Thread: Roobarb's patch

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

It's a shame about those unsightly blue pipes because it may have been an option to have those beams exposed - could've been a very attractive feature in tune with the general feel of your country estate.

Roobarb if you do box in the blue pipes be sure to wrap them with insulation it's surprising the sound that comes from them when toilets are flushed.

............ Just a thought Roobarb .
Would it be possible to access the mezzanine from the balcony using a spiral staircase ?

Wasp
...........................

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Very nice window frames. Not only do I like them, the mozzies are gonna love them!

I'm reasonably confident that at the first sign of rain the window frames will swell up enough to seal themselves permanently shut thus preventing the ingress of mozzies

The thing is though, during the daytime I tend to like to leave doors and windows open. Keeps places relatively cool. The problem I've always struggled with, and it is a thorny issue as I think many will agree with, that at about the time that all the doors and windows should be closed to stop the evening mozzies from moving indoors, one is reaching for one's second or third little evening snifter and the whole thing seems a bit of a faff.

I simply continue to fortify myself, taking great pleasure in the knowledge that any misguided mosquito that decides to exercise its little gnashers on me at night is likely to die shortly afterwards of alcohol poisoning.

A few gaps in the windows won't make much difference to the mozzie population.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

It's a shame about those unsightly blue pipes because it may have been an option to have those beams exposed - could've been a very attractive feature in tune with the general feel of your country estate.

Actually perhaps the blue pipes are not a bad feature: a sort of Isaan take on a New York loft style...?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

& yes, you'll need a nice little wooden house to hide those ugly outside pipes; maybe you could build it into a feature, functional feature? (Probably only take one small village abode, so well worth the sacrifice...)

As I previously confessed, I'm a product of the Thatcher years.



I do like your thinking Betty.

I'll turf another village family out of their home ...

Originally Posted by BKKBILL

Roobarb if you do box in the blue pipes be sure to wrap them with insulation it's surprising the sound that comes from them when toilets are flushed.

Great suggestion Bill. It hadn't occurred to me but thinking about it it makes absolute sense. Many thanks indeed.

Originally Posted by Wasp

............ Just a thought Roobarb . Would it be possible to access the mezzanine from the balcony using a spiral staircase ?

Yup, it's a good thought Wasp. I might well do that but I think I need to be there to explain what I want. I reckon my builder could struggle with the concept.

Buckaroo Banzai did a rather good post about these on Betty's thread, and as Betty's clearly not using it I've nicked it in its entirety and pasted it below:

________________________

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

With this quite high looking ceiling, I'm starting to wonder if I could get a little mezzanine style study area in there somehow...
...

You could easily construct a loft area, I did in my first home back in the US. I solved the problem of the stairs, by building a circular stair case, it only takes less than 2 meter of space,

It is very easy to make all you need is a metal pipe for the center post an other pipe
that will fit over the first pipe, (inside diameter of first pipe larger than outside of second), then cut the larger diameter pipe in to 7-8 inch sections,
to get the exact size to cut the pipe divide the height of the staircase by the number of steps you think you would need until you get a number between 7" and 8"
weld a triangular step with angle iron , repeat until you have the number of steps you need cover angle iron with nice pice of wood.
Drop steps in to smaller center post, rotate as in the picture, when you get the steps where you want them you can tack weld then to the center post to keep them from rotating, now all you need are some spindles and a hand rail and you are done. Any metal shop can do that for you.
you will probably need to construct a landing at the top, see picture
any way just an idea.

Taken (without permission, and damn the consequences) from: https://teakdoor.com/2652218-post291.html

Buckaroo Banzai did a rather good post about these on Betty's thread, and as Betty's clearly not using it I've nicked it in its entirety and pasted it below:


Yes I read this too .

I do love his words ....

".....now all you need are some spindles and a hand rail and you are done. Any metal shop can do that for you."

There are no metal shops that I know of that could do this quite as easily as he says !


Taken (without permission, and damn the consequences) from: https://teakdoor.com/2652218-post291.html

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

The ones coming out the wall, simple, , two pieces of wood either side of the pipes just slightly proud of the pipes, then tongue and groove your wood all over to hide and make a feature, would look nice a strip of wood going down the wall. If it's not been done by when I get back here in November and you would like it done I'll come and do it for free for you, make a nice job of it.

Nigel, that's extraordinarily kind of you to offer. If we are in Thailand in November then it would be a real pleasure to have you over. Plenty of room in the place. Drop me a PM nearer the time.

I think my wife told the builder to brick the pipework in so let's see what happens there. That aside though I'm sure there will still be plenty of things that will need doing.

I'd imagine that by then you'll be longing to get back to life on a Thai construction site...

No probs mate , will always help if I can .

Busy looking to buy either land or suitable property in a certain area in Cha am and Charley is being very kind and most helpfull to us , it's good to have an ear on the ground.

We've just spent a though rally enjoyable 4 days with him .

Roobs I see nothing wrong with leaving the blue pipes as they are just think of the clothes hanging possibilities

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

We've just spent a though rally enjoyable 4 days with him .

Good on yer fella, you deserved a break after the trials of building your place.

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Roobs I see nothing wrong with leaving the blue pipes as they are just think of the clothes hanging possibilities

Good idea. I was actually thinking of adding some more, then painting them all a bright colour and pretending that they were centralised a/c ducts:



Much cheaper than installing actual A/C in the house and it allows for more clothes hanging possibilities too.

Actually, one of those deer head things could be useful for drying my socks...?

