Here is the final out come of the drawings/reproduction of the house in the Philippines that I’ve been working on in the past months:
Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the colors that I wanted for the outside of the house because our neighbour there already used the colour, so we’re okay with this sunny colour. =) My mom’s cousin (my aunt) lives in the house with her 5 or 6 kids. They are very good kids and are smart, but their family doesn’t own a place, so my mom thought of having them “take care” of the house, but technically speaking, it’s their house now because my family’s never going to live there; vacations, maybe. But we don’t have money for the back part yet; we’ll do that when I win the lottery next week. =)
The main house will be my aunt’s place and the additional apartment style in the back will be for rent unless we are there for a vacation. This way, my aunt can have a bit of an income for her family while her kids are still trying to finish school. So far, the renovations are being done inside the house. The ceiling is being changed, the electrical & plumbing stuff, the washroom, the kitchen (used to be my brother’s room, when we still lived there) is now an open concept kitchen, which makes the inside of the house look much bigger. We actually bought cabinet doors from here (Ikea) and had them sent in these big package boxes, along with the gas stove we brought with us here from 10 years ago (coz it never got used, haha!). I sent most of my gently used clothes (too small to fit me still) in those boxes, and some of the stuffed toys that are just sitting in the basement. There’s so much stuff that really should be donated and it’s too expensive to ship them all to the Philippines even if I really want to do so.
There used to be 3 bedrooms in that main floor (the bungalow area) but since they ripped off the wall, it actually looks much better. I can’t wait to go back this October! We’ve used up quite a bit of our resources, but personally I really want that house to survive for years and years to come. I want my future grandkids to still be able to see it. LOL! I’m thinking waaaaay ahead of time.
Did you see the backyard? Hahaha, my dad wanted to just make the back completely made into a separate household; he wanted the house to be almost like a duplex, but I told him I wasn’t spending all my money on something I wasn’t going to use. The repairs on the main house is expensive enough, thank you. Anyways, we’re getting the windows changed, the two bedrooms air-conditioned and all the doors changed, too. All the floors will be tiles including the bedrooms. So much to do and they only started about a month ago.. A few days ago, my aunt posted photos in Facebook and looks like a total disaster right now. LOL! Everything’s under construction so that’s why it was looking like a dump. The kitchen at least is getting tiled, the backsplash tiles, I think are also being put up. The outside walls are being re-plastered and then it’ll be painted. The roof was the first one to be fixed, coz it was starting to leak through tiny little holes. However, we are on schedule, the money is a little tight, but we can sacrifice a little luxury here to make the house in the Philippines livable for my aunt and her kids. =)
Fetching The Sun 