Houses are Ideal only When Built, Part 2 – Problems and Solutions

In the first part of this series, Houses are Ideal only When Built, Part 1 – Past Designs, I hoped to have provided a clear enough picture of the house I grew up in. As I mentioned then, it was the perfect house for us.

At this point, you may have concluded that our house was big. Well, at the risk of sounding immodest again, I would say that you are correct. Compared to today’s tiny houses, it was palatial, especially when factoring in the garden. The house itself was already huge when I was a child but it was expanded even further to accommodate us growing kids.

For the second part of this series, I will begin discussing the problems we encountered over time with the old house. And since my growing family is currently renting a place of our own, I will be discussing the solutions to these problems for the house we hope to build in the near future.

Past Problems of Size

This is where the first problem stems from – size. Even back when we had a battery of staff, keeping the place clean was a monumental effort. Often times, people would be done doing the chores at around half past four in the afternoon before starting all over again the next morning.

Yes, the size was perfect for a growing family, but it became too big when all the children had flown the coop.

With just my Dad and Mom left to maintain the place on their own, things have begun to fall into a state of disrepair. The only place that remains clean now is the master bedroom. All other rooms, even the bathrooms, are becoming harder and harder to keep as clean as before.

The problem is that this house was built to be maintained by a large number of people. And over the years, the number of staff dwindled. Long before this pandemic hit, some of our trusted staff simply married and moved away. Others retired and transferred back to their provinces.

Getting trusted replacements, even before the pandemic, has proven to be an impossible task.

Future Solutions of Size

I would love to have a big house, however I just cannot see myself maintaining something so big when my own children fly the coop. So it was with a heavy heart that I settled on a much smaller one.

It will be a tough adjustment to move from a spacious palace to one that will have me bumping into just about everything – furniture, walls, and even appliances. However, this pandemic validated my decision to build a place that can be maintained without staff.

Sure, getting staff would be a Godsend, but the time of having one staff per member of the family, plus a couple of drivers and gardeners is over. The best case scenario today would be getting someone that comes in during weekdays, but even that has become impossible with the arrival of this pandemic. So, no, I cannot pin my hopes on getting someone to come in; my family will just need to be self-reliant from this point forward.

 

Past Problems of the Roof

As mentioned by my father in Trees are for the Young, keeping the leaves from blocking the gutters has been next to impossible. Clean out the eaves today and they get filled up again tomorrow.

Almost all types of leaves need to be shoveled out on a daily basis – Mango, Kaimito, Duhat, Camias, and Malungay. Even leaves from the Bougainvillea and get blown up there.

However, it’s not as bad as you think. One one hand, the volume of the leaves falling off our plants are manageable, meaning that they can be scooped up every month or two. It’s the leaves of the neighbor’s bamboo that has become the biggest headache because whether the burning sun is bearing down or when a torrential rain pours, leaves and branches find their way to the eaves and into the downspouts.

Future Solutions of the Roof

When it comes time to building our own house, we will eliminate the eaves and downspouts altogether. And while this will have the effect of creating a curtain of water around the house during a rainstorm, I have will never have to contend with the headache that leaves provide.

Yes, someone will still need to check on the roof every now and then, but it won’t have to be every day, month, or maybe even each year anymore.

Past Problems of Living and Dining Rooms

I love parquet floors. Apart from looking great, they aren’t as harsh on the knees as bare cement or tile. However, the wood needs regular cleaning and waxing for it to continue looking good. In the absence of constant maintenance, dirt begins to approach the thickness and consistency of soil.

Furthermore, the wooden pieces tend to come loose over time, requiring professionals to stick them all back to the cement floor underneath before sanding everything to even them all out.

Perhaps one of the things I was not fond of in the living room was the chipped wall finish because it was a dirt magnet. After taking out my childhood pictures for cleaning over the years, the parts of the walls behind them turned out to actually be lighter in color.

Cleaning up chipped walls has been a difficult process. A brush and copious amounts of water and soap are needed. Then each part of the wall needs to be scrubbed as the same rate and strength or we’ll end up with different colored sections. Then of course, one needs to minimize the amount of water dripping down on the parquet floors or the wood will rot.

Finally, the wallpaper that my parents chose for the dining room was excellent. It was so good that sections of it still remain, albeit with a lot of discoloration. This is a testimony that things made in the past were done with better quality. By contrast, new wallpaper applied to parts of the house have not lasted as long. Unfortunately, both wallpapers still show their age, with strips already coming off the walls.

Future Solutions of the Living and Dining Rooms

I am considering the use of large ceramic tiles for the flooring instead of anything using wood. They are much easier to maintain as all they need is a dry or wet mop to clean. And while they can be expected to be harder my knees or to my knees and feet than parquet, the lower maintenance requirements mean it will be good for my back.

I’m sure our dogs will love the tiles because they will be much cooler lying on them than wood. And since tiles are waterproof, I will never need to worry when they track mud during the rainy season. Sure, I won’t be happy with having to clean up all their paw prints, but then I also don’t have to worry about long-term water damage.

Past Problems of the Kitchen

The use of tiles for the floor and walls was an excellent idea. Of all the rooms in the house, this was the one that has stood the test of time. Yes, some of the tiles are chipped or missing, but I can live with something like this.

The first liability I see has been that exhaust fan, especially after it broke down and never got changed. It was never replaced because sometime down the road, we got rid of the two-burner stove in favor of a four-burner stove and oven placed in a different area.

The hole left by the exhaust fan now serves as an entry point for mice and feral cats. We’ve tried to cover it with chicken wire but the these pests always find a way to get through after a while. Nothing short of blocking it with cement will solve the problem.

Another issue I have was with the slatted cabinets because these things were depositories of cooking oil, steamed food, and dust. Cleaning them used to be a full time job and now, without staff, they are was just impossible to keep clean.

Future Solutions to the Kitchen

I love the idea of using tiles for the floor and walls and will carry this over to our new house. However, instead of using small tiles, I plan on using big ones instead. This means less cleaning because there will be less grout between tiles.

I will not install an exhaust fan to eliminate an entry point for pests. We will adopt the use of a four-burner gas stove and oven and position it by a tiled wall. I initially thought of putting it beside a window, but the oil, grime, and smell of food will turn any screen into a breeding ground for germs.

Finally, I plan on using glass cabinets instead of slatted ones. Other than being very easy to clean, they will allow people to see what is inside at a glance so we won’t waste any energy opening one cabinet after another to look for stuff.

Final Thoughts

Since this essay has taken longer than expected, I will end the second part here. I’ll finish the series in the third installment entitled Houses are Ideal only When Built, Part 3 – Problems and Solutions.

But before leaving for the final entry of this series, I will say that our ideal home years ago hasn’t aged as well. So may problems have popped up over the years – some related to maintenance and some related to design – that I feel the only way to fix things is to start from scratch.

Fixing existing problems will cost a lot of time and money. But instead of achieving an ideal home, repair or refurbishment will merely result in a compromise.

Please join me for the conclusion to this series in about a week’s time. Hopefully, those of you building new houses or repairing old ones can benefit from the problem and solutions we have in this essay.