Dinner table

We needed a pretty dinner table and still had leftover wood, so this was another Landry carpentry project.

Chisel & jigsaw.

Uncle Preecha, our neighbor, helped build our house and is master of the jungle. Any questions about plants, reptiles and such, we ask Preecha. He helped Landry with the table.

Voil
à la table. The five pieces that make the tabletop were once one long piece of wood. Landry loves his circular saw.

This picture doesn't capture how the I-shaped beams at the bottom fit snugly into the chisel-cut legs. It's my favorite part of the table.

Granite kitchen counter on caster wheels

Our good friends gave us a slab of granite or some such stone that was left over from their kitchen renovation. We often sat and stared at the stone slab over the past year and wondered how we would put it up. We decided to use the leftover wood from homebuilding for our remaining projects.

K. Ting is one of the guys who helped build our house, and he just told us recently that his specialty is woodwork -- he builds traditional Thai long-tail boats. Landry had built counter 1.0 himself, but then decided to enlist Ting's help for version 1.1. Landry can now chisel. 

Counter 1.0 was painted white, but we decided to go back to the natural wood color with an oil stain to even out the various wood tones. Washing off the white paint was a dumb, unnecessary job, but at least we gave the white a try.

Landry did most of the work, but I was remiss in taking pictures.

Counter with the shelves for pots and pans on the bottom, and a drawer with smooth-as-silk ball bearing rails for the silverware, serviettes, etc.

Kitchen sink

We recently got a Black & Decker laser level, and were happy to find that we somehow managed to get the shelves up straight, even though a water bubble level doesn't help give an exact indication of what's straight.

The sink was also a pain to get straight, but we cut the pipes needed and it's good. We got a water filter for drinking water, and we put the wooden frame up to give the taps a home.

Above the taps, next to the drying rack, are two "pintos" -- which is how Thais call bento boxes. They are traditional Thai lunch boxes, one layer filled with rice, and the others with meats or veggies to eat with.

We are back

After three months abroad for work and play across five countries, we are back in Phra Pradaeng, the lush green in the center of the above photo (our friend Dave took this while landing at BKK airport).

Cats on our neighbors' urns that collect rainwater for drinking. The cats hunt everything around, including the snakes. One of the cats got bitten by a snake, and his face swelled up like a mooncake.

The coconuts in the backyard are low -- I can walk up to the tree and just chop one for a sip of the sweet nectar. Great root network to prevent erosion, but the mango tree, alas, does not have the roots for the banks of a canal and fell in after a week of heavy rain. More mangroves to come.

Kaffir lime next to our front door.

Coconuts in the front yard -- this is the view from our glass front door, and the first thing we see when we sit up in bed.