Work/building permit and steel construction for the sandwich roof for the Knock down house finished

Learning by doing and practice makes the master.

Welding is going better and better. And yes, I want to be honest, at first I had to do some welds three times. After cleaning them with a steel brush I did not accept the result. With a grinder took the weld out and tried again. Today, welding the balcony of the veranda I started for the first time to like welding. Nearly everything going smooth now.

The steel construction for the sandwich roof this afternoon was ready. After welding and grinding it got an oxid primer (Captain Mark brand) and an emulsion top layer. Phatsamon did a great job today working in very high temperatures. Not scared of working on a step ladder or on the roof.

Tomorrow we will fix the mounting slats and hope to screw the roof panels. 

I also got the official paper I am allowed to work / build our own house. Necessary to show if we get any check by officials. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Swindle

Swindle for us is the right word. 

Our truck already is for one and a half week in the 'hospital'. We are updated nearly every day and it worked out the American Expat who sold the truck to us did many quick and 'dirty' repairs to make the car attractive to sell.

As we shared on this blog already the truck did not start anymore. It seemed the cooling system was totally damaged and the radiator full of mud. Two of the cylinders of the diesel engine were broken. The engine was brought to a specialized factory to check and fix again. An x-ray of the engine showed some repair was made with cement. The top cover broken and not to repair anymore. Many cheap spare parts to keep it running for a short while were used for repair and from the outside you could not see that. A list of things that are wrong and need to be changed. 

In the mean time we have to order construction material delivery and the bill for repair is getting higher and higher...

Indeed a set-back and it gives us a very bad feeling of a guy and his Thai wife we really trusted...

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com


 

Steel structure for the sandwich roof growing

Step by step the steel structure is growing for the sandwich roof. It's too hot to work hard and we have the time. In the mean time Phatsamon is taking care of the garden, cooking, doing the laundry and visit her mom. Often she is of great help with all construction work. Happy she is not able to work in Bangkok because of a virus there ;).

This morning we discovered during outside breakfast one of the trees on our land is flourishing. It looks like flowers but actually it are new branches with fresh leafs. There are many berries and many birds come to eat them. If I come closer with my camera they are gone. The time will come that we are used to each other for sure. 

This evening for the first time we had dinner on the veranda. A great place to be and Kadhow, in the evening, his most favorite cooler place acting as a security guard ;). 

More and more we have the idea to live in a nice way at our private camping place, not being a camping at all. Still working on the first stage. Next step will be the creation of the Labyrinth after the site office / living space is totally finished. 

By the way, the repair of the truck will taken another three to four days. Today a new set of cylinders and other spare parts arrived. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Some setbacks

And some bad luck, as everybody knows, is also part of a building process. 

The last couple of days we had four of them. 

It started with Phatsamon who by coincidence put her mobile phone in a bucket with marram grass and forgot to take it out watering it. Happy she discovered just in time so it did not break down totally. It could be dried and repaired in the city in a couple of hours. 

The next day our basic water well pump only delivered a tiny little bit water instead of the regular huge amount. The engineer who installed the pump was 300 km away from us in a different province and could not come immediately. He first needed a heath certificate from a hospital so he could cross the border of our province in relation to the present virus crisis. 
Yesterday two engineers came to fix and we were happy it worked out the connection pipe between the pump and the riser broke at a depth of nearly 60 meters. They changed the parts as a guarantee. We only had to pay for the petrol of their car and offered them a good tip for driving more than three hours to help us. 

I use my Makita battery driven electric screwdriver a lot. It has two gears. One of the gears broke down so I only can drill at low speed. Will see how to deal with that but I think I can. 

Last but not least two days ago our truck did not start. Carlien, my daughter who is a car mechanic in Australia, did do her best to help me out on Skype but I could not fix it. Also Phatsamon's brother in law came to give a helping hand with cables to have more power to start. The electric system seemed to be working well but... no start of the engine. 
We called a nearby garage and the truck had to go to 'the hospital'. They came to pick it up and bring it to their workplace. 
It appeared many things were wrong. The former owner only did some small maintenance to sell it (I really hate second hand to be honest). The cooling system did not function and the radiator was broken. No cooling liquid inside and at a test all brown water came out mixed with oil. Not good. Also the garage discovered one of the cylinders and an engine-pump was broken. Several times they called us to show us what they discovered and to offer us options how to repair. We want it to be good again in the right way and with the official spare parts. The parts are ordered now and we have to wait for delivery and fix. It will take some days. Happy we have enough construction materials so we can go on with our process. 

