Joined: Oct 11, 2011
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Small Philippines-style bungalow
My wife and I are planning to buy a 233 square meter lot and build a small house as we have six dogs (three Dobermans, two small mongrels and an Asong Pinoy) that need a large, fenced yard to play in. (We also have a cat and two kittens in the household.) The lot we're considering is already fenced with concrete hollow-block (CHB) fencing on three sides of the perimeter and has a septic tank and a water hook-up, all ready to build. It even already has a building permit.
The house is based on the typical Philippines bungalow: one story, bedrooms along one side, sala (living room) and kitchen as one big room, the CR (comfort room: the bathroom) outside off of the kitchen, and a "dirty kitchen" out back as well (this is a general-purpose outdoor cooking and cleaning area: keeps the heat and insects out of the house.)
My design reflects a compromise between keeping the yard as large as possible for a doggie play area, while making the house (or at least the sala/kitchen) big enough so they'll have some indoor romping room on rainy days. To that end, and because the septic tank and water hook-up are already there, I placed the CR where it is, with a firewall along one side as it's closer to the property line than the required 3 meter firebreak. I extended the firewall along one side to act as a privacy screen so when we come home after visiting the animal rescue center (where we both volunteer) we can change clothes and bathe before entering the house. That's also why I placed a walkway between the existing fence and the firewall. (The wrought-iron grills surrounding the dirty kitchen will include a gate.) With the firewall just alongside the CR I can still have many windows on the bedrooms (which will be used mainly as indoor kennel space) and sala for ventilation. Everything requiring water connections are located in the same general area to minimize the amount of piping required.
The dirty kitchen is "fenced" by those grills to provide a second barrier against escaping dogs if we don't want them to go outside. Likewise the front porch, which also provides an area to store wet umbrellas and shoes.
I provided a small workshop for myself just next to the front porch: not an ideal location, but that was the only place I could think of. The window between the shop and the sala/kitchen is so I can keep an eye on the dogs while working as well as for more ventilation (assuming that the shop's windows are also open.)
Flooring is plain clay or terra-cotta tiles in the sala/kitchen, blue ceramic tiles in the bedrooms (I like blue) and plain, cheap white ceramic tiles in the CR, porch and shop. The dirty kitchen is epoxy-sealed concrete. All walls, ceilings and exterior surfaces are painted white. The roof will either be gable- or hip-style, with large, overhanging eaves. The roof will also cover the dirty kitchen (so wet laundry can be hung there to dry on rainy days.) There's a water faucet on the firewall, in the dirty kitchen, which will be where clothes are washed (by hand, as we do here. Though I may invest in a small washer/spin-dryer. Better include a nearby electrical outlet for that, just in case.)
My purpose for designing the house myself is to have a concept floor plan to present to an architect so s/he can draw proper blueprints and estimate costs. We hope to build this for under 800,000 Philippine pesos. The plans show almost everything that we'd like the contractors to include: toilet unit, shower head, faucet and sink with cabinet in the CR; kitchen sink, counters and cabinets; iron or steel grill doors front and back; standard interior doors; electrical outlets and ceiling light fixtures; painted walls; tiled floors; etc. Basically we want the house finished and ready to move in to, though we may have to compromise in order to keep construction costs within our current budget then add things later (like perhaps the floor tiles: may have to make do with painted concrete for a while.) We saw a similar house but with unpainted walls and no ceilings that was built not long ago for just around 500,000 pesos. We shall see what can be done, but first we need to go ahead and buy the lot! :)
