I’m taking a bit of a lazy day here on VibePinas, enjoying a traditional Filipino lunch of boiled Cardava bananas dipped in salty fish—a meal Jessa prepared and one I actually enjoy, unlike many other foreigners! While we’re relaxing, I wanted to share some big updates about our future plans.
First off, we’re heading to Norway in about ten days for Christmas and New Year. This will be Jessa’s fourth trip there, and we’re planning a mini-cruise to Germany and hopefully some skiing if the weather cooperates. It’s always great to bring her back to my home country, especially since she’s already seen so much of it from north to south on our previous road trips.
The biggest news, however, is what happens when we get back in mid-January. We’ve finally figured out how to tackle building our own home. If you’ve followed our journey, you know we’ve moved from a luxury rental to a cheaper five-bedroom house, but even this current place doesn’t offer the peace and quiet we need. It’s right on a noisy road, and both Jessa and I—her being from the mountains and me being a rural guy at heart—really crave a more relaxing environment.
The challenge with building in the Philippines is that you really need to be on-site to ensure progress and quality. Our land is quite far off the beaten path, making it expensive and difficult to manage a crew from afar. Jessa actually came up with a genius, though humble, solution: we’re going to live in a "shack" on our land during the construction! We’ll extend the existing 15-square-meter building to about 35 square meters, add a balcony for shade, and set up a storage unit first to hold all our belongings.
By living there, we’ll save a fortune on rent and fuel, and most importantly, I can oversee the build every single day. We are absolutely refusing to borrow money for this project; we’ll build as we go, and if the budget gets tight, we’ll just take a break. It’s much less stressful that way. We’ve lived in small bamboo cabins before, so we know we can handle it. My goal is to have the entire house finished before 2026 is over. It’s a bold move, but it’s the best way to ensure we get the home we want without the "contractor nightmares" we've seen others face. Stay tuned as we start this new chapter!
