dagreen14: Watch that plan! Yes, that building plan you are drawing, you may look as it is small on paper and think it is a small project, well, its small till you dig the foundation and if you don't take time, na the house go drag you for neck dey waka from here to there.

One of my coleagues in the office brought his house plans he paid N40k to draw to my office yesterday for me to advice him. I took a long look at this beautiful drawing and asked him point blank how much was his last month salary, he told me "hmmmm, around 60k" I sat back and told him, at this pace you will finish this house in 15 years. He looked sad as he was going, I later adviced him to cut it down and start small, till his incomes expand then he can step up to another land/ house.

Does it sound like I am contradicting myself? First I adviced us to start with what you have and now I am discouraging my friend and coleague who wants to start with what he has, well the difference is the plan. The building plan is bigger that my friend and I don't want him to pass through too much trouble building his house that he will be discouraged and abandon the house. A building plan should be tailored to suit your income, except you don't have immediate need for the cash you want to tie down or the apartment itself.

The more twists you add to a house is the more money it gulps, you love a parapet finish, a tiled facade, an additional pillar, more room for your kids or some superlative finish, be sure you are going to spend for it. Watch your budget, stay focused with your building planning and be fast in execution of the project, the more a house lingers the more it costs you money to build it as some of the things you bought may start to go bad. by spyder880(m): 11:52pm On Oct 13, 2011

Mr Spyder I just need to repost this in case some people haven’t read it because I just read it myself and I hope it’s ok with you….lol….Thanks again you make me believe…

Thank you dagreen, you know, when I was writing that last year, I didnt know things will turn as expensive as it is now. Plans are very deceptive, looking very small and beautifully innocent till you dig the ground! Na that time you go see the one wey senior reverend father!

I hail all men that started the fight and fought the battles till victory is announced.

Thank you for digging that comment up from the archives.

Am not sure if this is coming out well oooooo?

dagreen14: Am not sure if this is coming out well oooooo?

Certainly coming out well, have you chosen your roof colour?

I am thinking of going for a nut brown and then have the brown looking crack tiles on the outside wall….will that work Mr Spyder?

dagreen14: I am thinking of going for a nut brown and then have the brown looking crack tiles on the outside wall….will that work Mr Spyder?

Yes, it will work, but I would have loved a lighter colour of brown (or cream) tiles to gum with the nut brown roof.
Think of the outer paint colour for the remaining outside not covered by the crack tiles.

We are still making progress with the works in this house. Yesterday, we delivered the aluminium roofing sheets to this site. We have offloaded the sheets and roofers are set to start work by today.
We are also planning some finishing works like the plastering, window hoods, metal doors and other fittings. The electrical conduit piping has already been completed. This window hood design will be cast on the ground before we install it on the windows. More pictures later in the day.

For the records, all the roofing sheets, cladding sheets, roofing accessories, transport and labour charges for the installation of this roof cost us N750,000 only.

spyder880: We are still making progress with the works in this house. Yesterday, we delivered the aluminium roofing sheets to this site. We have offloaded the sheets and roofers are set to start work by today.
We are also planning some finishing works like the plastering, window hoods, metal doors and other fittings. The electrical conduit piping has already been completed. This window hood design will be cast on the ground before we install it on the windows. More pictures later in the day.

Are you going for the locally fabricated metal doors or the imported china doors?. Iam at this stage of my project but unable to take a decision yet. Btw, what is the difference metal and steel door.

NL1960:

Are you going for the locally fabricated metal doors or the imported china doors?. Iam at this stage of my project but unable to take a decision yet. Btw, what is the difference metal and steel door.

We are going for local metal doors. The local doors are quite stronger and more durable but scores very low in smoothness and fine looks. The only foreign metal doors strong enough are the Turkey doors and they are usually very costly. Starting around N140k and around N250k for the bullet proof ones. Metal doors are same thing as steel doors to the best of my knowledge.

I am proposing to install this type of window hood if the landlord will like it.

there are some more styles, although they are not mainly for windows.

electrical works have been done here.

delivery of the roofing sheets

more

and more still

saw this pillar works somewhere, is this too much for this house?

how do you like this house, can it be built here?

We were at a welders yesterday, to pay for metal doors and the gate for the garage. We chose a door design and the welder has commenced work on it immediately.

@Spyder et all: I was told that you need to do tiles first because fixing doors because if doors are fixed first, they have to be uprooted when the tiles are being done. Is this true?. Iam in the process of purchasing and installing doors now. Everything sbout windows (window hood, bulgary and window fixing) will be concluded in the next 2 weeks. I had wanted to now move to everything about doors before i was told this.

Three of my teams are working in this site. The roofers are putting up the aluminium sheets, the welder is working on the security doors and the crafts man is doing designed pillars and window hoods plus fitted designs to the arcs (side and under) we are also going to do the wall edges with beautiful craft works to bring out the beauty in this house.
Tomorrow, another team will join them and start the plastering of the house. I will be there to coordinate all activities and hope to document the whole processes here for us all to see.

the roof

what we paid for, we got, and the boys on the roof.

more

more angles

more of the roof

front looks

the plastering has been started, by one of my best hands, very experienced worker.

and the window frames are very ready for fixing

I just branched at the welder's to make sure he is using the right materials for this doors

a closer look at the metal guage