00:00Hello OG! I'm Jonathan, and we're here in San Rafael, Tarlac City.
00:05Welcome to Caja Briones.
00:07Come on, let's go inside.
00:22Caja Briones is what we came up with,
00:25the name of this place.
00:27From the word caja, which is rectangular or close to square,
00:32in Tagalog, it's called cuadrado.
00:36It's like our prefabs are squares.
00:39That's why we called it Caja.
00:40And then Briones, that's our family surname.
00:44That's why we called it Caja Briones.
00:47Caja Briones is an inspiration of all the places that we traveled.
00:54Because my wife and I, we both loved to travel way back then.
00:59And traveling for us is a form of relaxation.
01:06And it's also healing because of the busy schedule,
01:10especially when you're on tour.
01:12And then, on Saturdays and Sundays, there are events.
01:16So that's what we want to achieve,
01:20that we have a place where you can relax,
01:26where you can hang out, where you don't have to think about anything.
01:30Our inspiration here in Caja is more on Bali-style feels.
01:36Because what's beautiful about Mataya is that it's relaxing.
01:40What we want to get vibes from here is that you're just close to the beach.
01:46That you have a place close to the beach where you can relax and unwind.
01:53It was 2021 when we built our house in Tapat.
01:57And then suddenly, we looked at this dot here.
02:03And then we thought, what if we built another house
02:08that's more native, more affordable,
02:14that's cheaper, but the place is really relaxing.
02:20In 2022, we purchased this lot by God's grace.
02:24And then, we started browsing,
02:27we got inspirations from the internet.
02:30Actually, our first choice was really Amacan.
02:34Because we really wanted nature feels.
02:36We wanted to build a place where you can see
02:44the places we've been to, the beaches, the beach houses.
02:49And then, we kept browsing the internet.
02:54There, we went to Prefab.
02:56And then, I checked the price, and I thought, wow, this is affordable.
03:01And then, I went to the page of Zongjan.
03:06Which is located in San Simon.
03:08And then, I saw that they have a design of Prefab that's made of wood.
03:13It's like that.
03:15It's made of wood that really fits our design, which is native.
03:22It's like you're on the beach in your imagination.
03:28And then, after researching, I saw that.
03:33And then, I read that they can build the Prefab within two days.
03:39And then, the price is not that expensive.
03:42Unlike, of course, we also asked.
03:46In Amacan, or we'll have it made of cement.
03:49It's expensive.
03:50The 400,000 pesos, it's just like a studio type.
03:56It's not really high, it's just poured, it's just waiting.
03:59I can spend 400,000 pesos.
04:02In Prefab, what we saw there, it's just cheap, affordable.
04:07At the same time, it's quick to do.
04:10And then, it's complete.
04:11There's a door, there's two windows, and then, that's just the lighting fixtures.
04:16Which is good.
04:17It really fits what we want.
04:24The construction lasted for almost two months.
04:28For the fence, the pedestal of the Prefab, the gate, the bathrooms.
04:36So, it took two months.
04:38But actually, in the Prefab, it was only built in two days.
04:42As in, that's how fast the design is.
04:46And then, in the other part of Caja,
04:52we used native materials that you can see here in Tarlac,
04:58which is the palm.
05:00Because what I want is, it's like you're really in a barrio.
05:04So, we used palm as a roofing here.
05:08And then, we also used sawali as the design of our house.
05:15And there, the palm trees.
05:18And actually, our roofing here in Caja,
05:21is a cut-off roof that was built right here before we bought it.
05:28Because it's all roofing here.
05:30So, we cut it and I said,
05:32I think I can still use this.
05:34So, there.
05:35So, those cut-off roofs were dried.
05:38And then, that's what we did for the roofing here in Caja.
05:43This Caja is our own design.
05:47My wife and I.
05:49So, just drawing, like that.
05:52Just looking at the internet.
05:54Until I put up the design that's the best for our house.
06:01The lathe size of Caja Briones is 150 square meters.
06:06And the floor area, up and down in Caja, is 87 square meters.
06:12We spent 1.1 million here in Caja Briones.
06:17Maybe, in general, that's the most we spent.
06:21Actually, our budget is really tight.
06:25But by the grace of God, we were able to afford it.
06:30We were able to build it the way we wanted to see it.
06:36My favorite area in Caja Briones is here, near the pool.
06:42There.
06:43You'll just sit there.
06:45And then, you'll see the pool.
06:48You'll see the palm trees wherever you look.
06:52Then, the fresh air.
06:54You'll hear the birds.
06:57Because here in our area, there aren't that many houses.
07:03The vibe here is like you're really in a barrio.
07:06It's homey.
07:07Very homey.
07:09So, we chose this place.
07:12At first, I said, because me and my wife, we're both teachers.
07:18So, Monday to Friday, we work.
07:21And then, Saturday, Sunday, we usually have events.
07:24So, we can buy land that's really in a barrio.
07:31But if we think about it, we don't have time to travel.
07:35We don't have time.
07:37We don't have much free time.
07:40So, when we saw this lot, it's right in front of our house.
07:45So, we chose this as our rest house.
07:50At first, you might think that it's a rest house, but it's right in front of your house.
07:55The good thing about it is, for example, if you're stressed at home,
07:59because you can still see your laptop, your gears, and all your stuff,
08:03you can just move here.
08:05You'll just walk.
08:06You're already here.
08:07It's like you're in a different place, which is very native, very cozy, very homey.
08:13It's like you're in a barrio, which is the feel that we really want to see.
08:20I think the biggest struggle is how to fit my time, which I'm teaching,
08:25and at the same time, you're building a place where you don't know how to divide your time.
08:35So, my advice to those people who want to build a property like this,
08:41the first one is to know your budget and stick with it.
08:47Because sometimes, when we're building, it's just a go, go, go.
08:51I want this, I want that.
08:53But you don't know what your budget should be for this.
08:56Who knows, it ends up going to other expenses.
09:03So, maybe the best thing is to know your budget.
09:11Don't embrace what you can't embrace.
09:14That's how it is.
09:15Because at the end of the day, you'll be in debt.
09:19You'll also suffer.
09:20Instead of relaxing in the place you're building, you'll also suffer because you have a lot of debt.
09:27Visualize.
09:29Look carefully.
09:30Imagine what you really want to see in the place you're building.
09:40And this is where our video ends.
09:42I hope you were inspired and learned a lot from the story of our vacation house.
09:47Who knows, you might be the next to be featured on the OG channel.
09:52Thank you for watching.
09:53Bye-bye!
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