Pinoy House of Prayer that Really Works

We all know it--a family that prays together stays together. Sadly, that's often the only reason why we pray--to keep the family intact, safe and prospering.

And we pass on that prayer tradition to every generation so that each generation doesn't really know what prayer is. They think it's anti bad luck.

Basically, prayer is asking God for things. That's what we've been taught. Yeah, but it's more than that. Definitely more. Prayer is regular conversation to develop a deep relationship with God. If talking is used just for asking for things, it can turn relationships sour.

First and foremost, prayer is building intimacy with God. You desperately seek to talk with HIM because you love to and you need to. You just want to be with HIM the whole day, all your life. This is the prayer we should pass on to our kids, that should mark a Pinoy home, even secure a housepinoy. 

Not just pray before meals...or when we're in dire need.

Wrong prayer traditions teach our kids to skip praying or hate it altogether. Worse if it makes them feel obligated to do so to avoid punishment, or as a way to earn God's favor if they give it their best--like a class recitation to get good grades.

No intimate relationship in these things.

Remember the first time you talked with your crush and he or she looked interested? Remember how you looked forward excitedly to have the conversation again and again, and that thought occupying your mind all day? 

Prayer should be the same.

HEALTH FOR THE PINOY SOUL

Though I appreciate a donation, this powerful e-book is yours with or without donation. Just email me at nonjoiners@gmail.com (NONJoiner is my blog) and ask for the FREE E-book, "YOUR POWER WITHIN." You get an email back in about 2 seconds or less with a download link to the e-book. 

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Why They're Nuts Over Minimalism

Do you notice the fad on having less stuff in the house? I first heard of minimalism maybe some 3 or 5 years ago and the idea was borrowed from Japan, if I remember right. Some folks are beginning to find stuffy spaces too "noisy" and suffocating not just the airways but the mind most especially. Too much stuff clogs.

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash.

The idea of minimalism first came as a trend in arts, like painting and sculpture, and was first popularized in the 1950s. The idea was to use simple, typically massive, forms. Today, Cambridge dictionary says it's "a style in art, design, and theatre that uses the smallest range of materials and colours possible, and only very simple shapes or forms."

Minimalism can go well with small dwellings in the Philippines. But as of the moment, you'd see cluttered furnishigs even in cramped housePinoys. They try to stock their homes with appliances because it's supposed to prove they're well-off. Few Pinoys appreciate having ample space in the house for free and easy movement because we see blank spaces as a sign of material lack. We think empty spaces prove how much money we have so we crowd up the house with all kinds of stuff.

Well, finally some Pinoys are seeing the practicality of it all. Some are even going nuts for it. Besides being cost effective and allows savings, minimalism is also highly maintainable and makes physical activities more possible so you have more leeway with mobility. It allows air to circulate more freely as well. But why isn't the idea really taking off in the country?

Because minimalism shouldn't just be a fad. It should be a mindset, a life principle applied not just on house designs but in all of life. It's a mindset that says only urgent needs should be possessed or consumed. It should rule your daily schedule, priorities, diet, thoughts, conversation and dealings with people. Even ministry if you're a pastor. No excesses or extras but just the exact amount you really need.

It took people centuries to realize that having a lot of things is meaningless. Japan homes have been minimalist since the beginning (though I don't know when the beginning actually was) but minimalism got attention only in our times, some centuries after. We think owning material possessions is the life. Now a growing number of us see how it sucks.

Jesus has been batting for it in the bible. He says:

Life does not consist in the abundance of possession. [Luke 12.15]

The Old Testament, too, has been urging believers about a simple life, no extras, extravagance or prodigality. Having your "daily bread" was enough.

"...give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.” [Prov.30.7-9]

And talk about ministries. Does the church believe this? Nope. Just look at how they load up all kinds of electronic junks on their altars to make their worship sound good--not really to God but to the audience. In fact, they see you lacking favor if you have less in life and blessed if you have more. They know how Jesus lived and owned no earthly possession, emptying himself. And yet you see how churches buy massive properties to showoff and attract. Just saying.

HEALTH FOR THE PINOY SOUL 

Though I appreciate a donation, this powerful e-book is yours with or without donation. Just email me at nonjoiners@gmail.com (NONJoiner is my blog) and ask for the FREE E-book, "YOUR POWER WITHIN." You get an email back in about 2 seconds or less with a download link to the e-book. The email also contains my GCash number in case you want to make a donation, P50 or P100 or whatever amount you have in mind (it will help my church ministry). But with or without donation, the 80-plus page e-book is yours for FREE and will help you discover your most inner strengths and manifest them to help you with your career, relationships and life! You also get short NON-Joiner emails.

