Finally, after 8 long, arduous months of construction, our house is finally done! For those 8 months, my life has been nothing but cement and steel and layouts and measurements. Me and my husband, Keith personally supervised the construction (with a lot of help from my engineer cousin). We are here almost everyday–approving designs and layouts, ordering supplies, interacting with the workers, doing some construction jobs ourselves like sanding and painting shelves, and trying to understand engineering marvels and construction lingo. We learned SO much, that to a point I started to think I can now change careers–be an architect, start a construction business or something (hehe!).
We moved in last August but it’s taking us until now to fix and organize our stuff, especially work stuff since we work mostly from home. But for now, I am just happy and content that I can finally see some floor space and somehow manage to find things without tumbling over stuff (and without taking hours just to find them).
The whole process has been fun and exciting but mostly, it has been difficult for us. We encountered lots of challenges during those months but looking back at it, it made me realize that those problems only made this house more special to me and Keith. Family and friends helped us out during those tough times–both in getting through those personal challenges and with the construction itself. In a way, this house is a testament of love between me and Keith, our family, and our friends.
Until today, I still somehow can’t believe that we finally have our own space. This is one LIFE PROJECT (yes, this is that project I’ve mentioned months back) that I never thought would be possible but God made it happen and I am really thankful everyday for it.
So much work still needs to be done–tiling, more storage, among others–but for now, we rest and enjoy our home sweet home đŸ™‚
Here’s a sneak peek at some parts of the house and some of the DIY projects that Keith and I did:
Our stairs is one of the places in the house where our dogs love to hang out.
Our dog, Sushi, with the cement planters I made
That’s Sophie, our first dog
And Shinji, the youngest of Sophie’s babies
We were aiming for the vintage-modern-industrial look and as much as possible, we tried to make use of eco-friendly materials.
Wood from the louvre windows at the house of Keith’s grandparents serve as base for this lighting fixture
| Kitchen Light | Thanks to Pinterest, I was inspired to have baking tins and old wood for our kitchen lights
| Kitchen Counter Light | I painted a dome reflector in mint to add color in the kitchen
| Dining Table Lights | Keith made these from scraps of wood that my mother got from a factory exporting kiln dried wood
| Dining Table Lights | And it’s all lit up at night by LED lights
|Front Door Light | My husband also made this one from scraps of wood and also made the design for the door
| Stairs | A simple lighting fixture made by Keith…
| Stairs | …That lights up the stairway at night
| Light | One of the things I love most about our home is the light that streams through at different times of day. This photo was taken at around 7 am.
| Bathroom | This small but cozy space is one of my favorite places in the house
I restored an old softdrinks case which we found at the basement of Keith’s grandparents’ house. It now serves as a repository for keys, coins, bills and other knickknacks.
I really dreamed of having a kitchen sink with windows and plants in front of it so here it is.
The kitchen at night