Kitchens, ceiling, and more...

Slowly things are going back to 'normal' after my, at the moment, 97% recovering of sciatica. Still not working full-time and taking enough rest. The good thing... last month we see growing progress again.

The rainy season, slowly, is at its return. Better weather, with better temperatures and humidity levels to work, are on their way to stay for a couple of months. But still we have to deal with unexpected wet 'surprises' that bring us to mud road lockdowns like last Sunday. 

The main house electricity line now is connected to the main switchboard in our control room. I made a temporary construction outlet at the place where we will install the main house consumer unit. Happy we do not need to work with extension cables to the house now anymore. 

We had to change our plans for the outside corners of the house. We wanted to use mosaic tiles at those four corners but the corner profiles are not available anymore. We already found another option and bought the materials for that. 

We cut the holes in the back wall to install the ventilation units for the walk-in closet, the bathroom, guest toilet and storage room. Because our walls are double thickness of the regular Thai way of building, I had to make adapters. The hole for the hood / exhaust fan of the kitchen we still have to make. 

Painting of a part of the steelwork at the first floor (yoga/meditation space) to prepare for installing the bamboo ceiling is finished. The bamboo mats arrived. Sad to say they are of a bad quality and already full of mold. We tried to get the mold as much as possible off and Phatsamon and I painted the mats with the same coating we use for the wooden frames, stained glass panels and front door. 

Four Philips warm white flood lights for indirect lighting we ordered arrived Saturday October 26.  

I made a separate drawing for the wood company to order the wooden frames for the entrance of the house. I think the company never saw this type of construction drawings and it took a while to explain. Happy the result is of a good quality to work with. 

The wooden frames with stained glass as well as the door were delivered on time. It worked out the custom made door was made wrong (right turning instead of left). We could change this door at HomePro (great service) but had to wait another two weeks for delivery at Saturday October 26 as well. In the mean time we could install the frames and panels already and gave the wood a first double layer of coating. 

Because of the changing process of the main (front) door we needed to wait for a while for all kind of paperwork at HomePro. Waiting there, by coincidence, we 'met' a Western style (Kitzcho brand, Majestica model) full rubber-tree wood kitchen we both like, including a breakfast/lunch/dinner island table with storage. 

With our own construction drawings, Kitzcho staff made a 3-D drawing of the things we wanted. It took three days to make a first quotation. Thursday October 26 the same staff members visited our site to do final measuring. We wanted to make some small changes in relation to the first concept. Saturday, October 26 again, we got new drawings and a quotation including installation and special treated white marble kitchen top. We decided to agree with that one. The pictures below just to get an impression. 

It takes two months to arrange everything. No problem for us because we are not ready for installation yet. HomePro, for free, will store our new kitchen for about half a year. The induction cooking unit, hood, double sink, cold/hot water tap, etc. we already bought. They only have to be installed. A combined Grill/Microwave oven we will buy later. 

A small 'Thai kitchen' will be made outside on the back side of our house as well. Just on the other side of the wall were we will install the western style kitchen. 

It offers the possibility also to cook (stir fry and wok) on (bottled) gas. 

Time for us to do the inside preparation. We already prepared the kitchen walls with a primer and ordered the 30 x 60 cm tiles (same as the show model).   

Last week we found somebody from our village who is willing to do the inner plastering of the walls, together with two friends. We saw already several plastering he did before and trust the quality he delivers. They can start after the rice harvesting, that just started last week, around end of November.

Because I do not like plastering and because of the two times warning of 'overload' of my back already I do not want to do this job myself.  

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Slowly starting up again

My sciatica, after six weeks, is fading away. Still I am not 100% back on track. This will take another couple of weeks but still, we slowly start up again. 

The good thing is we did not get any delay because we deal with a building process and not a project. The goal is the process and not to reach, with stress, a kind of deadline when the house needs to be finished. 

After two months of no activity I want to go on. Around one month I spend a lot of time on top of our bed and had really problems to move because of serious pain in my left butox and leg. Driving a car or a scooter was not possible. 

The last ten days things started to change because of a combination of a lot of rest, keep on slowly moving (walking with a back-support/belt and exercises) in between, and getting rid of the anti inflammation and pain killer medicines I got from the pharmacy. In stead of that I used PEA food-supplement. 

Today I finally could do all my daily exercises, also sitting, again in combination with a Kundalini yoga set I created especially to deal with- and heal the sciatica. 

By the way, again I got less trust in pharmaceutical medicines. I trust the body to be able to deal with most of disturbed situations itself. And yes, that takes time. Getting older even more time, I am sure. But again my body showed me actually it's very healthy and, although slowly, fully recovering. 

Sometimes it's hard to deal with all the well-intentioned advises you get from people who really care about you and want you to recover soon. Thanks to them all. My behavior looks to be stubborn sometimes, but is not. I trust my own body and feelings, and want to give natural healing and a combination of rest & exercises by myself a try first.  

