New Carpet Arrival

Posted on 30 December 2009 by christao408

We’ve been in this condo just over two years and yet the process of decorating and remodeling never quite seems to come to an end. This past week we received two chairs and a new carpet that Tawn had ordered, changing the living room’s look from this:

To this:

What do I think? Well, I’m easily satisfied and each new thing seems to be another unnecessary addition to the house. That’s not the type of feedback Tawn is looking for, though. I think the chairs are okay, design-wise, although without arms I don’t find them comfortable enough to settle in with a good book. The color disconnect between the chairs and the sofa is a problem – one or the other needs to change.

The carpet, though, is quite nice. I’d like to see a little more color in it, but I think the pattern and the larger size makes the space more interesting.

Here’s a 75-second video that shows the whole install process for the carpet in super-fast mode. Enjoy!

Condo Tour Part 2

Posted on 21 July 2009 by christao408

Thanks for your patience. The second half of the tour, the part covering the new “Annex” we’ve moved into next door, is ready.

Part 1 of the tour is here.

Annexation

Posted on 16 June 2009 by christao408

Two years and three days ago, we purchased our condo. It is 68 square meters (roughly 730 square feet) and “kind of” two bedrooms in that a portion of the main living space is partitioned off by a pair of pocket doors to create a separate salon in the fashion of the old San Francisco Victorian houses. But even then we realized that 68 square meters isn’t a lot of space for two people, especially when one of them works from home.

While we were in the process of purchasing our condo, we engaged in some wishful thinking: wouldn’t it be nice if one of these days we had the opportunity to purchase the studio adjacent to our unit? On some of the other floors in the building, owners had joined the corner and studio units to create very nice 100 square meter (1,076 square feet) proper two bedrooms with a larger living area.

In fact, just about three weeks ago we had once again said how nice it would be to have a little more space, after Tawn expressed his frustration upon getting home from a long day of work how we were tripping over each other as I continued with some calls to the US from my “office” – the small second bedroom that also serves as our TV room. “I need space to just be,” he said.

It was an interesting coincidence, then, when a week later I was approached by the owner of the small convenience store downstairs who serves as rental manager for about 40 of the 200 or so units. The tenant of the studio, a famous supermodel, had moved out and the owner was open to selling, provided it could be done quick and easy.

Yesterday, two weeks after the initial conversation with the rental manager, we were at the Land Department registering the sale. We were able to agree to a price that was 10% lower than what we paid per square meter on our first condo, and I think the larger space will allow us to command a premium if we should choose to sell it in the future.

The question, of course, is what to do with it. After the horrendous six-month remodel we went through with the original space, I really don’t want to get into that again. Tawn and I have agreed to a two-year moratorium on any significant changes to the new space. We’ll freshen up the bathroom, where the vanity is badly water damaged, and put some new paint on the walls, but for now that is all.

We will also keep it as a separate unit for the time being, which will give us greater flexibility over the next few years until we have a clear sense that the timing is right to incorporate it into the original unit. Then, we’ll install a wood floor to match, remodel the bathroom, build a door into the wall between the units and brick over the existing outside door of the new unit.

In the meantime, my office armoire, the TV and sofa are all moving into the new space. It will truly become my office, leaving the original unit for living, cooking, sleeping and entertaining.

With this annexation, I hope the owner of the next unit over won’t get nervous. Truly, no need to worry – this is enough!

Chris the Handyperson

Posted on 3 February 2009 by christao408

A few Sunday mornings ago, I was sitting at the computer working on something, when all of the sudden a large crash! came from the kitchen. I looked over and saw nothing amiss.

It wasn’t until I opened a cabinet later in the morning to get my oatmeal pan that I saw the problem: the top anchor of the shelves had detached from the wall, right.

Under the weight of the pots and pans, the shelves were leaning away from the wall and stressing to the bottom anchor, too. I quickly removed everything from the shelves and placed it on the counter, eliciting quite a shocked look from Tawn when he woke up later in the morning and sauntered, bleary-eyed, into the kitchen.

“What happened?” he asked. “Are you cooking something?”

When our handyman installed the the Haeffle wire swing-out shelves, he behaved in the manner most familiar to Thai handymen: pure improvisation. The corner of the cabinet to which the anchors attach isn’t truly 90 degrees. Instead, it has a lip. As a result, one side of the anchors does not have a flush surface into which the screws can go.

