Kit mai auk!

"Kit mai auk" is Thai language for 'I don't know what to think' meaning I don't really have anything to blog about today. So instead I'll just share with you a pic of my house in Thailand.

If the picture looks a little funny it's because I had to splice 3 different images together to get the whole front in one image.

Things we have had to do to the house to live here?

1. Install whole house water filtration system (you don't drink the water in Thailand!)

2. Install a 5 stage filter in the kitchen for drinking water (works great! I've tested it and it actually tests cleaner than evian and other bottled waters)

3. Have all the locks on all the upstairs exterior doors and windows replaced. (original builder used cheap aliminum crap that warped in the tropical heat and broke apart. Now we have good stainless steel)

4. Replaced all the doorknobs on the exterior doors downstairs (again, cheap local materials replaced with good imported Yale locks and knobs. Nothin' like a good nobbin'!) ;-)

5. Lots of other minor little stuff like plumbing, toilets, new floors in bathrooms, new water pump, new shower fixtures, some nice good quality built-ins in the master BR. that kind of thing.

One thing about homes in Thailand. They're tough. The are made of solid concrete with rebar reinforcement. The places are pretty sound proof other than what comes through the doors. The floors take getting used to... no carptet. All our floors (even the baths) are polished granite. Looks great, easy to clean, but hell on your feet until you get used to it.

There's no such thing as central air. Every room has it's own A/C and compressor (my house has 5). You keep them turned off if you aren't in the room!

There's no central hot water heater. Every where you want hot water you install a mini "flash" water heater (that's a heating element that heats water quickly) so there's only one water supply pipe per bathroom, which reduces material costs. I love those little heaters! They fit under the sink cause they're just a little bigger than a shoe box, and you aren't paying for water or gas to constantly reheat the same water in a tank over and over.

I hate our kitchen. Well, I hate one of them. I'd barely call it a kitchen. It's HUGE, but it's completely disfunctional. It has no oven. It has no overhead fan. It has no real stove (just a little two burner cooktop). If we weren't selling the place we'd have it all torn out and a new one put in with real cabinets and stuff! When I say I hate one of them it's because most Thai houses have two - one inside, one outside. The outside one is covered and semi enclosed and is where 99% of all the real action is. Thai food can be very... um... aromatic so they do most cooking outside.

See, these houses if you buy them new are simply empty shells. No hot water, no A/C, no kitchen fixtures, no closets or storage, just walls with doors and windows in them. That way the buyer can fit the house out the way they want. Most Thais don't install A/C, and many time not even hot water. No thanks!

So there you go. For a guy who had nothing to say those are a lot of... um... words?