House ..... start of the roof

At last. The roof sheeting arrived this morning.  Roofing arrived properly on a pickup with a good frame. Photo shows first sheet going up.
We also went shopping.  We also did a trip to Global, our local super sized hardware store to cladding etc.had the back of our truck almost touching the ground it was so over loaded. Take a look at the photos to see the difference.
Good news is we got most of the roof up this afternoon. Thats the main cladding, more edging and finishing to do. We did buy some 'skirting' for the roof to make it look nice.  We'll see how it all turns out in next few days.

House Construction... More Wood

We needed more wood this morning so went to our local supplier.  His sheds are full of teak planks. Wonderful stuff.  Apparently he has several 'agents' who contact him about house demolitions etc. Covers wide area up to about 100 kilometers diameter to source stuff. So we got what we wanted and back to base to continue work.
While there I watched a couple of the workers building a small table/sitting frame. Gave me a good idea on how to use up  our left over bits and pieces. Best I leave any woodworkign till after we have completed  the main project.

Tonight is LoyKhatong festival or water festival. So we will be using our pond to float a few 'rafts and make wishes...

House goings...

Making progress. Its nearly full moon and we sat on the 'jetty' last night. Beautiful.  The house sort of hangs over the pond. It will have a fabulous view when completed. In fact using the full moon enabled us to decide more effectively where to place spot lights and so on.

We've got the final shape up. You know you can see the house and veranda. Makes it all feel like a house is finally being built. Next is the wall frames and follow up with windows and doors etc. As it is all on one floor wiring and plumbing will be fairly simple. A few two way switches for the external lights and that's about it.

House Construction.... more

Well today was exciting. The whole roof line is now clearly defined. Bob the builder was going for gold. He was up on the edges nailing in facer boarding and seemed glued to each piece of wood that he  touched. Good thing for him as it is a 6 meter drop.
I went to the other side of our pond to get the usual position for a progress photo. It was today that I realized it is a big extension. Bob and his mate spent all day doing the house and Wanna and I did some work round the garden, including burning some rubbish and sorting out the wood which had been attacked by termintes. Yes, only been on the ground about a month and already several bits are now useless. So spend an hour sorting and shifting that lot out. Of course saw a snake about 2 foot long brown thing, which disappeared into the undergrowth. No chance of a photo. It did slow me down a bit wondering what was under the next piece of wood. And sure enough, it happened a small scorpion appeared but did not get the chance like the snake to run away. It has since gone to meet his maker.....

More updates to follow.

House Construction...

Just asked out builder for a somewhat major change.  Our veranda is along 2.3 thirds of the front of the  house.  But last night we decided to carry the roof over the full length. Having discussed at length the strategy was to let me tell 'Bob' the builder what we wanted and Wanna then in Thai to explain the detail. Worked a dream. He gave me a big smile as if to say 'Foreigners.....' then wondered off to start some more foundations... Wonderful.  Photos to follow in next posting.

House Construction Progress

Still going along in a steady manner. That means things are going OK but not super fast. Also we are at the stage of adding in the veranda and there has been a lot of welding and excavation etc hidden work so not so much to show you.  However if you take a good look at the main photo you will see what a wonderful view we will be having in due course. Lots of landscaping to follow up on as well Updates to follow.

House Goings On

Roof of house slowly going up. Guys have been busy with final days of rice harvesting. So little got done over the weekend.

I've been busy setting up my aquaponics system. Siam-aquaponics Thats it for today.

Le Weekend

Busy time. Started off on Saturday Morning attending a weeding in the village. We did not really know anyone but a distant relative of Wanna's was getting married. She had been round earlier to invite us so along we went. Started at 08.30 am. We arrived before the groom. Here it is the custom for the bride to stay at home and the groom then arrives in a procession. Goes onto the house and there is a religious ceremony. Lasts about 45 minutes. We sat outside as it was crowded inside. I did not mention that on arrival we were fed breakfast. So before the groom arrived we were full. Enjoyed the time and chatted with a few guests.  Than back to the house.

Where great excitement. Informed there were about 20 Harleys parked up at the shop just down the road. Had to go and have a look.

Later spent the rest of the afternoon round at a farm relaxing having some Bar B Q fish. Lovely spot. Beautiful view.

Then we set up the additional trays for the aquaponics and increased the storage capacity. All takes time and time flys...

And to top it all off Wanna made a lovely breakfast this morning. Must go, I need a rest....

Khon Kaen Chinese Evening

We had a quick trip into Khon Kaen the Friday evening.  Big parade and lots of fireworks and loud bangs etc. Welcoming into some temple for CHinese gods etc. All good fun.  Lots of people and as I said firework and music and loud, very loud drums and fire crackers. All surrounded by food stalls.  Great way to spend the evening. Stupidly I left my camera at home and took a few on my mobile but not any good at up loading them...

House Progress 15th Nov

One 'Bop' The builder here today. Sounds like TV kids show but no sign of Jimmy Saville here.... :)

We got the main frame up and have also started on cross beams.

More to follow.

House Construction Update

Today we put up the first floor columns. Quite a jog as the main central ones needed extending. All takes time. We also had to buy some additional wood and steel for the ring beam to top of columns. But taking shape.  The builders finished off the day with a sit down by our pond. Tiger joined them.

I've also restarted my aquaponics.

siam-aquaponics

 Thats the link if interested.

House First Floor progress

House First Floor Joists

Started the floor joists today. Its a big area 9 meters by 6 all pen plan underneath. Will update you on Sunday.  Off to Bangkok tomorrow for aquaponics meetings and going to House and Gardens show.

Ghosts and Mushrooms

Well house construction progressing well. I was asked what we are building. Its an upper floor bedroom with attached bathroom and walk in dressing/store room. The upper floor is 9 meters by 6 meters. That's 30 feet by 18 feet. Big room by any standards. Yesterday we got two of the four cross beams in. Last night Wanna took a photo and we're sure there is a person/ghost sitting up there having a look round... Can you see him sitting on the steel frame next to the back post just to the right of the front post. Erie....

Then this morning of course the sun out etc and no one there.

And the mushrooms out back are there. No change. But continue to do well.

Rice harvesting

Threshing the rice..... We only have a few small fields. Even less as we keep building onto our house. The chap along with machine turned up this morning. Quick job, we yielded 10 sacks so very poor result but better than nothing....

Mushroom's latest

They are growing really well. On placed these only two days ago and we have already got some reasonable sized ones.  I'll be keeping track as this progresses.

House starting celebrations

We commenced the house officially today. Along came the family and a small religious celebration to set up the columns. So first off food preparation, ceremony then a small meal. The ceremony is basically to tell the ghosts/spirits of the land that we are building a house and to look after us...We added a small offering into the foundations, collection of coins. We had by chance, some from Thailand, Seychelles, China, Maldives, Pakistan, UK, Australia and some middle eastern ones. Quite a collection. Hope it helped.

Later after all this we continued and put in all remaining columns which was 9 in total. They do seem high but the view will be terrific. Then lunch.

This afternoon we will start on the cross beams.

Khon Kaen Food Hall

We have just been onto town and stopped off to have a bite to eat in Central Plaza. They have the usual Thai style food halls and we decided on lunch. I took a few pictures as the range of colours of the various foods was really amazing. A meet like ours was GBP2 for the two of us.  That's one pound each!!!!