Build or Buy: Rules for buying a house

Look beyond the paint and tiles!

Most developers in real estate development are shrewd businessmen who construct the houses en masse at minimum price per unit with the objective of making a fast buck. I said most; not all.

It is your responsibility as the potential house owner to ensure that that the nice looking house with superb color schemes on the walls that match the excellent granito tiles on the floor is built on a firm foundation. How do you do that? Simple; engage an independent professional.

It is no secret that developers will spare no cost on the finishing and aesthetics and compromise on the most important aspect of the structure which is the sub structure or the foundation. One way of telling whether a house has a weak foundation is to check out the steel doors or windows.

If they seem to be getting stuck while opening or closing, the foundation might be experiencing settlement or in other words it may be moving or sinking slowly. Other tell-tell signs are cracks that run from the floor, up a wall and through a beam. This is also a sign of foundation settlement. Developers are shrewd and they will most likely camouflage such obvious flaws by using filler, paint and tiles.

Soap foam like residue that constantly appears on the floor and walls might indicate that the foundation of the house was constructed without a damp proof membrane. A professional in the building industry will quickly notice such anomalies and will not stand in awe of the superficial tile work and matching color schemes that have been selected bring out the ‘ambiance’ and ‘character’ of the last remaining house in the real estate development. Before you sign the dotted line, get an independent professional assessment of the building.
The two rules above will most likely keep you from losing your hard earned cash when purchasing your dream home.

Building Vs buying; which is best the best path for Kenya house ownership

Rule number 1 of building a house; Measure twice, cut once.

“Measure twice cut once” is a favorite proverb among st carpenters and it best exemplifies the importance of planning before you engage in any kind of endeavor no matter how trivial. Failure by the carpenter to plan and measure his timber according to the specifications before cutting it will result in waste of time and resources.

This maxim holds true especially in building a house. The prospective house owner must have a clear mental picture of the kind of structure he desires. He should then put his thoughts on paper using sketches and notes and refine the design until he feels certain that he knows exactly what he wants. No special training or tools are needed to prepare the sketch and notes; a clear mind and basic pen and paper literacy will suffice.

After putting the idea on paper, the prospective house owner should then engage an architect so that the sketches and notes can be conveyed into building plans that can be used for construction. The architect will also advise the client on the tentative cost of the building as well as help in refining the design so as to make it practical. This kind of preliminary consultation with a building professional might take as little time as an hour over a cup of coffee for a simple domestic house and the professional might not charge for such advice. (But at least the client should pay for the coffee!) Most professionals in the construction industry are more than willing to offer their expertise and such information will be of great use in the preliminary planning stage. Of course the architect/draughtsman or engineer will charge for finally preparing the building plans but the information and advice that he initially gives will go a long way in enabling the client to plan for the project; both design wise and financially.

Ways to Maximize a Small Space 2

This week we continue with our tips on how you can use these small space design ideas to help you decorate your room

Trick Your Eye

Create an impression of expansiveness by exploiting decorative sleight of hand, from floor-to-ceiling curtains and see-through furnishings to strategically placed mirrors.

Make Every Piece Count

Choose furnishings and decorative elements that offer maximum functionality in minimal square footage. Use two small round tables instead of one big coffee table. They're better for traffic flow than one of those huge knee knockers, and easier to move.

Use Bigger — But Fewer — Furnishings

It may seem counter-intuitive, but outfitting a small space with just a few large-scale pieces (rather than a mishmash of pint-size furniture) can actually make it feel grander. That said, don't be afraid of filling up the space. When a room is populated with furniture, it actually appears larger.

Visual Continuity Creates Calm

Soothing, even-toned rooms fool the eye into thinking they're more spacious than they are.

Ways to Maximize a Small Space

Whether you live in the quintessential studio apartment or want to get more out of a small room or tiny nook in your house, use these small space design ideas to help you decorate:

Create Zones

Think about all the things you do in a space — work, sleep, relax, eat — and then establish separate zones for those activities. Subtle demarcations can help the space feel larger. You can evoke "rooms" with multiple seating areas, a tented or curtained bed, a window seat or built-in banquette, or even just a smartly placed table and chair.

Embrace Change

Choose elements that switch-hit. Find a table that can function as both a desk and a dining table. Get daybeds or deep sofas that can double as guest beds. A storage ottoman can provide an extra perch, a little table, and a secret hiding place. Invest in pieces that can be rearranged to transform the use of a room: Murphy beds, folding chairs, collapsible or flip-top tables. Pieces like nesting tables take up less space than conventional furniture when not in use. Exploit wireless technology wherever possible to make it easy to re position lighting, speakers, or home-office gadgets. And put furniture on casters, so it's easy to move.

