The special homeowners association board meeting started at 8:35 pm tonight as soon as I arrived at the admin office. I was late by 5 minutes because when we went out of the gate, it was drizzling. I said WE because I brought along two maids in case there’s a dog that will bark at us, ipapahabol ko sa kanila.
About 30 meters from our gate it started raining. I sent back one of the maids to get umbrellas. We continued walking towards the clubhouse and I used my handbag to cover my head while waiting for the maid. The umbrellas arrived just before it rained hard.
There were 5 directors present plus the doctor brother of one of the directors. The house is for the doctor. They were ready for battle.
Me, I was the attack dog of my two male directors, the president and the chairman. Those two are not confrontational, very polite and diplomatic. I could see on their faces that they disapprove of the plan. I read their facial expressions and their minds (para akong psychic) and vocalized their thoughts.
I told the two brothers that at first glance, I would say that it’s not an attic, it’s a third floor. Maybe they can revise the plan in such a way that it looks like two floors only, but inside they can put as many floors as possible. They said it doesn’t violate anything. That the height is only 10 meters. But that’s not the issue, the issue is, it has a third floor they keep calling as attic. Baka attic-attican.
He was visibly mad. I told him “we are not quarreling with you. We are in fact helping you find a compromise”.
I looked at the architectural drawings and saw that the height of the attic is 2.9 meters. Hindi attic yan, that’s a full height of habitable rooms. Hindi daw, with the ceiling and the cement roof slab, it will be reduced to 2.2 meters. Good for storage use lang daw. I don’t think so. Let’s say the slab is 6″ plus ceiling frame of 8″ plus particle board or plywood, 1″ , it would still be 2.4 meters in height which is within the habitable ceiling height for dwellings in accordance with the National Building Code of the Philippines. Ordinary residential dwelling has a standard ceiling clearance of 2.3 to 2.4 meters for two stories and 2.7 meters for one level houses.
They’re hot. He even cited that our house is too tall. The neighbor daw is complaining. I let him finish his rant then I said “For the record, our house is 10.5 meters in height. The lot is rolling that’s why it’s higher than my next neighbor. And dami kong sinabi.
In the beginning, they were really firm, they will not change it daw. He’s been doing the plan daw in the past three years. Hah? Tagal naman.
So I said, you don’t want to make any compromise, but the board is not comfortable, so? Richard and I looked at each other and chu-chua pa kami— Status Quo.
A—-“Then, what will happen? Let’s just vote”.
Female director—-“Wag naman, sana huwag umabot sa ganyan”.
We don’t even have a quorum. Quorum is five, but the fifth one is the director who will build a house. I said, the one who will be inconvenienced by the decision or who will benefit from it should not vote because there’s a conflict of interest.
A—-“We choose to live in this village therefore we have to find a compromise, a common ground, between what we want to build and the rules. Ako nga, I want to extend our house because I have no more space for my salawal, but I can’t because there’s a set-back rule. They all laughed when I said salawal. Panty sana pero di ba mas politically correct ang salawal kesa panty?
I suggested that they reduce the foot print by pushing it back at the front. I didn’t suggest by how much. The total floor area of their house is almost 1,000 sqm.
He said the “attic” is only 70% of the size of the second floor. I asked for specifics. He kept on saying The ATTIC, I kept on saying The Third Level.
second level is 330 square meters, attic kuno is 270 square meters. That’s not 70%, that’s 82%. Konti na lang pantay na sila.
The female director commented that I was being judgmental by doing this computations and saying the “attic” is still big. I said I am not being judgmental, I am computing so that we can have a better perspective of the area. Para accurate.
They budged by suggesting they will remove 4 meters then it will become 50% daw. I know a little about construction and I know a lot about space computations, dyan ako magaling. I asked what’s the width of the attic kuno, 13 meters daw (he was hesitant to say it). 4 meters x 13 meters = 52 square meters. 270 sqm minus 52 sqm = 218 sqm divided by 330 = 66%.
The third level would still have a 66% ratio vis-a-vis the second floor. Our adjacent village’s rule is only 20% must be devoted to attic.
A—- 218 sqm is still big for an attic.
Ininsulto pa ako, kung sa akin daw malaki na yon, sa brother daw nya kulang pa nga yon because he is a doctor, he has many books. Then it’s not going to be used as a storage, it’s going to be a library?
Attic daw.
A—–“Question, what is the definition of attic?”
The doctor said he is the only one compromising, we are not. We already taking 50 square meters of his house daw, but we are not losing anything.
Huh?
Size is of course debatable. This rich guys are spoiled.
If it’s up to me I will require them to move it back further.
A—–“If I will decide as your ordinary neighbor, I will say okay, do as you please, kung merong mag complain huwag mo na lang pansinin. But as a director, I have a responsibility to make sure whatever we approve can withstand scrutiny. I won’t be here next year (Richard and Hubert said “ako rin”), there will be a new set of board and they might question why we approved this”.
A—-“Hubert, remind me next year I don’t want to be president”.
Richard—–“Me too”.
Hubert——“Ako rin”.
Our meeting ended at 11 pm only because we got tired and it was already late.
I was the first to stand up but I stayed for another 15 minutes to look at the architectural perspective done by Architect Antonio for the renovation of the clubhouse and the secretariat asked me to approve the P37,000 budget for an outdoor Christmas tree near the gazebo.
It was drizzling. My maids told me it rained hard while I was in the meeting.
Sitting there for two and a half hours in a heated discussion is tiring. Dagdag stress and wrinkles. I need a drink.
