Over the weekend we had some carpentry work done here in our house. It’s the cupboard under the sink and the ceiling on the kids bathroom. The owner of the house sent her brother with the carpenter he had hired. They came before the weekend to estimate how much and how long they have to stay at the house. They told me it will take them a few days. I said its okay. I just want the cabinets done and some other stuff in the house. So Saturday early morning the carpenter begun working on the cupboard. We let him do his job. Right before lunch I went to see his work. Wow, he is really slow and he just don’t have the creativity of JunJun (my carpenter from GenSan). Also just the thinking on what to use, this carpenter is just not a lot of common sense compared to JunJun. I guess JunJun knows a lot of stuff from carpentry, painting, plumbing, electrical and woodworking. That’s why he is so in demand.
I know for sure if Junjun did that cabinets, in 2 hours he already had that cabinets under the sink done. With the carpenter that was hired by the owner’s brother it took him a day and a half to finish it up. But I just had to let them do it. It’s not my people that I hired. I have to follow what they want it to be. It’s their house. The owner she’s a nice lady. Only thing is she lives in Manila area due to her husband’s job and her daughter’s education. They built this house back in the mid 90’s. At that time the husband was working here in Davao city. They built this house intending for their retirement home. But the job transferred them to Manila in the early 2000. They are already liking it there. They bought a beach house, there, South of Manila.
The house that we rent from them has some wear and tear now. It had to be fixed, like underneath the sink. The work of the carpenter is not totally up to the standard of JunJun, but it will do for now. Those people will come back one of these days to finish up with the painting. They were working at some other company too. The brother of the owner just pull him out to work here. Aside from the carpenter they had some other guy that’s working in the yard too. Nice guy and industrious. Chris likes the guy. I think he was a little older than Chris. Hmm, he could be buddies with Chris. That would be nice. I think Chris was intrigued because the guy speaks Ilonggo.
Bob and I were talking a lot of times that whenever we will have major carpentry done, we would want JunJun to do the work for us. We trust him so much for that. JunJun knows that we wanted him every time we want some stuff done. He told me that even if he is so busy with his job in GenSan, if we wanted him to do some work for us he will come during the weekends. He will come back and forth to GenSan. I trust Junjun for any woodworking done for my cabinetry. If I want details on anything I want him. He will draw the design first on a piece of paper and show me the design if there is any change he will change the design. He also made the MindanaoBob grill with Bob’s design in mind. Bob told him what kind of grill he wants and the looks and Junjun made it for us.
During Bob’s birthday one of our guests saw the grill and she love it. Now she wants one made too ans she wants soon. She wants Junjun to design the bbq grill that suits their family. So one of these weekends Junjun will be here to make the grill for our dear friend. Someone I know wanted to hire Junjun but he declined. He had some reasons on that person. I can’t blame Junjun for that. That’s another blog for me to post here.
Happy Araw Ng Davao to all the Davaoeno!
Feyma
Sounds to me that it is hard to find a good handyman/carpenter there in Davao.
Maybe it’s time for me to send Bob a Tool Belt! lol
Hi Neal – I think we just didn’t see the right people for us here in Davao. I’ve seen some good woodworking that was done by somebody. Just didn’t meet those people yet though.
Ha ha ha. Good idea Neal. Can’t wait for that. :-)…lol…
cheers!
Life can be great when you find someone who is good at their craft. Wine em, dine em, schmooz em. Put up with their eccentricities. Junjun sounds like one of those tradesmen. Your’s and Bob’s handling of this magazine might be another example.
Hi Mike – Yes so true… And yes JunJun is one of those good at what he does.
Thank you so much for the nice compliment. Highly appreciated…
Good to see you here again. Keep reading!
Cheers!
Hi Feyma,
It sounds like JunJun is a really talented carpenter and a hard worker.
Having a good carpenter to work for you is a lot like having a good mechanic–you really have to treat them well and recognize their efforts. Our carpenter, Titing, can take any idea that I might have and just run with it. He’s a good listener, very artistic, a great foreman who is respected by his crewmen. A true professional. .and my husband’s first cousin. He knows how much we appreciate him through words and being generous to him and his family. It seems like you and Bob have that same fortunate relationship with JunJun.