I noticed this during the original installation, but the handyman assured me it wasn’t a problem and shooed me away. That was back in the days when I still trusted a Thai handyman’s words. No more.

His solution was to create a small piece of wood to fill the gap, gluing together several layers of the veneer used on the cabinet until they were thick enough to fill the gap.

He then screwed the anchor into that glued veneer. But the layers of veneer were never actually attached to the structure of the cabinet – just sort of clamped to the lip of the cabinet!

Left, the top anchor of the shelf, still screwed into the layers of veneer that are glued together. Notice that the holes on the left have been stripped out by the heads of the screws, as the shelf pulled away from the wall.

This left me with a bit of a dilemma: how to repair this problem? Calling the handyman back didn’t seem a very good idea, but the essence of his fix – finding something to fill the gap created by the cabinet frame’s lip – was sound. I just had to figure out what to put in there and where to find it.

Unlike life in the United States, Canada and other western nations, Thailand doesn’t have any Home Depot, Lowe’s, Orchard Supply Hardware or even Ace Hardware stores. With the exception of some completely useless “Home Pro” stores that sell lightbulbs and sinks, all of our hardware is sold from small mom-and-pop (mostly pop) stores.

The first thing I needed was some wood. Again, no obvious place to go if you need a few small lengths of wood. But I recalled that in the old city, the area surround the Golden Mount temple is a woodworking district, handcrafting teak doors. We headed there after brunch with friends.

It was already mid-afternoon. Many of the shops were closed and the few open ones looked to be closing soon. At the first shop, a grizzled old Chinese-Thai man listened as Tawn explained the problem and looked around his shop. He wanted to sell us a length of teak wood – about 3 meters long (10 feet) – when all we needed was about 15 cm ( 6 inches).

We walked down the soi to a shop where they were still out on the sidewalk, sanding a beautiful teak door. The trio of men listened as we explained the problem and one started rummaging around the shop, wonderfully crowded with pieces of wood of all sizes, and found a few small scraps. We tried them out and found a width that was a close fit, then he cut it down to the desired length, leaving us with two 15-cm pieces.

“How much?” Tawn asked the owner. He laughed with a half-toothless smile. “If I wanted to sell it, I would sell it for 10,000 baht (US$285). But I’ll just give it to you.”

We thanked him profusely and walked away with our two pieces of wood that, given the difficulty we were expecting to encounter in finding a solution, we would probably have gladly paid 10,000 baht for.

Returning to our neighborhood by canal taxi just a few minutes before 5:00, we rushed to a hardware store around the corner, just as they were pulling their wares inside from the sidewalk. We explained what we were looking for – longer screws with larger heads and maybe some washers, too – and the owner browsed the shelves lined with tattered paperboard boxes of various sized hardware until he found eight of each item we were looking for.

Back at home, I pulled out the power drill and started the fix. First, screw the piece of wood to the cabinet lip, creating a flat surface and ensuring that there is something solid for the shelf anchor to mount to.

This was a little difficult as I couldn’t face the work area head-on but had to hold the drill from the side. Not so good for my neck.

Next, with Tawn holding the anchor and the shelves in place, I screwed the anchor to the cabinet, starting with the side that had the new piece of wood. This processes worked pretty well, and although the wood split near the bottom screw, it seems to have a firm hold as the screws I used for the anchor actually sank through the stop-gap piece of wood and into the cabinet frame itself.

I decided that before loading things back into the now-secure shelf, I should reconsider just how much weight I was putting on it. This required a complete reorganization of the kitchen cabinets, moving several heavier items (especially dry goods – flour is much heavier than a skillet) to the cabinets above the countertop.

The resulting arrangement – which is more organized in real life than it appears in the photo above – places heavier pots and pans on the lower shelf and lighter items on the higher shelf, including the backup stash of vodka in the Absolut disco bottle!

Meanwhile, I used this opportunity to tidy up all my other cabinets and complete a labeling project I started when we first moved in. This is similar to how my maternal grandparents have their cabinets organized – lots of plastic storage containers, each with a printed label. This sort of anal retentiveness actually appeals to both Tawn and me. Arranged from left to right as you look at the area above the stove:

The big white thing in the center cabinet is the overhead vent for the cooking surface.

So there’s another project done by Chris the handyperson.

PR and DYI

Posted on 3 May 2008 by christao408

A relaxing start to the weekend at Chez Chris and Tawn. Well, not exactly, and I’ll talk more about it in a moment. But in the meantime, efforts are being made to ensure that Tawn is well pampered, right.

