Thread: Roobarb's patch

Looking sweet Roobarb. Definitely a different build. I like the idea of leaving that front area open as much as possible to see Mother Nature,

Happy New Year !!

Steve

Continuing upstairs, looking sort of north west I guess, the balcony is to the left and the front bedroom to the right:



The idea is that we will have windows under the eaves of the roof so we get lost of natural light, and can open them to get some ventilation during the daytime.

Then looking into the front bedroom (finally a slightly better quality picture):

Then going to the other end of the first floor living room area, the rear bedroom (next to the balcony):



MIL smiling away in the background. Don't let the flowery pyjamas deceive you, she proved to be a tough project manager, kept meticulous records of expenditure and was on site every day.

One thing we noticed was that the door was at the wrong end of the wall. Quick phone call to the project manager and the next day a blurred photo to show it had been moved:



I wanted to try to keep the bedroom doors as far away from the main living area as possible. This area of the living area will be separated by the ladder/stairs up to the second floor mezzanine area and having the bedroom door on the far side of the steps made more sense.

Thanks Roobarb for keeping us updated on you beautiful home.
I am supposed to be out drinking beer on New Years Eve, relaxing.
Will just have to have a coldly, viewing your build updates.

Have a Happy New Year, to you, and your family.

Cheers
Biff

And finally from this batch of dreadful photos, with the rear bedroom to the right, looking in to the master bedroom:



... and then standing in the master bedroom looking at the en-suite:



Plumbing for my 'loo with a view' in the background...

... and the first glimpse of what the view will look like (god I wish these pics were better). The base of the window is about 50 cms so about knee height when seated. If anyone looks up, well, it will serve them right frankly...

Steve, Biff, thanks for your comments. A very happy new year to you both, and indeed all other folks who have waded this far too.

It's nearly 1 pm now in Delhi and definitely time for me to be leaving the office to go and do something more exciting than sitting around here. I'll update the thread with some more pics in the new year.

Cheers all...

Fascinating. One of my favourite builds on here at the moment.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Fascinating. One of my favourite builds on here at the moment.

Thanks Marmite, I'm honoured...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

You appear to have a ghost problem!

It's the ruddy cement.

You were the one who pointed out Siam City Cement's attitude towards health and safety. I wish you'd mentioned it before we had them come and pour the floors.

Awwwlthough, a few pii floating about should keep the in-laws at bay. Actually quite a reasonable trade off.

Happy new year to you too Betty, and also happy new year to my new best mate, Marmite...

Lots of lovely wood in there RB, , I would be happy just to come in and sniff for 5 mins

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Lots of lovely wood in there RB, , I would be happy just to come in and sniff for 5 mins

Unfortunately I wasn't there whilst all this was going on. I'm appallingly bad at it but I've always enjoyed working with wood so to be a part of a woodworking project on this scale, as opposed to my normal epic of knocking together a mis-shapen shelf or something, would have been fun.

Given the contentiousness of the subject it is with more than a degree of trepidation that I now find myself standing on the edge, staring into the no man's land from which Nigel is just now climbing.

It as much in the spirit of solidarity with those who have also run this particular gauntlet as it is an integral part of the tale that I'm therefore launching myself, bayonet pointing forward and head held high, into the matter of...

(drumroll)

... TILING.



I sense the frissons of excitement coupled with pure terror as I post the picture above.

Gosh...

When I was back in Thailand in May, long before the roof had even been started, I decided to go and get the tiles bought and delivered. I knew that is I didn't do this right away then one of two things would happen:

1) The build would get to the point where they needed to do the tiling, we wouldn't be around to choose the tiles and so someone up there would chose for us. A lovely pink and lime green combo would be the result.

2) Even if we did choose the tiles we wanted but waited to pay for them later then there would be a strong chance that they would be out of stock and so the best alternative would be the lovely pink and lime green number.

The only way of having the tiles I wanted was to buy them right away. One thing I was sure of was that if the tiles were already there, whether they were liked or not by anyone else, they would at least be used rather than someone wasting money on buying some alternatives.

Having traipsed around various tiling shops and Global House, each of which was challenged either in terms of taste or stock holding, we finally found a local place that quite remarkably had both what we wanted and enough quantity to deliver the whole lot the next day.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the stack of tiles, but for those who were interested in this sort of thing it was about 1 metre by 3 metres by 70 cms, and cost about Baht 60K

Bits of me pile of tiles:

Here we go. Nigel's revenge is about to start. He has been rather grumpy recently, so expect him to get really stuck in here...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

A lovely pink and lime green combo would be the result.

Could be worse...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

about Baht 60K

I'm looking forward to this tiling extravaganza, and I believe I can speak for all of TD when I say 'I hope it doesn't go perfectly smoothly'.

