2,000sM lot, 350sM COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL Building

I designed and built this house with the intention of spending the rest of my life here. Earthquake/typhoon/volcano-proof. However, in early 2008, my pension fund went bankrupt and I lost my monthly pension income. I went to the US and won the job of my life, but 10 days later, I was hit by a car while riding a bicycle. This left me the hospital for 6 weeks, and I still need multiple spinal surgeries. WIth a grand total of 10 million Pesos (US$200,000) invested in this property, we have to sell this huge house before I can afford the medical care I need desperately. We are sacrificing at P8.5million or equilivant- fully furnished including businesses, or P7.5million bare.Be sure to see additional info and 30 photos at (webmasterbruce.org)

LOT and BUILDING: This is a 2,000 square meter lot with a very gentle slope and no flooding problems. A very slight grade drains even the heaviest of storm water into the adjacent sugarcane fields. The building itself is a total of 350 square meters. It is "L" shaped and was designed to be a combination residential / commercial building, with the commerce in the front and the residence extending towards the rear. It contains: large dry-goods store, Advanced Computer School / Net Cafe, large kitchen, large living room, very large Master Bedroom / Bathroom / walk-in closet area, and large living room (sala). Also, 2 small maid's bedrooms, a small storage room containing the master electrical service panels, large fully equipped workshop with work tables, storage racks, grinders, drill sharpener, new 300 amp welder on dedicated 60-amp breaker wiring circuit, huge variety of hand tools and power tools: basically everything you can imagine to build a house. In addition to the computing center, the dry-goods store, fully equipped workshop. Space available for 2-3 additional bedrooms if you wish.

Outside the house is a Dept. of Agriculture-certified, "vermicast" organic fertilizer operation. VERY little work for a fair return. My current medical situation forced me to cease operation, but it;s sitll VeryViable business for this property,,,) The President is trying to make this island (out of a total of 7,102 islands here) ) the "Organic Capital of the Philippines. Like with many, many other places, the use of chemicals is becoming more costly and worrisome regarding their residues. The Dept. of Ag. has a program encouraging small folks like us to start these "backyard" fertilizer businesses because 1) it's so easy, 2) they provide KILOGRAMS of special African Nightcrawlers to eat their way thru the compost, and 3) for every one doing this, their is a waiting list of about 20 farmers wanting to buy the bagged, organic fertilizer for their fields. AND- get this- the nightcrawlers double in number every 3 weeks, meaning you can expand the business as you see fit (plenty of space exists here) OR you can sell the surplus worms for 500 pesos/Kg, as opposed to 3 pesos/Kg for the completed organic fertilizer. Either way, it's a profitable little business that requires little wirks and no advertising- the Dept. of Ag. maintains a waiting list and you just call them as you have product to turn over!

OUTSIDE: The yard has 4 huge mango trees, as I moved the house footprint to keep them from being cut down. There are 2 different types of bananas- 4 ea. Plantain trees and 2 ea large, sweet local varieties that I don't know the name of. Not like the uniform, identical bananas you see in the Stateside store, there are dozens of varieties here. We have done EXTENSIVE landscaping continuously since we first bought the property so all our trees and hedges would get a good headstart. 3-5 foot mango trees we planted of different varieties, as well as 15 Mahogany tress-no 30 feet high. Golf-ball sized limes called locally "Calamuncie," tangerines, apples, etc. We also planted over a dozen fast-growing hardwood Mahogany trees that will fetch you a good price when mature in another 10 years. We grow a significant portion of our own food in various garden plots along the outside perimeter fencelines- all kinds of vegetables, hedgerows, and flowers of all types and descriptions,

Before we could even access the property, I had to design and manufacture 2 ea. 25' wide, steel reinforced concrete driveways. The lot actually sits approx. 1 meter vertically below the adjacent roadbed, and neither cars nor delivery trucks could get in here. The next thing I did was bring in a HUGE bucket loader. 1) There were 2 large gnarly dead trees inside the foundation footprint which had to be ripped out, and 2) before being abandoned, this lot used to be a corn field. The entire property was plowed into sharp rows and was a major pain just to walk on. Since the topsoil itself was extremely rich, black, volcanic, valuable dirt, I had the loader scrape the entire property bare of topsoil and strategically dump it in rows along the perimeter fencing for future landscaping.

