Building a house in Isaan, for Dummies.

[Spikey]

What happened to you guys? You said you were coming to visit! Bring piccys when you do.
Cheers
(Aunty's Husband!)

[sabang]

^ Err, is that addressed to moi? Kindly identify yourself sir.

Well the Builders finally made it Saturday afternoon, and work commenced Sunday. Didn't take them long to take down the wooden village house-



^ Those poles were a bugger to take out apparently, but take them out they did.

A trip to Ubon to organise some building materials-






Concrete pads laid for the carport pillars-



Kids getting mucky again, after we'd had some decent rain-



But not much rain the last week, and it's back to being a pathetic puddle -



^ Looking across to sabangs future doghouse. I'm flying blind as far as the fishpond goes, but it's pretty apparent we're gonna need to put down plastic, the soil is too porous otherwise. Oh well, more money.

Mil paid a local to clear the land too, with a tractor- 1500 bht. We've got plans to grow plenty of vegies, but it won't happem overnight- so far we've just put down some stripling trees. Our outdoor dog tribe likes it though-



Found this quaint petrol station in a nearby Hamlet, nice place to stop and have a beer. They don't build 'em like that anymore -



So it's all systems go again with Isaan for dummies.

We won't be consumed by suburbia anytime soon, but we do have to keep the jungle at bay-

[MeMock]

Nice car Sabang, same make, colour and year as mine according to your wife!

Marmers, I hope you will be visiting me as well?

[Marmite the Dog]

Marmers, I hope you will be visiting me as well?

Got to find some time - I'm rushed off my feet...

Maybe in August.

[MeMock]

August? What's wrong with June?

[sabang]

^ I'll be visiting you tomorrow morning Memock- for breakfast. On the way to Phibun immigration. Should be there around eight- will the coffee be hot?

[chassamui]

Pictures and commentary outstanding. I am really enjoying this. Thanks for takimg the trouble to share it.

[MeMock]

^ I'll be visiting you tomorrow morning Memock- for breakfast. On the way to Phibun immigration. Should be there around eight- will the coffee be hot?

Great news, finally we will get to meet!

The coffee will be hot and the breakfast fresh. Any special breakfast requests?

[Marmite the Dog]

August? What's wrong with June?

I've got a trip planned in July and I am saving my money for that. Also, there's a couple of things I need to sort out on the bike before I do another long trip on it and I can't do that until the end of June.

[MeMock]

Oh. I thought you said you were visiting sabang in June which is why I was asking.

[TSR2]

Why would I want to build a house for a dummy?

[Marmite the Dog]

Oh. I thought you said you were visiting sabang in June which is why I was asking.

Things change. I'd like to, but it's not that easy when you live with a little monkey and a dog that needs more attention than the kid.

[chassamui]

Why would I want to build a house for a dummy?

For you to live in

[MeMock]

Oh. I thought you said you were visiting sabang in June which is why I was asking.

Things change. I'd like to, but it's not that easy when you live with a little monkey

I thought her name was 'the midget'

[TSR2]

For you to live in

I love you too!

[sabang]

Well things seem to be moving along pretty quickly around here.

The builders have been working since Sunday, the wooden house is down and waiting to be rebuilt, most of the action right now seems to be focussed on the carport.

My Wednesday started with a walk in the fields, to have a geeze at this nice dawn.



Nice and green.



A couple of guys came into the house and did a few drilling chores, hanging two paintings and putting up five shelves. Heres my Abo painting finally hung up here in Isaan. It's come a long way from the Australian desert.



It was a pleasant, cool day so a few beers at the Friendly shop were in order. The track gets pretty narrow in places during rainy season.



Plenty of mud about.



And came back to find the concrete guys had been.





Whoops.



Culprits.



Seems to be coming along nicely.

[sabang]

Well the next day (today) the frame of the carport is now complete- just roof & wiring to go.



Time to have a closer look at the wooden cabin & deck progress. It's coming along too. All the 'old wood' is being planed I note with approval- makes it look nicer, and it will be treated too.

No shortage of poles either- twelve actually. The concrete pillars are recycled from the village house, they were cut in half. So pretty noisy around here today.





These wooden poles will be in the pond.






Tomorrow afternoon, the Builders team splits. About two thirds head up to Roi Et, to do the roof on a job up there- for friends of ours actually. The rest are the wood craftsmen, they stay down here and plug away with sabangs Doghouse. The other guys are due back early next week, to finish off the carport and whatever else we've got for them.

So far things seem to be coming along nicely, and indications are safely under budget. We'll see- I'll do a bit of an accounting on cost before I finish this thread, but 150,000 seems closer to the mark than 200k at this point.

[MeMock]

Looks like you have been busy. No wonder you missed Tings birthday party tonight.

[sabang]

How was it MeMock? All set for an early night here, it's been a fairly long day actually with all the noise of steel & concrete being cut, and an early start.

[MeMock]

I was only there for about 1.5 hours, too knackered plus I have a 5am start tomorrow but yeah it looked like it would be a pretty good night. The ribs were bloody good!

[sunsetter]

What happened to you guys? You said you were coming to visit! Bring piccys when you do.
Cheers
(Aunty's Husband!)

which auty is that then?

looking good sabang, got me hanging for more again!!

[MeMock]

Interesting Aboriginal art sabang, which part of Aus is it from?

[sabang]

It's from the western deserts of central Australia mate- the Ammatyerre tribe. "Bush Banana".


A bit of a Health & Safety gripe this morning.

Well my credentials as a Dummy are still fine- theres more welding going on this morning for the carport, not yet finished. The usual Isaan rig- shorts & plastic thongs, welding visor- Hah, fuggedaboutit .

Gripe One- They're using an arc welder, and obviously hot flux is flying around the vicinity. Well here I am sitting at my computer watching, and a rather large piece of flux flies off, lands smack bang on an electrical cable and starts burning it- as in it set the plastic on fire. The welder remains blissfully unaware. Fortunately someone sees this from the wooden house crew, comes rushing over and puts it out. Could've been a helluva bang.

Gripe Two- a young Nephew 'DaWan' was around this morning, all of three and a half years old. Mrs sabang is off chatting to mrs builder next to the Doghouse site. Dawan is standing near the Welder, terrified by all of the sparks coming off, crying his eyes out. What the hell are they doing leaving a young kid unnattended next to a frikkin welding operation. Bluddy Isaans.

[Nawty]

They left him to look at the perty bright light...

[sabang]

With most of the building crew up in Roi Et for a few days, in real terms things have slowed down here. But visually, things are starting to take shape, which is a bit of a relief to this Dummy.

Heres the skeleton of the carport, with sabangs doghouse behind it-



You can see we're putting a decent sized deck around the cabin. The decking and support poles are made of a wood called sabang [ ], but of course with the outdoor decking we are using considerably more than could be salvaged from the village house- Mrs went to the timber merchants and ordered 11,500 bht worth of sabang wood this morning, to be delivered tomorrow. We may need more.



I'll leave you with a couple more views of the emerging structure. I'm quite looking forward to having my own wooden doghouse actually- I've announced Isaan folk are allowed in by invitation only.







Apart from the structural poles and decking, the other wood being used is called 'grung'. If any TD'er knows anything about either of these woods I would love to hear about it- I know absolutely nothing, and of course nobody around here has any idea what they might be called in English.



'bye for now.