You may recall that about two months ago we had a photo shoot for Elle Decoration magazine’s Thailand edition. There was a full day shoot in which the house was turned upside down while I was banished to the balcony and eventually just left home for the day.

As much as I wasn’t keen about doing the photo shoot, Tawn felt it was important both to build his image (he does PR and one day wants to work freelance so his image is important) and our designer is always looking for some free publicity.

So no sooner had the shoot finished and the story had been confirmed with Elle – the spin on the story is “A Baker’s Home” – then Tawn accepted another request for a photo shoot, this one from Daybeds.

The story this time is “A Peaceful Sanctuary” and instead of doing small, focused shots as Elle did, this time the entire house was staged beforehand and then the photographer just came through and shot rooms. This necessitated a whole truckload of different decorations to be brought in from Ble’s store and a whole balcony worth of decorations to be moved out to the balcony, left.

Needless to say, I didn’t stay at home for this photo shoot, either. Promises have been made that there will be no more photo shoots as it is really, really far outside my comfort zone.

So what did we do this Saturday? We finally tackled a home improvement project. My father, the original do-it-yourselfer whose favorite place when we were growing up in Sunnyvale, CA was Orchard Supply Hardware, is hopefully proud to see how much of a chip off the old block I have become. Who would have imagined that I possess the tinkerer’s gene?

The problem to be overcome was the drain for our washing machine. For whatever reason (narrow ceilings?) the drain does not have a u-trap. Since the hose from the washer does not fit snuggly in the drain, there has been plenty of room for unpleasant odors to leak out into the bathroom, made worse when you turn the ventilation fan on, thinking incorrectly that you’ll be drawing fresh air into the bathroom.

The challenge was how to seal the opening to the drain while still being able to use it for the washing machine. After a few trips to the hardware store and much heavy lifting to remove the 40 kg stacked dryer and the 80 kg washer, we settled on a solution:

A pipe adapter, which steps down one size pipe to another, fit perfectly into the hole and created a narrower opening through which the washer hose could be placed. I used acrylic putty around the pipe adapter, sealing it and ensuring it would stay in place. After about an hour of letting the putty dry, I reinserted the hose and then used the old MacGyver standby, duct tape, to create an airtight seal around it.

Finally, some shoving and heavy lifting saw the machines put back into place and we now have a bathroom free from the smell of mysterious drain odors. We’ve even run a couple of loads of laundry just to make sure the drain wouldn’t back up. So far, so good…

That task finished, we headed out for some lunch at our local pie shop (right) and then on to shopping errands to prepare for our breakfast gathering Sunday morning. It is time to introduce my Khrungthep friends to my homemade buttermilk biscuits.

Looking at my notes, I see that there are many other things I need to write about including some catch up from days past. Soon, soon, soon.

Of Ants and Gnats and Men

Posted on 22 April 2008 by christao408

The joys of being a homeowner raised their ugly head again a few weeks ago.

First, the toilet was loose and rocked back and forth. While that can be quite soothing during those middle-of-the-night trips to the outhouse, you should bear in mind that we just completed a full remodel at the end of November (“completed” is kind of a relative term) and this included replacing the toilet. No reason for it to be unstable already.

Upon his return, the plumber announced that his original installation had been good but that some other worker must have either bumped the toilet, put something on it, or stepped on it while the adhesive and caulk were setting. He removed the toilet – ceremoniously placed outside in the hallway, right – cleaned up the marble underneath, and then remounted the toilet. Then gave us strict instructions to not even so much as walk in the same room as the toilet, lest the wobble return.

With that commandment, we called a travel agent and found a good deal on a mid-range hotel in the Nana district, the convenient, touristy and seedy section of Sukhumvit Road that too many people end up staying at because it is touted in the tourist guide books as being “convenient” and “close to everything”.

Sigh… the US dollar doesn’t buy what it used to in Khrungthep! The Manhattan Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 11 is a nice work of faded glory. It was clean, the people were friendly, and the interior was a bit faded and worn. Still, it was only 1500 baht ($50) at the last minute and that included free parking and a pretty decent buffet breakfast. That’s the price to pay for a stable toilet, I guess.

