Our houses

[fred]

You can get pretty much everything you need here these days.
Try to take advantage of things like the dirt cheap granite slabs for sale..Marble flooring ,solid mahogany doors ect..Most importantly take advantage of the cheap labour..There are some really good tradesmen here..The secret is finding them.. Like I said before..If your a 50 mile radius of Manila..Just ask me...I can probably help.
A lot of the fittings here are good quality and imported.. Lets put it this way..You get what you can afford...
When your architect asks if you would like him/her to quote for standard fittings then expect nothing but Chinese crap.
Plan like crazy and be here during construction.

[Gavanddal]

Plan like crazy and be here during construction.

That's all very well if you can spare the time. I'm sure many of us can spare no more than a month there unless you've already made the move for good.
I've heard that many workers are quite slow so it could be quite a chore being on site for the duration.
Can you get workers to agree to a price and duration like you can in the UK?
That way you can plan your works and get your floor tilers out before the painters start for example.

I guess you need a reliable site agent to oversee works when you're not there. I've managed numerous projects in Europe and having a project plan and a good local agent is most important.

Perhaps others can tell their stories about how they've managed this process on their Philippines projects.
And I agree, recommending suppliers may be useful but then again I'm sure our sites are very well spread out!

[jimeve]

I agree with Fred, I used local labour 2 quid a day, but you have to be there
all the time, cracking the whip.

Dont know where Iam going to get marble tiles, granite, decent doors from,
as building in negros island, not much to choose from.

Like I said before, I have to save then go over for a month or two.
you can get contracts, but you have to pay on completion, which i don't
have £50,000-£60,000 to spare.

cheers Jim