Trip Report, Part 17: Re-modeling A Home

The living room at the front of my friend's new home

[This is part 17 of a series that may or may not ever find its way to a proper conclusion. It has to do with my latest trip to Thailand, and the people, places and things I encountered along the way. You can find the rest of the series by clicking here on Trip Reports.]

Technically this is more accurately Part 18 or 19 about my last trip to Thailand, if you include the post about fraternizing with the prisoners and the prison chain gain workers, but that's really here nor there, I suppose.  Let's call this Part 17, if for no other reason than to get on with it.

Having more or less recovered from what seemed to be an ice plunge back into society (such as it is) in the San Francisco Bay Area after a few weeks in the admittedly quirky but far more laid back atmosphere of the Hawaiian Islands I guess I'm ready to begin posting on a more regular basis again.  Thank you to everyone who sent kind wishes - and yes, I'm safely back on the mainland.

Not Tara, but not bad, either.  My friend's new home

Several Thai friends I've had the pleasure of knowing for a long while have well-paying careers, and one of them had asked me to hold some time to take a long weekend away with him this past trip.

Bougainvillea already decorating part of the entryway

Based on my limited suggestions (such as "How about a deserted beach getaway?") he's very good at planning surprises, so I was somewhat taken aback when when seemed to be turning off of the highway into a small residential area on our way to a beach somewhere near Chantaburi.

It turns out he'd bought a second home, and wanted to see what I thought of it. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

It was now empty; the previous owners having left nearly a year before, but friends of his had been displaced by the flooding in Bangkok last year and he'd delayed his remodel and graciously allowed them to "camp out" there while their home dried out.

Now it sat vacant once again, quietly waiting for the contractors to come in and begin transforming it into my friend's new home.

The open front door leads to the living room. The kitchen is off to the right, and the doorway leads to the utility area and hong nam.

He walked me from room to room, explaining which windows he wanted to move, what walls would be knocked out and put into another position and how the bedroom and master bath suite would overlook the green hills nearby.  It sounded wonderful, and I can't wait to see how it's transformed by this talented man and his contractor.

The upstairs master bedroom will be expanded and joined with the bathing area

I took a few sets of photos to stitch together as "before" reference and I'm posting a couple of them today so you can compare them to the "after" shots when it's finished. I'll link back to this article when I post them, naturally.

He already has a smaller but lovely home a little closer to Pattaya, but this new home base will be worth the commute, I think, and much cheaper than building a house from the ground up on the gorgeous plot of land he owns overlooking the bay.  I'm so happy for him - he works very hard at his job, and this will be a fine getaway spot for him.

The kitchen area awaits a do-over

"Now all I need is someone to share it with," he said wistfully, as he locked the door and we drove away down the street.  "You'll find him," I assured him - and there's no doubt in my mind that he will.

Not a bad view from the bedroom balcony