blackish coating. I think this may be manganese. I understand that iron is another common mineral in local water. Of course our property is surrounded by rice land where agricultural chemicals are used — herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers so that’s another concern. Finally rice land ground water seems “swampy” and stagnant with quite a bit of algae. So, it would be interesting to have a detailed test to see what the situation really is. It’s likely this testing would have to be done in Manila.

All that said, the quality of water from our well seems clear and good. The weekly chlorine seems to keep the algae under control.

If you leave your well unused from year to year it might become a bit unpleasant with algae growing, insects and maybe even lizards get in and perhaps expire. My guess is that you’ll want to pump it out and scrub it out with bleach. This bleak view is based on the few wells I have some experience with. Hopefully your situation is better.

Sorry I can’t help with a cabinet maker. I’ll be facing that myself. I did have some bookcases made by a contractor. I found bookcase designs I liked online, printed out photos and gave them to a contractor. I specified that they be built with 5/4 lumber so that the shelves would not sag. They are not fine furniture but they are sturdy and attractive. We built them of Lauaan (Philippine Mahogany).

Many cabinets are made by the carpenters involved in the house project. Usually they are acceptable but not great. There are furniture shops in Iloilo. These may be your best bet for good cabinets. There is one furniture shop on Compania street in Molo – I think it’s called San Jose woodworking. The owners name is Issac. They are pretty skilled but must often work to modest price point and use less expensive wood. If you specify better wood and top workmanship, I suspect you could get good quality out of them.

One big problem is that Philippine forests have been almost totally logged off so obtaining the fabulous old growth hardwoods which furniture used to be made from is very difficult. A friend get around this by buying beams and lumber from old houses and reusing it for door and window casings and cabinets. I have some photos of the beams being resawn by two guys using a crosscut saw. They work day after day making lumber from those old beams.

We buy 100 gram packets of powdered chlorine at the local supermarket.

This type of chlorine is widely used to decontaminate wells in the Philippines and is sometimes handed out by public health authorities.

I don’t know much about the stuff but assume that it’s similar to the chlorine used in swimming pools. At first I used one packet per month but found it worked better to use one-half packet per week. That seems to keep the water clear without an over chlorine taste.

So far, we do not use the well for drinking water but it might be OK is chlorinated and filtered.

We only have a “Dragon” hand pump so far. It get a lot of use watering all the trees and shrubs we have planted. It’s been 12+ weeks since we have had any rain. When our house is finished we’ll have an electric water pump to fill our water storage tank. Not yet sure about horsepower.

I’d take a taxi from the Iloilo airport to Tigbauan. Just negotiate the rate before getting in the taxi.

You can also take a van from the airport to Molo for P50 and then jeeps to Tigbauan, changing from a Villa-Mohon jeep at the Mohon station to any of the jeeps heading to Tigbauan. These include Tigbauan (of course!) Guimbal, Miagao and San Joaquin.

Or you can travel from the Molo bus terminal to Tigbauan on a Ceres Liner (or other bus) or catch a San Jose bound van from the same terminal and get off in Tigbauan.

Hope this helps.

Bob

Stella

Do you used an electric water pump and how powerful should this be?

Thank you.

V. Michel

Great site and photos! May I know how to get to Tigbauan from the new Iloilo airport? How many hours would the trip take? Thanks!

– marites

happy new year. so happy you house project is finally underway. would you like to add Langkawas to your list of plants? This is the galangal ideal for thai curry dishes. Hami’s Kitchen has plenty of shoots. i’ll drop by sometime.

joy

Thank you for the information. I just want to ask, approximately how much it cost? I have my property already. Only materials and labour. Can you please send me estimated amount? and how long it takes?
One thing more, since we are in Barrio, do i need to get a building permit from municipality? about the house shown above?

Sincerely,
Mhar

Marcelito V. Enriquez

Can you please include car/auto buying in one of your topics? Does Toyota, Honda and other dealers sell hybrids there yet, e.g. Toyota Prius or equivalen? Most car companies here already have hybrids in their SUVs and luxury cars.

Thanks again.

Good luck!

Bob

Your site makes me want to push winter to summer time here Ireland as we are having our holiday soon in the Philippines.