Actually, Tawn remembers the Manhattan Hotel from his childhood, when he would accompany his father to the barbershop there. Popular with members of Khun Sudha’s (Tawn’s father) generation, the barber was an Elvis Presley fan who kept his white hair in a pompadour in homage to the other King. The barber didn’t like to cut children’s hair and Tawn, just a little squirt, had to sit on a washing board laid across the armrests in order to raise him up, as the barber’s hands trembled with nervousness.

The barber was also popular with Japanese expats living nearby. In the corner of the waiting area was a stack of magazines for customers to read and Tawn remembers finding some manga, Japanese comic books. Waiting for his father to finish, he was flipping through the comic books, bored, until he reached the more… ahem… adult depictions in the story. (For those who don’t know, there is a popular subculture of Japanese comics that contain a startling amount of pornography. Interesting Wikipedia article here.)

The joys of home ownership continued with the invasion of ants and gnats. The ants have been a recurring problem since construction. They seem to come from the wall or floor behind the clothes washer. Boy, are they clever. Each time they find their way to the kitchen, I crawl along the floor following them back to their nest (or, at least, wherever they enter the wall) before I do any spraying. One can just imagine the conversation:

Ant #1: “Hey, do you notice anything strange?”
Ant #2: “No, why?”
Ant #1: “That giant. I think he’s following us.”
Ant #2: “Nah, that’s just your imagination. You’re working too hard. Why don’t you take a vacation?”

After locating their path, I would spray the path and the area around their portal through the wall with Raid and then they would disappear for a week or so. They would find another path soon thereafter: exit through a gap in the shower tile grout; a corner of the door frame; from somewhere behind the washer; through the edge of the electrical outlet in the bedroom. Clever ants, I must give them credit for their tenacity.

You have to appreciate the distances we’re talking about here: at first they were traveling three meters or so through the foyer, past the refrigerator, and up the counters. The shortest route is always the most direct one, right?

As I closed off various routes, they became more creative, exiting the bathroom through the bedroom, then out into the living room, past the fireplace, then cut across the floor and run along the edge of the rug, then into the kitchen from the side near the patio door. That’s the same tour I give guests when they first visit the condo!

The ants seemed pretty manageable by myself. As much as I don’t like to use chemical sprays, the non-chemical options didn’t seem effective. But we decided it was time to call in the heavy artillery when a swarm of teeny-tiny gnats started swarming around the bathroom sconces. Where the heck did they come from?

We finally determined they were reproducing in a dead space under the sink countertop, escaping through the narrow gap at the top of the under-mounted sink. Some spraying would leave dozens of casualties but reinforcements would appear the very next day.

On the recommendation of a homeowner friend, we called a local pest control service. A trio of men arrived, one clearly the boss, a second one sort of a mid-level manager, and then finally the poor sap who had to do the work, pictured left. (Have I mentioned before about the hierarchical nature of Thai society?)

To say that there are no health and safety protections for workers handling toxic or otherwise unhealthful substances would be patently untrue: This young man was wearing a pair of coveralls.

Sure, he had no mask as he filled the spray tanks with water, releasing fumes that nearly knocked me out while taking the picture. No gloves, either.

The boss assured us that there were no harmful effects and that after leaving the house closed up for an hour or so, we could return home, air it out, and then continue living our pest-free lives with no worries.

As for how the exterminators’ work has worked: In the two and a half weeks since their visit, the ants have not returned. The gnats, just like when I sprayed, died in large numbers but were replaced the next day. I’ve had to follow up with additional under-counter spraying to get their population under control. But considering that the exterminators’ 12-month contract is quite inexpensive, about $12 a month, I figure I can do some of the heavy lifting, too.

Up next, I tell you about the bathroom drain that has no U-trap and how we’re tackling that. All that and more on the next episode of “This Old Thai Condo”.

Pterodactyls sell condos

Posted on 25 March 2008 by christao408

I’m always amazed at how fear can be used to sell things. Sometimes subtly, sometimes quite obviously. A recent advertising campaign for a new condo complex promised you will be able to “Escape the Old City Living” – pre-sale available at Siam Paragon shopping mall from the 28th of March until the 1st of April.

If you look closely at this black and white collage of familiar Khrungthep landmarks – Victory Monument, the Rama VIII bridge, etc – you can see all sorts of interesting signs of urban “decay”:

Giant cobwebs on the bridge’s cables

Shattered windscreen on the BTS Skytrain

And of course, the true sign that urban decay has blighted the Big Mango is the flock of pterodactyls flying over the city.

