When we moved out from my husband's ancestral home, we rented an apartment that is old but cheap. And since it is near our previous residence, we were willing to endure whatever problems we encounter in that old apartment. First in the list are the big rats that inhabit the ceiling and sometimes visit the laundry area at the back. We bought a lethal rat poison and laid traps there. It was effective since we had gathered around 4 or 5 rats in a period of 2 weeks. Next are the mosquitoes so we hired a person to install screen in the windows and also a screen for the door. What followed was a little painting job to spruce up the view of the surroundings. We had spent a substantial amount for that. And to consider that we were hard up with our finances, it was quite a feat for us to do that. At least our home was habitable already. Next is the house we rented. That's for later.
When we bought a car, we had to find another place to stay with a garage because the apartment we were staying in has no parking space. It was sad that we had to park in the street and within the first month, our new car was burglarized. A family friend's ancestral home a few blocks away was vacant. And although the rent is almost double that of the apartment, we took it because it's a big house with 3 bedrooms and spacious yards aside from the garage space. Quite a good bargain. However, the house was quite dilapidated so we hired workers who cleaned the entire house and uncluding the eradication of pests like ticks and fleas (from the dog), mice and rats. The house repairs started with the replacement of some galvanized sheets, the rehabilitation of the toilet and the most expensive is the installing of a water tank. Water only drips on the tap with the very weak pressure so we bought a pump. There were minor work outside like the roof of the garage and the gardening chores. After all is said and done, we had spent about 3 months of rent and 3 weeks of work. Too tiring but we can say it is worth it.
We stayed in the rented house for 5 years. Fortunately, the owner did not raise the rent so the original agreement of 8,000 pesos for the monthly rent remained for 60 months. After all the needed repairs were done, here came the rains, the heavy downpour that caused the flood. Worse, the flood waters entered the house. Our living room had knee-deep waters. We were dismayed but the owners couldn't be blamed because we were already forewarned. It was a good thing that the garage had been raised so the car was safe somehow. On that first year, our house was flooded 2 times. That got us thinking and there was the plan to construct something that would prevent the flood waters from coming in. But before we executed our plan, we consulted an engineer and a contractor, not for the costing but for the effectiveness of our flood control program. Well, not really well because there were loopholes. The floodwater can spring from the ground. So even if we construct a moat to isolate the house, the interior of the house is not safe from the flood.