Construction in Kenya

The construction industry in Kenya is strewn with all sorts of structures. From the picturesque village church on a hill built at the turn of the century, to the humble 3 bedroom cottage built hurriedly in the outskirts of the city before the last rains. From the swanky apartment developments in Riverside, to the single bedroom developments in Ngara and Eastleigh. The architectural landscape is changing and new buildings with varying designs will continue claiming their rightful place on the Kenyan landscape. No one can predict how the skyline will look 20, 10 or 1 year from now. Heck, I don’t even know whether the mound of quarry stones that are piled in the empty lot behind my house will transform into a shack or castle or whether they will be the fodder and ammunition that feed the next riot. Roads are opening up more than any other time in our country’s history; the Thika road superhighway, East & Central Africa’s finest highway is taking shape and it is a sight to behold. One thing is certain though, the Kenya skyline is transforming. Kenya is blessed with an abundance of skilled and energetic youth, most of whom are trained either formally or vocationally in varying trades such as masonry, carpentry, plumbing, glazing, interior decoration, painting, landscaping, carving et al. Another section of entrepreneurship that Kenyans have ventured into is the business of building material supply and logistics. This includes sourcing, extraction, transport and supply of river sand, ballast, quarry stones, mazeras, makuti, timber...the list is endless. As this happens our institutions of higher learning continue to churn out graduates in the fields or architecture, civil engineering, quantity surveying, interior decor and environmental management, equipped with cutting edge information destined to make a difference in our society. They are ready to design and transform the skylines and countryside’s of our counties with enduring, safe and aesthetic buildings. Sadly a huge chasm exists between the Clients, the Building Professionals, the Material Suppliers and the Tradesmen commonly referred to as Fundi’s. The professionals are only engaged to work on the upmarket apartment developments in Riverside, Windsor and the like. They also work in construction projects financed by the corporate sector, government or donors. You will hardly ever see an architect setting up the humble abode in Kamulu or Ruai, yet this is where the masses reside. Nature abhors a vacuum and this lack of professionals is quickly filled up by swindler contractors who double up as architects, material suppliers, tradesmen and real estate agents. They hurriedly put structures that are eyesores, unsafe and over budget. They are motivated by quick profits and will only follow building codes when they are demanding payments. The Fundi Mjanja concept intends to fill the gap between the Clients, the Professionals, the Material Suppliers and the Handy Man or the Fundi. We have even gone a step further and engaged a team of top notch professionals to contribute their wealth of knowledge by writing blogs and offering building advice for free.   Tradesmen from masons to mural painters, from Landscape Architects to Environmental Experts complete with telephone contacts can be found in the Fundi Categories section of the website.   This means that a client can visit www.fundimjanja.com get contacts of a local qualified professional like an architectural technician, from the Fundi Categories section of the site who can advise him/her according to the specification of his/her project. The client can then get further advice from the Forum section by reading the articles and comments or by asking questions directly in the blogs. The client can also visit the Building Material Prices and compare the prices of building materials so as to get acquainted with the cost of construction materials before he embarks on the project. All these services are free and are readily available on the website.   At the construction stage, the client can visit the site and choose to order materials via the Building Material Section. Clients can also opt to use this section to compare prices with whatever prices they are getting from local suppliers in their area. This ensures that the clients are informed before they make a commitment to purchase building materials. This service is of invaluable help for Kenyans and Investors in the Diaspora who are undertaking construction projects or repair works anywhere in the country. Payments can be made via Credit and Visa Cards and Mpesa service. At this stage Fundi Mjanja processes the orders and relays the same to Pre-Qualified Building Material Suppliers, located in different parts of the country. Fundi Mjanja then contacts the clients and gets the exact location of the site and the contact person on site. The delivery is then made to the site to the satisfaction of the client. Fundi Mjanja has a place for everyone; building material suppliers can visit the building material section and if they feel that they are capable of matching or offering better prices than the ones on offer, they will be engaged as suppliers. They will of course be vetted to ensure that they can actually deliver and that they adhere to ethical business practises. This includes strict adherence to weights and measures which means that we will ensure that when our clients order and pay for 30 Tonnes of river sand they actually get 30 Tonnes of the same and not 26 tonnes of quarry waste and sand mixture which is the common practice amongst unscrupulous material suppliers.  Fundi Mjanja will also ensure that we offer the latest industry news and government policy relating to the construction industry as well as what’s happening in different parts of the world. So welcome and karibu to the Fundi Mjanja community. Enjoy, contribute and share the service. Feel free to give us feedback as we continue to offer you quality service.   This will ensure that when you put up your dream house, it will stand the test of time and be part of the ever changing Kenyan skyline even up to the turn of the next century, just like the picturesque village church on a hill. FUNDI MJANJA.

