Hi guys, I finally managed to get a decent website up and running. Have a look and see what ye think of it. It's still a work in progress.

The site address is www.jbshopfitting.com

I am indeed

Some of them photos were takin with an old crappy phone. These days I use my trusty iPhone but I know that's not great either.

I set the site up to try generate some work as here in Ireland the recession is very bad. I have spent nearly every day at home this year with no work at all.

Thanks for your kind words and suggestions!

A guy on a web forum here in Ireland set most of it up as it would take me weeks to it by myself. He has it setup so I can log into Wordpress and change stuff in there. I'm still figuring it out myself as well.
 
I have limited website experience but I would be way too slow to do an entire site from scratch and not up to date with all the latest things related to it as well.

It has to change soon. It can't stay this quiet for much longer.
Any more pics of your bathroom?

Galwaydude18,

Nice site, I have to agree with Vindigo that the images are not doing justice to your wonderful work. Hire someone to image your work - just a hobbyist photog - would be of great help.

Cheers,
Steve.

Ask around your church, I'm sure someone has a good camera that wouldn't mind helping.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Steve

Dia dhuit mo chara!

I like your website. How do you promote it though? I used google adwords but it got expensive so I stopped. You have to advertise within a certain radius of where you live.

I did get work from it but not enough to justify the costs. I have to say I am fortunate to have repeat customers and have inadvertantly joined a "co op" of other tradesmen and it seems to work really well. Basically we all have our own contacts but we all help each other complete the various jobs. I have a full time apprentice but he is not always working directly with me. It varies from price work to day rate with large contractors. We start a cob farmhouse on wednesday which should be interesting.

It kills me to think of how the economy has slid in Eire. I hear most young people are going to Australia and Canada to get work. My brother is in Madrid and Spain has been hit really hard. When I went to see him recently there were teenagers just hanging around street corners everywhere with nothing to do.think the unemployment rate is very high there now. Think the UK has been not too bad because they can self regulate the currency unlike the Euro.

If it makes you feel better I have been working nearly every feckin day this year and I'm still skint.... Really hope you get loads of work soon.

Wooden lungs. PS my little boy just asked me what all the yellow faces were on screen and I told him they were smileys!!!!

Try and convince him that it will better for his child to be in OZ.

My mate loves it in Oz hes going for a second year now working!  With the money he earned in the first year working in OZ  hes gone and bought a house in England to rent out and hes going back next week.

He got him self a girlfriend for a bit I think they split up, hes only young 22/23 I think.  Hes a basic joiner likes doing standard joinery like hanging doors fitting skirting and fitting kitchens nothing special just a hard worker and he found loads of work in OZ  he jumped from job to job getting better pay every time.  

I keep telling my self I should go....  just scared  and I have more than enough work at the moment so I have no drive to go and my girlfriend doesn't want to go.  

Well I have plenty of reasons I should be going main one being soon England will be called Englandstan thats all ill im going to say.

JMB

lol  I am going to do the same im going to visit my mate over in OZ this time have couple weeks Holliday he can show me some jobs maybe help me decide if I should go and work in OZ or not.

Thing is my GF is closer to her family than I am cus the only family I see really are my parents and brother thats it.   Also wa she moans about which kinda annoyed me but she said it wont be fair on her because my parents would be able to come over to OZ when ever they wanted as many times as they wanted but her family wouldnt be able to afford it which I think is a really odd way to see things.  

So I suggested then if it really annoys you ill tell my parents they can only come and see us when your parents can come and see us  I then got told I was being daft...........

I also said we will also come back to England to visit friends and family but she kinda wasnt in the mood then!  GIRLS!! Bloody annoying! lol

Hi Galwaydude have a look at this link for "Cob" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(material) The walls are really thick which means the window boards are huge! I will take some progress pictures of the work.

I went to work in Oz in 1999 and loved it. I was working with a brilliant chippy in Sydney around Cogee and Bondi beach. He was great to work with and seemed to have and endless supply of work at the time. We mostly did one off timber frame houses.

 There is a huge ex pat comunitee there so its great for work contacts. The Aussies have a very different work ethic though which was an eye opener! some of the older guys on site would smoke bongs before work in the morning and it was common to drink beer on site!

The one thing I could'nt cope with were the spiders that looked more like small dogs than insects. Also they have these small spiders called red backs that love plasterboard and harass you all day. I was taught to just kill everything with your hammer as soon as you spot them in case you get a bite. After a while it becomes second nature. I woke up one night with a huntsman in my bed the size of my hand and it gave me a nasty bite....like being hit with a lump hammer in the arm. I would love to go back and work there as the Aussies are great fun but I might stick to a joiners shop instead!