A couple projects around the house

They have new saws, I trained them on how to use my dewalt miter saw and they are using my Estwing framing hammers.

Shawn

 

The railing is coming together and the stairs are in, laying out for the hand rail.

We had a older carpenter who laid out the stairs; he was supposed to be pretty sharp and seemed to know what was going on when I talked to him. Left him alone as me and the wife had some other things going on. 2 days later and the stairs were a disaster. The stringers were too steep, the risers not consistent and you had about 4" usable step. They were just dangerous and were torn out immediately. He no longer is working with us.

I like the wife's plan on the installed stairs using a thicker wood and a single stringer in the middle. Looking forward to seeing how the handrails turn out.

Shawn

 

The wife pulled the workers for a bit to do some cleaning and fertilizing of one of her sugarcane fields. We have gotten a little bit of work done as we've just had 2 workers recently. We placed concrete in the area that will be for a quail pen (or chicken)...that really falls to if we can source the smaller quantity of birds.

The handrail for the stairs is in progress and the guys are also working on building a door for the bedroom. Not exactly clear on the final design of the door as this is the wife's project.

I installed the ceiling fan and receptacles in the bedroom as well as a LED light fixture in the open area. I still have a power supply and a couple 24VDC spotlights to install and some 24VDC light strips on the first floor area. I previously installed one of the LED fixtures in the outdoor CR and those inexpensive lights are really bright.

I had to replace my plate compactor...it was done, the weather or whatever plus I'm not a mechanic; not a cost I was excited about but you need to compact correctly so it is what it is.

I have not had good luck with anything made from Boston Bay (ceiling fans and water dispenser had to be replaced) so when looking for a ceiling fan for the nipa I had to look around for a bit. I'm not cheap by any means, but found a fan that was 50% off; 2,000 peso instead of 4,000...the wife was funny as she said that the white fan (which we did buy) would not match the nipa well and a brown fan made more sense even at 4,000 peso. As much as I love her sense of style; 50% off...the receptacles (universal style with USB chargers) and the light switches are also white and at the end of the day, when I finish the electric and the workers are done I don't see a reason for me to be hanging out there unless I need to fix something. Same as I don't go into the kid's bedrooms or their CR, people need their space. If I need to fix something, different story.

Shawn

 

Boston Bay is from the PROC (peoples republic of china). There are a lot of PROC products with names like Marks of Canada and American Made.
I bought an American Made shovel for about P1500. The first time I stuck the shovel in the ground if folded in half. Another fine product from China.

You really not to look all over the box or label for the cursed letters ROC or PROC.

Plate compactors are pretty simple. If I had to guess; about the only thing that would fail are the bearings that support the eccentric shaft that causes the vibration. Any car mechanic could probably fix it with some bearing from Dumaguete Auto Parts across from the new McDonalds.

 

Agree, they are clever to brand things with names that are in English which you could assume are not from China. I'm not one to go onto a public forum and say negative things but Boston Bay products are just junk, they look nice but just fail from my experience and we will never buy their products again, ever.

The ceiling fan we bought is Phillips and yes I know it was made in China but am assuming that the QC is higher as I replaced a couple ceiling fans at the house a number of years ago and they are doing fantastic. Cost a bit more but are holding up well and look almost the same as when I pulled them out of the box and installed them.

Shawn

 

Are you sure it was not a FOLDING shovel?

 

We also purchased Boston Bay fans from a large hardware chain store in Dumaguete. They lasted a couple of months. We then replaced them with 3 Asahi fans from Prince Hypermart and they have been going strong for 3 years now.

 

The old compactor we purchased like 6 or so years ago saw some heavy use and then sporadic use afterwards. As we all know, the weather here does take it's toll on anything metal. It probably could have been repaired and the guy I gave it to was more than happy to have it.

"Simple" is a relative term; construction and especially electric work is simple to me, but that's what I've done for 32+ years. You put me in front of a gas motor and it isn't as simple...in front of an electric motor and I'll bore you to death as I explain how everything works.

Trust me...I was not happy to drop 29K on a new compactor; especially since I just needed to concrete in the 2 areas under the nipa as well we will remove the walkway we did and put in a sidewalk from the driveway to the nipa and outdoor CR. Compaction is really important so I have a new plate compactor.

Shawn

 

I pretty sure I wouldn't be bored at all. Variable speed drive systems was my passion for almost 30 years. My last few years was spent erecting and commissioning large synchronous for GE.

Gas motors can be a bit of a mystery at times. As a teenager all my cars were $500 beaters. I had to learn to fix them (sort of).