What have been learned is that worrying, complaining and whining does not help anything and only consumes energy and ruins your day. So we are still happy building. 
We have to give the process time and, sometimes with a little creativity, everything will be fine again. It does not only make yourself, but also your love-ones and environment sick so better not to start with it. 

In the mean time our chameleon showed up to keep an eye on all what was happening on our site. And in the evening, after we came back from the restaurant where we had dinner, a black friend (scorpion) was walking on the main dirt road in the forest protecting our gate. We put it in the forest again after thanking for the protection. 

It's very hot at the moment so we have to slow down our activities a bit. No problem. No schedule ;). 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

The progress of yesterday and new visitors this morning

Yesterday we could fix the fiber cement floor planks of the veranda. Also the beginning of the balcony is there. 

Phatsamon planted special marram grass around the pond. Just to try to stop the erosion. Not sure if we are still on time with that. It will not be a problem because the pond need to get its natural form.

During breakfast this morning our chameleon was spying us again. After he (or she?) saw we discovered him already he showed up again as a kind of model. 

In the air we discovered an Eagle. A wonderful bird. Sorry I do not have my special camera here but I am sure also in the future this animal will show up and I will have some great pictures of it. Enough to eat in the fields. Hope he will keep the chameleon alive ;) 

Today we keep some rest and I will work on another teacher training I am doing.  

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

The power and will to survive

It's just and only two and a half weeks ago the old tree was re-planted. 

Every day we have to give special attention, sometimes special root-grow and fertilizer. Early this morning, after heavy tropical rain yesterday afternoon and last night this wonderful tree showed his natural power and will to survive and to show its beauty even more. 

Nature is beautiful!

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Natural delays

The last couple of days we make slowly progress. Nature is bringing our pace a bit down. 

This moment we need to work on the front (East side) of our site office/living space. Although we wake up early temperatures soon are very (too) high to work in the sun. Painting and even welding is not possible. Bye the way, welding is going better and better. 

So we have to wait till the afternoon to work on our veranda, balcony and second roof. But, no schedule, we have the time. 

The mornings we use for long breakfast, walk with Kadhow, some shopping, etc.. The afternoons and early evenings to do what we want to do. 

More and more we also have to deal with tropical rain showers. The nice thing is the air quality at the moment at our place is more than great. And we get some extra breaks for a nice drink and a good chat. 

And... in the evening, if possible, we go out for dinner at our nearly private restaurant or we pick up some food to eat at home. 

Kadhow likes the veranda we are building. It gives him even more comfort to keep an eye on the property, the cows and his friends who come to visit him on a regular base. 

Some pictures of the last days. 

Ready to go for dinner ;) 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

No Songkran this year so construction materials available to buy today.

April 13, 14 and 15 we normally celebrate Songkran (Thai New Year). Especially at the place where I live with the elephants a nice celebration (I think). This year no Songkran for the first time ever, like no Easter celebrations for the first time ever. 

The good thing of it was that we could buy construction materials, especially steel, for the veranda. 

During breakfast Phatsamon discovered a Songkran Breakfast visitor watching us. So nice to see this wonderful animal in his camouflage skin. 

The last couple of days we got more and more cow friends enjoying the daily free water supply. Soon we will not see them for a while anymore. More and more thunder, lightning and rain is arriving now. The farmers started to prepare their lands for the new rice harvest and in that period the cows are not welcome on the land but good taken care of in their stables. 

While I was cutting steel and welding, Phatsamon was pre-drilling the floor planks. Today we have to seal the welds and paint. After that we will take the next steps for the balcony and preparation for the sandwich roof construction. 

Some pictures again: 

Frans Captijn

e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Welding is not an easy job and more

Early this afternoon we got a lot of rain. So we took a break. 

After a short time thunder and lightning. A long power break. Happy to have the generator. A great exercise. Still... you have to walk to the power plant to start it up so, yes, wet ;). 

