Hiccup after hiccup but still some progress

After our short holidays in Chiang Mai, we were ready to go on. Stupid we made a bit of a goal to start using the main house half July this year. And, as the other experienced years of building learned, for us this is wrong. No timeframe, no stress and enjoying the work we did do and still do. 

Hiccups appeared, serious health problems of several close family members in The Netherlands, lot's of disturbance because of unforeseen maintenance and last but not least our oldest friend Kadhow, getting disabled within two days and getting a worse and worse condition because of a sickness he got from a thick. On a daily base he asks, and be sure we give, special care at the most strange times of the day and night.

My mood changed and i got irritable. Totally not my thing but it happened. Sad also sometimes for Phatsamon. 

So, I am retired, we skipped the timeframe again and hope we can deal with the situation we are temporarily in better. A learning process. 

All together in one month time we did not make a lot progress, the rainy season started with the first storms as well, but still. Phatsamon harvested the first mango's.

About the hiccups:

#    We got a pump damage again (solved).

#    Chalk blockage inside one of our water storage tanks (removed).

#    Aircon pyramid 1 blocked because of a mouse inside the outside unit (cleared).

#    Fallen tree and other storm damage (cleared after chain saw repair).  

#    Washing machine stopped working (repaired).

#    Some repairs at Phatsamon's mothers house (done). 

Progress:

#    Bought ceiling materials, 60 roles Stay Cool isolation and ceiling wood.

#    Paint a primer coating the wood.

#    Installed big crystal ceiling ball at yoga/meditation sala.

#    Installed upper isolation ceiling (of two) of Bed-, bathroom and cloth storage. 

#    Prepared Air-conditions installation.

#    Started with roof isolation and wood cover of Living room and kitchen.

#    12.000 BTU Samsung Windfree inverter airco installed in bedroom (today)

#    22.000 BTU Samsung Windfree inverter airco installed in livingroom (today). 

Note A very professional Home Service Team of four persons of HomePro installed the aircondition systems. It took them over 15 minutes to drill through the plastered and floor-tiled load bearing walls but they succeeded. They worked till 7 PM in the evening. Bravo! We took, my mothers way, good care of them ;).

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Surprise! After over five years waiting, we finally got a concrete road!

Yesterday early morning at 6 AM, after a nearly three weeks holiday in Chiang Mai we arrived home in Surin. A 900 km trip with our Mazda-2 during the night again. 

And guess what... the first time we could use the brand-new concrete road to our site. 

During our visit in Chiang Mai, as a surprise, we saw at our CCTV camera's the local government started to work to make the second part of the road to our land. Great we were not at home because we took all five dogs with us to Chiang Mai so they could not leave their 'dog-buddha-footprints' in the fresh poured concrete. 

First we were told the second step should be another part of 4 meters just till our land. The biggest surprise was they, for now, passed the entrance of our site and we got the road 5 meters wide in front of the entrance. 

All together, last year june they made a 205 meter construction 4 meters wide. This step the first made another 100 meter 4 meters wide and after that 80 meters 5 meters wide. All together 385 meters to the nearest concrete village road. 

So, the over 500 meters we have to travel to our village, we do not have to do through the mud during the rainy season and also the dust will be much less. 

The whole project investment (so far) was THB 944.500 (around Euro 25.000). Thank you local road department (Or Bor Tor) Na Bua, Surin for this. 

Arriving home, on the other hand, we could not enter our land. The thickness of the road is 15 cm. So, early this morning we ordered a truck of road gravel to make a slope/entrance and we are working on that now. 

We take that easy because we have to adapt to the high temperatures here again. Today 41 degrees C already and temperatures will be higher the coming weeks. 

Being in Chiang Mai we ordered a fountain as decoration for the entrance of the house at a fountain shop in that city. 

Also unexpected it was delivered three days earlier than discussed and delivered now by Phatsamon her mother in the village. So we had to pick the heavy packages with our own truck and are working on placement and installing. 

So... nearly fully back on track the first day back. 