Why We Almost Don't Use Our Terrace

I've been jogging and brisk walking in the morning almost all my life (I started in grade 6 to augment my martial arts training). I often visit adjacent subdivisions and villages and the one thing I notice about houses is that a lot of them have terraces on the second floor gracing their frontage.

But no one uses them.

Photo by jonathan ocampo on Unsplash.

Well, almost no one. I see folks hanging their wet clothes on their terrace now and then, but that's it. I haven't seen people staying there for leisure or relaxation, sitting while enjoying a cup of coffee, for instance, or reading a book. Or having a nice chat with family members. I mean, I imagine that's what terraces are for. Not for doing the laundry.

Left Behind

Those terraces are a total waste. And why won't most Pinoys use them? We think it's too melodramatic, too histrionical. Masyadong OA ba. We begin to put value on privacy when it comes to the use of front terraces. We don't want to be seen there by the neighborhood. It's almost like a scandal. So, why have them on our facades at all? Because it's nice to have terraces or balconies. They make our houses look more interesting and expensive, maybe?

It explains why people troop to the malls during sale day causing huge traffic. Vanity. We buy a lot of things we do not need or use. We just want to have them, period. They make us look moneyed and we hate being left behind by the fad. It's like wearing black, leather jacket at noontime in Manila during summer.

Or putting on tattoo. Or smoke or vape. 

We Fear Terraces

Anyway, back to terraces. I love terraces and doubly love using them because I want to see what's way over there in the distance. I wonder what folks there are doing or what they're chatting about. When I watch distant houses or buildings from a terrace, I imagine stories of people living there. I try to create scenes and sagas. I release my mind and let it roam free.

And I guess that's why we fear being alone in terraces. We fear real freedom. We'd rather have freedom in company with other people and dread being seen enjoying freedom alone--because that makes us look different. Eerily different. That fear makes us weak inside.

HEALTH FOR THE PINOY SOUL

Though I appreciate a donation, this powerful e-book is yours with or without donation. Just email me at nonjoiners@gmail.com (NONJoiner is my blog) and ask for the FREE E-book, "YOUR POWER WITHIN." You get an email back in about 20 seconds or less with a download link to the e-book. The email also contains my GCash number in case you want to make a donation, P50 or P100 or whatever amount you have in mind (it will help my church ministry). 

But with or without donation, the 80-plus page e-book is yours for FREE and will help you discover your most inner strengths and manifest them to help you with your career, relationships and life! You also get short NON-Joiner emails.

Should You Have a Loft?

Lofts are fast becoming a fad in Philippine interior design. They look good and flashy but do we really need them? Is the idea practical in Filipino homes? Does it have a predecessor in our architectural past to have it fit right into our modern local architecture? Well, let's see.

Photo above by Aaron Huber on Unsplash.

Native Philippine houses had spaces underneath for storage that folks called "Silong." Not really a loft concept but it birthed the idea of having extra small space in the house for storage. But aside from that, some farm houses actually had overhead ledges or an upper extra half floor built into them where farmers kept farm implements and some harvest produce saved for a rainy day or an emergency. They preferred this to the silong under the kubo where supplies could be easily stolen by robbers at night, eaten by rodents or damaged by floods.

So they built lofts that looked something like the one below (but not exactly). It may look like an attic but attics are a totally different story. Attics are built right into the ceiling of the roof often occupying the whole roof area while lofts are simply extra half floors (or smaller) inserted between the ground floor and the ceiling. More like a small mezzanine but still different from it. And, like in the picture below, crops or palay stalks are kept in them for easy access right inside the house instead of going out to the barn to get them.

Photo by Skitterphoto: pexels.com

Mezzanines are different. They're often part of the living room (or lobby when talking of buildings) as an added area for extra furnishings and also for receiving guests. Lofts are definitely smaller, often housing only a sleeping quarter or any similar cubicle and usually placed above rooms, like the dining, kitchen or bedroom. And lofts are served by a simple, inclined or upright ladder going up, while mezzanines are served by staircases, not ladders.

So, lofts are not a total stranger to Pinoys, especially farmers. We can safely say that it's been part of Filipino architecture.

Ceiling

We see that in our country, it's practical. But there are certain considerations. Like ceiling height, which is crucial in lofts. It's not practical for houses with flat roofs or low ceilings which is often the case in middle class subdivisions. It's going to be too hot if its too close to the ceiling and standing up won't be comfortable if your head touches the ceiling. Ceiling clearance from ground floor to loft floor level, and loft floor to roof ceiling, should be carefully estimated. There should be enough head clearance. 

My suggestion is a 3-meter clearance in both levels--ground floor to loft and loft to roof ceiling. Or probably 2.80 meters. There should be good ventilation, preferably good air-con system or at least install functional ceiling fans to keep loft temp cool. I'd place good-size windows as an alternative to save on electricity. 