Hi queeniebee – So agree of what you said… So happy to have good and talented worker. We have JunJun and you have Titing. So happy to have them in our lives and keep good relationship with them and family.
As always thank you for stopping by here.
Take care!
Junjun sounds like Mike, our builder in Libmanan. Mike translates all of our ideas into reality, and can do masonry, carpentry, Plumbing and electrical equally well. We value his abilities and his service and treat him well. A good and reliable builder is a real treasure.
Hi Mike Henebry – I’m happy to know that you also have a worker like JunJun there in your area. I wonder if JunJun and Mike your builder know each other. JunJun traveled so many places before in the country for carpentry job. That would be something if they do.
Thank you for sharing here and hope to see you more in the future.
Have a great day!
Hi Feyma, I know just how you feel about Junjun! We have a carpenter friend named Boboy who is wonderful! He is so hardworking and so good at doing an excellent job! People like Junjun and Boby are indeed hard to find. We have hired a contractor to get some things done, and it is amazing to see them spend a day and a half digging four small holes in the ground. They are obviously being paid by the day… We are so spoiled by Boboy and by Richard, another friend who is handy and hardworking. We are happy to pay them and feed them well when they come, as both live over two hours away. I wish they were closer!
Hi AmericanLola – Truly good to have good worker. Thank God for them. They really are a blessings.
Is Boboy, the one who worked for your kitchen renovation? I really like your kitchen.
Kudos to all of us that have a good worker.
Happy to see you here. Have a great day!
Yes, Boboy is the one who did our kitchen, and we are SO happy with it! Most of the time, it is good if we know exactly what we want, then they can make a plan to follow, and I imagine it also helps to speak the local language! 🙂 We thought that Boboy was only a carpenter, but we realized that he was also very good with plumbing, tile and building furniture! He was too modest to tell us, and so we just had to discover by asking, after we had hired someone else who did a poor job, and he corrected it. 🙂
Hi AmericanLola – That’s what I thought. I know what you mean, they will show their talent as the time pass by. Then they really know a lot more than they showed. Typical Filipino, “ulaw”. 🙂 Lucky you and Ed can speak the local language so well. So happy for you guys.
Good to see you as always. Have a good weekend!
Speaking from experience one of the disadvantages of living in rented property. One has no control over who you have to allow in your home to do repairs.
The owner only wants the job done as cheap as possible.
Hi Frank Fealey – Problem is the owner lives in Luzon, she just let her brother comes here to supervised. The brother kind of scared to spend a lot. Oh well, it will do for now. Not a big problem so far for repair.
Hey good to see you again. You still in Africa?
Have a good weekend!
I bet you all the better carpenters are now all working in one of those huge construction projects that seem to be all over Davao City right now.
Hi Jon – I think so. Too many malls and condos are going up now here in Davao city. Makes traffic worse.
Hope to see you and family sometime soon.
Take care!
Feyma are you familiar with ‘Angies List’ here in the States? http://www.angieslist.com/
People post online about their experiences with various tradesman and so a good tradesman can build a loyal following. Bob should start a database of tradesman in the Philippines using his posters/ bloggers as a resource to start. He could list contact information, trade specialty and peoples recomendation/ opinons of the tradesman as well. This could be a valuable resource for anyone in the Philippines. Just a thought, I know Bob doesn’t have enough to do, lol.
Hi Mark G. – Not heard of it until you mention it. Good to know about that.
Good idea, not sure if Bob’s up for another project. He has so many projects to finish up right now. But you’ll never know. He might do it.
Thank you for sharing. Keep reading.
Have a pleasant day!
Not so much Africa but yest still in South Africa i still follow lip but due to extensive overseas commercal traveling do not get involved in the debates like i use to. Or maybe i amjust getting old.
Mrs Feyma,
It’s always nice to have good skilled craftsmen you can rely on. I have a Auto Mechanic i can rely on that won’t overcharge me. Has always treated me great. Thats why i always go back. Have a nice day.
Feyma,
Are you guys paying for the work or the owner of the house? It looks like this carpenter is working on a per day basis or “arawan” and not “pakyawan” or as a whole contract. This is the problem everywhere in the PH with handymen. However, you also can’t blame them because once their work is done they have difficulty of finding another job thus they tend to stretch the work their doing.