I mentioned a while back that the builder had taken it upon himself to build us a rhombus-shaped kitchen, and so ultimately it was going to be challenging to have floor tiles as the house's lack of 90 degree corners would be quite apparent.

The plan was therefore to have a sort of border near the edge, and then all the tiles in the central section in a diamond pattern rather than perpendicular to the walls (well some of the walls) as it would disguise the rather vague attention to detail when building the house.

First of all, try explaining what I want to the builder. Results in a quizzical expression.

Secondly, explain it to my wife, who gets it but feels it may be a bit complicated to explain on the phone.

This is a battle I will eventually win so third option, draw what I want and stick to my guns:



All fairly simple. Well not too complicated anyway.

Or so you would think...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

First of all, try explaining what I want to the builder. Results in a quizzical expression.

I fully understand his POV.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

Secondly, explain it to my wife, who gets it

She's a better man than me.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

draw what I want

Originally Posted by Roobarb

All fairly simple.

Nope.

Gonna enjoy this, loads of scope here... Just gonna give Nigel a quick PM, so he knows to get down here a.s.a.p. - he won't want to be missing this.

^ Well I thought it was simple, but clearly not.

Happily my other half was due a trip to Thailand so off she went to oversee this particular aspect of the build.

1) I get is a phone call saying that nobody does floors like this in Thailand.

- A quick scrabble around on the net and I email some incredibly complicated looking tiling patterns from Thai websites.

2) I get a phone call the following day saying that nobody does floors like this in our particular bit of Thailand.

- Deep breath, explain again. Whether it is a diamond pattern or a square pattern, 90% of the tiling work is identical, it's only around the edges that they may need to concentrate a bit more. Besides which, tell the builder I won't notice his mess up with the kitchen this way...

3) The builder says there will be a lot of wastage, better to do it his way

- I don't care, we'll get him a few more boxes of tiles.

4) I get another call back - OK, he's accepted the diamond pattern, but the dark border thing, how wide do you want it?

- Ummmm, three inches, each tile is 12 inches wide so chop 'em in four equal bits and we're all good.

5) The next call - The builder says that if you cut the tiles then you will end up with sharp edges and cut your feet.

- OK, ask him how he normally cuts tiles then. Actually, better than that, tell him to make the dark border tiles about 2 mm lower than the rest of the floor, we'll sort it out with the grout.

Yes, I knew that the concept of a millimetre (indeed a centimetre) would be lost on him but it's a negotiation, we're never going to end up with this.

6) The next call - Well the builder says he could do it that way but he...

- He can do it that way? Good, ask him to get on with it then.

Throughout the build I have been careful to try to keep our expectations within the capabilities of the builder, but with the tiling I wanted to explore the boundaries a bit.

And so the first two pictures turn up.

Picture 1:



On first impressions he seems to have got the concept, but there are several issues:

1) Looking at the right hand side of the doorway it looks like the tiling by the pillar is made up with offcuts.

2) Actually, the dark border bit seems to follow the pillar around to the wall which was the last thing I wanted as it accentuates the ugly pillars.

3) At first I thought it was the photo, but the tile just to the left of the bucket seems to have been cut at a very off angle. I wonder why...

4) Of course. He's started off in the kitchen using the wonky wall as the base line.

I knew that this would be fun.

Picture 2:



Yup, the dark border doesn't really follow the line of the cabinets.

Actually, this was the first time I'd seen the cabinets, but i was so wrapped up in excitement at the fun and games that the tiling was about to give us that i didn't notice them. A bit of a pity as it turns out. More of that later.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

4) I get another call back - OK, he's accepted the diamond pattern, but the dark border thing, how wide do you want it? - Ummmm, three inches, each tile is 12 inches wide so chop 'em in four equal bits and we're all good.

Diagonal and a border ?

You got my attention. Learn something new, as they say

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Originally Posted by helge

Originally Posted by Roobarb

4) I get another call back - OK, he's accepted the diamond pattern, but the dark border thing, how wide do you want it? - Ummmm, three inches, each tile is 12 inches wide so chop 'em in four equal bits and we're all good.

Diagonal and a border ?

You got my attention. Learn something new, as they say

You'll learn how not to do it I should imagine...

I'm not saying anything... I'll wait for the cavalry.

On an untiling note, the windows are a nice size with lovely views. &, lots of nice usable worktop space; reckon those units will end up really nicely.

See the pics now

Concept not that stupid

Hi Roobarb,
I must say your workers are quick, about 50 minutes to lay all those tiles..Must be Aussies.
Looks good though, plenty of cupboards, lots of room and light.

Thanks for posting, good thread.

Cheers

Biff