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Got some teak furniture for the deck |
Just when I thought the end was in
sight, Mam decided that we couldn't live with the current kitchen and that
it had to be enlarged . . . and while we were at it we might as well get the
builder to knock up a storeroom as well. So we're back to living amongst
debris again. The original plan was to enlarge the kitchen - a 4 day job and
then head into the big city (Trat) and buy some kitchen units. That
was before our builder said he could make units if we wanted. There
are a total of 21 cupboards and all of them have to have doors made from
scratch which seems to take time . . . a lot of time. So now we're into week
three of the 4 day job. There's no end in sight and we've got mugs,
gas stove, plates etc scattered amongst piles of wood at the back of the
house. " Where's the coffee?" " Look under the pile of wood
where the kittens are." (The cat who has adopted us has had two more kittens
. . . as cats go she's a tart.)
While we were in Rayong in early Dec.,
we had a look round some of the wood shops just out of the town and found
some nice teak garden furniture at a good price. I didn't stop to
think about how much teak furniture cots in the UK, USA etc but after a
quick search of ebay I found that we paid less than 5% of the US price for
equivalent furniture. (So if anyone is interested in importing the stuff to
Europe/US etc get in touch.)
We also picked up some more furnishings
for the house in Baan Nam Cheow - a small village near Trat. There are
a few small shops which sell locally made basketry etc. The shop we go
to is the cheapest and is run by a very nice old woman. One of the bedrooms
is now home to a 1.5 metre diameter woven hat - which she let us have for
200 baht as her workers were busy making a truck load of them for a new
resort in Koh mak.
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One day this will be a kitchen, I hope |
Bookings for the house are starting to
come in from this site. It'll be a while before we get 100% sorted out but
you can stay here now no problem. The other major expense was a new
aircon unit for one of the rooms, I figured that the sight of a blackened
aircon in a wooden house might be a little off putting to anyone with an
irrational fear or being burned alive whilst sleeping.
Inside the rooms there were only a few
small jobs to complete: fixing curtains, adding soap holders & rubbish bins
etc. Outside we got to work on lighting up the bridge and deck.
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Finished . . . at last. |
From the river the house looks great at
night. We have three hanging lights in front of the rooms, four
slightly nautical lights on the balcony outside the rooms and the deck over
the water is lit with low intensity spotlights, dark enough to be romantic
but enough light to be able to see the one your wooing.
From the opposite river bank you also
see the top of our bungalow which we built behind the house. We have a
light outside the bungalow which lights up the visible triangle of roof so
it appears like there's a hovering aquamarine triangle above the house
roof. Cool.
May '06 - The new footbridge . . .
Stay
at Baan Rim Nam
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