Our constructions under 'fire' again

(Updated Tuesday may 14)

May 6, 2024 in the early evening an unexpected hurricane hit mainly our village and close surroundings and caused a lot of damage. Over 30 houses lost their roofs and The Royal Thai Army, the next day, even came to help the elderly to repair.

I made a small picture impression of 'The day after'. A blog in Dutch but easy to understand the damage only watching the pictures. If you are interested to see click here. 

Also our constructions and garden were damaged. We mentioned in our additional blog of  May 7.

May 10 we ordered 240 new glazed ceramic rooftiles and hope they will arrive soon. It will take a maximum of three months but the company will try to hurry up. 

A lot of repairs still need to be done but, after five days of several hours effort (more is not possible because of the combination of high temperature and high humidity), we managed to fix the damaged roof of the house we are building. Yesterday afternoon at 5 PM this job was done so we intended to go on with our regular building process today. 

Again totally unexpected yesterday evening heavy weather that brought our constructions under 'fire' again. At 9 PM a heavy lightning hit between the village and our construction site. Everything in one time dark because of power break again. For your information, we deal the last couple of weeks with two till three power breaks a week. So yesterday evening we started up our generator again. Happy we once bought and installed that electricity machine. 

 

Five minutes later, wind that brought also rain out of North-Western direction. And within another 10 minutes it turned out to become a very heavy thunderstorm.

We already heard the sound of breaking glass and this morning we found the sad results. Most of the last five days repair work destroyed. Parts of the top-roof we are installing blown away and dropped 3.5 meters deeper on the middle roof. And other new damage, glass blocks, trees, branches, the back roof of the TED's, and so on. 

We need a bit time to make up our mind about how to move on because this is only the start of the rainy season and this area never before was hit so hard by this terrible storms.  

New thunderstorms are on their way. It is raining already. We hope not too heavy.

6 o'clock Monday afternoon May 13:

Repaired the roof behind the TEDs.

Replaced 58 broken roof tiles from the last storm. Makes the total to date 182 tiles.

Various piles and also broken pans around the house that we hope to be able to use a little for the corners.

Fortunately, the temperature is a little bit more pleasant.

Tuesday another day we hope...

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Additional blog. Sudden weather (climate) change and lots of work destroyed.

Yesterday already I mentioned the totally unexpected extreme thunderstorms, heavy rains and tornado. 

Although human beings think they are in charge of everything and know everything better, it shows also technique is failing. Not a single weather channel expected this destroying weather Not a single warning. 

Or, maybe, and who knows, like the 'Summer storm' last year in Mae Rim/Chiang Mai, it was the helping hand of the local government trying to help citizens against even more suffering because of the very long extreme high temperatures by making rain. I think nobody ever will tell.

It is the way it is now. 

Temperatures dropped in a very short time from the present evening temperature of nearly 40 degrees C (about 104F) to a temporary 25 (77 F) degrees. All producing a terrible steam sauna today. 

The results of this 'summer storm' and weather change? ... it's to cry. So much work destroyed within two hours time and lots of damage in our environment. For instance, many houses in our village lost their roofs. Part of the roof of the house of Phatsamon's sister in the village was blown away as well. Also our village temple has a lot of damage. Electricity poles cracked. Trees collapsed everywhere and we are in lockdown again. "The road to your house will come soon and is in the process" is already a more than one year promise. 

Yesterday already we could see parts of the damage. This morning after a first check we have already a better view. We are sure there will be some more surprises. Insurance? Not for a construction site. 

The gardens are a mess. Fallen trees, cracked trees, flown construction materials and broken pieces of rooftiles everywhere. The entrance gate to the labyrinth broke and need to be renewed. The pond filled up with water again.

The laminate floor of our TED's, although 65 cm above the land, under water because the water by the tornado blown under the roof of the veranda against the sliding doors, had no other way to go. The laminate floor is starting to billow. Also the sunroof above the TED's is damaged. 

The floor of the second pyramid partly under water because many liters of water were poured in by a sliding window (covered by a more than 2 meters sunroof). We are trying to vent this pyramid now hoping the laminate will survive. Also the mosquito screens under the glass top roof window of this pyramid are totally blown away. Only a little bit roof damage, easy to repair.

The first pyramid not too much damage but still some water on the floors because of the enormous amounts of water thrown to windows and doors. 

Our control room (pumphouse and electricity supply) so far we can see now has no damage. Happy our generator could serve us a bit last night during the around 7 hours power break in the area. Also our workplace and storage survived. 

Several solar cell lights and street lanterns stopped broke down and/or stopped working.  

The house we are building? 

Now, during daytime it's clear. It's a (only) a small disaster at our place and actually really a bit to cry after all the efforts we made in creating something beautiful. But, if we compare with several people in the village, we can also still be a bit happy. 

Several rows of terracotta rooftiles are totally blown away or broken. The way to fix rooftiles is to screw every second layer. Even screwed rooftiles are cut into pieces because of this tornado. 

After a scary night dog Kadhow takes a nap now. Our two girls Cupid and Singto are overviewing the mess in the garden. One thing, for a short moment, is clear. It's not too hot for them now. 

May 12, 2024. Broken pieces of new rooftiles collected from our
garden so far. Several broken tiles we will ty to re-use installing the
corners but not sure about the quality. Already 124 tiles renewed. 
Two days ago we ordered 240 new tiles. Max. 3 months delivery
time but they try to do their best to hurry up. 

Never give up. Happy the five of us are safe. The TED's worked out to be a safe harbor. Happy to have no schedule as well. We will go on and everything will take some more time and will cost a bit more. We also have to take into account that ordering and deliveries will take a long time. We are not the only ones with damage. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Slow progress, needed maintenance and... unexpected damage on it's way this afternoon.

Slow progress. Temperatures touched 46 degrees Celsius (115 F) in the shade ('feeling temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius (122 F). 

Our health is the first priority and we are building for fun. So we need to slow down. Maximum 4 hours of work a day. Still we make a bit progress (and have to do maintenance). 

We worked on the meditation/yoga sala 'walls', installed ventilation units, ceiling windows and a storage place and installed the 'Shera wood' splendid planks around there. 

We started to install the top roof. As we told before, specialized companies did not want to help us because the job is not big enough. A bit sad but it helped us to be even more creative to give it a try ourself. 

I welded a kind of 'base' scaffolding. It's based on the already installed roof batten. So far it works together with a scaffolding on wheels we use on the new installed first floor. Phatsamon is not scared to work on heights. A real 'fire-woman', and helps me installing Facia board planks, battens, ceiling boards and special SCG gutters. 

On the other hand we make use of a steel scaffolding of Phatsamon's sister and brother in law. Happy we can use it. It will not be enough to finish the job but we can hire additional scaffolding material close to our place for some weeks.

The high temperatures also ask for extra maintenance. Ants 'attack and damage' everywhere and everything. Don't get me wrong. We are the intruders, their area,  but it's sad to have to deal with the many disturbances. Switches do not work any more because of a load of dead ants who wanted to help each other to survive. Emergency lights, our (brand-new) water cooler, air conditioners, etc., seems to be very attractive to ants to destroy. So we have to repair and/or order new spare parts. 

Just this late afternoon, unexpectedly, we got extreme thunderstorms and a tornado that caused a lot or damage to our property, progress and process. It's too dark so we do not know jet all but nothing is at place anymore. 

We already found many broken rooftiles on the land of the work we just finished and (thought) to secure. Sad to see in the dark already. Nothing is at place anymore. 

Tomorrow another day to discover.  Maybe a blog: "the day after...". Not looking forward. 

Frans & Phatsamon

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com