My dream is to have my office cubicle loft (with small area for a bookshelf and desk as study nook) above my sunken living or kitchen. Perhaps go down 4 steps to the ground level so loft height and total ceiling height won't be too high. The loft will increase living room height and afford more free air movement and make the area cooler due to the higher ceiling, something like in the picture below. From the loft it will be easier to see who's just come into the living room.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.

Privacy

Often, the concern with lofts is privacy. You're too exposed to guests in the living room or kitchen if you put the loft over it. Don't put your bed on the loft then. This is why I prefer having a mini office on my loft if I were to build one. Not a bedroom. And the fact that it's up the living area gives you enough privacy, but not make you too secluded from the rest of the house. If you were like me, I need to see what's going on in my house while doing my work on my loft. 

And I'd love the smell of good food cooking while reading my books or doing my blogs. Something like the one below. Like in the picture above.

Or place the loft inside your bedroom for an extra space, for your king-size bed and closet for instance, so your main bedroom below would have more room for other furnishings, like a small ref and coffee maker nook, or small bar, and even a large bathroom. You get all the privacy you need plus the convenience of a spacious but space-saving quarters.

Storm-Surge Ready Dwellings

Project designs by Arch Marvin Mijares.
To inquire or contact him, please use the Contact Form
on the sidebar.

Storm surge in Metro Manila? In coastal towns probably but not in the middle of this metropolis. Right? In cities near the bay probably, like Navotas and Malabon, but not in Quezon City or Makati. But we forget that once upon a time, Marikina was severely hit by deadly floods during Ondoy--and Marikina is far from any sea or bay.

The Philippines is an archipelago, and as such, being surrounded by large bodies of water, it's not hard to imagine how even its central plains lying far from bodies of water are prone to storm surges. Crisscrossing the central plains are rivers and creeks which can swell incredibly in extreme rains and drown entire towns, districts and even cities, catching us all by surprise.

Multi-Level Dwellings

In light of recent catastrophic events affecting even inland cities, it is high time to seriously consider storm-surge factors in building design. Preventive measures are always lots better than remedial measures. Let's not wait till it's too late. Often, safety measures are formulated only when mass destruction and death have occurred. Before the worse happens to you, your family or your property assets, re-think about the structure of your residence.

Multi-level dwellings are highly recommended to render dwellings storm-surge ready. Two to three level houses--better if 4 floors or 3 with a rooftop--provide escape to higher levels easily possible during a rapid storm surge. Occupants can seek quick refuge on the upper floors while buying time for rescue to arrive in time. Take one residential area right in the middle of Quezon City, for instance--Parkway Village.

During Ondoy, the residents were too confident that no flood of incredible proportions would hit them. After all, they were in the inner land where no huge body of water was close by. But the unimaginable happened. At 10 am, flood waters suddenly rose from the streets at a very rapid pace, taking only a few seconds before the ground floors of residences were submerged under water.

Soon, the waters were reaching the second floors, and then the roof tops--all within minutes. One-storey residences didn't stand a chance. When we inspected the area after the typhoon, the most horrifying stories were from residences with one-storey height.

As relevant today in construction design as seismic analysis is, should be storm-surge consideration. And the best option here is multi-level houses which are storm-surge ready dwellings, without compromising aesthetics and economics.

The multi-level residences above were done by our friend Arch Marvin Mijares. For similar designs and construction or price estimates, please use the Contact Form on the sidebar.

A Modern Concept of Shelter

House designs by Arch Marvin Mijares.

A concept of shelter today is protection, derived from the root word "shell." Before anything else, residences as shelters should provide safety and protection, not just posh design. First of all, there are the elements to protect inhabitants from, like sunlight, rain, wind, storm, and pollution, to name some. Second, protection from criminal elements. Third, privacy protection. And fourth, protection from social discrimination. Complete aesthetics, after all, is protected beauty.

Protection from the Elements

The Philippines, being along the equator, is a frequent path of tropical depressions and storms, and more recently, super typhoons. Moreover, being in the tropics, we are often hit by severe sunlight plus dryness in summer which often result to drought. In addition, recently we saw how severe flooding and earthquake can likewise devastate structures  Architectural shelter design should then give allowances for these factors to provide a concept of shelter.

Protection from Criminality

Houses, big and small, should consider criminality factor in design. And we should bear in mind that the bigger and more attractive the design, the more prone it is to criminality--robbery, intrusion, kidnapping, abduction, hostage-taking, and the like. This is not anymore something outrageously unlikely in our times. These things happen and building planning have a hand in their prevention. Aside from securing openings with sturdy covers, locks, and decorative steel grills, planners should also start considering "inhabitant orientation."

You want a video presentation like this? Please contact us!