Count the cost of construction

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” These wise words of Jesus found in the bible ring as true today as when they where first uttered two thousand years ago. Sadly this important part of construction planning is grossly ignored in the current Kenyan construction industry.

Any construction endeavour, apart from building castles in the air, is fuelled by the following five vital ingredients; 
1.    Cash 
2.    Money 
3.    Finances 
4.    Legal tender 
5.    All of the above

It is imperative that counting the cost is the single most important aspect of construction planning and will ensure that your building project runs to its logical conclusion. It enables the client to be sure of exactly what he is getting himself into from the onset and to decide early enough whether to start the project with the funds available, or source for additional funds.

Primarily counting the cost normally begins by having an idea of the kind of structure that one intends to put up. Be it a three bedroom bungalow with basic amenities or a four bedroom deluxe maisonette, or the construction of a masonry perimeter wall, it is necessary for the client to visualize his needs at the beginning.

Counting the cost of a project is also important for ostensibly small renovation jobs both in the house and at the office. Such jobs could be tiling works for a kitchen or washroom, painting works or even the fitting of shelves. For small jobs or repairs, after evaluating and visualising the need, the client can engage a competent handy man or fundi to estimate the materials as well as the labour component and advise on the execution of the job.

And how can a client tell if a job is small? Any job that involves the engagement of only one tradesman like a leaking pipe, blown electrical socket, broken window panes, re-painting a room or house with the same colour paint and the like, can be described as small jobs. These jobs would require a general plumber, general electrician, window glazer and a painter respectively. The project costs involved would also be relatively small and will generally be in terms of thousands of shillings. The beauty of these is that all these handy men and listed on the www.fundimjanja.com website as a free service, complete with contact numbers and location. Furthermore, the client can just visit www.fundimjanja.com, go to the Fundi Categories section browse through the more than 40 tradesmen categories listed and get a short description of what each individual handyman or fundi specializes in.

Afterwards the client can chose an individual handyman get his phone contacts, call him up and arrange for a meeting. The handyman can do a quotation based on the materials and his labour component for the job. The client can then be able to count the cost of the entire job from the onset and decide if he is able to afford the job. A contingency sum of 5-10% of the estimated amount should also be factored in to mitigate against price fluctuations’ and transport costs.

The client can get a quote for free by engaging the handymen listed on the site although it is good practice and encouraged to reimburse them for transport costs and time spent preparing the quote.

It is also important to consult an interior designer or landscaper when doing major internal or external alterations as they can advise the client on alternative materials that can be used and thus save the client a tidy sum. Their experience allows them to foresee the end from the beginning and advise the client on the phases that the project should entail. For example before tiling a bathroom it is wise to ensure that all leaking pipes and faulty taps are repaired so that the tiles are not damaged during subsequent repairs. This will involve engaging a plumber before the mason fixes the pipes. The same applies to painting; a general electrician should be engaged to fix faulty electrical fixtures before painting. An architect or interior designer will be able to advise the client on all preceding issues and thus ensure that the client is able to count the cost of the job before commencement. Amazingly such cost estimates can be done at negligible cost by engaging professionals. The implication of charging forward and commencing a seemingly small job without counting the cost can be catastrophic and might result in additional repairs.

For larger jobs; jobs that involve many trades like office partitioning, house extension or construction of new structures , the client can do simple sketches on paper so that the mental picture is clearer to him, he can refine the sketch until he is pretty sure that what he has on paper fairly represents what he intends to build. The client should not feel intimidated to produce an accurate, scaled sketch at this stage, also no training is necessary to prepare the sketch; a clear mind and basic pen and paper literacy will suffice. The sketch should also have notes and explanations where necessary so that anything that the client is unable to sketch is put down in words. The next step is engaging an architect or a designer to translate the clients’ sketch, notes and thoughts into building plans that can be used on site for the construction. This might seem very odd for seemingly simple structures like boundary walls, pig sties or cattle pens but the advantages of translating these thoughts on paper cannot be gain said. This is the first step in ensuring that the project will be completed. Starting the construction without drawings is like embarking on a journey without a destination; any road will take there. Depending on the complexity of the project, the architect as the head of the building team will be able to advise the client on the need of engaging other professionals like quantity surveyors, structural, electrical and mechanical engineers and of course the contractors. The architect will normally negotiate on behalf of the client and thus the client can rest easy in the knowledge that they are on the same side.

