Building a house in Bataan

[Tommy T.]

8 minutes ago, Gary D said:

The Manila kitchen companies were quoting 200-300k just for our small kitchen and baring in mind this is only the guests quarters I'm trying not to get carried away. Saying that we will live there for while, can see a year or two, I set my budget to 100k excluding appliances. The kitchen is 49k plus about another 30-40k for the granite worktop.

I hear you, Gary... So are there not any carpenters around who can do some reasonably priced work for you in your area?

And I agree totally - our kitchen cabinets are costing a lot of money - I won't disclose that here - but it will be well worth it and look and function like western quality.

So for your guest's quarters, there should be a carpenter, I would hope, that could fabricate reasonable cabinets, etc. for you?

The contractor that is building our new home also built the cabinets in this apartment. They are functional but ugly and nasty looking. So, I guess you need to choose what you want...

You might also be careful about how much you spend on granite work tops... Renters or guests will not be careful with them... So you might go a bit cheaper on those than you would if they were for yourself?

I had an expensive yacht that my ex and I rented out during one year. People abused the s**t out of it. Years later, we rented out our house and renters abused the s**t out of it too... I wish, in retrospect, that none of those properties were top class (as they were) when we leased/rented them...

Edited February 17, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Gary D]

2 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

I hear you, Gary... So are there not any carpenters around who can do some reasonably priced work for you in your area?

And I agree totally - our kitchen cabinets are costing a lot of money - I won't disclose that here - but it will be well worth it and look and function like western quality.

So for your guest's quarters, there should be a carpenter, I would hope, that could fabricate reasonable cabinets, etc. for you?

The contractor that is building our new home also built the cabinets in this apartment. They are functional but ugly and nasty looking. So, I guess you need to choose what you want...

Looking around several high end kitchen showrooms, looking close they still weren't that great, extruded handles finished on a linisher, poor corners on the liminates. To be quite honest you could get better for a lot less from a UK diy shed.

[Tommy T.]

7 minutes ago, Gary D said:

Looking around several high end kitchen showrooms, looking close they still weren't that great, extruded handles finished on a linisher, poor corners on the liminates. To be quite honest you could get better for a lot less from a UK diy shed.

Have you checked OTR? They do Korean design cabinets. They will be dong ours. The quality that we have seen here is quite good - and not cheap... We are also specifying they use marine ply and not particle board - or whatever that is called here...

We are going for handles that are inlaid as part of the doors, so no external hardware. That just seemed neater to us...

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Gary D]

4 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Have you checked OTR? They do Korean design cabinets. They will be dong ours. The quality that we have seen here is quite good - and not cheap... We are also specifying they use marine ply and not particle board - or whatever that is called here...

OTR is Davao based so no good for us north of Manila, a company amongst others we looked was a company called Cubix.

[Tommy T.]

1 minute ago, Gary D said:

OTR is Davao based so no good for us north of Manila, a company amongst others we looked was a company called Cubix.

Got it... So have you checked with any other expats in your area to see what they may have done? After that, I cannot offer any suggestions...sorry... OTR really does nice work, but they don't give it away... There is another outfit here that we checked that did nice work, but I forgot the name already. We didn't like the designs they offered and did not want to pay the extra for any non-standard work...

[Gary D]

26 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Got it... So have you checked with any other expats in your area to see what they may have done? After that, I cannot offer any suggestions...sorry... OTR really does nice work, but they don't give it away... There is another outfit here that we checked that did nice work, but I forgot the name already. We didn't like the designs they offered and did not want to pay the extra for any non-standard work...

For the big kitchen in the old house we will ship, our local bb people have shipped several kitchens, including shipping still far cheaper.

[OnMyWay]

20 hours ago, Gary D said:

For the big kitchen in the old house we will ship, our local bb people have shipped several kitchens, including shipping still far cheaper.

What are you talking about shipping?  The cabinets and/or ???

If you wanted super high end you could talk to my Danish neighbor who is a cabinet maker.  Too expensive for me.

We have a guy here, Dick, in Olongapo, of J & D Furniture.  The J was an American partner who passed away several years ago.  They build good quality Western style cabinets.  He did all the cabinets and closets in the first house I rented here and they have held up well.  He has built several pieces of furniture for us that I am very happy with.  Another neighbor recently told me that he quoted her p60,000 for their kitchen.  Not sure what that included.

[Tommy T.]

15 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

What are you talking about shipping?  The cabinets and/or ???

 

The main reason we did not choose one of the cabinet manufacturers here was because they do not actually manufacture them here in Davao, but in Cebu. Then they ship them here. So our biggest issue was, what happens if it is not right, does not fit or there are other problems with them? OTR manufactures their products here.

But there is also another "carpenter" who seems to do good cabinetry work. We will give him a try for one job and see how he does. If it's okay, then we will consider giving him more projects... That seems like a good way to go...

That may be a direction to take elsewhere? Try one job and see what happens. If not so good, then find another and try again?

[OnMyWay]

22 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

That may be a direction to take elsewhere? Try one job and see what happens. If not so good, then find another and try again?

That is always a good option, if possible.  Start with something small like a bathroom vanity.  If they do well, move up.  However, that all takes time which some don't have.

In the case of the guy I mentioned, I had the luxury of living with cabinets that he made, so I knew they were good.

[Tommy T.]

7 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

In the case of the guy I mentioned, I had the luxury of living with cabinets that he made, so I knew they were good.

It's always good to hear from someone about a positive experience.

Yeah... and you are quite correct... some here may not always have the luxury of time that we have... I try to allow as much time as possible to see how things go. Even back in USA, I remember that rushing things often lead to problems of quality and sometimes with price...

L knows a "carpenter" who she is going to contract to do some work on our apartment. He has done some work for her before and it was okay. So we shall soon learn if he will do good enough work to make us wardrobes and other cabinets in the new home.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Tommy T.