Inhabitant orientation is the system of positioning inhabitants inside a structure in such a way that they find themselves often facing approaches and accesses to where they are instead of having their backs on them. For instance, residents washing dishes in the kitchen or washing clothes in the laundry area should always have a good view of people coming into their area instead of having their backs turned and not knowing what's happening behind them.

Privacy Protection

Inhabitants should always feel secure and safe from public view or scrutiny when doing something of utmost private in nature. Walls, roofs, and closing options on openings should take care of this need, as well as CCTV cams and hidden security gadgets, which can also help secure residents from criminal elements.

Social Discrimination

Finally, a concept of shelter in the modern sense should also talk about creating an apt or relevant design quality for the shelter that makes its inhabitants safe from social prejudice or ostracism. A house or office design incongruous to the context of its neighborhood will expose its inhabitants to possible criticism and banishment. Thus, shelter should be presentable enough to the community it belongs to.

To have your house or office designed aptly and relevantly to its immediate milieu and to the times, inside and out, consult our friend Arch Marvin Mijares using the Contact Form on the sidebar. Please see his projects via the video above, which is also a sample of the video service we offer for your special events.

Getting an Architect is Cheaper in the Long Run than Merely Dealing with Foremen

Actual dream house projects by our friend
Arch. Marvin Mijares. If you want his services, just
use our Contact Form on the sidebar.

Architects are Trained to Help You Get What You Want with Your Budget

A lot of folks planning on building their dream houses or business places think they're getting cheaper deals when they do without an architect. They prefer talking with foremen who act as contractors, and getting the architect's fee out of the way feels like big savings, right? Wrong.

Most of us often don't get to hold big-enough money to build dream houses with, so we better make use of it the smartest way we can. I mean, it's often a once in a lifetime thing to earn money that big--and then you waste it all away by getting a bad deal with small-time contractors who make a mess of your dream house or business place. And often, we get this amount through bank or PAG-IBIG lending which we'll have to pay dearly for after.

In the end, you spend more money dealing with mere foremen than if you dealt with a professional architect. Your building cost often ends up higher when you hire cheap labor to build your dream house. Take this lady I know, for instance. She hired a foreman-carpenter to do her small 5X5-meter studio-type residence, thinking it would cost her less. However, the small project took 1 year to finish (no kidding) and cost her almost a fortune.

She learned a most valuable lesson she'd never forget in her life--never cut down too much on your dream house.

After all, if it's a "dream house" or "dream business place" you want, you have to shell out some. And it's the wisest investment actually, saving you not just money and time but a lot of headaches and heart aches after.

The small architect's fee you'd be paying actually is a good investment in the end. The fee is small compared to what you'd spend with the mess foremen-carpenters are apt to make out of your dream house. I've had a lot of friends and acquaintances make complaints about how some bunch of carpenters turned their dream houses into huge frustrations, to no avail. Once the structure is up, no amount of complaining will change it except that you pour in new cash for a new contract to repair the mess.

And what if you have limited budget? You will have to make do with a "dream" house or business place that makes you sick each time you see it. So, if say, your fixed budget is P1.2 million, you should make sure you entrust that budget to a smart and initiated professional who knows the right system for your requirement and budget and who'd be professionally honest to recommend an alternative in case something is really not feasible.

Here are the advantages of hiring a licensed Architect for your small or big dream project:

1. Backed by educated procedures and schedules that make the project systematic and cost-effective.
2. Architects are answerable to their signed commitments. They have a license, title, and career to protect.
3. Architects can not run away from responsibilities because they are easily traceable from their PRC license and United Architects of the Philippines membership.
4. Everything is agreed on and signed on the architectural and working drawings plus the official cost estimates and specifications.
5. Every construction system used is backed with engineering estimates for structural sturdiness and approved by the city engineer's office. Every phase of the construction is inspected with a professional eye for details.

Foremen and carpenters can always just disappear or deny or ignore client's complaints after the project is done and the contract is paid for. They have no license or title to protect. And I have seen how some of them simply abandoned projects in the middle of everything in search of another more lucrative project. I know a couple who, after giving a huge amount of money to their contractor, one day just found their unfinished dream house abandoned by the contractor for whatever reason.

Because they didn't want any hassle or didn't want to attend court proceedings if they filed charges (and that's additional expense), they just forgot about the contractor and hired a new one--and paid new contract money.

And I know of stories where the contractor-foreman was even a close relative of the client, but the same anomalies prospered, just the same. Well, not all contractor-foremen are probably like that, but why risk your hard-earned money for your dream house or business place?

So, get a licensed and professional architect. They are trained and mandated by law to give their clients nothing but the best the project budget could make out. It's good investment in the end and more cost-effective.

If you need an architect for your dream house--like the ones on the picture above made by our friend Arch. Marvin Mijares--simply use the HOUSEpinoy Contact Form on the sidebar for inquiries or project estimates.