Because we all know that before white flight from the suburbs really started in the US in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, there were many incidents of prehistoric winged creatures in the skies. One can only imagine what local sightings of these fearsome creatures portend for Khrungthep.

Fortunately, there are many options if you want a change from the “old city living”. The Bangkok Post today reports that there are no less than 17 condominium projects going up between Sukhumvit Sois 53 and 63 – the distance between exactly one stop on the Skytrain.

Here’s the fast progress being made in the large property adjacent the Asoke BTS Station. Formerly a Ford and Volvo dealership, it will become a large multi-use complex in the next eighteen months.

That was taken two days ago. Now there are twice as many cranes at work. We need a new city motto. Maybe, “Khrungthep: Things are always going up.”

“Soft Opening” a success

Posted on 30 December 2007 by christao408

Entertaining friends at your home is not a particularly common feature of Thai living. Instead, people will meet at a restaurant, bar, karaoke, or bowling alley and socialize there. Tawn and I really enjoy entertaining and it was an enjoyable part of our life in the United States.

When we were planning our condo remodel, we made many decisions along the way that would help us maintain this aspect of our lifestyle. From redesigning the kitchen with a larger refrigerator to setting up the bedrooms so they could be used for socializing, we tried to build a space where we could host friends and family members in comfort.

After having a small brunch as the first test of our home’s ability as an entertaining environment, we were ready for the next step in the proving trials: dinner for a dozen. Actually, it ended up being sixteen or seventeen, but who’s counting. Below: Moments before the first guest arrives, the stage is set. The condo looks especially nice at night.

I began prep work for the cooking on Friday evening, while Tawn hosted a small group of his friends. Originally it was explained to me as, “Eddy and Jack are going to stop by to take a look at the condo.” It then became, “Eddy and Jack and David are going to stop by to take a look at the condo and maybe have a drink.”

It further progressed to, “… and maybe I’ll order some Italian food if we get hungry.” Finally, it turned out as Eddy, Jack, David, Sa, Job, Mon and Ton came over for several hours, drank numerous bottles of wine, ordered pizza, pasta and salad from Pizza Mania, and kept me from getting all the prep work done I had hoped to.

But that’s okay… it was nice to see them and I continued working while people floated into the kitchen to visit for a while, then floated back to the living room. The only things I couldn’t do involved sauteeing onions and garlic, which I thought might annoy the guests a bit.

When I lived in San Francisco, before Tawn and I moved in together, I lived in a 90-year old Edwardian house on Eureka Street, just above the Castro in a section of town known by longer-term residents as Eureka Valley. I had two roommates, Anita and Colleen (although both Holly and Nina lived there at various times, too), and we would have parties quite frequently. Usually, if they involved dinner they were smaller affairs – 8-10 people at the most. If they were just drinks and appetizers, the numbers would get larger.

I recall these parties as being pretty uncomplicated. Tidy up the house a bit, light some candles, turn on some Miles Davis or Morcheeba, and wrap a round of brie in some filo dough and pop it in the over.

Somehow, when Tawn and I host gatherings, it becomes quite complicated.

Some of it is the food, although we’ve been learning and applying lessons and the food we prepare is increasingly prepared in advance, requiring little work during the party itself. In fact, by the time the first guest arrived Saturday night, the cooking was done.

Some of the complication comes from the decoration. I think we put a lot of effort into arranging the house, decorating it, and making it like something out of a magazine. I’m sure the guests appreciate these thoughtful touches, but I suspect they wouldn’t mind or even notice if they were missing.

For example, we provided party favors for our guests last night: pairs of macarons from the Erawan Hotel bakery, neatly wrapped in a cellophane bag with a festive bow. Really cute and very thoughtful, but it meant a trip to the hotel, waiting for them to wrap everything, and then an hour Saturday morning tying the bows.

After our parties, Tawn and I debrief and try to see what we can learn to make our lives easier next time. Hopefully we’ll get a bit better at applying the lessons and not just learning them again and again, because we really like entertaining and want it to be an enjoyable experience for us, too.

With that said, let me now regale you with all the cooking that was done! It was a pot luck dinner but I wasn’t sure how effectively that would work. First of all, many of our friends have small or nonexistent kitchens. Second, I’m not sure if a pot luck is really a very “Thai” thing to do.