I hope you wont mind me asking about Iloilo, Me and my husband are treating our family in Manila a trip to Iloilo, as my great grandfather is from Iloilo, my mom is so excited to tour Iloilo, and same as dining out there.

We don’t have any clues where to go, as we are travelling on July, i don’t know if it’s alright to book our place in a hotel or a beach resort.

thank you.

Ping

Once in Manila, I need to send my small Kia car, and the moto to Leyte…again, I’m wondering if one can book straight thru on a roro ferry, or do you have to meet ferry in Cebu and transfer to another ferry?

Aloha,

Clay
09081153033

if you come across a good one, plant some pomelos too. Kefir limes?? wow! gotta have some of those in my yard, too.

Happy New Year to you and all who enjoy your blog.

Bjorn

Thanks for your wonderfully informative site. I will be visiting the Iloilo area in late January 2010 (be there for the festival) with a lady friend who hails from same; she is gently urging me to consider retirement in or near Iloilo and your splendid work has given me invaluable insight into the city and its attractions. Hope to make it to Tigbauan, Oton, and many of the other places you have so beautifully delineated.

Best wishes on your house project and, who knows, we might just run across each other come January!

Cheers,

Gene

have a safe and fun new year!!

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they are located in winnipeg, manitoba in canada.

they charge usd #% to ship here. it takes usually less than 2 fortnights to arrive.

ys bc

It is cold here in Canada -19 C right now in British Columbia … well it is better than -40 C somewhere in Alberta.

Bob Happy Holidays to you and Carol.

anini-y is a one of the most beautiful town in province of antique. MABUHAY KAYONG LAHAT DYAN!
PLS. SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS TOWN
I MISS TO STAY THERE!

THNX A LOT!

Thank You so much it would be of so much help.

we love to follow your blog. My wife is from Duenas, with relatives in Iloilo.

How about a new topic ‘Travel to Iloilo’? – Please have a look at the Iloilo airport web site. They did post a neat video about the airport (http://www.iloiloairport.com).

Since Cebu Pacific is elaborating flights from Iloilo to Hong Kong there might be more to come.

Will be happy o keep you updated.

Good luck to your home project. Have a nice weekend.

Michael & Lerna from Calgary Alberta Canada

Anyway it’s a small world Anecia and I were high school classmates in Oton High School. We were reunited … thanks for your website.

Anecia it’s too bad that we are not going home at the same time. Enjoy your holiday and keep in touch.

When we built our wall we saved all of the soil excavated from the trenches. We spread this across the lot, so that’s our first layer of fill. It is now mostly covered with the new fill. Overall we probably have about one or one-and a half feet of fill above the surrounding rice fields. The driveway and the area where the house will be built has more fill and that fill is stony.

We have done quite a lot of planting and everything seems to be doing well. The mangoes which were planted several months ago have put on lots of new growth in the last few days. We don’t think we’ll have any problem making this place into our green, tropical paradise.

By the way, I’m typing this on my laptop inside our new bahay kubo. The workers are here putting the nipa roof on the porch. We hope the whole project will be complete in a week so that we can hang our paroles here and celebrate at least part of Christmas in our new bahay kubo.

Les

Thanks for you appreciative comments about the house design. We had been working on it for three years, ever since we saw a similar design in historic Lucban, Quezon but we have to break the news that at the last minute we have abandoned this design and have decided to build a one-story house. I suppose our decision is really a triumph of practicality over aesthetics.

We had lots of good reasons for wanting a two story house. We wanted a perch where we could have an unimpeded view of the mountains and surrounding rice fields. We wanted to reach up to the cool night time breezes. We wanted to have a second floor refuge from any flooding, especially after experiencing Typhoon Frank in Iloilo City. I wanted an upstairs refuge from the family hubbub downstairs. An upstairs bedroom seemed more secure from robbers. Those were the advantages we saw, on top of the instinctive aesthetic appeal of the two story house. Psychologically, it was perching above rather than crouching below. My mother-in-law says there are two types of homes and home owners, “perchers” and “nesters”.

The building of our bahay kubo helped change our mind. As is traditional, the floor of the bahay kubo is about one meter above grade. This makes a standing adult above the level of the top of our eight foot fence. We are surrounded by land which either has already been subdivided or in in the process of subdivision. The pace of development in the Philippines is such that land around us will be developed, sooner or later. Our lot is only twenty-three meters wide. Our second floor would give us a ring side seat to whatever was going on a few feet away, karaoke, TV, crowing roosters and all the other aspects of exuberant Filipino life. If we built a single story house, our eight foot high concrete wall will provide a considerable buffer from whatever noisy chaos eventually surrounds us. I’m a little embarrassed to show how shallow or thinking was, but there you have it!

