The Writer's Room

Final Photos. Let the Writing Begin...

2009-09-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

The couch doubles as a fold-down double bed for visitors.

...and here's a pic from the final days when the glass bookshelf doors were being installed, and before the fridge, TV/DVD and microwave went in:

The view from the balcony - when there's no rice-paddy smoke haze...

...and for good measure, Chiangmai Lodge accross the road has lit up some xmas lights on its rooftop sala. Here's what it looks like from M's new balcony:

Almost done: Welcome to the Writer's Room

2009-08-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

Yee-hah ...Room 1407 is nearly finished. Standing next to the open bathroom, her back to the front door, the Writer surveys the new colony and contemplates immersion in her forthcoming novel.
This is what she can see, looking out through to the balcony and to the night view north over Chiangmai:

Out-of-photo to the right is the as-yet-unfinished wall (still messy) where the built-in glass cupboards will soon be installed, Buddha willing. The couch folds down into a double bed. The desk is colonial British from Rangoon c.1910-1920. The parquetry floor has been detailed and re-polished (twice - the first time was amateur ...grrr). Downlights in the newly-hung ceiling, and deco wall-lights.

Plenty of light gets into the bathroom now - unlike before when it was a dark stinky rat-hole. And not just due to the illuminated ceiling. Carved Chinese-style screens of Elmwood with Camphorwood frames. Yes, they do smell nice. We are planning a small arch over the door in matching style.
When you come through the door, this is what you see:

More pix in the pipeline - watch this space.

The 2nd exciting episode: Work begins

2009-06-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Guess who launches into stripping wallpaper even before the ink on the Title Deed is dry? The tarp protects the teak parquetry floor, one of the few features to be retained intact.

Chang Chaisit removes cupboards, and Chang Serm prepares to demolish the kitchen.

("Chang" = Artisan/Craftsman/Tradie, pronounced short with a falling tone. If pronounced long [chaang] with a level mid-tone, it means "elephant". Beware of unintended offence when addressing your Thai workmen!)

The bathroom begins to feel worried... ...and the kitchen has good reason to be decidedly nervous:

All that remains of the old air-con is a hole in the wall; the bags are full of smashed brick and tiles ready for landfill. Next, watch the air-con compressor disappear:

Shelves and windows, begone...

Chang Serm and his faithful Burmese offsider Chang Lek get stuck into the bathroom:

Goodbye, bathloom...

The metal frame for the suspended ceiling begins to take shape. Wires to the future wall lights and power points have been buried inside channels in the walls, and the electrician will conceal all wiring inside the suspended ceiling. Abracadabra! the balcony wall is 4 inches higher, and there are new ceramic tiles on the balcony floor where M is standing:

Electrical wiring inside the yellow conduit begins sneaking around everywhere inside the ceiling-to-be, plumbing goes into the batroom floor under the tiles-to-be, and the pillar [at right] gets a new coat of concrete render so it can be exactly perpendicular before the carpenter instals the carved screen-to-be:

In the next pic (the corridor), the door with the mat is the TV room (1405), and the one with the Happy Plant in the distance is the main door (1401). The door at the immediate right of the photo is the new room (The Writer's Room, 1407) and you get a tantalizing glimpse of the newly-installed fluoro lights in the bathroom ceiling - not to mention the first coat of paint on the walls and balcony:
...and tiles begin to grow on the bathloom froor:

Yikes ...another renovation: the "Before" photos

2009-06-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Looking from the balcony/kitchen thru to the front door.

Marie's future Writing Hideaway suddenly appeared (right next door to our present apartment, luckily) and cried out to be bought and renovated. So we're at it again... suckers for punishment. The previous owner of room 1407, a small single apartment, had it rented out and it had been left by the tenants in an total mess, even with old food still in the fridge.

All free-standing furniture and appliances trotted out the door, thankfully, to destinations unknown.

Termite trails along electrical wiring, concealed by wallpaper:

The Awfully-Dark-Bathroom:
...and so the task beginneth.