As a result, I over prepared and created two side dishes and extra appetizers in addition to the main course that I had promised to provide. That’s okay as I wanted to try the recipes and they were pretty easy to prepare. The menu provided by me included:

crudités with homemade basil and sundried tomato dressing
baked artichoke-spinach dip
Australian brie en croûte
mango-cucumber salad dressed with a green curry and rice wine vinaigrette
roasted eggplant and zucchini medley
lasagna two ways: hearty meat and mushroom-spinach

Right: Chopping roasted artichoke hearts for the dip.

Our guests provided many wonderful accompaniments: a large mixed green salad, fried turnip cakes, a spicy Thai-style sausage salad, and desserts and beverages. Pot luck is a successful concept here so that means less cooking for me in the future.

Below: Lasagna in three easy steps.

Above: The egglpant-zucchini medley. Below: The table is set with the appetizers.

We ended up with a nice mix of people. In addition to the usual suspects of the American expats and their partners, Roka, Prawit and Kobfa, Tawn’s cousin Paul and his wife Nicha made a visit. Tawn’s friend and ballet instructor Mae stopped by with her Danish friend, Daniel.

Vic also brought a volleyball friend of his, Kook, who recognized me and Tawn – it turns out that he works in the same building as Tawn for an advertising company that is under the same corporate umbrella as Tawn’s employer. Kook had seen us before at the Thailand Cultural Centre, and he and Tawn saw each other in the elevators at work but had never met.

Furthering the coincidences, we discovered that Ken’s partner Suchai knows Kook’s brother. Small, small world.

Right: Ken and Suchai in a rare display of public affection. Below: Russ, Bill and Vic fuss over the salad.

Above: The second bedroom/office makes for a nice separate seating area for guests in the background. Below: Tawn’s cousin Paul (center) shares a story about his experiences working in China for the Central Group of department stores. Bill is to the left in the group and Kook is to the right on the sofa.

In the end, it was a very good party. As people left, we sent food with them so that we ended the evening with only a small amount of leftovers. I think on my next trip to the US I’m going to Costco and buying a big box of those Gladware storage containers. We sent people home with some of my better quality storage containers and I hope I get them back as they’re kind of expensive!

We had our customary debrief while cleaning up: what went well, what could be better? Hopefully we’ll apply the lessons we discussed…

The child of a perfectionist

Posted on 13 December 2007 by christao408

I’m the child of a perfectionist. As many children of perfectionists will tell you, we have to struggle throughout our adult lives to escape our own perfectionism, learning – and learning to believe – the mantra that there are many correct ways to do something.

That said, I think I’ve come a long way to addressing my perfectionism and have become much more accepting others’ ways of doing things.

I live with someone – have committed to spending my life with that someone, in fact – who is still struggling with his perfectionism. In his case (I’ll not reveal his name in order to protect his identity, so let’s just call him “B”), I playfully like to call it his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Emphasis on the word “playfully”, if you’re reading this, B.

Our new condo has a shortage of storage at the moment, because there are two bookshelves and an office armoire that have yet to arrive. We’d like to install a china cabinet, too, but that’s another matter. In the meantime we have things stored in boxes and some extra kitchen items stored in a bedroom closet.

It is very important to B that these be organized, regardless of for how short a time they’ll be there. Which is how we ended up with the organized cabinet that is pictured above.

What’s really neat about it – this is something I just love about B – is the little drawing and inventory he did. Here it is in more detail:

Isn’t it cute?

Coming to you live from Raintree Villa

Posted on 4 December 2007 by christao408

… and we pick up right where we left off, except 3.5 km to the southeast down Sukhumvit Road.

It is Tuesday evening and I’m using a “borrowed” weak wifi connection that someone has here in the building. Hopefully DSL will be up and running in the next week or so. Meanwhile, there is a daily trip to Starbucks for some high-speed internet connection and a latte.

The move was smooth, all things considered. Sunday night was our first night in the place and other than being woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of a pack of soi dogs barking loudly and sounding very dangerous, it was comfortable.

I’ll tell you the story through pictures taken over the course of the Thursday through Tuesday period:

Thursday

Above: Installing spray foam insulation to fill the gap in the concrete wall where the stove hood vents to the balcony. Below: The hole, before and after.

