Mae Sai 04/28/2010 More of a Typical Day

I got up around 5:00 AM, called my Mother in California to say hello and find out how she is doing. She is hanging in there at 88 years old. Her body have given out but her mind is still pretty good.

Then I called my friend Michael to wish him a happy birthday and see how Charlotte, his mate, is doing. I was lucky and got to talk with them both.

Daeng got up and helped me take the electrical wiring out of the bathroom area as the whole bathroom will be a wet room. The only electric will be the two ceiling lights and a light high over the sink. The switch and one plug will be up high by the far door, away from the shower area.

We then had some fruit and coffee together.

The re-model guys showed up and put the second bathroom door together, ready to pour in later today. Daeng and I took a little motorbike ride to the morning market, bought some vegetables and had breakfast. Soup, fried rice and fried vegetables with chicken was the fare of the morning.

When we got back the men were getting the kitchen counter top ready to pour with concrete. I watch with fear in my heart as the head man cut the tin with scissor that he borrowed from Daeng and then actually torn the corrugated metal using a 2"x 4" block of wood. He was holding down the board with his bare feet. Scary! TITwBT!

You can see the paper scissors he was using to cut the metal just below his left bare foot.

By the way, after he used the paper scissors that he borrowed to cut the metal I tried them on paper and I think they work even better. I'm amazed but this is "Amazing Thailand"!

Salad came by after lunch lunch time and we talked about how the water piping would run for the bathroom, the other 3 walls that he was going to build, the new rear door, moving the metal door upstairs to the roof and the electrician. I did feel better after we talked even though he kept saying, "Don't worry". When someone says: "Don't worry!" I worry.

We also set a time frame of 20 days as I know all the projects will run longer. That means the target completion date is May 18th. We will actually leave Mae Sai around May 29th.

The men seamed to be doing a good job putting in the re-bar for the counter top. We are going to hang out and watch the whole process.

After building the frame for the counter top and putting all the re-bar rod together, the boys started mixing cement. they filled the frame with about 3 1/2" of concrete and floated it off.

Then they carried buckets of mortar upstairs and poured in the other bathroom door. Yes, the new bathroom has two doors, one to enter from our suite and one to enter from the hall.

We finished, I say we because Daeng and I helped keep things clean, about 7:00 PM and called it a day. Daeng and I will clean up some more early in the morning.

We are starting to feel much better about this project.