The compendium of my building project level #1: From scratch to dpc

A month ago, I announced via this post about my ordeal and my decision to use my earnings to build a house for my family. I am here to give the update and it is going to be in levels.

As of today, the house is still in progress but in its 3rd level, going to the 4th level. The levels I mean are the stages a building project undergoes to the best of my knowledge before it becomes liveable, at least to the extent the cash at hand can carry. There may be other stages according to engineers and architects.

The levels are

From scratch to dpc
From dpc to window
From window to lintel
From lintel to roofing
From roofing to the roofing sheets, ceiling
From there to plaster, tiling, and moving in.

However, this first post is for the first stage. What did I go through to get to this stage? Please follow along as I share what I went through.

It is going to include

👉Meeting the village representatives where the land is situated to pay a developmental levy

👉The architectural drawing for the building

👉Involving an experienced engineer for professional advice

👉Moulding bricks, excavation of the foundation

👉Bricks laying by the laborers and supervisors

👉Dpc filling with red sand.

Meeting the village representatives where the land is situated to pay developmental levy

We already acquired a piece of land 2 years ago here in my city of residence. It is a plot of land but a bit bigger. The architectural drawing will reveal the actual size of the land. We had wanted to pay for the developmental fee but the village had an internal dispute about who is to be the village head. Because of this, we were advised to hold on to the payment to avoid repeating the payment. Then, the fee was 150,000 naira.

Now that the dispute is settled, and I am ready to build on the land, we were advised to go make the payment, if not, they will bring down whatever brick we raise there.

We then arranged with a family friend and met the youth president of that community, the chairman of the village. With the consent of the new village head, we negotiated the fee to be 250,000 naira as against 150,000 naira that it was supposed to be. According to them, one of the reasons for the increase is because that was what they agreed on before the dispute was settled. A lot of people will benefit from the cash.

Another reason is that, ordinarily, they will not accept cash transfers but physical cash. But in Nigeria, it is very difficult to access cash. If we were to access cash, they would have come down to 200000 naira. We searched for cash but all to no avail. We had to go ahead with the said amount. After we met and the transfer was done, we were given the receipt and the go-ahead order so that no one will disturb us. However, we should make photocopies of the receipt and ensure it is with whoever will be on the site in case anyone comes around to harass the workers.

Hence, the amount of STEEM spent for this fee amounted to 2100 STEEM

The architectural drawing for the building

As soon as we were sure that we have been approved to build, we proceeded with the architectural drawing by meeting an architect who then demanded the size of the land. Of course, he came around and took the measurements himself so he can be able to be sure.

He was able to give us something great after some adjustments. Here below is what we approved

The proposed building: 3-bedroom bungalow

Involving an experienced engineer for professional advice

Having gotten the design, the next was that we involved a friend who is an engineer for professional advice and supervision. We agreed on a charge to pay him though he just accepted what we negotiated because of the relationship. We will be buying the materials and then paying the laborers. It was ok for us. He only charged us 160,000 naira and agrees to be with us until we are done and ready to move in. The amount in STEEM is 1,300 STEEM.

Molding bricks, excavation of the foundation

As soon as we bought the land, we molded about 350 bricks. We intended to be molding little by little until we are ready to build. But that was just the quantity we were able to mold till now. But we also had a trip of unused sand which could also be used for molding. So we used it to start the foundation.

Because we wanted to complete the building faster and move in, we decided to try buying bricks from brick industries. We paid for 700 bricks but when they were delivered, we discovered that they were of inferior quality. We then discontinued it and decided to mold it so that we can combine it with the ones we bought.

	Offloading the purchased bricks

The excavation began as you can see from the pictures below.

	The engineers mapping out the space for the proposed building
	one of the supervisors pegging the mapped areas before excavation
	Excavation begins

Bricks laying by the labourers and supervisors

After the excavation, the foundation was laid with gravel, cement, and sand that we also bought.

2 Coaches of bricks were down the ground and 3 up to take it to the dpc level before filling. At this juncture, cash outlays will be presented at the end of the building because it is overwhelming to me. The expenditures overlapped at other levels. It will be best to keep it then.

	They mixed gravel, cement, sand and water as a starting point before the bricks.
	The bricks are laid as you can see
	The number of bricks that will form the dpc is completed. This is the 5 coach. The filling is next.

Dpc filling with red sand.

After the 5 coaches of bricks are laid to come up to dpc level which is the level of the house floor, we were advised to fill it with red sand.

We started ordering trips of red sand. As of now, we have already bought 9 trips and we are still going to buy one more to fill the little place remaining. Each trip cost 25000 naira (210 STEEM for each trip). We were lucky that a nearby road is under construction from where we bought the sand. It could have been more in cost.

	The filling is ongoing here as you can see

The filling remained a little before the next stage began. But take note that part of the red sand used in filing the dpc came from the soak-away excavation. We decided to do it along to use the red sand to add to the purchased ones. We used the red sand from there to fill the kitchen, the dining, the store, and the kitchen seat-out. This means that we could have purchased more red sand than we had wanted to.

I will talk about the soak-away in one of the levels that I will write about in the future.

The next level is to raise the bricks from the dpc to the window level, look out for the post.

It is not easy to build a house at this time.
Part of the challenges we faced was sourcing water to be used. Our close neighbors don't have boreholes yet, they get water from other neighbors. We then approached one of those they get water from, the man said there is no generator to pump the water and the electric light is not steady. We tried others and they said they will charge us 2,000 naira daily. It will be more expensive. We decided to fix our generator at home and take it to the one that said he has no generator and then all we spent is to fuel the generator each day we want to pump. It is less expensive and best for us. That is how the water issue is for now. We are grateful to the Almighty for helping us out in that area.

Another challenge is the cash issue. Most of the laborers who accepted a cash transfer found it difficult to access the cash to pay for transport to the site. We also fell into that same problem. Paying for transportation to the site became a very big challenge because the drivers refused to accept a transfer to their bank account. They need cash which is scarce. To access a little cash, you need to buy the cash. For instance, you pay 4,000 naira to get 10,000 naira. It is that bad. Hence, the laborers were demanding that we add extra money that will take care of the charges for them. We insisted in some cases and in some cases, we yield to their demands. It is not easy at all to build now.

As for us, we decided to fix the old car which has been parked for more than 6 months due to lack of cash to fix it. That is what we are managing now.

Thank you all for being there for us. I now understand what it means, yet, what Steem for better life means. I pray for more wisdom from the Almighty to be able to fix the house in a state where we can be able to move in.

My building is still a work in progress. Keep checking my blog for more.

Please dear curators, I am not in any club for now