Thread: A "not so Grand Design" in Ubon Ratchathani

Originally Posted by Edmond

Good work on designing those big long eaves.

Keeping direct sun off the walls and windows is must. A few big potted plants between those columns and yer sort'ed guv. Gonna be a lovely place.

That front wall will get late afternoon sun on the longest days in May/june, as the Or Bor Tor told us we had to align the house with the side road to keep a minimum 2m distance. That meant turning it about 10 degrees unfortunately, but some Golden Cane palms and Heliconias will keep the sun off that wall. We have a couple of those big wooden bed/table things, I'm thinking of putting some arms and a backrest on one, give it a nice stain/varnish, add some outdoor cushions and turn it into a day bed under the fan that is going there...very colonial ! No punkah wallah though unfortunately.

Originally Posted by mikenot

turn it into a day bed

Dare I recommend..... hanging chairs.

@malmomike - re: Tie Me Kangaroo Down - I liked it! Have never heard it before. It has a catchy chorus. I think I now have an ear worm.

Thai superstition strikes again !

All along the plans have had steps at each end of the side verandah, and along the side opposite the patio doors. Yesterday was time to finalize the location for said steps, and now it seems that it is bad luck to have 3 sets of steps as apparently that is what is used for the plinth coffins are raised on ! Things got confusing as to whether she was talking about steps or sets of steps. The wife has said many times about you have to have an odd number of steps going in to a house, and we had agreed there would be only one here as there was not enough room for 3 steps. So when Natta said "cannot have 3 steps" I said I know, we already talked about this. But finally it became clear she meant 3 sets of steps, so now we are only having one set at the front end of the verandah and another on the side. If anybody wants to take a short cut to the back garden they will have to jump down..it's only 30cm. Actually I will probably put some potted plants along there so drunks don't fall off the edge.
So that's another thing to add to the Thai mumbo-jumbo list, along with bed facing in the right direction, Buddha not facing toilet or bedroom, front and rear doors not in a direct line, and god knows what else.

I mentioned before that the wiring for some of the downlights had not been pulled through when the ceiling boards went up. The switches were there, I had seen the cables there. We mentioned this to the boss, and to the electrician. No problems they both said. So today we go for a shopping trip into Thai Watsadu for bathroom fittings and drop in about 5.30 on the way home to find lights have been fitted by another electrician, who didn't get the memo about the missing lights ! The sparky had already gone home but the foreman was still there, to get an earful from the wife about the missing lights.

Thai Watsadu had about 25 or more shower heaters on display but less than half were actually in stock. The first 2 we chose ..."mai mee", "mai mee", our 3rd choice (Sharp) was the last one in stock. My sister in law had come with us to get a water heater too, she got the out of stock run around with her choices too.

July 18th has been set as the date for the first house blessing. Apparently this one will be by the local "mor duu" (which roughly translates to fortune teller/witch doctor) and village elders, whether the house is finished or not, and then we will have the monk's house blessing when everything is done and the house is "suay". More superstition !