I have decided to diarise my building experience involving the building of a 3 bedroom Bungalow + Penthouse at Calabar (close to Tinapa). Since i'm based in London I have decided to project manage the construction in phases by myself each time I visited Nigeria. I bought a 150 x 100 plot of land in June 2014 and visited in December 2014 to oversee the fencing of the plot. In August 2015 I visited for the excavation phase to the German floor phase before leaving. I also annexed a 50 x 50 plot next to mine during my visit (a good place to locate the 2 x 3 bedroom flat BQ, Borehole, Generator room at the back of the plot).

Features: Ground Floor
Ante-room, Lounge, Dinning room, Kitchen/ Store, 3 Bedroom (ensuite -including Visitors room), stairwell, visitors toilet.

Penthouse: Masters bedroom ensuite with balcony, Second bedroom ensuite

Most of the input came from Nairaland members here

*Original plan (5 bedroom bungalow) designed by megaplanpro
*First penthouse design-by Vicmoor
*BoQ for Fencing cost + building advice- by Segzy14
*Structural design advice by Onakomaya

This is the 3D design of the building

LondonCool:
I have decided to diarise my building experience involving the building of a 3 bedroom Bungalow + Penthouse at Calabar (close to Tinapa). Since i'm based in London I have decided to project manage the construction in phases by myself each time I visited Nigeria. I bought a 150 x 100 plot of land in June 2014 and visited in December 2014 to oversee the fencing of the plot. In August 2015 I visited for the excavation phase to the German floor phase before leaving. I also annexed a 50 x 50 plot next to mine during my visit (a good place to locate the 2 x 3 bedroom flat BQ, Borehole, Generator room at the back of the plot).

Features: Ground Floor
Ante-room, Lounge, Dinning room, Kitchen/ Store, 3 Bedroom (ensuite -including Visitors room), stairwell, visitors toilet.

Penthouse: Masters bedroom ensuite with balcony, Second bedroom ensuite

Most of the input came from Nairaland members here

*Original plan (5 bedroom bungalow) designed by megaplanpro
*First penthouse design-by Vicmoor
*BoQ for Fencing cost + building advice- by Segzy14
*Structural design advice by Onakomaya

Welcome back, can you share the 3D plan of the house. If possible progress of the house.

This was the original 3D version done for me by Vicmoor.

Beautiful Londoncool... we are already here following you... God will see you thru.

Hajji M.

mufutau55:
Beautiful Londoncool... we are already here following you... God will see you thru.

Hajji M.

Thanks my brother!!

LondonCool:
This was the original 3D version done for me by Vicmoor.

Good job, already in first roll seat in class, Hajji is going to next seat to me. hajji I hope you have your note book with you.

This is the sloping view of the plot. It slopes at a steep gradient which presented challenges while excavating the foundation.

kopell:
Good job, already in first roll seat in class, Hajji is going to next seat to me. hajji I hope you have your note book with you.

I store everything in my memory... my God given non-erasable Ipad.

Hajji M.

The land had 15 Palm trees and was like a jungle. I paid N75,000 to fell the tree's and clear the whole site (150 x 100)

Another view

Following keenly..

LondonCool:
The land had 15 Palm trees and was like a jungle. I paid N75,000 to fell the tree's and clear the whole site (150 x 100)

I'm going to be keenly following this thread.
Just asking is there any way you could have cleared the site without cutting all the trees... sometimes the trees add a nice flavour to the compound instead of just interlocking blocks.

Btw.. does your plan make use of the land slope or levels it..the fence makes it look like you are taking good advantage of the slope.

Thanks

mufutau55:


I store everything in my memory... my God given non-erasable Ipad.

Hajji M.

As Usual.I'm the monitor and here to write names of noise makers

LondonCool:
Another view

Bross no bush meat??

I started by fencing the plot of land in order to secure its perimeters. I had to be physically present to commence this phase.

erico2k2:

Bross no bush meat??

Unfortunately, there were none around.

More fences

LondonCool:
I have decided to diarise my building experience involving the building of a 3 bedroom Bungalow + Penthouse at Calabar (close to Tinapa). Since i'm based in London I have decided to project manage the construction in phases by myself each time I visited Nigeria. I bought a 150 x 100 plot of land in June 2014 and visited in December 2014 to oversee the fencing of the plot. In August 2015 I visited for the excavation phase to the German floor phase before leaving. I also annexed a 50 x 50 plot next to mine during my visit (a good place to locate the 2 x 3 bedroom flat BQ, Borehole, Generator room at the back of the plot).

Features: Ground Floor
Ante-room, Lounge, Dinning room, Kitchen/ Store, 3 Bedroom (ensuite -including Visitors room), stairwell, visitors toilet.

Penthouse: Masters bedroom ensuite with balcony, Second bedroom ensuite

Most of the input came from Nairaland members here

*Original plan (5 bedroom bungalow) designed by megaplanpro
*First penthouse design-by Vicmoor
*BoQ for Fencing cost + building advice- by Segzy14
*Structural design advice by Onakomaya

It would be enlightening for you to do a post about the land in tinapa. I know a couple of people who plan/ want to build vacation homes in the area, but have zero information on that part of the country despite its great tourism potential. Thanks

God will help you to complete it in jesus name.

