Well TD'ers its been awhile since I posted Construction pics on TD. I took a break for my own personal reasons and decided to rejoin the forum and see how it goes.
My wife and I moved back here to Thailand in March a few weeks after our cargo container set sail and she completed her US citizenship test. I have a lot of info for people considering a cargo container from the US to Thailand. Different thread maybe.
Anyway helluva a lot has happened in the last 6 months (3 months before we left and 3 months after we got here)
So I ended up not retiring and am working in Thailand for a US company. It was a tough call but the position was very interesting and I was made (as us Sicilian's say) "An offer you can't refuse" Ok enough on that.
So I pushed out the start date of the new job as far as I could so my wife and I could land, tear down the old house out front and get the cargo container here and unpacked. we did it all and I had a week to spare.
Below are some pics of the carnage and the progress.
We landed and 3 days later and we had my FIL's friends there with their tractors trashing the place. Prior to the destruction we sold all the old Teak rafters and windows and doors. We recouped 27,000 baht.
We had both tractors swinging and winging clearing it out. Dump trucks in and out.
They started at 7am and this is how it looked in the early afternoon.
Cargo container. Big ass 40 footer stuffed from one end to the other. This arrived 1 week after we tore down the house in front and added the dirt. My BIl and SIL and their daughter talking to driver.
Moving forward one thing we did not consider was that after it was all leveled and 15 loads of clean dirt bought in that the trek from the gate to the house when all was dry was no problem, however we were quickly reminded that with a good rain it turned into an ugly mess. I told my wife we better get a driveway in here pronto or we are going to be hosting a mud bog contest on ESPN.
At the same time we decided we wanted an external car park area with my shop. We did not want all my stuff just sitting under the house open and working on my motorcycles and truck was going to be challenging and noisy. So again we contacted my FIL's long time family friend. I took over a good bottle of Glenfiddich (Scotch) and we had dinner and struck the deal. All these guys are construction house builders. Being family friends they decided to help us and get it done before the rice planting season starts. I drew up some plans and off we went. Now like all projects they start off being something quick but after I sat with my wife and Tanarat I decided to make it better and not looking like a shack out front the house.
So off they went. This is pretty far in, slab is poured and rough beams being installed.
Zipping right along. The driveway was on hold until the car park shop area heavy stuff was complete as there were delivery trucks and cement trucks still coming.
Looking across the car park area to the shop area. I will have a sliding glass door to the shop area and another exiting the back. Again this could be my living quarters if the wife kicks me the hell out.....I planned it that way.
While they were building the car park area my wife and I built this nice retaining wall and added the matching facia stones like the posts. Took us about 4 days.
Fast forward a bit, we had the driveway poured. I insisted on 5" thick with rebar and raised box wire. They did exactly that. Day after we had the Sod laid.
Rather then have a standard old cement driveway my wife and I opted for a patterned colored install. They did a really nice job for the price albeit there were a few things that I said HMM. But only I noticed it so it is what it is.
Pic of driveway poured and car park and shop nearing completion. Electrician comes Monday to add outlets and lighting all over the place. Painter comes Wednesday. We opted to paint match to house. We used same premier ceramic tile on the roof to match the main house as well. I did not want to have some roofing material that would fade and look bad. My wife is project managing all of this while I am at work. She is picky as hell and I like that. We discuss every night
I have a ton more pics of it but this was a quick recap.