The year 2022 overview

Building a house

In 2016 I started thinking about my retirement. Where should I retire? In Philippines without a good reliable healthcare provider and expensive hospitals but a more favorable sunny weather? Or in Belgium where healthcare is more adequate and affordable but long dark winters. The answer was in favor of Belgium.

In the meantime, we were looking for a small lot as an investment or to be used in the future by Jas in case I’m not around anymore. We were looking out of the big city and Tagaytay was attractive destination. In our search we found this new development of a small subdivision in a quiet place. The lot seize are 100 to 200+ m2. We chose a lot with 104 m2 because I had no intention at that time to build anything on it.

Then year 2020 came along with a life changing virus and a bleak outlook on the future. Travel became impossible and all my projects at Nokia came to an end. The company started warning me they did not have any future job for me. I started looking in to early retirement and asked the Belgian Pension Service about regulating my pension. I contributed to 2 pension services: Federal Pension Service (FPD for 10 years) for people working in Belgium and an Overseas Social Security (OSS for 32 years) for people working overseas (like me).

The reply from the Pension service was good; I had 42 years of service up to 2019 and eligible for early retirement, just before the law change in 2020. I initiated my request for retirement with the FPD with starting date January 1, 2021. It was accepted by FPD noting that they wait for a reply from OSS!?. Assuming the FPD will arrange with OSS about the pension request, I waited…and waited. After waiting 6 months still no reply from the Pension service, the company (Nokia) asked when my retirement will start. It’s already February 2021. Unknow to me, it turns out I have to request my retirement with OSS apart from the FPD request. All done, after a series of intervention and communication, my retirement started April 1, 2021.

Retiring in Europe was on hold with no end in sight of COVID-19 pandemic. After 2 years in lockdown and reduced social mobility came a new threat; war in Europe. OSS offered me a free healthcare insurance similar to the Belgian Healthcare insurance, so a major issue was cleared and retiring in Philippines became more favorable. Continuing renting the house in San Lorenzo Makati becomes too expensive over time. Let’s build a house in Tagaytay. The purchased lot seize of 104m2 was an unfortunate bad choice in 2016, knowing what we know today (in 2022). But nothing we can do to change that. All lots in the subdivision are sold. So, we are stuck with the small lot.

  We decided to contract the family of Jas as building constructor. Jas’s dad built his own 4 story house in 2021 and still has lots of tools useful in the construction. But first we need an architect. To no surprise there is an architect in the family. My idea of the house was to occupy the whole lot. Ground floor as garage, storage and office, second floor living space with open kitchen and third floor bedrooms and open space. All this evaporated as the deed restriction suggest; outer walls should be 1 meter from back and sides perimeter and 2 meters from the street side. The architect came up with a more classic look of a modern house.

It’s December 2021. Next step is to apply for a building permit. As with everything in the Philippines it is a long bureaucratic process. Since we are not working with a contractor, a security and insurance bond needs to be paid. Christmas and New Year doesn’t make it any faster. Mid-January, we got news from city hall the building permit was in process and should be available early February. Over the 5 years, the lot was overgrown and needed to be cleared. While waiting for the building permit, the builders started with laying out and digging the foundation. A shack for storing building materials and temporary sleeping quarter was built on the opposite vacant lot.