Ready for the year 2566/2023 of our building process

2 PM today we stopped working. This building process year for us now is finished. 

I bought for myself an end of the year present, a Stihl chainsaw, and it was just delivered this morning. So now time for a beer with ice to celebrate the end of the year and all the things we created together. We are 'closed' for about one and a half day ;). 

Several personal beer Chang 'trophies' from this year are already waiting to become part of the construction work of the main house. Far not enough but... every day a bit will bring a lot at the end ;). 

This evening we have a New Years party with Karaoke in the next door village restaurant and tomorrow, after early morning church, an engagement party of the daughter of German/Surin friends. 

The last couple of days we cleaned up our construction site and did preparations already to go on next year. The workshop is finished and electricity, consumer unit, lights, switches and outlets are fixed and working. A small workbench, storage racks and a steel cabinet are in. So finally we could store the things we had to keep in the second guest pyramid (because of the long rainy season). We only have to place the outside tiles on the walls. 

We made the preparation and first welding for the veranda to build of the main house and put the rebar and wire mesh for the ground floor. Unfortunately we needed to order three extra sheets of wire mesh because we just did not order enough last time. They will come next week. 

After that we can place the electricity- (for the ground floor outlets) and water and sewage pipes in. In a couple of weeks we think we can pour the concrete of the top layer of the ground floor. 

After that we will order the special (load bearing) 15 cm thick wall blocks. 

In the time waiting for them we can complete the second guest pyramid. 

So, enough new work to do. 

Have a happy and healthy New Year and thanks for following us. 

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Big surprise and great delivery. The ground floor panels are in.

Unexpectedly at 6.15 AM this morning Phatsamon got a phone call. The two trucks from the CPAC-company in Saraburi (around 350 km away from our place / a four and a half hour single trip drive) arrived already. They left midnight from the company and took a short rest at a petrol station close to our place. 

A bit a surprise because we did not expect them so early but, soon we were ready after the dogs got their first but this time very short morning walk. So no yoga and meditation today.

The drivers did not want to start with coffee but with unloading and placing because the fresh and good weather to work. So, we did. 

The product we ordered (Hollow-core prefabricated prestressed floor slabs) is of a very high quality. Not possible to make this at location by yourself. Both drivers and crane operators were of the same great quality. Skilled in what and how to do and how to handle. 

So the first plank, out of 33, was placed at around 6.30 AM. The last already at 9.00 AM. A great job done with our compliments! 

Phatsamon and I, this time, were only helpers and guide ;). 

After the work the coffee for all and soon after the trucks were on their way to Saraburi again we walked a long time in the forest with our waiting dogs. 

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Ready for the ground floor elements to be delivered

Great weather to make progress and we are ready to receive the prefabricated concrete floor slabs tomorrow. 

The foundation and foundation blockwork is ready. On the outside all painted / water blocked with a bitumen (tar-seal / compound) paint. Pipe inlets and outlets for water and sewage are placed. The main electricity line was in already.

I had to install for now the first three lintels in the house. All above the entrances of the crawl spaces. 

On top of the blockwork and the lintels we put a 'Drytechplus' reinforced bitumen layer to protect any water or moisture to come into the concrete groundfloor and walls we are going to build on top.

We also nearly finished the inside of the workplace/toolstorage. 

Once we bought a bucket of paint for the inside of the pyramid. I did not like the color so did not use that paint. This time, after Phatsamon put a basic primer on the walls, we could use it well. 

The outside wall are in primer as well. Waiting for time to put the tiles on top. 

Yesterday we installed the roof panels. Although the electricity inside is not installed yet, we can use the place already for storage now so we can go on finishing the second guest pyramid room. We have space inside again. 

Today we brought in a workbench and will install some storage racks and a steel cabinet. 

The road to our living and constructionsite in combination with the width of our entrance gate made we need two small trucks instead of one bigger one for the floor elements to be delivered tomorrow. It is the way it is. 

In the mean time Phatsamon managed to harvest the first bananas. We still have to wait a couple of days for them to get yellow. Sure they will taste great. 

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Things are running again

We really make progress again after the extreme long monsoon this year.

The formwork is back to the rental company and we picked up the formwork to make the base of the outdoor stairs to the upstairs yoga/meditation room. 

The first layer of foundation blocks are in and this evening, with the support of the laser, we succeeded to spirit level the first layer of blocks placed on the slab foundation. We used a special grater to do that. A hard job and lots of sweating still with 27 degrees C in the evening. 

It's a base to make the block laying for the further foundation, the hollow-core slab floor elements and the walls of the house a bit more easy. 

The blocklaying for the workshop/tool-storage is finished and the roof construction to place the roof-elements is in and anchored with galvanized screw anchors into the last two top layers of the masonry. 

Last Friday the BK isolated roof elements, with a 15 years quality guaranty, arrived. 

Also we got our paint sprayer. Tomorrow I will have the first experiences with that machine. 

We picked up a work-table and storage racks to place inside the workplace already. So next week it will be functional. 

I poured a concrete lintel above the entrance door of the workplace and placed a special galvanized grid on the inside for some burglary delay.

And yes, we also had some new maintenance to do. Our washing machine did not work any longer. I needed to dismantle the machine and try to find what caused the problem. Cleaned all the inlets and outlets of (little) dirt and sand (we have our own water well) but still the machine did not work. 

Step by step I checked the system, pumps, electricity, etc.. Finally I found the source. The three valve water inlet.

I needed to buy a new tool to unscrew a special kind of screw but succeeded. It worked out three inner valves did not work because of accumulated chalk. 

All together it took me half a day to solve the problem. A new experience and... working well again.

The pallets of Q-Con blocks are at our site for about three weeks now. One of the pictures below shows why it is not possible at all, sad about that, to work with wood here. It shows the underside of the pallet in only three weeks nearly totally eaten by termites. 

A big surprise last week was that we discovered we are/were not the only builders at our site. Under the entrance gate of the labyrinth we discovered a pigeon nest with two beautiful newborn birds. At the moment they are getting their first lessons to fly. Great to see and enjoy. 

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com