To all Al-Mutlaa residents, Be careful (3).

There is an old proverb that says, "The first house you build is to be sold, the second to be rented, and the third to be lived in." Of course, this proverb was possible at a certain time. Such a proverb was said when the plots in Al Nuzha were worth 3,000 KD, those in Jabriya were 500 KD, and houses were bought for 15,000 KD. If the house was very luxurious, it would cost 50,000 KD. I remember that our house in the Al-Rawda area in 1967 was worth 35,000 KD. It was a two-story villa on a 1,000-square-meter plot with front and back sides on the Third Ring Road. In those days, plots were cheaper than cars, and that is a fact. It was normal to find a citizen buying a plot and building his house, and if he did not like the house, he would sell it and buy another one back in the old good days. But now I think we should change the proverb to "The first house is the last house in your life; live in it until the day you die." Let me get back to the first proverb again and why our ancestors said it: Because the construction is linked to four axes, the first one is the owner of the house and his wife. The second is the engineering office. The third is the contractor, and the fourth axis, which we discussed in the previous article, is your budget. Usually, the owner of the house does not accommodate the four axes and enters into a stumble that may end with the construction being suspended for years, disputes with the contractor, or most importantly, poor finishing. Then he discovers that what he built is not what he expected.So, the best solution for him will be to sell the house and start building another one. The second experience is better than the first, but the house is also not of the desired quality, and if he does not have money, he rents it out and starts his third project, which will be the product of bitter experiences and suffering. I am telling you this example because it is the product of reality and truth. As I was writing the article, I remembered my first experience. It was in 1980, when the project was to build four villas, and although I tried with all my effort to extrapolate the requirements and needs of my partners in those villas, I did not know that what was being said was nothing but a pipe dream, where you find that your partners have forgotten about it and that you are in deep trouble. Then I went to the second axis, where I did not look for ways to save money. I do not remember the person who introduced me to the office of the late Engineer Saied Abdel Moneim. Engineer Saied was an artist and creator who designed many buildings with a distinctive character influenced by the Andalusian Islamic style, and perhaps the most beautiful thing he designed is the headquarters of Kuwait Finance House, which is still a beautiful architectural icon. He had offered me Andalusian villas and built-in arches of Islamic and Western art, but because I was reckless at the time, I did not take the advice to complete the implementation schemes and hand the project over to a permanent supervisory body, and I did not tender it for full supply and finishing among certified contractors. That was based on the huge amount of advice from friends and relatives. What happened to me was similar to the "joke" of the blind and lame men who were hit by a car, whereas the lame said to the blind, "Shall I chase him?" The blind man replied, "Don't worry, I registered his plate number." So, neither the lame person is unable to run nor is the blind person able to see and record. This really applies when we take advice from non-specialists; nemo dat quod non habet. Indeed, I implemented the project in the way of the blind and the lame men, whereas the contractor was through a relative, with whom supervision problems started on the second day. Then I divided the project, as in order to save money, I concluded many contracts for stone, aluminum, sanitary ware, tools, and electrical equipment; unfortunately, all of them were swindlers, and I ended up with some at the courts. What really hurt me most was the large and beautiful arches, which became something distorted, neither an arch nor a square, something that had no features, to the point that when installing aluminum, I remember well that there were openings between aluminum and stone ranging from 1 to 2 cm, and there was no solution except by making an ugly internal framework, as it is said, "a patchwork," to fill that fundamental defect. Twenty articles would not be enough to explain this suffering, so the solution was to sell and jump from that sinking ship, and I vowed on that day that I would sacrifice four camels if I could get rid of this dilemma. With the jump in prices prior to the Souk Al Manakh (stock market) crash, I sold them, covered my loss, and fulfilled my vow. We will continue in the next article with some stories about the art of contractors’ cheating and the failure of engineers.

Stay safe.