Is Lanee leaving in May?

Lanee is set to leave for New Zealand in May. She will take a course in tourism or something similar and she will study there in the hopes of getting a permanent residency. I’m excited for her but at the same time sad because of a squabble between us.  I hope it will soon have a remedy.

There’s a popular saying that seems to defile what family means, “You can choose your friends but you cannot choose your family.” I beg to disagree. Family members cannot and will not be in the same line as friends. Friends can be “disposable”, they can be changed, manipulated, coerced. Yes, they can be a source of fun, however, family will always be there for you because you know each other’s weaknesses, strengths and above all you know how to build each other up.

So I would ascribe to what my wife always teach me, “You can choose to love or choose not to love.” That, I believe because no matter how bad times are within a family — in the end, it is always your choice to love despite the odds. The question now is, what is each family members’ next step?

I guess despite that — we can always say, “I choose to love.”

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Fam got their US Visas Renewed

Lanee waited for three hours before being called to the line and waited again in line for forty more minutes before she faced the consul and got her approval in two minutes. The Seniors, Daddy and Mama (with Kuya Ariel) got their US VISA renewed likewise – not after getting stressed in calling back Doming and Lanee to have ’em get Kuya Ariel’s phone that could’ve been lost forever in the hands of the consulate.

Exciting times and days. I’m glad to see Lanee smile and see Mama visit us late in the afternoon at our house too as well. Thank you, Lord, for these blessings.

Now they just have to wait for their VISA that will come in the mail in the next one or two weeks.

New Floor Plans as of February 25

We came from a near two-hour meeting at McDonald’s Barangka to see the latest plans Architect Dan Alano made for us.

You will see the difference from the first plan we posted and unlike that one this one has three rooms have personal bathrooms altogether. This, despite what I relayed to him concerning Kuya Derick’s proposal to have all the bathrooms lined up together. I told him this Wednesday, Feb 22 when he also – coincidentally – asked me if it’s okay to deviate from the first plan to have all the bathrooms in two sets of rooms.

Kuya Dan’s insistence is shown in his floor plan but I told him that it’s fine, I guess, as long as the budget will now shoot up to what was originally planned. I like Kuya Derick’s suggestion because it answers a lot of the budget question and how to bring the cost down further.

You all can speak to this plan and tell me what you think. Malou and I have seen something that concerns us:

1. Heat radiating to our second floor from the roof.
2. Extending the Gazebo format all the way to the garage area
3. Still apply the bathroom format Kuya Derick suggest and do cost analysis
4. (Your suggestions/comments)

B-and-B @ T3 3B Governor’s Place

While we’re waiting for Mariveles to be developed this March, the only other unit our family owns in Governor’s Place has now been turned into a Bed and Breakfast Place.

You can check the development that took place over three weeks that Malou and I spent decorating during our free times on weekends. We hope you like it.

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Atmosphere Treatment I Like to see in our Hostel

I took shots of McDonald’s 32nd Avenue’s interior on Friday, February 17. Why? I like the laid back, dynamic atmosphere that this place offers.

I just want to share it with you all.

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Mariveles Space Plan

Here’s the plan for the B&B…er…Hostel that we’ll be putting up.

Prior to this post, Kuya Derick, Mama, Daddy, Kuya Ariel, and I had an impromptu meeting to discuss the merits of both set up (B&B and Hostel) and it has been resolved that we will approach this business as a hostel setup that will create more business traffic that we need.

The only work now is converting this plan that houses four rooms, which must now accommodate from two people into four or six people in one room and, perhaps, transferring two common bathrooms in different areas where each one can share its use. Of course, there will be a common bathroom for the men and another one for the women.

The next action step would be to contact the architect and ask him to modify as necessary how this place can accommodate the number of people that it should.

 

 

Days That Follow Tita Letty’s Death

Tita Letty succumbed to complications of her illness on January 31st. Mama said she didn’t go away peacefully. She woke up around 5AM and started coughing. The nurses that attended her said they will take out the water that’s building up the cavities of her body. She was in so much pain the night before and she couldn’t even ask us to come and visit her.

Moments after the nurses left, mama said she coughed violently to the point she coughed blood that almost became her last hurrah in life. They doctors and nurses of the Philippine General Hospital tried to resuscitate her with pumps and shocks being delivered to her body – it’s done.

I received the notice Lanee sent me at 7 AM that morning and my heart sank the moment I learned she left.

The slides below show what my camera phone took on , Thursday, February 2 at about 8AM when we were waiting to view her body before she is taken into the oven that would cremate her body. The subsequent photos also show moments before the funeral services took her urn and escorted everyone who wished her well to her final resting place beside other family members – Tata Ambo, Lola, and Lolo and what we believe are remains of both of our grandparents’ moms.

Goodbye, Tita Letty. Thank you for the memories.

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Letters to Fe Veran, Bishop Balais Sent

Mama sent important letters to Bishop Balais and Fe Veran yesterday, January 26. The letters have two different functions and it shows mama’s intent to pursue plans to build a Bed and Breakfast place at Mariveles.

The letter to Fe Veran shows our intention to get her son’s architectural business alongside another architect who I recommended as well. Architect Danny Alano is the father of one of the people we minister to in Victory. In the letter that I drafted for her, it says that we’re changing our plans not to build a townhouse but to renovate the existing home that’s located near EDSA. The letter further states that we’re inviting them to bid in designing and in building the place.

The letter to Bishop Balais, on the other hand, is informing of our intent to visit and inspect the place on Saturday, January 28 and start envisioning what the lodge would be like after its finished.

I believe Joel, mama’s personal assistant, will follow up the letters today and get more concrete answers to the plans we made two nights ago.

Arch. Danny Meets With us for Second Time

After our first meeting on Monday, January 23, mama and I met with Architect Danny (who I fondly call, Kuya Danny) last night to give him updates on our plans to just renovate the place in Mariveles in lieu of building a new townhouse structure that will drain (and may imperil) mama’s resources and put pressure on me to manage the place as she is now starting to let go some properties for me to manage and come up with income-generating plans like this Bed and Breakfast plan she hatched with me about two weeks ago.

We accomplished a lot in our meeting that lasted more than two hours until after 9 PM in Red Ribbon. In our discussion with Kuya Danny we learned a lot in planning the place but realized that we’re gonna be in for more than I anticipated. In our discussion, I realized:

• Plumbing will need to be entirely changed
• Water lines need to be overhauled
• Electrical wiring – All new
• Be prepared to see that only the foundation will be left
• Roof may be changed entirely
• Renovation rate is different from construction rate
• There’s cost in landscaping, lighting, and replacing the gate

Despite all these numerous changes, the construction will still be a lot cheaper than building a townhouse that will only meet the need to have a roof over my family’s head and Kuya Jim’s family. The townhouse will cost at least Php18M to build (not including the government taxes and fees that we will pay Mandaluyong) versus a renovation that my just cost us one-third of that.

Our meeting ended with plans to do an ocular inspection of Mariveles scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 28th.

By the way, the other half of the meeting included discussions on the plans of Arch. Aprila(?) to partner up with mama and build a huge property on Lopez -Rizal Drive inside the Umali compound. Kuya Danny still spoke of retaining ownership of the property and to put up your own business that you can pass on to your children.

Building this business is getting exciting and I can’t wait what it will look like when Malou and I start managing it.