The House Construction Experience: The Takeaways.

 

From my few posts on Facebook, I got feedback from many people wanting to hear a little more details on how I approached the construction of my family home in the village. I will drop some random thoughts on my experience here so you pick what works best for you and leave the rest for someone else.

Know what you want: In the initial stages, I had too many wishes in terms of what kind of houses I wanted to construct. I downloaded tens of pictures from Pinterest and kept admiring them for months on end. Slowly, I narrowed down on the type of house I wanted especially with a focus on flat roof plan.

Know what you can afford: Knowing what I wanted and what I could afford were not the same thing. My Architect friend Alindi told me to work with what I can afford at the moment. His questions were simple: What size and type of house would you wish to have? How long from now would you wish to have it? What is the approximate cost of that house? What is the approximate cash flow you see for yourself during that period you would like it to be finished? Does that cash flow projection allow the realization of the house in the timeline you desire to occupy it? If you want a 6 bedroom house while you can afford a 2 bedroom one at the start, do with the 2 bedroom and will later have an adjustment on the house to make it larger – a good Architect will do that work for you provided you leave space for the same. Those of you who grew up in Nairobi Eastlands will recall the structure of the Umoja Houses for example. They came as one bedroom or single rooms and provided for extensions as the financial muscle of the owners allowed.

Engage a professional: Starting with an Architect. A large piece of land is very easy to poorly plan on. You end up with chicken houses, rabbit hutches, dog kennels, external toilets scattered all over. I had Alindi make a stop over so we could agree on where to locate the house and allow for expansion which also helped guide where not to plant trees for I do not wish to cut them in the future. As for the drawings, my nephew Lameck did a good job in tweaking the Pinterest design into what fit my specifications. Get a design that fits your space and needs, be aware of how much room you have and the regulations guiding the space between the fence/road and your house.

Understand your land: This is also information that a professional can help you determine. The type of soil, how much extraction of soil you will need to do and most importantly where to locate the house. The top soil can be deceiving and you may end up having to introduce excavators to dig and cart out tonnes of soil to set the right base for your foundation. This is information that guides your costs and it is good that whoever is doing your project costing visit your site. While the visit might appear like a cost you do not need to pay for, ask those who had remote quotes done to tell you what the foundations excavation did to their wallets.

Seek financing: Depending on your abilities, explore getting funding support from your sacco, banks, savings and also from friends and family. When I started, I had friends who were gracious enough to reach out and ask me if they could lend me a few shillings to put in the project and pay back later. They were not one or two but more and the amounts varied from a few thousands to tens or more than a hundred thousand. Whatever you can lay your hands on, take but repay your friends lest you cut those links irreparably.

Get a fundi: Have someone who will do the actual construction for you. See what works they have done before and best if they are actually referred to you by someone who has used them before rather than you randomly picking someone whose integrity has not been vouched for. A bad fundi will screw you big time – theft of materials, poor workmanship, no accountability and generally poor results.

Ask questions: At all stages of the construction and planning, ask questions about anything and everything. From the technical advise of the Architect, the drawing, the quotes, the process, the works, materials and just about everything. Do not assume that all that will be said to you is all that can be said. Your folks can be providing you no alternatives while there are, do ask. Why must we use stones and not bricks, why do we need 200 bags of cement and not 170, why 3 trucks of ballast and not 2, why this and why that, why is that wall not looking straight, why is the foundation so deep/shallow, why is your charge so high, what aspects of the costing can we reduce or remove, why must your site visits be 3 and not 2, why should I not bring in material and you bring labour, why should I provide meals, why are you behind schedule while I provided everything, what are the timelines for this stage/milestone, why must we have this fundi here and not someone else (I have asked certain individuals to leave my site based on my evaluation of their work quality and replacements got)

Establish contacts with providers: In as much as you can, get to know who is supplying your materials. If you can get in contact with them directly the better, if not then be assured they have to deliver the right quality and quantity. Reduce excess deliveries as they easily tempt pilferage and wastages. If you need 400 bags for the entire house but only 70 for the foundation; do not bring 400 bags on site if you have no proper stock control or secure storage, you will not have them accounted for. Get a hardware where you deposit your monies for materials as it comes so as to reduce the chances of losing hope because you only have 10000 in your hand. It can take out 17 bags of cement from your troubles.

Keep your word in repayments – review if need be in time: Self explanatory. If you get money from friends and family or credit from the suppliers of materials and labour (your fundi) pay them back as agreed or ask for a revision of timelines if not possible to keep.

Friends and family can really be very supportive of such initiatives. You can be surprised how many in your circle are interested in giving you soft loans that when consolidated adds up to a lot. There is a saying that money destroys relationships, it applies only when you fail to honour your commitment to pay back. Even your mother has some money she will give you, only that you think she does not have any.  She saves way better than you but you pay her back if she gives you.

Cut your expenses – be alive to where your money goes. When this things gets traction, you will be very alive to where your monies go. Reduce unnecessary expenses. Jinyime in Swahili. Run your Mpesa statements monthly to find out where your cash goes and if you are happy with their destination. If you are not, change the route to the construction.

Piecemeal quotes: I did not want to know the total cost of the house at once, I was more into the step by step one as I found it to be less discouraging. Ask for cost of digging out the foundation, setting the foundation stones, pouring the concrete, walls, lintel, timber, roofing materials, windows, doors on their own. If you have all the money for a one off construction then you can get the entire quote at once. If you rely on piecemeal cashflows then take in what you can chew at a moment.

Buy what you can: Know what the costs of items such as nails, iron bars, cement, stones, sand are. While you may not be able to buy ballast, the money at hand can bring sand or 6 kilos of nails. No money has no use.

Use available materials: Being at the hillside, I benefitted from the stones around which cut down the costs of buying and transporting them from elsewhere. Ask the professionals when they visit to show you what you can utilize from your surrounding.

Be there. Be petty. Correct errors on site on the spot: If you able to, be present. If not, have someone you trust being there. Absence is very attractive for shortcuts and poor quality work. Be petty is asking questions on the works being undertaken – why is the ratio of cement to sand different, why not using the plumb bob to establish a level wall, why should the walling not be over in 7 days etc. If you see part of the works looking wrong, mention it. If the foreman or contractor is away and you notice something that bothers you, ask the fundis to stop and call the contractor to come and have an understanding. You lose nothing in the 2 hour wait. Also, if the works and fundis appear not to be what you desire then ask them to leave. Nothing hurts in stopping a bad team or bad workmanship. I did it a couple of times. Ask the foreman or contractor for replacements.

Critics will distract you – if you let them to. Questions on why you picked this over that, size of house, design or house, on whether you need a house where you have and not another place, that it is dead capital and other theories. Let them know you have made the decision to do what you are doing as is. You are open to how to improve what you are doing at the moment but not meaningless criticism. Let them know they can use your mistakes to improve on their projects but not overhaul yours at a certain stage.

You do not need to ask someone what their house project cost, the figures are cumulative and will put you off and kill your mojo. When someone tells you it cost them 10 million which you do not believe you can have, it will make you swallow the little money you have that can eventually make the 10 million investment.