Building the kitchen

When I returned to Sukhothai, my brother had already glued and cut the first countertop board, but alone he wasn't able to install it. The concrete work and tileing was finished. My brother had finally sent the Thai worker home and done it himself so he'd have at least reasonably straight walls. Now, after a day of completing my blog, we put the countertop in place.

The board was heavy, almost three meters long, and the cutouts for the kitchen sinks made it rather instable, so we added some wodden boards for the transport. The two of us were at the limit of our powers carrying the heavy stone slab and my hand felt as if it had gotten under a truck. We carried that thing from the cutting table to the kitchen, then lifted it onto the counter. After that, we needed a break and water.


The countertop in place, its edge on the wall and still standing upright, my brother mixed the mortar and build the bed for the board. He didn't mix enough, so while I was still holding the stone in position, he made new mortar and finished the bed so we could lower the countertop into its final position. It fit quite well, but it still looked a bit funny until we had the two sinks installed later that night.

The next day we had acutally planned to begin with the second part of the countertop, but Eh, who had rented the shop in front of the house, moved out as he couldn't afford the rent anymore. Therefore we spent the already somewhat lazy day to look at the things to be done before the next person could move in and to do a couple of other minor works like installing the faucet into the countertop that was already in place. Then Lucy called and I took off to go to the Pitsanulok cinema with her.

The next day, Lucy visited the house and somehow there wasn't much we got done. I didn't mind. It was Saturday and I was in the mood for a Saturday. I unsuccessfully tried to polish one of the panels for the living room and my brother and I had to agree that another layer of laquer would inevitably need to be applied. The night came fast and noone really knew where the day had gone, besides my brother, who'd done a lot of work here and there and glued the next part of the countertop. We went to the BigC for dinner and Lucy, my brother and I left afterwards for a bar.

At the bar, another friend of Lucy's joined and we assimilated a young dutch backpacker. She'd just arrived in Sukhothai and had voluntarily taught English classes for two month before coming here. The evening went well and everyone was having a good time and some good drinks. The local night club was our next stop and the girls started to slowly but surely be drunk. First, we just took them outside for some fresh air. Then, after they had recovered a bit, we went on to a Karaoke where we spent about another two hours until all our throats were sore and we left towards home. The next day, Sunday, was exactly that. No work got done and everyone took it easy and slow. The stone could wait another day.

The next morning we went to install the next granite board. It was slightly less heavy, but still, carrying took all our strenght. This time, it went less smooth. We got it in place against the wall quite well and there was enough mortar, but as we lowered the countertop in place, it was way too high. There wasn't just enough mortar, there was in fact too much. Besides, the board didn't fit as perfectly as my brother had wished, but that was minor and noone would see it when the kitchen would be done.


There was no way to make the countertop set into place, it refused to sink in and was well above the piece already installed. We had no choice but to lift it out again and take mortar out again. The stone slab was heavy and it took a good amount of strength to hold it, move it and finally set it back in place. We had managed to lower it to the correct level, but it still didn't fit perfectly. We would have to consider that when cutting the next piece, but for now everything was still within tolerance limits.


We had started in the morning and hadn't seen time go by, but when we were done it was already late afternoon. One piece of granite had cost us a whole day. Tomorrow, the next and final countertop was waiting for us to cut and glue it. For now, we stopped work and after a nice shower and a short meal we went into town for some temple fair. We didn't stay long, there was nothing of interest. They had money collections by the monks and a food market. Inbetween some air gun shops and two takraw fields, the only thing to draw a little of our attention before we went home and left the women at the fair. Another movie night and we'd go to sleep to continue our work the next day.