Thread: Roobarb's patch

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Quote: Originally Posted by koman I got out of kitchen duties after I decided to treat the wife to her first hamburger a few years ago. I bought a pack of frozen ones in Tesco and cooked up a couple. She seemed to be chewing a lot when she tried her's.....at which point I discovered that I had not taken off the waxed paper used to separate them in the package... There seems to be a patter developing here Dr Frankenkitchen...

The words "Koman", "Kitchen" and "Disaster" do seem to be increasingly associated with each other...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I can't see these pics on my work connection, so I'm gonna have to hurry home on time, excitedly, to see them.

Hey, don't rush home, you're about to have a new truck to pay for. I'd stick in a bit of overtime if I were you...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Anyways, I might have some nice wooden effect tiles for sale, cheap, which'd look lovely covering those nasty wooden floors in the mezzanine.

Damn, just seen that your missus, quite unbelievably, has missed the opportunity to buy those beautiful tiles.

Where did she find them? I might nip over there before someone else gets their hands on them...

As we are inside we'll take a wander up to the first floor.

Apologies if any of these photos lack continuity (i.e. a discarded T-shirt in one may not be in the next). They were taken over the course of three days and rather than jumping about the place, I've sort of mixed them together to make the tour of the place seem a bit clearer.

I do like being able to see a glimpse of the upper floor as you walk up the stairs:



It's a bit like seeing the first floor as you walk through the front door, you sort of realise that there's more to explore before you get to the bit you were aiming for.

Going a few more steps up and this is the view you get as you begin to reach the top of the staircase:



As will be seen, there's still loads of finishing off to do, as well as tidying up bits that have not worked out that well (stuff like the line in the gypsum in the top photo on this post), but the house is now physically complete.

It's nearly all just cosmetics from now onwards.

Once up the stairs we get to the first floor living room area. It's really more of an over-sized landing, but the idea is that we will have full height glass bi-fold doors opening onto the balcony (more on that later) with a sofa or two up here:



Then looking back the other way towards the master bedroom:



The floorboards still need a final sanding and then varnishing. I reckon they'll come up a treat when that happens. I like it that they are all different widths, it's in keeping with the character of the place.

OK, for 'character', you could read 'lack of attention to detail', but still, I like it.

At the end of the room on the right there is a large fixed window. I wasn't too sure on this as every other window in the house is split into either three or six panes, but I actually really like it as it does become, almost literally, a picture window that frames the wall and window frame for the master bedroom as you walk past the mezzanine's (vertical) staircase:



Unfortunately the picture doesn't really capture the richness of the browns and greens, but I'm glad we didn't try to complicate things by making it an opening window and with separated panes similar to the other windows in the house.

^ Forgot to mention, more 'inspired' lighting solutions in the middle picture using the "Bankao Dreamer" method of extension leads etc.

The next phase of the build will be working out where the ceiling lights will go, getting the wiring in place and then putting the ceilings up. Only then will we install the lights and ceiling fans.

For now I'm happy to leave it so we can see where the leaks are and let the house settle. I'm hoping that any settlement will be minimal but as we are in no rush to move in to the place I reckon it's worth waiting a few months first.

Whilst we're at this end of the house we may as well have a quick look in the master bedroom:





Again, still loads to do (ceiling, varnish the floors etc) but it now definitely feels like a proper room.

Bathrooms:

Next to the master bedroom is an ensuite bathroom.



In truth I'm not that enamoured with quite a few aspects of how this has turned out, but it's easy enough to fix when we get around to it:

For a start the basin mount thing is all bricked in which means we can't reach the plumbing. As this was an afterthought it will be easy enough to knock out again.

The loo cistern doesn't back up against the wall, but I reckon we'll make a little counter thing on top of it with some shelves underneath so that's not really an issue.

The reason some shelves would be useful is for books and magazines, so I can sit on my throne and read them, occasionally glancing up to admire this view:



Notice how the colours are so much richer on this side of the house than there were looking through the picture window on the other side?

There's a reason for that...

