Frustrating maintenance and buying

We are in our construction process now for just over five years. Very normal, especially in the climate we are in, by the way already 39 degrees C / 102 F. 

Although it's a normal part of the process, most of the time maintenance comes unexpected and so is disturbing in relation to the things we planned to do at a certain day. 

On the other hand it's also nice to fix things again by ourselves. 

The water we use from our well contains some chalk. Although we have several filters and clean them on a regular base still the pressure switches in the pumps stop functioning. A matter of demounting a part of the pump and clean the switch on the inside. Last Thursday we discovered no water running and, in the middle of the night because of better temperatures (27 degrees C) I could do the job in two hours. 

Ants, many different species, are back. They come in armies. So we need to be very careful with everything (actually that's all food here) that contains sugar. But some very small ones attack electric outlets and switches as well as circuit boards. Circuit boards we cannot repair ourselves and it cost time and is expensive to get repaired or renewed. 

But still, this is part of living here.

The frustrating part of maintenance is that Thai people got in their genes always to go for the cheapest (shit) quality. 

As many of you know we designed the interior of an old shipping container and used it for about one and a half year as our bedroom and bathroom at our construction site. Now we use it as our TED's. Talk, Eat and Drink place/private bar. 

A specialized company build it for us. But... the Thai way, with cheap shit quality materials we recognize over and over again.

Last week we discovered the main water pressure pump switched on many times. Sign somewhere there must be a small leakage. But Everything seemed to be OK and nothing leaking. 

Yesterday Phatsamon discovered it was the tap to clean your feet at the bathroom of the TED's. Not the fitting but the body of the tap. When I wanted to check, water switched off, the whole tap broke (se picture). It was not possible to take the base out of the fitting. So, the only option left was to cut the wall to repair the leakage and change to a, so far temporarily, tap. 

It worked out the tiles were only glued with some silicone as was the waterpipe. It took me more than two hours to do the work and now I have to try to find the tiles somewhere again and to fix. Also I have to buy a new, good quality, tap. 

So, not only frustrating but also as the Dutch say: "Buying cheap will work out to be expesive". In reality it all is much more expensive and less comfortable. 

This brings me to the 'frustration' of buying and ordering materials at the hard ware stores. 

Loads of staff, lazy, hanging on their mobile phones in rows, most not having any knowledge. If you ask for something many times they tell you the easy sentence: "My mi" (we don't have). Walking a bit further you find what you were looking for. So just laziness.

For the house we needed to order two air conditioners. There are loads of air conditioners to find around here. Hard to make a choice. 

We wanted a so called Air-Free inverter airconditioner of Samsung and I checked already everything and found many reviews on Youtube of expats living here. 

When you go to a shop (all full of different brands of Airconditioners) a staffmember comes to you to tell you you made the wrong choice and immediately shows you another brand. Because they don't have it anymore, it's not working well, it's hard to clean, you only can get it with AI now, etc.. Not true because we already have one of this airco's in one of our guest pyramids working great and I know how easy it is to clean. 

Basic thing about this is staff members get different percentages of commission if they sell a certain product brand. Not my thing.

And what about an air conditioner with Artificial Intelligence? I, personally, do not need and want an app on my mobile phone to switch on or off our airco's. 

"If you do not want it, it's not necessary to use it" was the answer of a staff member. You only have to pay around 250 Euro per machine more and again parts that need expensive maintenance if they break down (or are swallowed by an army of ants).

So, finally, third attempt of shop, we found at HomePro the ones we wanted and they ordered them to be installed coming May.  

This blog, a bit to write my frustration away ;). All part of the process. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Going on during already very high temperatures.

It took a short while to write this blog. Many things are not finished yet but we thought it's good to give an update about things going on at our construction site. 

First of all I could update my visa again for another year. That will be year number 13 in row I live here in Thailand. 

The last couple of weeks temperatures are rising quickly. A bit too quickly to be honest. Yesterday afternoon I had to stop working because I felt I was close to a heat stroke. 36 degrees C during the afternoon is 'normal' again. The next two months temperatures will only rise till far above 40 degrees C. So time to finish activities on the outside of the house before temperatures are too extreme to work and before the rainy season starts. 

Although it will not be ready we intent to start to use the house half of July this year. 

End of the year we hope to install the outside stairs and sun shields. Maybe earlier but we will see. 

At the moment we work on the inside and outside together. Where possible Phatsamon inside and for me, so far, only if I want to have some change of activities. Then I help a bit with painting or work on electricity.

I am still going on with outside tiling. Placed more Dura-one flashing tape under the lowest tiles against water absorbing. Tiling only is possible in the late afternoon now so the glue has time to dry in the night. We use the old bamboo mats to protect the next day against direct sunlight. 

Also joint filling, after all the tiles are in, needs to be done in the late afternoon and evening because the high temperature. 

So, Phatsamon is doing the preparation work of painting, the finishing touch we do later. We installed the Stiebel Eltron hot-water boiler. We bought already the base boards to install, and some wood. Be surprised. 

As many people know, wood is my favorite construction material but it's hard to use it with the amount of termites in our area. But inside (and or not connected with soil), we think and hope, it will not give a problem. So the time for wood is there. 

We are installing the ceiling of the meditation/yoga sala. Instead of the bamboo mats we ordered and could not use because of bamboo worms, we use special treated pine wood with an anti UV coating. 

The shirts you see hanging under the ceiling we use as scarecrow against interested birds who, during our activities, want to build a nest. 

Next week we hope the back sliding door will arrive. I have to do some concrete work for that. We also need to pour concrete for two outdoor air-conditioning units and for the generator and rain water storage tank. 

Indoor and outdoor ventilation units with mosquito screens as well as the stainless steel outdoor ventilation unit for the kitchen hood are in place already. 

A Hoopoe bird is using the shade of the sala roof to rest a bit. Dog Taffy is watching one of two paragliders interested in our work. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Kitchen installed

As organized and scheduled Home Pro, the company were we ordered our Kitzcho kitchen furniture, even 15 minutes earlier than arranged, delivered at Thursday afternoon, January 23, 23 boxes of kitchen furniture to be installed today. We already stored three boxes (for the hood, the sink and the induction hob) so all together 26 boxes. 

Kitzcho offered us furniture of their 'Majestic' series. Solid (rubber tree) wood. 

At 8.10 AM three technicians from Kitzcho arrived already to start directly with their job. The marble plates were delivered at 10 AM this morning by two other staff members of the company.  

The flooring company still was working to polish and wax the indoor and outdoor floors. Happy they could arrange the place the kitchen needed to be installed was just ready on time. The delivered furniture had to wait at the veranda for one night. No problem in the dry season. We just put tarpaulins to cover and protect. 

The kitchen, actually, is not 100% ready. Some marble has to be grinded and fixed. And I have to install the sink because the basic connections to the kitchen tap are not long enough. Tomorrow I will do this job. For the marble the kitchen company will send a marble grinder. 

Happy tomorrow a quiet day and clean up everything just before a double birthday. 

So, this Friday was a busy day with 13 workers running around. Actually with amazing results that makes us all happy. 

All? Indeed. Our dog 'children' like the cool new floors in the house and will certainly use them for their comfort.

Solid laminated rubber-tree wood.

'Helping' cement paws of Taffy and Baijka.

This year, January is a very expensive month (worth it). Thank you lovely Phatsamon and ABP pension fund for support ;). 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com