Yesterday I worked on the door of the power plant. Today I discovered I needed to do some changes. I had to cut the steel bars and started welding again. I am still not used to stick welding and it took some time to get it 'so so' right. I think doing and trying is learning but YouTube, so far, did not really help me a lot out. 
Finally I finished to fix the door. I need to buy some small stuff to make it even more nice. Tomorrow we will buy. 

The rain offered us a good possibility to see if the digging so far for preparing the labyrinth was right. After the rain showers we could see the base is level so in a couple of weeks we will go on with it. 

As a big surprise, after not even one and a half week, the old tree showed us it's alive and growing. It made and makes us really happy. We hope this will go on. 

First thing to do now is to make the veranda. Welding again. Indeed, welding is not an easy job. It really is a profession. 

In the evenings and early morning Kadhow acts as a puppy playing with his toys and, he did it again, he found the empty milk and coke bottles. His favorite toys. 

Find some pictures again. 

Frans Captijn

e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

All kind of small things

Again we are happy not to have any schedule. 

Two days ago we got a message in the afternoon the bamboo entrance gate for the labyrinth was already finished. So, although we wanted to start welding to create our veranda and sandwich roof we decided first to pick up the gate with our Kia truck. 

Driving with it, it looked as if we started a business with a snackcar ;). But soon we were at our building site. Pity for us I found out the gate was much heavier than we thought. All around 250 kg. So it was not possible to get it from the truck (workers from the bamboo company put it on). We had to wait till this morning 6 AM for family help and... succeeded. 
Another thing was I made a mistake with the foundation for it. So I needed to fix that. Happy to do it early this morning with lower temperatures. The thing, for us, looks great and the Lipstick palms have the shadow they need to grow as well now. 

Yesterday and the day before yesterday we did do painting work (steel preparation and floor planks for the veranda) and last concrete pouring. A small foundation for the Buddha head statue West of the labyrinth and a foundation for the stairs to the veranda of the Knock Down Home. We also fixed some small things inside to make life even more comfortable. 

This afternoon we will start with the preparation and first welding activities. First I will make the door for the power & water plant. 

Find some pictures again. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Foundation for veranda ready

The last two days we had some difficulties to get the building materials we needed. Many shops are closed because of (social) media fear. But... it took some more time, we succeeded. 

We got the steel we needed and also the floor planks to build the veranda in front of the site office / living space.

We also ordered a gate as entrance for the Labyrinth already because we learned that my favorite Lipstick Palms also need shadow. We bought the foundation already and the bamboo gate I designed will be there in four till seven days. 

We made the foundation for the veranda ready. Phatsamon digging the holes so I could pour the concrete. 

We had breakfast and saw a most beautiful Kingfisher on one of our electricity wires. Relaxing in the evening we got a full red sun to say goodbye for this day and to be thankful for it. 

And... the cows enjoy our daily free water for them. 

Find some pictures of today.

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Swiss life feeling and Kadhow got a new friend.

Although the world seems to be in crisis, so far no crisis at all for us. 

Today we got the possibility to buy a lot of building materials (most steel) so our process can go on. And yes, when we enter a shop we have to ware a mouth mask. As soon as we are out of the shop we take it off again. It does not protect at all and... it gives me/us a very unpleasant feeling of disturbance of breathing. But we want to be cooperative. 

The foreman of the tree replacement team told us the Lipstick palms we already planted at the entrance of the new to design labyrinth needed shadow as well. So we decided to order a bamboo gate with a grass roof to give protection. The Lipstick palm is my favorite palm so I want them to survive and on the other hand a gate to the Labyrinth will create an even more inviting feeling. 

After unloading the truck (great to have this workhorse) we decided to take a break. Sitting there, watching and enjoying what we already both created in only one month it gave me a great feeling. What a retirement I have. Thankful for that. A real Swiss life feeling ;). 

Early this morning Blackey was there to come to play with Kadhow. The same ritual for Kadhow once with Whitey at Mae Rim. Both dogs are happy playing and running together and making fun. We are not always happy with the peeing rituals ;). 

We got a question of the present (Baby Buddha tree) of the old tree offered us. Find a picture in this blog. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com