^^^^

I shall start looking out for Deer heads although in Thailand supply may be somewhat limited and Buffalo horns are useless you can only hang one sock on each horn.

OK, another batch of photos. Things are still moving on.

A bit of a blurry one which I think shows the two opening window frames have been installed in the roof-end window.



I hadn't really thought this out too well, but it would have been good if the opening parts of the window frames were not quite so thick, indeed even better if they were in line with the fixed frame.

Ah well, we're on the home straight now. Let 'em do their worst...

A couple of other random shots.

The end balcony railing has now been installed - why it wasn't done at the same time as the front bit I neither know nor care.



Still a little bit of gypsum to go on the bit above the front door. I should have got them to put some fixed glass windows in here, it really would look a lot better:

Going for a wander around downstairs now. Good to see that they've got the windows in here too:

From the front door looking through the house:



Going in a bit further:



Looking into the kitchen to the left:



It was about this time that I was beginning to harbour some doubts about the height of the kitchen cabinets.

But the thing is this, I know the bottom of the window frame is 95 centimetres off the ground as it was checked by me many times before they finalised the window positions specifically so we could get some proper height counters built underneath.

It's just an illusion. I'm sure they haven't cocked it up.

Continuing the tour of downstairs...

Directly opposite the kitchen is the little study area. Looks like they have finished the tiling (I hope they did buy another box of tiles rather than using the broken offcuts):



... and then looking back at the front door:



Still no start being made on the window above the front door.

For some reason there are quite a few pics of the stairs. I'll chuck some up here as pics are generally thought of as being a good thing.



I know there was some concern earlier that the stairs were not straight. I think they run pretty parallel to the wall...



... albeit the wall is probably not square with anything else in the house

It may just be the photo, but the stair treads do seem to be listing gently to starboard though?



Ah well, so long as they work as stairs then we're good to go.

Originally Posted by Sailing into trouble

As long as the window in the bottom of the picture is not also listing you should be OK.

- You're right SIT. Who knows what's straight in this place...

Originally Posted by Sailing into trouble

Amazing build.

Thanks, much appreciated

Heading outside...

Things are looking a bit better out here now there's a bit of paint going on the place:



Another view of the same activity (this thread has been short of action shots).



Eventually we'll get the gypsum men to come and sort our the ceilings out here, but for now I'm just going to leave it to see what cracks or falls apart before we cover it all up.

Looking at progress from the outside.

Most of the windows seem to be in now, just need to get the glass fellow out to put the panes in:



The outside loo has been tiled, at least I think that's what it is.



When I said that we might consider having this one as a 'hole in the ground' affair rather than installing a 'farang throne' it seems that they may have taken me at my word.

Actually a door might me useful too.

I'm assuming it's not finished yet.

What else - a bit of a look at the other two roof windows that they've been doing perhaps?

The one above the master bedroom:



Again, the fixed window panes are going to be bigger than the opening ones, which does look a bit odd, but it's an easy enough fix at a later stage (just add a bit of wooden trim to the fixed panes to reduce their size a little).

The window over the back bedroom:



I do like the way that they have planked up the central column between the windows in the same way as the rest of the house. It would have been much easier to leave it as the post, or stick a single vertical plank there.

It's a nice attention to detail, and it's stuff like that that shows the guys do mean well, even if the results are sometimes less than perfect.

They've made the effort to do things right and, as an absentee builder, it's all I can ask of them.

What other pics have I got here......

Couple of the front door area:



The actual door and door size is a bit of a mess really. On the trip when I bought all the tiles, we also bought a lot of the other things like doors, door frames, windows etc.

As at the time we had not really started to even think about how the front door extension would look like I simply plumped for 1m X 2m frame for the front door with a fairly inoffensive door.

I think we may well change this to a double door at some stage. Either that or we'll put a narrow, full height window on each side of the door. It just needs a bit more there I think.

Like with many of the other details, I really need to be there to decide. At the moment we are just getting the house to a weatherproof and lock-up stage, so the existing door and frame will do for now.

Another view of the front door area:



Nice waterfall of blue pipes on the side still, plus they've added a little blue one.

Actually I was a bit irritated with that little blue pipe (I have no idea what it's for) as, rather than following the other ones and then coming up through the bathroom floor, they continued up the outside and drilled through the wooden wall as it was probably easier than drilling the concrete floor.

It's just a bit of a bodge job really.

Still no bathroom window...

Just two more pics for now:

The outside of the balcony railings - looks like they will need a bit of a sanding, and I have no idea how they are planning on finishing the concrete edge just below the railings.

Looks like the painter wasn't sure either, but I guess that's a good thing as he didn't simply paint over it.



The builder is probably paying him by the day so perhaps he's leaving it to paint over later instead?

A shot of the windows looking onto the downstairs verandah thing:



If you remember a while back, they dug out a trench to put the wiring for an external power point between the windows.

Now they've nailed a conduit directly above that trench which carries the wiring for the ceiling fans' switch.

I asked why they didn't also install that wiring in the wall and was told that it was better that ceiling fan wiring was external as it gets hot. I would have thought that using thicker wire may have solved this but apparently ceiling fan wiring is best left on the outside...?

I'm just rolling with it at this stage, we are close to the finish line

OK, last pic.

It seems a bit out of synch with the other ones so I'm not too sure what it's doing in this batch, but it gives a better sense of proportion than the other photos which are all a bit close to the building (and also looks like a half decent quality photo)



Nice clean building site too

^^^^^^^^
Like it like it.