Mae Sai 04/22/2010 Another Day

Another typical day in the re-model mode here in Mae Sai, on the Burma border.

Our friend, Ray, from California called around 6:17 AM to see how we were doing and if we could help his Aunt with her A/C when we returned next month. We are usually up by that time but this morning we slept in.

I have been trying to get a lot of rest so I stay mellow with this re-model. It is extremely stressful on any re-model project as it is tough to build someone else's dreams.

Now, add in the commutations factor and you have a set up for a lose, lose. We want win, win!

Daeng fixed pineapple and coffee. The roof tile guys showed up for another day on the roof. Life is good!

We went to Tesco/Lotus and had breakfast and picked up a few things like instant coffee, jelly and some fruit.

Salad did not show up at noon and when I ask Daeng about it she told me he said he would try to come by at noon. Communication error!!! TIT!!!

About 1:00 PM at man from Cat Telecom came by and said he wanted to change the password on our wireless router. I told him I did not want to change it. Well, you would have thought I called the King a bad name. he called his boss and i talked with him on the telephone. It was not our wireless router password he wanted to change but his router password. Communication error!!! TIT!!!

Around 3:00 we went to the afternoon market and bought eight (8) pineapples for 42 THB ($1.31 USD). I love pineapple and at that price we can eat a lot. At Costco, in California, they are around three US dollar each, in season.

it is around 5:00 and we are just waiting for the refrigerator repairman to deliver the refrigerator we had repaired. Yea, we can save 15 cents a day on ice.

The refrigerator guys just left and the refrigerator is humming away. The refrigerator man said not to buy SAMSUNG's two door refrigerators in Thailand as they are not made good. We paid him the 1,070 THB ($33.43 USD) for repairing it and thanked him. it is in nice shape and the cost new a few years ago was a little over 7,000 THB ($219 USD).

I laughed to myself as two years ago we bought a two door KITCHENAID refrigerator in California for $1,400 USD and thought we got a good deal.

The roof is looking pretty good except the emergency drains are too low. They should be about a half inch above the tile line and they are about a half an inch below the tile.

That means when it rains water will go out those pipes to the side of the building all the time.

Salad came by tonight and we agreed that we would pick out the tile color, the doors, the toilet and the sink for the new bathroom. We will do that tomorrow as he wants to start the bathroom on the 24th.


TIT!!!!

Mae Sai 04/21/2010 House Closing

We got up early, had fruit and headed over to the District Land Office to meet the sellers.

Most of the paperwork had been done already so we just signed everything. Foreigner can not own property here. Because there is community (50/50) property between husband and wife I had to sign a form that even though I was paying for the property it all belonged to Daeng, my wife.

Don't worry, how I get protected is Daeng signs a renewable lease on the property to me for 20-30 years.

We signed the papers and then we went to our bank, Bangkok Bank, withdrew the million and a half Thai Baht and handed the cash to the sellers. The wife put it in her big purse. They went to their bank and we went back to the District Land Office.

They showed up ten minutes later and we got the recorded title to the property with Daeng's name on the back. They had forgotten the "House Book" so we waited while the misses went to got it. A "House Book" is what shows who lives at that address.

It is now a done deal; the fat lady has sung, so to speak.

We had some breakfast and back to the place to see what kind of trouble we can get into next.

When we got home there was a load of cinder blocks for the bathroom walls, another load of sand, several bags of cement and the double bowl sink.

The roof tile guys are at it, one tile at a time. The roof is starting to look nice although the reason for doing it is to make sure it never leaks.

Mae Sai 04/20/2010 Pretty Typical

The day was pretty typical for us in the re-model mode. We got up around 6:00 AM and moved forward through the day.

Roof tile guys showed up and worked all day setting tile. We did have to have a little follow up talk about removing the loose, old coating before putting down the new tile.

Salad, the Burmese contractor that is doing the kitchen, bathroom and walls, came with some materials.

The stainless steel sink was a single bowl sink and we agreed on a double bowl. The two bathroom doors are only 180 centimeters high.

That means I would hit my head going through the doors. Thai people are very short. The doors should be 200 centimeters.

He took the sink back but I did not catch the door mistake until after he left. We will need to have the communication talk to be sure we both don't mis-understand each other.

The men from CAT Telecom came and did all the wiring and everything works great. Total hook up cost with dish, wireless router, cabling ND satellite TV converter was 7400 THB ($231 USD). After this month we will have to pay 790 THB for Internet service and 250 THB for television. That is about $33.50 in United States money.

It is a big deal to have these stations on TV here in Mae Sai. We already have two of the teenagers in the family sitting in front of the TV watching MTV.

I must stay mellow and remember "TIT" (This is Thailand).