It is core to the sustainability of your buiding that the service routes of your systems can be accessed without invasive measures. It is incredibly cost saving.
You know where the probematic pipe run? Dead center a concrete column in the middle of the reception.
Imagine a grinding through concrete-water everywhere situation. In the reception!
As much as it lies within your power don't use conduit system in your building without providing several service access points. Don't do it, don't think you can get away with it.
Woke up to a call from my mentor telling me he just passed the ARCON professional exams!!!!!
Man said “I have finally reached the peak of my practice”
Tears in my eyes 😭😭😂
Take a deep breath, but hear me out.
The reason setting up a house feels overwhelming is because you’re picturing the finished version all at once. Full kitchen, sorted bedroom, every corner looking like a Pinterest board. That’s already the wrong approach. The moment you start thinking in tranches and structuring your income around it, the whole thing becomes significantly more manageable.
Here’s what I actually do:
• Price everything with forex in mind (this is Nigeria, lol)
Never budget the current naira price of anything. If a microwave is ₦65k today, I’m putting ₦110k in my budget for it. Prices move, and they don’t move in your favour. Before you lock in any number, do a full price sweep -social media vendors, Alaba, your nearest market, distribution stores, online. Take the highest realistic figure you find, then add buffer on top of that. Stories that touch are avoidable.
• Build a proper house list and organize it like you mean it.
Not a random list, a structured one. Break it into zones: kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, furniture, living area. Then within each zone, rank by two things: what you actually need versus what would be nice to have, and daily use versus occasional use. That structure alone tells you what to buy first and what can genuinely wait without your life falling apart.
• Your regular expenses are not up for negotiation.
This is where most people wreck themselves. Your house setup cannot swallow what keeps your actual life running - food, transport, rent, bills. If your purchase plan leaves you unable to cover your basics, the plan is wrong. Fix the plan, not your lifestyle.
• Spread it across a real timeline.
Monthly goals. Quarterly goals. H1 and H2. Some things are a month one purchase. Some things are a Q2 project. That’s not procrastination, that’s structure. You’re still moving, just not chaotically.
• Start small. Genuinely small.
A mattress and a gas cylinder is a home. Function first, everything else later.
Sorry, I plan a lot😭
And that thing was big, I had to have help getting it to class.
Honestly, shout out to my parents for engaging my shenanigans, because cardboard would have definitely come to their own mind.
Reminds me. In primary 3, the assignment was to make the model of a House.
I don't know how I told them at home, but I wanted a real house.
I built it with my dad, we used plywood. I remember the heavy baseboard and handing him the tiny nails, he even let me use the saw once 😁
When I was about 12, my favourite English teacher told us to write an essay on ‘whatever topic we liked’.
So I wrote about Ancient Egypt. I researched the hell out of it and was so proud of that essay.
30ish years later… I realised she meant ‘whatever topic we liked’ that RELATED TO THE BOOK we’d read.
Weirdly, every assignment after that
I was sincerely surprised when I got to school and saw house models made out of cardboard and cartons. It just never came to my mind that cardboard was an option or the intention.
They said house, I saw house.
My hot take is, it’s never too late to start afresh or reinvent yourself, time will pass, you might as well get started on what you think is impossible for you in the now.