Above: Organizing herbs and spices on the pull-out spice rack drawer. What seemed like a good use of space may be a little inconvenient in my middle age as I try to bend over and read the fine print on label jars all the way on the bottom shelf! Below: More storage, this time in the bathroom. Make note of the not-yet-installed toilet paper dispenser sitting on the marble shelf over the toilet. More about that in a moment…

Friday

Above: A design feature I have not previously shared with you is our faux fireplace. It will not give off any heat (that’s kind of unnecessary here, really) but will provide a place to hide the DVD player and stereo system and run the wires through the wall in case we put a TV above it. The handyman pictured here, his face hidden to protect his identity, was responsible for this next fun discovery…

Below: … the incorrectly installed toilet paper dispenser. This guy has worked with our contractor on many projects and yet even though I specifically showed how I wanted it installed, the dispenser ended up ninety degrees off kilter.

Below: Our mattress arrived on Friday, a good two weeks before the bed frame will be finished. Shockingly, this is the deepest mattress (the highest mattress?) that I’ve ever seen. It is so tall it barely needs a frame.

Above: Returning to Asoke Place on Friday afternoon after moving some things to Raintree Villa, I was reminded why I’m so happy to be leaving Asoke. Look at the crazy traffic at 4:00 in the afternoon. And none of these cars is moving when I took the picture.

Saturday

Saturday morning, Tawn waits in the Asoke Place apartment for the movers to arrive.

Above: During a shopping trip to the housewares section of Central Chidlom department store, I see a special Winnie the Pooh toilet sheet that proclaims – without any trace of irony – that underneath the lid is a “Pooh Splash Zone”.

Below: Halfway through the move on Saturday, Tawn waits for the movers to arrive with more of our things. The small bedroom was eventually filled halfway with boxes. By Tuesday evening there are only six boxes left to sort through.

Sunday

The move has largely taken place and all that is left is the cleaning out of a few items in the old apartment and the official moving in into the condo. I met Tawn at the condo, waiting outside the front door, just before the appointed auspicious time of 8:30 am. Tawn was carrying a Buddha image selected for him from his father, along with garlands and incense.

In an interesting mixture of animism, Brahmanism, Hinduism, and Buddhism (and a pinch of plain old superstition), we opened the front door and announced to the spirit of the dwelling that we were asking permission to move in. Then, holding the Buddha statue, we prayed that by following the teachings and lessons of Buddha we would have a harmonious and happy life in the house. We entered, then placed the image on the mantle of the fireplace, adding jasmine garlands and lighting incense.

We then went back to the front of the building where the condo’s spirit house is located. This is where the spirit (spirits?) of the land that were displaced in the construction of the building live. We lit incense there and offered garlands to the spirits. The spirit houses often contain images from Brhamanist and Hindu belief systems.

Sunday afternoon we took a break from the unpacking and met up with Otto, who was in town from Singapore with his partner Han. Otto, you may recall, is the teacher at Singapore’s prestigious Raffles Institute prep school who made waves a few months ago when he came out of the closet as a gay man in an open letter to his colleagues. Needless to say, the last few months have been a roller coaster ride for both him and his partner and it was nice to see them.

Above: Rather artistic shot as Tawn and Otto ride the escalator at Playground shopping centre on Thong Lor. Below: Tawn and Otto pose at Starbucks in a picture designed mostly to capture the mirror, which Tawn thinks would look good in the front hallway.

Below: Sunday evening after several hours of moving the last few items out of the apartment, I’m ready to say goodbye and head out the door. Lights out!

Above: Driving back to the new condo on some of the back sois, we passed this lovely compound that has an elaborate front gate. Thais seem to really like their elaborate metal gates.

Below: Sunday dinner was at Grand Ramen restaurant on Thong Lor (which is Sukhumvit Soi 55, for those of you playing along at home). This is a very good ramen restaurant that caters to the Japanese expats. At four tables sat four Japanese salarymen, each at the same corner seat at each table so they looked like schoolboys sitting in a row. Each read the newspaper, drank beer, are noodles, and watched the football game on the television. The pork tonkatsu ramen was very tasty! Oishi des ne!

Monday Morning

Monday was our first morning in the new place. Most important of all, the coffee machine was plugged in and I was able to heat milk for the coffee on the new induction stove. No more microwave here.

Finally, since it is now just after midnight, I’d like to wish His Majesty King Bhumibol, Rama IX a very happy 80th Birthday. May this man, who has been an inspiration and source of pride for his subjects, enjoy a long and healthy life. Below, a mother and daughter sign their birthday wishes in a greeting book at the Sukhumvit subway station, one of hundreds set up at various public points through the Kingdom.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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