Best Posts in Thread: A couple projects around the house

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

 

Got home at 0530 yesterday after what works out to be 7+ hours from Cebu to the house...so nothing close to work came out of me; short of unpacking.

The wife has our 2 workers on sanding and new varnish for the Nipa and some other bamboo furniture we have. Really bringing things back to life. We will have the guys working on the upstairs CR bamboo after that...other than helping me with plumbing for the outdoor CR which we'll start on pretty soon. I'll have our son work with me on pulling cable for the upstairs router and coax for the AFN decoder.

We have to go to Dumaguete tomorrow to pick up some Cat5, coax cable and a few other materials. I'm going to have to break down and buy an extension ladder as well...really would have preferred to rent one but am kind of stuck with things that we need to do.

You can see from the couple pics that my back yard is toast...may wait a bit to get past dry season before I re-sod.

Shawn

 

We had a compactor job for a few days without much need in the future. RENTED one from SSG on Valencia road for P500 a day, worked fine.

 

We decided to tear down our old Nipa guest house and build a new one. A few reasons for this; the first was that we built it with a ceiling and interior of the walls closed in and it became a rat magnet. Poisoning was not an option as our dogs would kill a few a week and rats and mice are vermin that freak me out the most.

We built it a few feet off the ground on concrete piers with aided in airflow but blocked a lot of wind into our bedroom. Plus it did take up quite a bit of space that we could use.

The final reason is that it is really necessary to have a place for guests to stay, I really underestimated the number of folks that would stay with us.

The new Nipa guest house is set on 10' beam and column construction which definitely increases airflow for both the Nipa and our house. This is the wife's project and started it when I was back in the US for a few months to finish a up some work there. 100% her design and oversight, my job will just be to basically do the electric work. Still a ways to go but hope the pictures show where we are currently at.

Shawn

 

The cabinets for the dirty kitchen went in today. We wanted the upper cabinet to be open (no doors). I'm lost on the mix up had them putting a wooden counter top on the cabinets. We'll pull it off and put in a granite top. I'm sure I will find something to reuse that wood for.

At least from the pictures the wife sent, I think they look pretty sharp and really makes things look better upstairs.

Shawn

 

Me and the wife had to run to Dumaguete to extend my visa...another story... check on some materials and find out the status of the couch we are having made.

The amount of work completed when we got home was not enough so my lovely wife just about lost her mind and was ready to fire 4 of our workers...I had to calm her down and reiterate that we have had a hard time finding workers and we really needed them to place the last bit of concrete.

Her message must have been loud and clear as they stayed until around 2000 getting formwork done as we would like to place concrete tomorrow for the top of the rainwater collection tank and the CR walls. After that we can get by with 2-3 workers.

Shawn

 

Got the concrete placed for the CR floor and the floor and sides of the rain water collection tank today. We'll get going forming for the walls of the CR tomorrow.

Shawn

 

We received more bamboo this past Saturday; 2 guys are cleaning and splitting the bamboo and another is installing for the exterior walls of the bedroom area. A fairly slow process but it is coming along.

Shawn

 

Thanks for the info.

Will you fill in any of the openings in the bottom floor with block to provide shear strength? I understand the desire for air flow. Maybe use diagonal cross bracing on the bottom floor?

In a building, shear strength is the buildings resistance to horizontal forces like wind and earthquakes. Think what will stop the columns on the bottom floor from leaning over.

Below is a video describing diaphragm or shear panels. (shear panel is the same as filling in the wall with block). If you want air flow, you can accomplish the same with diagonal cross bracing. You do not need to provide shear resistance in the space between every column. Just a few to resist each direction and building rotation.

On the other-hand, it is a very lightweight hut that is not that high off the ground and the occupants are in-laws.

 

Started framing the bedroom of the Nipa. The wife's plan is for 3 windows that should really give great airflow.

I'll install a ceiling fan over the bed when there isn't much wind but doubt it will be used much. Since the interior of the walls will be left open I can start installing electric, not much more that a couple receptacles, the ceiling fan with light and a light for the "open" area and a couple switches. Ran electric out there when we built our house so a 20 amp circuit is good for that as well as the light in the outdoor CR (little brown building on the right of the Nipa).

There will be railing around the Nipa later that will let the wife put a bunch of containers of flowers, should be a nice little spot.

Shawn