5 Stupid & 5 Smart Decisions I Made Building My House in the Philippines 🇵🇭

Building my dream house in the Philippines has been one of the most exciting — and occasionally frustrating — things I've ever done. I've made some really smart decisions along the way… and I've also made some decisions that, with hindsight, were pretty stupid! In this video I go through 5 of my biggest mistakes and 5 decisions that I think have worked out really well. And rather than doing them all in one list, I'm alternating between stupid and smart decisions throughout the video. The stupid decisions include: 💧 Underestimating the problems with water and electricity 🔥 Choosing a beautiful cogon roof without thinking through all the potential problems 🏗️ Not insisting on a cement mixer and ready-mix concrete from the beginning 📐 Allowing the house to grow bigger and more complicated than originally planned 🧱 Not teaching myself enough about concrete and strength testing before construction began 💬 And not always listening to good advice from people watching the build The smart decisions include: 🔨 Choosing to self-build instead of hiring a contractor 📜 Insisting on buying land with clean title 🎥 Filming and documenting the entire construction process 👷 Finding good workers and testing the relationship before starting the house 📱 Using Bisaya WhatsApp groups to keep a written record of instructions and agreements And there are a few more quickfire stupid and smart decisions at the end, including permits, wiring for solar and security, and keeping the design relatively simple. This isn't intended to be a masterclass in building a house in the Philippines — quite the opposite! I'm learning a huge amount as I go, and sometimes I'm learning things a little later than I should have. But I hope this series shows that you don't need to achieve perfection when you're taking on a huge project like this. You can make plenty of mistakes, change your plans, listen to advice, occasionally ignore advice, and generally bumble your way through the process… …and still end up with something amazing. Thanks for watching and following the build! 🇵🇭 #Philippines #Dumaguete #Dauin #PhilippinesHouseBuild #HouseBuild #BuildingInThePhilippines #DreamHouse #PoolBuild #PhilippinesConstruction #NegrosOriental #selfbuildcamper Privacy Notice: This video was filmed in public places in the Philippines. In compliance with the Philippine Data Privacy Act, no individuals are intentionally featured without consent. If you appear incidentally in the background and would like the footage removed, please contact me directly and I will remove or edit the video accordingly.