Thread: Building our Retirement Home in Nan Province

Greetings Folks, back from my three day trip to Abu Dhabi yesterday and headed out to our Pua home site this morning. First thing we noticed was our builder has erected some signs advertising his company (Pua Engineering) and promoting safety. The latter gave me a chuckle; even today some of the team were wearing their steel capped safety flip flops, one in particular was on the bamboo scaffolding in them.

There has been some progress on the hip capping on the roof but there has been a bit of rain and they will not go on the roof when there is any possibility of the tiles containing surface moisture. More bricklaying has been done on level 1 and the brick laying on level 2 has started and looks to be about 40% done. The level 2 bedrooms, ensuites and living room are now evident. The storage areas on level 1 adjacent the front door and in the master bedroom near the WIR entrance have been built in terms of brick laying. They were making a start on attaching the roof fascia boards. All in all we remain really happy with the progress. The build team were particularly pleased to see the energy drinks and snacks we brought along today, they missed them in the five days since our last visit. According to my wife we are very popular with the build team.

Upon our return to Nan we finally got to try the Crossroads restaurant near the airport. It is in the above ground floor of the Huen Chang Puek Hotel and run by an Aussie and his wife. My wife chose a Thai dish and liked it. I went for the double cheese burger with fries and bacon and being an Aussie myself, added some beetroot. Loved it. We'll be going back and well worth a try by others.

Above - Bedroom 3 on level 2 looking north. Bedrooms 3 & 4 are both 6m x 4m plus an ensuite bathroom and direct access to the covered deck.

Below - Level 2 view of entrance into the bedroom 3 ensuite bathroom. If you look at the far wall you can see we lowered the wide south facing windows in the ensuite to facilitate a view of the mountains to the south. At the time we made that decision we were unsure if the mountains would be in sight to the south but we now know they are.

Above - Looking south from the level 2 living room. They biggest window in the house will be there to capture the predominantly southerly breezes in Pua.

Below - Level 2 bedroom 3 view to the north from the ensuite bathroom.

Above - Lifting bricks by the bucket this morning. Our sole lady team member spent the morning lifting the filled buckets from her foot level to above her head...respect.

Below - Level 2 living room view to the north.

Above - These three guys are part of six (maybe seven) that did not abandon us to go harvest rice.

Below - View across the level 2 living room to the entrance to bedroom 3.

Above - View out the level 2 bedroom 4 east window.

Above & Below - Attaching the first fascia board.

Above - Looking through the yet to be built level 2 kitchenette into bedroom 4.

Below - Storage near the front entrance door on level 1. We've managed to get two full height 90cm x 90cm storage on level 1, storage under the stairs and on level 2 a 1m x 40cm full height storage. All are lockable. They hadn't cleaned up the murder scene, not sure who the victim was.

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Greetings Folks, back from my three day trip to Abu Dhabi yesterday and headed out to our Pua home site this morning. First thing we noticed was our builder has erected some signs advertising his company (Pua Engineering) and promoting safety. The latter gave me a chuckle; even today some of the team were wearing their steel capped safety flip flops, one in particular was on the bamboo scaffolding in them.

I've always been a bit bemused by those safety signs in english, who are they aimed at ? There is a new condo going up near my Bangkok place, the safety signs are in English only, not even Thai. Burmese and Lao for the labourers would be more sensible I would have thought ?
But more importantly, it seems you are racing along, and without any major problems so far ? of course, don't start counting your chickens just yet, wait until the fat lady starts singing ...to mix up the metaphors.