The finishing touch

The beginning of March passed and was gone quickly, still no end of the work on the bathroom in sight. We had been working constantly, not even taking a day off on Sundays. There was progress every day, but there was also so much to be completed, and it was the many details in the plan that accelerated the speed of time in a way Einstein could never have predicted. It wasn't really satisfactory to be still so far away from finishing, but we accomplished something everyday, mostly things that nobody would realize in the end, like backlit windows, levitating stone tables, and such. As nice as things look, in the end they may look cool, but never complicated, even though it might be ever so tough to build.

My brother's wife and my nephew had returned from Bangkok for good. Having Thony around again was fun, for the most part, but sometimes he would be an angry and complicated teenager adding to the complexity of being the cool uncle who stuck around most of the time. Still, much of those times, I had it much easier than his parents. I could be friends with him in the actual sense, whereas a teenage boy just has to rebel against the authority of his parents, saving a real friendship for later years, I guess.

With the return of Tuk more work added to our already busy schedule. She had the idea of opening a restaurant in front of the house and there was a lot to be done. So every now and then we lost a day or so organizing things for the shop, building plateaus, hiding away staircases, and seeing time surpass us.

I had developed the plan of finishing at least before the end of March now an take it to Krabi from there for an extended climbing trip to return to Sukhothai for the Song Kran festivities. Tuk was unsatisfied every day, progress was too slow everywhere. She would yell at my brother to finish the bathroom and in the next moment shout at him he should stop working on that to finish her restaurant that she was determined to open on the 30th of the month. My plan included getting out of this tense environment and I did like that thought.

As we were finally nearing the end of the month, our last great challenge approached: the vanity, a levitating heavy slab of stone holding the basin. It was to be glued together without apparent joints. Every piece had to be cut three times on every edge accurate to half a millimeter using a small angle grinder for cutting. The stone was so hard, we used up two cutting wheels in the process. Then, after successful glueing and polishing, we had our one-of-a-kind vanity, that we installed successfully despite my brother's constant fear of breaking it so close to finish.

It was Sunday, the 28th of March, when I put the last panels on the wall while my brother was busy building countertops for the restaurant. I cleaned and installed the washing machine that had been outside for almost half a year now. Then I was done. My plan didn't include finishing all the polished panel tops. That was a one man job anyway as there was only one machine. I was free to leave now, go on my Krabi climbing trip. But I didn't get myself there.

As I wanted to be back by Song Kran, there were roughly 12 days left. Taken the long and strenous trip I'd have 10 days of climbing, maximum, at the most busy and most expensive time of the year. It was like rushing things where I was in the most relaxed of places on earth and it didn't feel right. On the other hand, I was just scared of going at a later date and drowning in the rainy season. I talked the issue over a couple of times with some friends who were able to convince me, that the real rain wouldn't be out and about before July.

So there was my new plan: take it easy, finish the bathroom complete until Song Kran, have a good time and then go. Plans had changed so many times since my arrival here, this one might as well, but that's it to the minute and it'll be another post that'll tell how it went.

And finally, for all who cannot picture what I am writing about, a little visual overview of how we spent all that time that has surpassed us...