Mae Sai 05/08/2010 Bathroom Tile

The day started out pretty good. Salad came with two men and they laid out the tile for the upstairs bathroom. I questioned why they were doing the tile before the plumbing but they just said that's the way they do it in Thailand.

They laid out the level line for the tile with a water level, a piece of plastic tubing with water in it. One person holds the tubing with the water line on a mark and the other person marks the other side of the wall were the water line is. We used to set closet flanges for toilets that way when I was young except we used a garden hose.

I did talk with Salad after they laid out the tile and we will buy the new wooden door and door jams today so they can finish the wall on the downstairs room. We also agreed to go buy the plumbing fittings and pipe so we can get that part done, too. After the plumbing is tested they can finish the floor and hook up the kitchen sink.

We had to go to two places to buy the plumbing parts because the first place did not have the the type fitting that I wanted. I wanted female adapter elbows with a metal insert in the fitting. That way the plastic fitting does not stretch out when you screw in the shut off valves.

We did buy a very nice Teak, panel door to match the existing window shutters. That, with the door jams was 2180 THB ($68 USD). The stain, locking door set and brass hinges cost an additional 830 THB ($26 USD).

When we returned Daeng took one of the men from Burma to get another worker. He is doing the grouting of the kitchen tile. They did turn a few of the tiles upside down when they installed them but I'm probably the only one that will notice.

By the way, I must have looked cute with a length of 3" sewer pipe on the motorbike.

I will be very happy when this re-model is over. The dust never stops!