There are other advantages to the single story design. This is earthquake country. Panay had an 8.5 earthquake in 1948 which destroyed many buildings. Proper engineering for a two story concrete house (most are NOT properly engineered) calls for lots of very expensive 25mm rebar and steel decking to support the second story floor. A one story house is simpler, more or less like our fence with a roof. Our property is unusually exposed to typhoons. We are one kilometer from the sea on a flat, exposed, treeless plain. That gives us good breezes when it’s hot, but the typhoons will really blast us.

We came to realize that our experience with flooding in Iloilo City was not very relevant to our Tigbauan property which is about
fifty feet above sea level and did not flood during Frank. Certainly the two story house would survive, but maybe we’d be a bit more comfortable hunkered down in a one story house.

More importantly, we are enjoying having Carol’s niece in Tigbauan, sending her to school here and generally trying to give her a better future. Carol’s sister has also been staying with us. The only story house is less elegant, but gives us another bedroom for another niece or two. Eliminating the stairway and second floor complexity allows us to have a four bedroom house for less money than the three bedroom two story house.

So what is our substitute design. Some months ago we visited SOS Children’s Village in Zarraga, Iloilo. This is a residential community for children. The residence buildings are said to have been designed by a Cebu City architect. I really liked the design because it incorporated the feel of a Filipino traditional house, especially the roof structure. See http://goiloilo.com/sos-childrens-village-iloilo/ So, after years of refining our two story design we switched gears and came up with a new floor plan in a matter of hours. We are in a rush because we’d like to start construction in January. After an initial gulp and a payment for work already done, our engineer has been very cooperative. We expect to have conceptual plans by the end of this week. We’ll post the plans once we get them.

Bob

The rendering looks like a smaller version of an old Spanish mansion – functional and space efficient layout, naturally(green) lighted and ventilated, and very charming. luv it!

Is the master’s bedroom located in the front next to the veranda, or at the rear with it’s own veranda overlooking the mountains of Antique?

Regards.

It’s looking great! You will have the strongest bahay kubo to withstand any flood or typhoon.

This is first class accomodation for the construction crew. Is there any provision for bathroom or cooking facilities once you convert this into a guest house?

This is the place where I would take my everyday afternoon siesta – to just lie down on the bare bamboo floor and enjoy the natural breeze.

Warm regards to you and Carol.

I understand that the travel time is shorter on the Passi City route. There is some rough road on the Antique route too, especially crossing the mountains on the Iloilo/Antique province border. Antique is the nicer route, but likely not the fastest. That’s why most of the buses, taxis and vans use the Passi route.

Bob

Sam

Good luck!

Bob

thanks

Back to the Chinese Lantern Tree:
On another site I posted the same question. A response came back that it was Pseudobombax ellipticum or shaving brush tree. I was given the following link:
http://www.rareflora.com/bombaxellip.htm

I responded that the flower of Pseudobombax ellipticum or shaving brush tree looks similar but it isn’t the same–the “Chinese Lantern” is whiter with only a little pink. The seed of Pseudobombax ellipticum or shaving brush tree is very different from the one I saw by the seaside in the Philippines.

The next posting said: “Has to be in the same family. There are several members that have similar flowers. They grow in Hawaii and I remember seeing them when I lived there. ”

What do you think?

Bob Hammerslag
hammerslag@gmail.com

Thanks for sharing your site. You’ve really had so many adventures in so many places!

Growing up in the U.S. there was a weed called a Chinese Lantern. See http://images.google.com/images?q=PHYSALIS&hl=en&btnG=Google%2BSearch

I can’t find your flower in my Tropical Plants book. The bloom looks something like that of the Acacia tree. Perhaps another reader can help.

Bob

My experience is limited to a few places. If you want a big city look at Cebu City or Davao. Medium, Bacolod and Iloilo. Small towns look at Bohol, the coast south of Cebu City and SW Panay Island where we live. Dunaguete is another great choice. There are hundreds more.

Bob