ELECTRICAL: In addition to having separate residential / commercial electrical meters and 110v/220v delivery circuits throughout the entire house (inside and out). Because the Philippine power grid is 220v, we had to order and buy a special electrical transformer and have it mounted by NORECO. This special transformer is what supplies both 110/220v power to the distribution panels. Aside from normal lighting inside, the entire property is surrounded by security lighting to keep most of the thieves away.

WATER: House is located less than 50 meters from the main water filtration plant in this area. We have excellent pressure AND water is safe to drink- no more buying bottled water. In the photos, you can see the electrical and water lines being run as needed down from the trusses into place. Most people considered this odd, but it is a HUGE benefit: if anything goes wrong in the future, all lines can be accessed immediately WITHOUT having to smash out big section of concrete just to get at a small water leak or electrical connection gone bad....

STRUCTURE: Basically, house is designed and made to US strength standards and not local standards. After leveling and scraping all the topsoil, I poured a deep foundation with a 6" steel reinforced slab approx. 2 feet above ground level. There are 21 ea., 12"x12" support pillars for the main roofing trusses with large underground reinforced support blocks. All 6" thick concrete blocks were custom made with double the normal amount of cement in them... I can crush local blocks in my hands, but NOT mine. Masons were taught how to do proper masonry work, instead of slapping blocks together haphazardly and then having to apply a layer of plaster to cover up the poor workmanship. Using my methods, that extra coat of plaster wasn't required. Every hole in every concrete block is filled with 10mm rebar and extra-strength concrete mix. Finally, entire house is painted with 3 coats of white enamel paint for long life. All walls and cabinets inside the house are either concrete block or marine-grade plywood for long life, no chance of bug or water damage. Windows are local glass louvered, but set in hardwood framing, covered by unremovable, welded steel bars, AND a layer of aluminum mesh wire to keep the bugs out. Security bars are coated with a rust-proofing agent, a coat of red oxide, and 2 coats of white enamel paint to prevent any future rusting. Lastly, local officials forced me to build a long sloping handicap walkway for entrance to the store, even tho it's never been used.

ROOFING: All custom designed steel trusses were made on site from back-to-back, 5mm thick angle bars imported from Cebu. Same rust-proofing and red oxide paint to prevent future rusting. I designed in the huge extra strength margin because I was here during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and saw so many buildings squashed flat from the ash loads on the cheap, single, 2mm angle bar trusses used throughout the area. That WON'T happen with this building. Each concrete support pillar has 4, 3/4" "J" bars embedded into the concrete, a 5mm steel plate secured with fasteners, and finally, the truss system is 100% welded to these base plates. All trusses are joined by 3mm "C" channel purlins, 5mm angle bars across the top, and 10mm rebar lengths run on diagonals to keep everything stiff and square. Finally, instead of the normal sheet steel panels used locally, we used a roofing panel called "Galvalume," aluminum and other alloys for more strength and no rusting. Every panel is held with a "Tox" screw every 6 inches across, and every 18" down. As shown during the magnitude 6.2 earthquake located 12 miles from here a few months ago, this is a SOLID, STABLE structure.

Lastly, this house is designed so the the roofing structures can be removed, and 2nd floor added, and the roofing structures replaced- doubling the living and working area from 350 sqM to 700sqM.

Obviously ready to move in, new owners may choose to continue the businesses we've built, or add and/or change to their own ideas.  Possibilities are endless. Lot can also be subdivided and sold, or another house can be built on current lot and rented if you want additional income