Price-Pfister is a faucet and plumbing supply company. They supply bathroom and kitchen faucets in a huge variety of styles and price ranges from fairly basic to "Buckingham Palace Royal Lavatory."
Faucets and small stuff collided unexpectedly as concepts for me, during our recent house- construction (which continues, and continues, and continues as "small details" are still being completed). It happens, too, that the "near-miss" to a palindrome (word or phrase that reads same forwards and backwards, like "Madam, I'm Adam.") caught my humorous imagination. (Yeah, I KNOW the two companies' names aren't an actual palindrome, but something of the concept is there, at least phonetically.)
Here's what happened: I JUST PLAIN GOOFED. I did my design floor-plan of the house on 1/4- inch standard graph-paper, which has been my habit for years on projects complex enough to require a scaled- drawing approach. Most times the plans instead come "out of my head" in-process or are merely sketched informally on scrap paper. I didn't know, but soon learned, that in the Philippines, bathroom walls are ALWAYS constructed from concrete-blocks with a foundation under them. I had carefully measured the bathroom in our existing house and determined that we could "get by" carefully with a 6- foot square bathroom, being what in the USA would be a 3/4 bath (shower, basin, commode), as tub-bathing just seems not necessary here. When we left one morning on an all-day errand the crew was building perimeter block-walls. When I returned the bathroom interior walls were half-built, with 6-feet as their outer dimension, instead of the inner dimension. Well I didn't have the heart to make them tear it all out and re-build; besides we hadn't actually bought the fixtures etc. yet so I "crossed my fingers" and spent a couple months wondering if everything would fit.
Eventually we got it finished, and it did all fit, in a space 62- by 63-
inches. The shower stall (to left of the "splash wall") has no curtain yet
in this photo, Walls are half-tiled, top half paint. It works OK for us
but anyone larger than me would find it a snug fit. "Fisher Price," yeah!
Many things I used to take for granted, I now appreciate. Shower
valve-sets (hot & cold, with riser for shower-head) were not available
anywhere. I finally found two single valves (made by Price-Pfister, USA)
which I could "T" together behind the shower wall. We enjoy the
convenience of a shower head which can be hand held or hung up.
Meantime out beside our "new" bamboo house (see much earlier issues)
a 7- feet deep vault was dug, with extra-heavy footings and posts poured
as cement-block walls were built upward.
The 8- x 12- inch concrete beams and thick posts, supporting 2nd and
3rd floors, could almost be for a parking garage, it seems.
3rd floors, could almost be for a parking garage, it seems.
Top floor in place, reveals the purpose; water reservoirs made of
re-purposed food-liquids drums. Why bother with such a project?
The local water utility usually has not enough pressure to feed a shower-
head! Also the hours of service are often limited. We draw water from
our well via an electric pump system, to fill the drums. A shower might
seem like a LITTLE thing, but NOW, you know why I REALLY
don't take it for granted!! (I never would have imagined going to such
lengths of effort, to get one)
seem like a LITTLE thing, but NOW, you know why I REALLY
don't take it for granted!! (I never would have imagined going to such
lengths of effort, to get one)
The ground floor of our new structure houses "The Last Quarter Lounge
and Spa," which has a "quick stop" bathing and "comfort room." Counting
from the vault to the tank-level, we are proud owners of a 4-story "facility."
(the word I'm not using here, is opposite of IN-house)
(the word I'm not using here, is opposite of IN-house)
The view upward from the bottom of the ladder.
Wonderful view, in all directions, from the top.
Watch where you step, as you prepare to descend.
which we could ship, and we are able to use again. The bed-frame could
not reasonably be shipped, so this now-complete frame serves us here.
quick trips to Lowe's!) so I spent about a week puttering and
building four of them from sticks and 1/4- inch plywood.
impression that they are framed-panel type, but they aren't.
Their front panels are as flat as I could make them (which
isn't, entirely, flat - - or, straight). I used to take closets much
more for granted than I do now; I really appreciate
this one being DONE!
At this point I'm still not exactly sure how to say what I've been trying to say. Maybe it's just, "I don't take small blessings quite as much for granted now, as I used to." A little while back, I was fussing to myself about a lot of little inconveniences, and I muttered, "Well, camping out has been fun, but someday soon I'm going back home!" That's one thing about the Philippines: the way many people live here has much in common with Americans' idea of going camping. Camping is fun, for a lot of people, but most people wouldn't describe it as "easy" or "convenient." People do it because they want to experience different surroundings ("Nature") for a while. The little challenges of adjusting to a different routine can be part of the "fun," depending on how a person looks at it. I'm glad to be in the Philippines. A year ago, my challenges were different as I worked on a job that, while enjoyable most times, was getting to be too much for me. I could not have imagined that a few months later I would be here - our expectation was more likely a couple years from now. But it is over-all a good experience for me to have been here these 7 or so months, adapting to some of the circumstances, and gradually changing other things to suit myself.
May each of you experience the blessings and satisfaction of meeting small and large challenges in your life.
Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines
(She is not a writer - maybe I'm not either! - but she is probably the larger part of what happens around here)
May each of you experience the blessings and satisfaction of meeting small and large challenges in your life.
Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines
(She is not a writer - maybe I'm not either! - but she is probably the larger part of what happens around here)