One and a half week ago I started one week to do some light work for about two hours a day. Some electricity, some preparations, some drawing work for wooden door- & panel frames.

Now I am in to 3 - 4 hours light work a day. 

Working on the electricity for the yoga/meditation space now and doing some preparations for painting there. Also doing preparations for the ventilation of the two storage places inside the house and for installing the exhaust fans in toilet and bathroom. 

We ordered the wooden front door with stained glass and two side panels with stained glass as well. Yesterday, after 3 attempts, we finally managed to order the custom made door- & panel frames. Monday October 7 we can pick them up and can start with installing. 

Unfortunately the bamboo ceiling cover for the yoga/meditation space, it seems for a long time, is not available. We found another creative bamboo solution and ordered it online already. This will be delivered before October 15. 

We think and hope the rainy season is slowly fading away here in Surin and temperatures and humidity are going down. 

Our friends in Mae Rim / Chiang Mai at the moment sadly have to deal with the most extreme floods ever there. Water to their house rising up to 2 meters and lots of damage. We hope they all will stay safe...

  

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Temporary no building activities

A bit later then we are used to, we took a break from August 5 till August 30 this time. A three and a half week holiday in Chiang Mai again. It all turned out a bit different than we thought and we had to cancel many appointments with friends. 

After a week being there we started to clean and clear the summerhouse a bit. A lot of stuff we did not use anymore. We also bought some new furniture. 

During cleaning upstairs, carrying a heavy box above my head, I made a wrong movement with my back. 

Still a weak spot in the lower part of my spine after the problems with the slipped/herniated disc I got. This movement brought me a sciatic nerve problem in my left leg that is still, very painful, going on. 

I could not drive our car or scooter any more and had to stop with the activities I wanted to do. Very bad weather (rainy season) and for 10 days a hammer drill tower at 60 meters from the townhouse, drilling a 112 meters deep well through the rocks as second well for our residences. Not too comfortable when you need rest but no other choice.  

August 29 we had to go back to Surin. A 15 hour very painful night trip but we 'succeeded' and our three dogs behaved great in the Mazda 2. 

Back in Surin now I have to take a lot of rest and have to do some exercises. I got painkillers and food supplements to deal with the situation that will last for 6 to 12 weeks. It is the way it is. 

So, temporary there are no building activities at our location. I hope we can go on again end of this month / beginning next month. 

Last week the local government gave us another one year extension of our building permit. So no hurry and no problems with immigration. 

Happy to see the first part of the concrete road to our site is ready. The OrBorTor (local government) spend THB 475,500 (approximately Euro 12.500) on this project. Thank you so much for this OrBorTor Ban Nabua. 

Next year another 180 meters as promised. Nearly to the entrance of our location. We hope and look forward. 

 

Temporary no building activities 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Finally the first part of the road to our place under construction

It was years of waiting, many lockdowns during the rainy seasons because it was impossible to use the mud road to our land. Actually only agricultural vehicles could use the road through the years and, let's face it, we are the only ones having our house (so far) connected. 

Our Mazda hatchback could not drive to our land. We had and still have to park it at Phatsamon's mother's house in the village and take the truck to drive the last part home.

Many, many times we were told: "The road will come soon". 

Unexpectedly the local government started June 6th, nearly two months ago, with leveling and we were very happy they started (we thought...). 

The day after all workers were gone again and till the afternoon of the day before yesterday nothing happened. 

That afternoon a truck brought formwork. Yesterday wire mesh. Two ladies and four men working to create the first part. 

Till this morning, coming back from the church, I did not believe it but then... the first concrete truck started to poor concrete.  Writing this blog now already truck number four is unloading and pouring. 

Great we had a lot of rain last night. The soil/underground is saturated so will not take the water out of the fresh concrete. This supports to make the concrete stronger. Just for now hoping no rain will come within a couple of hours not to damage the top layer. 

So, the road is finally under construction now and... we are in lockdown because the road is closed. 

We offer the workers some refreshments and snacks. It's hard working. 34 degrees Celsius and over 90% humidity. They appreciate it a lot. Cupid and Singto are playing with them but are on the leash now. We do not want to have 'Buddha Cupid and Buddha Singto" footprints of them in the fresh poured concrete. 

For now, this year, we get the first 240 meters (4 meters wide) and 15 cm thick concrete. Next year another 180 meters (5 meters wide) 15 cm thick. Every year they just can offer for max. 500.000 THB (around 12.500 Euro's). A story we understand now. 

So, after next year there is only another about 30 meters to go to the entrance of our land but we can live with that and maybe the year after there will be concrete there as well. We will manage. 

Some pictures of today around lunchtime. 

5 PM today after 8 trucks of concrete

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com