Monday we go to the Or Bor Tor to thank them for there work and efforts and we will bring also a surprise to the road workers because they missed our daily 'care' during their work because we were on holidays. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Many things 'finished' and fixed

We are happy to share, although very high temperatures again, we managed to 'finish' and fix many things the last couple of weeks. 

First of all the outside tiling, this afternoon 4,30 PM (Thai time) is 'finished'. All together a bit more than 130 m2. Finished between ' ' because we are still in the process of joint filling now. We have to do that in the evening to give the joints time to harden instead of joint filling drying out by the heat of the sun. 

The first short and soft rains appeared but the walls already now are 'waterproof'. 

The second thing that is 'finished' is the wooden ceiling of the yoga/meditation Sala on the first floor. We made it from pinewood with a special coating/protection. A lot of work. Some finishing touch still have to be brought in. 

Also the Philips floodlights are installed now with a so called 'hotel-switch'. Meaning, you can switch on and off the floodlights upstairs as well as downstairs. 

Natural ventilation (Venturi vents) is in between the rooftiles and the wooden planks.

All electricity is installed and/or prepared. The rotating Hatari ceiling fan has to be installed but we will do that later not to offer this fan as a place to create bird nests. 

During our ceiling installation a couple of pigeons every night again used the openings between the roof tiles and wood as a place to sleep. Two times we had to take a beginning of a nest, and even two just laid eggs out. Happy they found another place nearby now. 

The last (sliding) door at the back side of the house is installed and finished by the  village company. A good job they delivered. The same extra thick quality aluminum and also thick black glass. It took two weeks after order because this material is not regular in stock and had to be ordered at 'Metal Thai' in Bangkok. 

We used the time between order and installation to finish the concrete space and floor tiles for the sliding door and the entrance of the scrawl space under the house. 

The company installed also some rain leakage protection above the top-hung windows. 

We created two basis for the outdoor air-conditioning units to be installed in May. 

A ten cm thick reinforced concrete plate in a 20 cm high curb. Both places are not connected with the outside walls but 'floating'. We put a one cm. thick polystyrene layer covered with grey silicone in between. 

Although the outdoor air conditioning units are fixed to the floor on thick rubbers, I just wanted to be sure we did do all to reduce any noise and vibration of the running aircons inside. Reason why we did not connect the bases to the wall.

Maintenance:

At a night, beginning of March, the main pressure pump of our project water system stopped working. I discovered at 3 AM after visiting the toilet. 

Because of 'cooler' temperatures I decided to try to fix the problem in the night. It took over two hours to dismantle a part of the pump and the pressure switch. Chalk, again, caused the problem. After deep cleaning the problem is solved again (for a couple of months). 

The siphon of the outside temporary 'kitchen' behind the TED's started leaking. Also the grease trap needed deep cleaning and a new inner basket. Happy I ordered in advance. 

I had to renew the siphon and connection to the grease trap, clean the trap and renew the basket. Everything fixed again. 

One of the three air conditioning units we already have (into the TED's) started to make a strange noise and a smell of burning. 

I cleaned the outdoor unit and also the inside unit. The outdoor unit fan was a bit out of balance because some kind of fly build a mud nest on one of the wings of the ventilation blades. The inside unit was filled with over twenty small eggs of Gecko's. They laid the eggs on the electricity wire connection and we think that caused the smell. 

We also checked and cleaned the other two air-condition units.

Everything fixed and working again. 

Our Air quality station, connected on the World Wide Web (Aqicn dot org), suddenly  stopped transmitting information. After checking it worked out, don't ask me how, a Gecko put some eggs in the monitor unit. One of the eggs was broken and many ants entered the station to 'clean' up and also caused trouble in the electric system of the unit. I cleaned it and took the station for a short while off-line. Happy it's working again. 

Last but not least, we fixed the wall of the toilet of the TED's again. Happy we could find nearly the same tiles (Marbella brand) at Global House in Surin. We also changed the tap. This time in a, for us, good quality of Hafele. Not again this frustration as I talked about in the Blog before.  

We just got a phone call our Samsung Windfree aircondition units arrived in Surin. We already asked them to install this May after we managed to isolate and install the ceilings inside.

Log story short, all this activities kept us from the street ;). 

We think it's time for a short break. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com