Postcards from Thailand

Priority for today was getting the piling done for the kitchen extension. One of my greatest fears is that the extension will subside and pull away from the house. The neighbours have had a big problem with this – a problem their builders “fixed” by putting black plastic tape over the gap. There’s hardly a house in the moobaan which hasn’t had a kitchen extension or a car port built, and many of these have cracked badly. One house had a garage built (very unusual for Thailand). Unfortunately for the owners, it too started to subside, and risked ripping the whole front of the house off. It had to be torn down.

Anyway, I’ve gone for piling overkill so, fingers crossed, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Rather than use a pile driver, Thai builders have their own way of doing these things:

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Finally, after five years of struggling in a tiny, badly designed kitchen, I’ve got the builders in to extend it. They arrived as scheduled, on the dot of 7:30 a.m.. Thankfully, the rain held off for the day, and they were able to make good progress. By lunchtime the kitchen had been gutted – poured concrete cabinets reduced to rubble and windows removed.

Kitchen Stripped

And in the afternoon they removed one of the external walls. This revealed a small hitch: there was a soil pipe which had been embedded in the wall. Its position makes no sense whatsoever – nowhere near any of the upstairs bathrooms. Doubtless it can be diverted.

Kitchen Wall Down

Can’t say the dogs were particularly keen on all the strangers outside the house, or the loud sound of power tools as the concrete was ripped up. But then, neither was I.

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