... the window fellow had forgotten to install the window:



... and it was bloody freezing in there.

Being an ensuite, the lack of a window pane did nothing to help keep the bedroom from becoming distinctly chilly at night too.

The misery was compounded by there being no hot water in the house, and me being too lazy to go downstairs to boil a kettle.

The icy shower:



I'm not sure that the curved lip thing on the floor will remain. We had asked that the builder do a straight one so we could install some glass shower doors, but I think he may of got a bit carried away. You win some, you lose some. We did OK on the front door window and this water break thing is just stuck onto the floor tiles so will be easy enough to remove.

Darn, I thought I'd got these photos in order.

Anyway, coming back out of the ensuite bathroom to the master bedroom, this is the view out of the master bedroom window looking across the paddy field in the foreground, and then the lake after that.



The back bedroom is on the right.

And so, having seen the back bedroom from the outside, here's a picture of it from the inside:



... and another pic from inside the back bedroom looking out of the side window towards the master bedroom.



It's a nice, light room this one, I do like it.

OK, just a couple more pictures of this floor.

First up the guest bathroom.

It was initially a bit of a disaster really. I think I mentioned earlier that the bathroom ended up being a bit less than 5 feet across, and because of having a window at one end of the room and the door at the other end, it needed to have the shower placed rather inconveniently in the middle.

It's actually turned out OK. Not a lot of spare room in there, but for what it is it'll be fine.



Same issue with the curved lip thing for the shower in this bathroom too. We'll probably work out a way of squaring that off and enclosing the shower, even just a bit, to keep water from splashing everywhere.

I quite rightly took some flak for going with plain white tiles in the bathrooms, but I think that doing so has kept it clean and simple and therefore helped to make the bathrooms seem a little bigger.

We'll stick a tiled border above the half height tiles and then paint the rest of the walls a cheery colour of some sort to brighten things up a bit. We may also stick a fairly large mirror on the left had wall as you look in through the door which again should buy us some space.

OK, what else have I got for this bit of the house?

First up - looking from the master bedroom through the vertical mezzanine stairs, past the quality light fitting and to the other end of the upstairs living room:



... and then from in front of the stairs looking down toward the front door:



... and finally a peek into the front bedroom at the end on the right:



The ladder thing attached to the wall is a temporary lash-up job just to give us access to the roof area above the bedroom and also to allow us to open the windows in the large window below the roof.

I'd hope it's not going to be a permanent solution, but like much of the rest of things in the house, it'll do for now.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

My jealous side is kinda hoping that flooding comes over this way and puts the property underwater, but I'm trying to keep these thoughts in check and just wonder at how well this house has come together. Very very nice indeedy.

Actually, flooding is a bit of a concern. We filled our land to be the highest thing around, then the reservoir company (who own the lake) filled a whole load of land over on the other side. From my very basic measurements I reckon my fill and theirs is about the same height above the current water level.

It's one of the reasons that I'm not that fussed about the builders screwing up and making the floor too thick. An extra 10 cms of height might come in handy one day...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

You, Koman and BD are really pissing me orf at this precise moment in time...

Delighted to be considered to be in such illustrious company (Koman will be pissed though).

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Bastard. Lovely house you have there.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

You, Koman and BD are really pissing me orf at this precise moment in time...

Hey, what did I do? I'm just building a normal little house with cement and stuff.... Roobarb is all about this wood art thing with funky rooms and impossible stairs..... It will all fall down I tell ya.... and BD's will just blow away....thatched roof FFS....

Your solid concrete and steel, along with mine will be open to visitors in a thousand years....as prime examples of 21st century building excellence.....

I have to admit I really like that weird triangular window thing of Roobarbs......but don't say anything.....we can quietly promote the hell out of our normal rectangular windows if we just ignore it........but then there's that big deck thing and.....

Sorry, just saw the top bit of your post

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Quote: Originally Posted by Roobarb Hey, don't rush home, you're about to have a new truck to pay for. Funny you should say that, the missus has informed me it'll cost me 20,000 per month to pay my bills in Nakhon Nayok; this includes: MiL fees, lecci, water, our car payments (still 8k per month), food, and the payments on the missus' new pick up truck...

