Dishonest contractors increased the cost of my house

My name is Dr Benon Kigozi. I am married with five children. I am a senior staff member at Makerere University, Department of Performing Arts and Film in the College of Humanity and Social Sciences.
My home is located in Kulambiiro and the house sits on a quarter-acre of land. The building project started way back in 2002 the time I had gone for further studies. However, I had no plans of building because I already had a house in Namirembe.
I wanted something in which I would invest my money and that was when I spotted a piece of land being advertised in one of the local newspapers.

Buying land and building
I went with my mother to inspect the land and after cross-checking its authenticity, I bought it at Shs16m then left the country along with my family.

Building process
While I was away, I decided to construct a house on the land. I used the money I was earning as an expatriate in Zimbabwe to build this house. I used to work as the head of Faculty of Music Education in the University of Africa in Zimbabwe and at the same time staging performances in the USA, among other things.
Before I started building, my friend, who visited the land, volunteered to clear and level it. I can’t tell how much it cost him. I just found a land ready for construction. That helped cut on the cost.

The plan
Another friend, helped me draw a house plan but I disagreed with the one he had drawn at first. I had different ideas from what he had on paper. I had seen nice houses in the USA. We put the ideas together and came up with a concrete plan, which was later approved by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). However, I do not recall how much I spent on the house plan.

Supervising
Although I had a site supervisor, I would still come to Uganda during the holidays mainly between July and August to check on the progress and also supervise the project. It was during this time that I would go and buy material in bulk because when I had started building, I would let the supervisor buy the material but I realised that I was being cheated so I decided to buy for them and give them the money I owe them.

Five years later, after my studies, I and my family came back to Uganda but we went to our home in Namirembe. However, I continued building the house in Kulambiiro into a beautiful house that we have now because I wanted the best. I would sometimes dismantle a few things and rebuild them according to the new plan or idea I had.
Originally, my house was supposed to have a sunken lounge but the workers messed it up. By this time, they were still building the first floor but the foundation was very weak so I demolished it. While building the second floor, the slab was not according to the plan, so we had to change a few things.

Designing
The whole project cost Shs680m exclusive of the land. The house has Serena orange on the exterior with a paved compound and the beautiful flowers and plants that are close to the perimeter wall. I used to look after my plants before but later, I employed someone to do it. It is such a big house with a nice grey-black ceiling with beautiful rooms.

House warming
The whole project took me about four years. Because I was looking forward to living in my new house, my friends organised a service during which we dedicated the house to God on July 4 ,2010. This was followed by a house-warming party on November 26, 2010. Those are remarkable days in my life, it was great.
I did not sell off my first house; I instead redesigned it for a girls’ hostel. It is called Bella Girls’ Hostel in Mengo.

Rooms
Favourite room
My bedroom is my favourite. It is very spacious with cream and brownish curtains; it has the main space for the master bed, a sitting area, dressing area with two big wardrobes and a bathroom with a closet.

Number of rooms
The whole house has seven bedrooms, a study, reading room, a living room, lounge, dinning, two bathrooms and a kitchen. It has a guest wing with double rooms, two garages and three servants’ quarters of which one is self-contained. My theme colour is serene orange; it blends very well with cream. The kitchen has tiles designed in light brown.
Although most people with beautiful houses hire interior designers to organise and beautify their house, I did mine with my wife. I am also planning on installing surveillance cameras soon.

CHALLENGES
Putting up a beautiful house that everyone admires was not a walk in the park as many think. I faced several challenges in the course like installing water and electricity; the local council officials tossed me before finally giving me the help I needed.
Theft of materials.
I got to know about a worker who constructed a house from the materials he stole from my site. Workers could also over charge me yet they didn’t even do the work as properly allocated.

The whole project was not an easy one given the fact the funds weren’t readily available. I won’t say that I had a specific difficult phase but all phases were challenging in different ways. Like the floor, the workers made several mistakes there by tearing them down which meant extra costs and time. And still, tiling the whole house was not easy because people that laid the tiles made several mistakes causing the tiles to break. With the roofing, I booked the material and bought at once which made the work a little easier. It took me about two weeks to finish roofing.

LESSONS
The whole project came with different lessons that I will use as guidelines next time I decide to put up a structure. It is better to raise a lump sum before starting up a project than looking for money phase after phase. So instead of using the little money at hand, I would accumulate some substantial money than I had then do the work faster may be up the wall plate just to help me save time, money and the same time minimize challenges like theft and over billing.
More still, I wouldn’t put up a very big house like this because the children are growing meaning they will be leaving home at some time. Still, I would not put a guest wing because no guests have come to use it. I instead gave it to my son, I let him be independent yet it wasn’t my intension.

So, my advice to anyone constructing or thinking of putting up a house would be cutting costs, be vigilant, always spare time to visit the site and also take time to do the procurement of the material in order reduce on the theft that happens at the sites.
Get an approved structural plan to avoid any inconveniences. The other thing is a site store where things like wheel barrows, irons bars, cement, hoes among others are kept because people take advantage whenever they see them in plenty.