Putting up the fan and electric system

October 9 was a big day for us -- we got our first glimpse of our ceiling fan up. We actually bought this fan before we planned the house and designed the house around it (see here, our balsa wood model of the house as we were still in the planning phase). We were staying with an antique fan-collecting friend in Vietnam and fell in love with his Dutch chrome ceiling fan, so we ended up with this small souvenir.

Trying out the rotor.

Because many traditional Thai houses have only one layer of wall, they have nowhere to hide cables and electricity systems. Most have white electric cable stapled along the walls and ceilings, but we opted for metal piping.

Light fixtures from Chinatown in Bangkok.

The switch panel for the fan was another Chinatown find, but this one was sitting in the window covered with dust. The shopkeeper showed us a new plastic one, and we opted for this metal box instead -- high-tech with four fan speeds. We went back to the shop a few days ago, and the ghostly dust footprint of our fan control panel is still in the shop window, amid all the other electric switch knickknacks.

One of the bathroom lights.

Alisa playing with Folk and Fah, the kids who live next door.