LondonCool:
I have decided to diarise my building experience involving the building of a 3 bedroom Bungalow + Penthouse at Calabar (close to Tinapa). Since i'm based in London I have decided to project manage the construction in phases by myself each time I visited Nigeria. I bought a 150 x 100 plot of land in June 2014 and visited in December 2014 to oversee the fencing of the plot. In August 2015 I visited for the excavation phase to the German floor phase before leaving. I also annexed a 50 x 50 plot next to mine during my visit (a good place to locate the 2 x 3 bedroom flat BQ, Borehole, Generator room at the back of the plot).

Features: Ground Floor
Ante-room, Lounge, Dinning room, Kitchen/ Store, 3 Bedroom (ensuite -including Visitors room), stairwell, visitors toilet.

Penthouse: Masters bedroom ensuite with balcony, Second bedroom ensuite

Most of the input came from Nairaland members here

*Original plan (5 bedroom bungalow) designed by megaplanpro
*First penthouse design-by Vicmoor
*BoQ for Fencing cost + building advice- by Segzy14
*Structural design advice by Onakomaya

OnetimeOnly:

I'm going to be keenly following this thread.
Just asking is there any way you could have cleared the site without cutting all the trees... sometimes the trees add a nice flavour to the compound instead of just interlocking blocks.

Btw.. does your plan make use of the land slope or levels it..the fence makes it look like you are taking good advantage of the slope.

Thanks

Thanks for your question. It was very necessary to cut down all the trees in order to assess the size of the plot bought and to provide access to the site. I will definately create some landscaping green space and plant some exquisite trees.

The bungalow is located at the bottom of the slope so we had to level it for the foundation. At the top of the slope there is space to build a 3 storey building which would have a basement/underground bunker included due to the steep slope.

segzy14:
God will help you to complete it in jesus name.

Thanks, appreciated !!

LondonCool:


Thanks for your question. It was very necessary to cut down all the trees in order to assess the size of the plot bought and to provide access to the site. I will definately create some landscaping green space and plant some exquisite trees.

The bungalow is located at the bottom of the slope so we had to level it for the foundation. At the top of the slope there is space to build a 3 storey building which would have a basement/underground bunker included due to the steep slope.

Nice. It's good you are taking advantage of the slope.. keep the thread going.

I spent 3 weeks in Nigeria to start excavation work to DPC level.

We then started work on the foundation. This took nearly 7-9 coaches around certain levels. We put a beam at the 5th coach.

More pics

more pics

Lessons learned so far (for those building from abroad)

1) Make sure you are there physically to supervise each stage of your building project (even if it takes you 4 years)- this is to prevent what happended in 1993 from happening to you.

2) Always engage professionals for your project. Ask them questions. Challenge every assumption. (the Architects on Nairaland were a good sounding board for actualising my building designs). Vicmoor sold me the idea of having a penthouse in my bungalow. Segzy14 always checked up on the progress of the building project and provided some sound advice.

3) Have at least one reliable home person on ground. I used my younger brother and my Architect friend, though they used to checkmate each other, I was getting spot-on updates on the work progress corroborated by 2 sources.

4) I bought a camera and SD card for my brother with the caveat that he had to give me weekly pictures about the work progress via Whatsapp (with his face in picture, lol). Look for a way to get visual updates about your project.

5) Get ready for other anciliary costs after purchasing your land. I paid lots of money for Land registration , Town Planning approval, Site Analysis/Charting, etc.

LondonCool:
Lessons learned so far (for those building from abroad)

1) Make sure you are there physically to supervise each stage of your building project (even if it takes you 4 years)- this is to prevent what happended in 1993 from happening to you.

2) Always engage professionals for your project. Ask them questions. Challenge every assumption. (the Architects on Nairaland were a good sounding board for actualising my building designs). Vicmoor sold me the idea of having a penthouse in my bungalow. Segzy14 always checked up on the progress of the building project and provided some sound advice.

3) Have at least one reliable home person on ground. I used my younger brother and my Architect friend, though they used to checkmate each other, I was getting spot-on updates on the work progress corroborated by 2 sources.

4) I bought a camera and SD card for my brother with the caveat that he had to give me weekly pictures about the work progress via Whatsapp (with his face in picture, lol). Look for a way to get visual updates about your project.

5) Get ready for other anciliary costs after purchasing your land. I paid lots of money for Land registration , Town Planning approval, Site Analysis/Charting, etc.

Very important.

Following as usual

OnetimeOnly:


It would be enlightening for you to do a post about the land in tinapa. I know a couple of people who plan/ want to build vacation homes in the area, but have zero information on that part of the country despite its great tourism potential. Thanks

Land around Tinapa is now at a premium price and picked up by money bags. Winners Chapel have secured acres there for their new University (for Science and Engineering). Mine is in a newly opened up area around 5 minutes from Tinapa. Its like a quiet village but surely lots of bourgeois are picking up plots here quite consistently. Once the CRS Government gets to see the rate of development here, they would most likely acquire the area, build layouts and sell the plots to Government official and their lackeys.

Am following religiously.