From brick laying he built a house

By Stella Naigino 

 

WHEN you meet Paul Mwesigwa, in his single roomed house, it's hard to believe that in a month's time, he will be entering his bungalow which he has built on a plot of 100x100 ft.

 

He lives a simple life and with what he has achieved he believes once one is determined, he can get what he needs in life.

 

Achieving his dream house

When he graduated with a degree in business administration, he never looked for a job but rather started on his own as a brick layer.

 

While sharing a house with three of his friends, he borrowed capital of sh200,000 and he decided to lay bricks. With this amount, he was sure he would grow its worth.

 

His brick laying project really worked for him; when he sold his first assortment of bricks he earned sh500,000.

 

He re-invested until his capital accumulated to sh2.5m. With this, he decided to open up an electrical shop, but he never gave up his brick laying job.

 

In four years, Mwesigwa had saved up to sh10m which he used to buy his plot of land in Lugazi.

 

The front view of Mwesigwa's house. Photo by Stella Naigino

He then rented a small 1 roomed house paying sh60,000 monthly so that he could cut on his rent expenditures to save for the construction of his dream home.

 

"I never wanted to pay high rent but rather save that money for the construction of my house," says Mwesigwa.

 

"Deciding to rent a big house calls for a lot of things like furnishing it with good assets but with a small room, you live a simple life and no one cares to know who you are," he adds.

 

In 2009, he decided to start saving seriously and at least every month, he could save up to sh500,000. By the end of the year, Mwesigwa after looking at how much he had accumulated on his account; he realized he was good to go.

 

He decided to give it another one year of saving so that he could start constructing without many challenges on the way.

 

"I gave myself time to save and I did my research on the cost of building materials on the market, tried to find out the best ones so that I plan better," he explains.

 

After doing his research, he had his house plan designed which gave him more courage to build his dream home.

 

In 2011, Mwesigwa started constructing his four bedroomed house where he laid his bricks himself and also got the rest of the materials like sand, at a cheap cost since he already knew where to get them from.

 

He directly involved himself in the supervision of the construction, because he never wanted to get problems with the council people or even with the builders.

 

He built his house in four years and now that it's complete, he takes his time to move around it just to admire its beauty.

 

He has just put pavers in his compound just to do away with the grass and also avoid costs of compound designing.

 

His house has three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a store and a sitting room.

 

A side view of Mwesigwa's house. Photo by Stella Naigino

Since he was living in a single roomed house, he had not bought assets so now he is busy looking around for the latest furniture so he could furnish his house with classy furniture.

 

Challenges

When he had just bought his land, conmen wanted to sell it to some other person but he realized it early enough and dealt with the issue, which gave him more courage to build as soon as possible.

 

He decries the high costs of building materials right from a brick to the iron sheets but once you want something, you work hard to achieve it.

 

He also says that painting his house was a big challenge that at some point, he felt like giving up and entering it just after plastering but after thinking twice, he decided to have it painted.

 

Choosing tiles was a problem. I had been conned by some people who were claiming to be selling to me the best tiles, their type was actually a poor type but after consulting a friend I was helped," Mwesigwa notes.

 

He says building is not easy and someone needs to share ideas with those that have built before so that mistakes can be avoided.

 

Future plans

He wishes to now enjoy his house before he even thinks of getting married because everything requires one step at a time.

 

He also wants to buy another piece of land to build rentals where he could earn some money.