Very HiSo Betty, two cars now. I say...

I'd suggest that you mention that economies need to be made. Either the car or the MIL must go...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I don't think she really wanted to upset me today, as today was the day she sorted the pick-up truck out. She informs me the new wheels were 20,000 baht, and the surround sound system was 20,000 baht. I obviously informed her of their actual worth...

... and how did she take it?

It is amazing how, because the amount of cash sloshing around is so much greater when you are building a house than they normally see, they can lose perspective of the value of money. It has to be the best time for all sorts of snake oil salesmen to tap up the suggestible.

I guess it's all a part of the show really.

Originally Posted by koman

Hey, what did I do? I'm just building a normal little house with cement and stuff.... Roobarb is all about this wood art thing with funky rooms and impossible stairs..... It will all fall down I tell ya.... and BD's will just blow away....thatched roof FFS....

The thing is Koman, I can't disagree with you here

Originally Posted by koman

Your solid concrete and steel, along with mine will be open to visitors in a thousand years....as prime examples of 21st century building excellence.....

OK, having just read this I could disagree with you, but we've agreed to be nice to Betty as he's just found out that he will need to spend another five years amongst the goat herders in Oman to pay for the mini economic boom that seems to be taking place in Nakhorn Nayok at the moment...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

OK, having just read this I could disagree with you, but we've agreed to be nice to Betty as he's just found out that he will need to spend another five years amongst the goat herders in Oman to pay for the mini economic boom that seems to be taking place in Nakhorn Nayok at the moment...

Yes we should comfort Betty and show appreciation for his generous contributions to the Nakhorn Nayok economy; especially with all the storm clouds of economic melt-down gathering around the rice payment deficit and all that sort of thing..... 5 years more in the sand box though....that's pretty harsh....

Back to the house, I want to get this floor finished off before I head home for the day...

Directly opposite the front bedroom is the balcony. Wandering out onto that, looking at the back bedroom wall on the left (this is the one where they cocked up the varnishing a few pages back):



... then looking in the other direction:



... and the view from the side:



We will fill in this bit of the paddy field. The tall trees in the top centre of the photo mark the far corner of our land. It runs across where the broken fence thing runs to the right between the two paddies, and down the pathway with the little tree to the left of the tall trees.

The idea is to fill all the way past the back of the house. More pics on this later.

Now. All is not as wonderful as it seems.

As mentioned previously we want to get glass bi-fold doors on both the balcony and the downstairs terrace openings, so that during the day the house is open to the breeze and mozzies, and then in the evenings we can close the mozzies in and let them feast on us.

These are the sort of things that I'm after:



The thing is that it was clear that this was going to take our presence to sort this out as nobody we spoke to in Chaiyaphum had a clue about what a bi-fold door was so, purely as a temporary measure, I'm embarrassed to say that we did this:



Yes, they are steel roller shutters.

...

Exactly. Just like the ones you get on a shop.

...

No, they are not pretty at all, I know that.


We also did the same downstairs, and we'll probably keep those ones up as a security thing (we can hide the downstairs ones above the gypsum ceilings so that all you see is the tracks running down the pillars, and we'll work out a way of hiding them too)

These balcony ones will not be a permanent feature. The thing is that having spent Baht 20K on them it's a shame to see them go to waste.

What I need is a big garage/man cave, which means I can then transfer the roller shutters to that once we have sorted out the proper doors.

As I stand on the balcony the perfect place for this double garage/workshop thing presents itself...



Yup, over against that fence by the trees. I reckon you could get a double garage and a sort of workshop thing in there, maybe even with a Bankao Dreamer pool in front of it.

Stay tuned, this may well become the next project...

Oddly enough, this is actually what the purpose of the house is all about, pottering about and working out what the next thing to do is. I doubt it will ever be finished.

