We built our house in 10 months

My name is Rose Mary Zawedde; I am engaged to Solomon Edwin Mugambe. We live in Matugga.
I grew up in a big house, with an extended family of more than 25 members. It was so big that we had a boy’s wing, young girl’s wing and grown-up girl’s wing. After University, I wanted to go out of there and have an independent life.

That is when I started renting. For five years, I lived in two houses. I never liked to sleep in an old house; I would always look out for houses in a clean and quite neighbourhood.

Every time I didn’t have enough money to pay my rent, I would talk to the landlord before the deadline rather than panicking or even hiding.
At first, I was scared to talk to the landlord but by God’s grace; all my landlords were understanding people.

Buying land
When we bought this plot of land, there was an incomplete structure, at first we were tempted to just finish that up and move in but after consulting with an engineer, we were advised to just demolish the house and start afresh because the foundation couldn’t handle our proposed plan. So we built the house from scratch.

We paid for this land in instalments and it took us five months to complete the payment. That was from October 2014 to February 2015.

After we completed the payments, it took us a month to start building. However, before we completed the payment for this land, we deposited and bought a few building materials.

This helped us to start construction as soon as we had finished with the land payments.

Building process
Our land is a 65 by 55 feet and that’s why we chose to build upwards because we wanted a house with many bedrooms.

When we started building, we never stopped. The only time we paused is to give the foundation, time to set. It was more of a technical factor than finances. Our house has five bedrooms.

Three of these are self-contained, an office, two toilets, dining and living room plus a garage.

Choosing the plan
You might not believe me but the truth is, when we started building, we had no specific plan. As we kept building, we got new ideas and we kept adding onto what we had already desired to have.

Some of these ideas we would get off the Internet. Others, we would copy from people’s houses.

We did not choose the neighbourhood. As a matter of fact, we just liked the land; all we did is just build our home there.

Though at first I was scared that maybe it might be far away from our work places, we got used to the distance.

My favourite room is definitely my bedroom. I made my bedroom so cozy and comfortable that even after a hard day of work, I can get my deserved rest. I chose the furniture and colours carefully.

The compound
We do not have a big compound but as a woman, I planted roses and other flowers in our compound to make it more appealing. Most of it is concrete but we left out a few parts that enable me to do gardening. I have been able to plant vegetables around the house; I have so far planted cabbages, egg plants and tomatoes. It’s on a low scale but it keeps me busy.

Interior and exterior decor
I did the interior and exterior designing. This is because I am a hands on person and I believe everyone can make their home look the way they want it to be even without any professional help.

So I wouldn’t want someone else to do it for me. It is not professional but that is what I love and I am glad I designed my own house.

In terms of maintenance, I have a few people who help me with house chores. They try to maintain it but as a woman, I take some time off and check out the house, clean and repair what is needed. I try so hard to maintain this beautiful home because I know what it cost us.

I make sure that I am involved in everything that happens in the house because I do not have any regrets about its size and I am so grateful to God that we are able to have a home of our own at a young age.

The finishing was the hardest phase because the doors and windows were expensive so we took sometime before buying them.

The roof
As we were building, my fiancé suggested that we keep an open rooftop other than closing it (roofing it).

Since our compound is not so big, our rooftop acts as a compound.

Apart from the beautiful view, our rooftop hosts parties and it accommodates 80-100 people.
We are optimistic people and we believe that when we get more money, we can as well add more floors on our house.

Lessons learnt

Keep an open mind
As we were building, I learnt that it is good to keep an open mind. Be open to better ideas. Do not just stick to what you think is good. We got new ideas from the houses we visited, online and as we combined them, we came out with a better plan.

Consult professionals:

Professionals have extensive knowledge on how to build a better home; it is wise to consult them other than playing all-knowing. In our case, we wanted to build a storeyed house on a weak foundation. If it hadn’t been for the engineers, maybe we would have gone ahead and the outcome wouldn’t be as successful as it turned out to be.

Quality matters
Building material is quite expensive but cheap materials will not give you a lasting home. The point is not about completing a house; it is in setting up a home that is beautiful, spacious but most importantly, long-lasting.

You rather build on a slower pace than rushing through. Go for quality materials no matter the cost.

Trust God
In this journey of building a house, we prayed more than we have ever prayed. There were a number of challenges. At some point, we almost lost faith but we believed and trusted God. You know the Bible says,” If God does not build a house, the work of builders is in vain…” Psalms 127:1.
The landlord (seller) wanted full amount but after we prayed to God, we deposited Shs3m and he accepted. This was a miracle and it raised our faith.

Good relationship
While you are building, you need a number of people such as engineers, builders and even suppliers. In order to work peacefully with everyone, you need to establish a good relationship. Money is not static, there were some moments when we did not have enough money to pay for materials or even builders but because of a good relationship we had with them, they could supply us with materials and build and we pay them later on. We all need people; we can never do everything on our own.

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