The advantages of engaging an architect are that he or she acts as a neutral party to both the client and the contractor. His chief concern will be the adherence to the drawing and specifications, quality of materials on site and overall workmanship. The client on the other hand will be more conscious of controlling costs of the project, and the expediency of the job. The contractors or workmen on site would be more interested in expediting the job, so that they are paid; at times at the expense of quality. When the demands of all three of these somewhat divergent players in the project are met, the client will be the victor as he will have an enduring, aesthetic, high quality structure built within the initial budget and time frame.

Counting the cost will ensure that your construction project will be terminated because the structure is complete and not because the funds have run out, and thus ensure that the long cherished Kenyan tradition of incomplete construction projects comes to an end.

Till next time, keep well and keep safe. 
Fundi Mjanja. 

Re doing your rooms

 Are you tired of how your living room or family room looks?  Consider an easy fix before you call in the decorator! Rearrange the furniture. With a little forethought and planning, and some muscle, you could have a charming new look before the sun sets.

 

Before You Begin

 

·         Take a good look at the room, its features, and its contents. Re-evaluate how the room is used. This may have changed as your family has grown, or you may have been living with some awkward spaces.

·         Consider the focal point of the room as well as its traffic patterns. Do your kids use this space as the most direct route to the kitchen? Is this where you all watch movies together? Do you light a fire in the fireplace often? Is there a great view from the window?

·         Identify your favorite pieces of furniture -- as well as those you don't like as much. Consider removing a few. Just because they are in the room now does not mean they need to stay.

·         Decide to get rid of clutter and to straighten up the bookshelves. Think about displaying your favorite collections or hobbies in creative ways.

·         Sketch a few different ideas on paper, measure accurately so that you know how everything will fit.

 

Start Moving

 

·         Move the largest pieces of furniture first and arrange the rest around them. If you have a favorite piece, showcase it.

·         Create a comfortable cluster of furniture near the focal point of the room. Make it attractive and inviting but don't crowd it. 

·         Only put furniture against walls when you have no other choice.

·         Leave enough open space so that the room does not feel crammed. For traffic, allow about three feet for a "corridor."

·         Consider lighting. Make sure there is good light where you read and soft light in conversation areas. Don't position lamps so that they are hard to reach.

·         Finally, although you have gotten rid of most of your clutter, consider introducing a few accessories from other parts of the house -- or buying new ones. These could be pictures, large vases, or throw pillows.

 If, after a few weeks or months, you decide the new arrangement does not work, move the furniture again. Chances are, though, you will love the new look. For now, anyhow!

EVOLUTION OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND THE BUILDING TEAM

The history of development of housing facilities reveals that man has been molding his environment throughout the ages for more comfortable living. It all started in caves in pre- historic times and later developed to traditional dwellings such as huts and villages. A lot of evolution has happened since the first simple structures were erected by gradually adopting industrial methods and techniques. Modern dwelling has thus been established.    I am going to go deeper and highlight the team that takes part to put up a modern dwelling. This is the building team. ·                           Client- He/she is the building owner, the employer and the project financier. He can be an individual, private company, local authority or government. ·                           Architect- He/ she is engaged by client and translates the needs into drawings and plans, gives advice and ensures that project is kept within cost and complexity of design, approves workmanship and quality of material used by contractor. Being the leader of design team, he may therefore consult other professionals eg. Structural/ Electrical/Mechanical engineer, Quantity surveyor depending on nature of project. ·                           Quantity surveyor- Engaged in preparing bill of quantities (BQ), checking tenders and preparing interim valuations. He gives preliminary advice, approximate estimate and advises client on expected total expenditure. ·                           Structural engineer- Employed by client as a consultant under the recommendation of the architect... Offers advice to architect to enable selection of most efficient, economic and stable structure to be used in a particular situation. He is responsible for structural stability of the building. ·                           Clerk of works- Normally employed on large contract as architect’s representative on site. He checks drawings, BQ and other contract document. He inspects workmanship but has no authority to instruct. ·                           Site agent – Employed in large projects and represents engineer on site. ·                           Contractor- Responsible with construction work and is engaged by client on advice of architect. He employs supervisor/ foreman, masons, stone dressers, carpenters, steel fixers, plumbers and laborers to do actual construction work. He owns machinery to carry out work efficiently. ·                           Sub- contractor- These are suppliers of materials or any contractor who is given mandate to do specific work eg. electrical work, under recommendation of client. With changing technology, each member of building team needs to adapt with time and embrace new techniques which are efficient, effective and economical. Evolution of built environment goes on.