The Telephone Builder

I have to admit that at the beginning, I was  a “telephone ” constructor, calling every morning to find out the progress on site. Your guess? I was told what I wanted to hear, sending money every time I was asked for it, ever trusting, ever hopeful. Even stupid. And I kept on wondering why people said construction was difficult! It wasn’t until I started paying more attention to the materials shopping list that I realised what a great saving there was in making purchases on my own and paying attention to detail. And boy, did I save money by going to the market by myself! To date, I can tell you where the better deals are on any part of town. Take for instance my gypsum ceiling. That was truly my first wake up call. I spoke to two gypsum fixers and received two quotes for my gypsum ceiling that were as different as light and day. I noticed though that for one of them, the quote for labor was much lower. So I called him in for a meeting, negotiated for a further discount on the labour and locked it down. Next I asked him where he was going to buy the material from as I needed to be sure of the quality. He gave me the name of the shop in Gikomba and assured me that he’d take that hustle off me as Gikomba is really a hectic place to visit. I visited the shop the following day and made the purchases. Guess what, the original quote had been inflated by over 30%. No wonder the labor discount was readily given. Anyway he proceeded to do the work at less than what he had budgeted. How he felt? Well, your guess is as good as mine…….

Lesson #2: Endeavour as much as possible to make material purchases directly. It saves you lots of money and ensures that quality is not compromised. Let the fundis be paid for their labor unless of course you have an alternative arrangement with them. Most suppliers also deliver to site, which makes it even easier for you. 

The Site Visits 

Every Saturday, I’d come to site at about 10 am to inspect the work, make some payments and leave. Of course that would be the day that all the vendors would be present, very busy, sometimes too busy to engage me in any small talk. And wasn’t it pay day anyway?I would then leave the site immediately after my inspection tour. The Real Boss!

Then one day I decided to stay on. I noticed that most of the fundis were getting restless and agitated. The plumber particularly kept pacing up and down, yet he was behind schedule!

Well….I parked my car under a shade, took a vantage position under a tree and stayed on till 4 pm. I can’t tell you how much was achieved on that day. And so it was that I made the decision to be making site visits at least twice a week, even if it meant braving the evening traffic. Saturdays from then on would be strictly dedicated to site visits from 10 am to evening. 

Lesson #3: Your physical presence on site makes a great difference-even when you have no clue what’s going on!

NOTE: The main objective of this blog is to share advice and insights based on real life experiences, in order to encourage you and hopefully, make your construction journey easier, more meaningful and help you avoid the pitfalls that I walked into, because I didn’t know better. For more information, reach out to us on mjengochronicles@gmail.com.