Finishing touches...

It has been just about a month since my last update on Baan Sanploen and we have been busy with the finishing touches.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND PAINTING

We have finished all of the boundary walls, and also finished adding all of the decorative features such as wood effect fence panels, stainless steel detailing etc...  We have also fitted the engraved granite name plate for the house to the front wall along with a suitable styled mail box.  The main gate has also been fitted.

LIGHTING

With a couple of exceptions, the interior and exterior light fittings have now been installed.

POND AND GARDEN LANDSCAPING

Work on the pond and its pump and lighting has almost been completed.  We have also been planting more trees and working on landscaping the garden.  Just a few more plants to add.

CARPENTRY

The final piece of the jigsaw is now being put in in the form of all of the custom wood work.  I have designed all of the doors and cabinets and also the staircase which features a wood and stainless steel hand rail.  All of which is being made by to my design by a local carpenter.

Decking and Tiling

We have poured the concrete for the pond and decking area in the garden, and also at the front of the house.  We have also had the granite counter tops fitted in the kitchen and bathrooms.  The floors have almost completely been tiled.  We have also nearly finished the tiling of the bathrooms.

Pond and drainage

We have been busy with constructing the large pond in the garden which is looking more like a swimming pool than a pond at the moment!  We have also installed the large drains to take the roof and ground run-off water.

Windows and walls

Over the past week we have almost completed construction of the remaining boundary walls, installed the septic tanks, continued with interior painting and begun preparations for the large pond and decking area in the garden.   We have also had third party contractors installing our windows.

Boundary Wall

We completed work altering the existing boundary walls on two sides of the property some time ago.  We have now started construction of the new walls needed down one side and at the front of the house.

We have also taken delivery of the septic tanks which will be installed over the next couple of days.  We are also still busy with painting the house.  Especially all of the wood effect detailing, which takes quite some time to achieve the look of real wood.

House Painting

I have been very busy over the past few weeks and so the blog updates have not been as frequent as they used to be.  I'm going to try and get back to making short regular posts again.

With that in mind, here is a very short progress update:

We are currently in the process of painting the interior and exterior of the house.

Interior & Exterior Finishing...

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past two weeks.  I have been very busy managing our two projects and also carrying out design work for a number of other clients.....  So, on with the update:

TREES

Our two transplanted trees have started sprouting new growth which is a very good sign.  This means that the hardest part is over and they are likely to survive the transplant and take to their new location.

EXTERIOR DETAILING

All of the preformed exterior detailing has been applied around the windows elsewhere on the house.

In addition to the concrete detailing, we have also added more wood effect detailing.  This is the same  material that we used on the roof wing, and as with the roof wing, the full effect can not be appreciated until it has all been painted, which will be done over the next few days.

SUSPENDED CEILING

n addition to the concrete detailing, we have also added more wood effect detailing.  This is the same  material that we used on the roof wing, and as with the roof wing, the full effect can not be appreciated until it has all been painted, which will be done over the next few days. After a slow start due to an unreliable third party contractor, we now have a very good contractor who has completed almost all of the ceiling work.

Exterior Detailing

Construction of the roof 'wing' is now complete, and ready for staining.

We experienced a delay in applying the preformed exterior detailing due to an unreliable third party contractor.  However, we have now brought in a new contractor who is progressing well in applying the detailing.

How not to build a wall...

There is an existing boundary wall on two sides of the property that is about 1 meter high.  It is fairly typical of the walls in Thailand, having columns at about 2.5m spacing, standard block work, with a cast concrete top.  We had planned to leave the existing wall in place, but increase its height.  To do this, we would extend the height of the columns, then use wood effect fencing panels between them.  The existing block work at the bottom would then be rendered to give a smooth finish.  To extend the height of the columns, we would make new steel re-enforcement structures and attach them to the existing re-enforcement structures , then cast the columns around them...... The problem?  The existing wall has NO STEEL RE-ENFORCEMENT!  Apart from reducing the strength of each column, it also means that the columns are not tied to each other through the top cross beams, as intended.... This probably explains why the wall is not straight!

This wall has stood for about 12 years so far and I'm sure that if we were not planning on increasing its height it would probably be stand for quite a few more years. However, disturbing the structure and adding extra weight to the top of it would definitely reduce its stability significantly.  Now we have a bit of an issue - whether to completely rebuild the entire wall or to try to fix what is there.  One thing is for certain... it is not worth risking building on top of it as is.

Trees transplanted...

Yesterday we brought our new trees over from the orchard in which they were originally situated. We also had to remove one huge branch of a mango tree, which was cutting across the eventual position of the extended height fence we shall be putting up. Normally, I hate the idea of cutting down trees, but it didn't seem so bad in this case as we planted two to compensate.

Half of a mango tree is cut down

The tree on the left is the Rambutan on the one on the right is Lychee