Anyway, back to the balcony roller shutters, they keep the house secure for now. The upstairs ones are definitely not permanent as, aesthetics aside, they rattle horribly in the wind.

I haven't seen this angle before. I like it. A nice vegetable garden and orchard area - shade and home produce; I hope to have something similar.

You need a gun to protect that land, and your balcony is perfect for a big bluderbuster. If I ever make it out of the sandpit then we can meet up in Bkk for gun shopping... (I've always thought, it's the way to end it all; make sure I've paid all the bills, given the missus everything she wants then buy meself a gun that she can shoot me with. Have to make sure I have 100,000 or so in the bank for her to pay the BiB.)

I'm liking this, from your balcony, some nice fruit trees, a few strategic gaps in the fence to encourage some local thieves in (do many Aussies live in that area?)...



As for the Nakhon Nayok economy, I've worked out that from Feb 16th I will be better off financially before the missus recalculated; rental of a Bangkok property will disappear, and the pick-up will be coming out of the missus' monthly allowance...

Last pic for now.

Looking back towards the boggy area at the front of the house:



That will need filling. Whilst we're at it the light coloured soil the car is sitting on is pretty crappy with lost of stones and stuff so we'll scrape that off and chuck it in the paddy field, then get some better quality topsoil to finish off that area instead.

In the background around the trees you can see some bamboo sticks. We're aiming to build a 3 foot high wall around there which will separate the garden area from the trees. By extending the garden area out at the back of the house (by filling the paddy field) the the house will appear to be a bit more centred on the land...

... or at least that's the plan.

Right. more later, time to head home.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I haven't seen this angle before. I like it. A nice vegetable garden and orchard area - shade and home produce; I hope to have something similar.

I like the vegetable garden too. I reckon I may move it onto where the filled bit of paddy field will be so I can build my garage. Something along the lines of a Victorian walled garden perhaps, but with lower walls. Anyway, it's a long way off for now. Finish the house first...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

As for the Nakhon Nayok economy, I've worked out that from Feb 16th I will be better off financially before the missus recalculated; rental of a Bangkok property will disappear, and the pick-up will be coming out of the missus' monthly allowance...

Well done. Are her calculations similar or do they miss out the losing the apartment and paying for the truck out of her allowance bit? I only mention it as I know that it would be something my missus would tend to skate over.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

The ladder thing attached to the wall is a temporary lash-up job just to give us access to the roof area above the bedroom and also to allow us to open the windows in the large window below the roof. I'd hope it's not going to be a permanent solution, but like much of the rest of things in the house, it'll do for now.

Do you have the room to put that useless near-vertical staircase there?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

You need a gun to protect that land, and your balcony is perfect for a big bluderbuster. If I ever make it out of the sandpit then we can meet up in Bkk for gun shopping...

You're on.

I always quite liked those rail guns that you got on pirate ships, like the Lantaka cannon things the savages used in Borneo:



A few of those mounted on the balcony railings would be ideal for protecting me veggies.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

(I've always thought, it's the way to end it all; make sure I've paid all the bills, given the missus everything she wants then buy meself a gun that she can shoot me with. Have to make sure I have 100,000 or so in the bank for her to pay the BiB.)

Good God man, you've been spending far too long on your own in Oman. Take a holiday or something...

Hell, if it's that bad come out to Delhi for the weekend and I'll shout you some beers...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I'm liking this, from your balcony, some nice fruit trees, a few strategic gaps in the fence to encourage some local thieves in (do many Aussies live in that area?)...

Good question. Not sure on the Aussies, but as a bit of a treat for you I do have a French brother-in-law who makes himself known up there from time to time.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Do you have the room to put that useless near-vertical staircase there?

It's a good thought Marmite. I may have to chop back into the bedroom wall a bit but hell it's only gypsum and wood. Thinking about it, I was planning on sticking a built-in cupboard on the inside (bedroom side) of that wall at some stage so it can disappear into that.

Yup, that's probably the solution.

I'm enjoying this place immensely now. So much to do when before this I had nothing...

At least all the 'anomalies' have added some real character to the place - it looks really good.