When you were still a kid, your imagination of a house was so straightforward and uncomplicated. Sketching it with your crayons was just a walk in the park. I bet there was even a tree alongside and above is a burst of bright sunshine in a sea of clouds. The irony as adults is that picturing your dream home is somewhat challenging and with limitations.

Two ending scenarios may occur for your house construction adventure. Why adventure? Because it will be an exciting, risky, but remarkable experience.  First, it could be a fairytale with the happily-ever-after turnover of your new home. Second and worst case, it can be a monument of your greatest disappointment and your living nightmare. For the latter, is it based on destiny or luck? Hell no! It was the result of your terrible choices. Do it right the first time. It’s such a shame if you’ll have to learn the hard way. Every move in construction is burning cash.

Building your home is not a bingo game where you randomly select decisions based on circumstances. It’s not even as easy as a video game where you could reset when everything is not in your favor. When you treat it like a game, you may win or lose. I hope you won’t choose this reckless move. Quit playing, take it seriously. This will be a place where you will spend most of your time (eat, sleep, or work) and create memories with your family.

For you to understand further the various phases of building your home, I would like to share the story behind our logo. It’s a spiral that is related to our one-stop-shop advantage tagline. As professionals, it’s our duty to guide you from point to point.  So we developed Archidome’s SPO (Spiral Process Overview) to explain to our clients the long and daunting process in the simplest way. 

Mahal ba ang kumuha ng arkitekto at inhinyero? (It is expensive to avail the services of an architect and engineer?) Answer: Mas mahal magkamali at paulit-ulit sa konstruksyon. (It’s more expensive to commit mistakes and repetition of works in construction)

In addition, the biggest joke in this industry is the term FREE DESIGN. The contractor will have the cost for the design hidden under other items and may be done by an unlicensed draftsman. The most horrible is, you are taking a shortcut of the entire process. So chances are, the final output is mediocrity at its finest and will definitely not fit your requirements.

The bottom line for this week’s blog is; building your home should be treated like a baby. It goes through several stages of development. It will require a lot of your attention, efforts for research, decision-making, spending a hefty amount of your fortune, constant communication with your trusted professionals, and PATIENCE (this word deserves all-caps and boldface).

About the author

Genna Domingo is the Principal Architect & Managing Director of Archidome Construction. She is a graduate of Mapua University and fourth placer in January 2019 Architecture Licensure Examination. She is passionate about design & build practice, renovation, tropical architecture, and urban design.