Post
by runrunshaw » February 9, 2019, 8:03 pm
Okay, I hope I can pick up the chronological events of the build w/o being too confusing. So In November 2018, I've funded the wife to move forward while I'm out of the country. The slab for my containers gets poured and my storage containers delivered. The wife can't wait for her uncles to become available or she'll miss the good day the monks have selected to plant those important first two posts. So she hires Jit for 15,600 baht--paid in steps-- to plant the posts, do the roof, and pour the slab foundation.
When I returned to Udon in late November, I saw that the roof ironwork was complete and the roof panels were ready to go on... but the posts didn't look aligned properly. Beyond that, there were 12 posts, spaced 4 meters apart. Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but a 12 X 8 meter house should equal 96 square meters. Right?
The problem was, we weren't supposed to build a 96 SQM house, but a 60 SQM house. Just like the house in the photos which I had agreed to build, and which are in the OP. 10 M X 6M. Just like my LINE messages to the TW reconfirming the dimensions. 10 X 6!
I didn't say anything until we got home, and then we had one of those WTF? sessions where I do all of the yelling. You know, the ones Thais love so much.
My wife looked genuinely surprised. A part of me suspected either she, her sister, or mother, had angled for a bigger house in my absence. I kept pushing until she said that the man from the local government office--the one we had to bribe with 1000 baht so he would come out and sign off on our beginning the build--that he had redrawn the layout of the house and had decided on the size himself.
Perhaps that was true. No way for me to really know. What I did know was that the budget was now going to skyrocket.
In the middle of this pleasant conversation, the phone rang. It was her uncle Mak saying that Jit had completely screwed-up the layout of the posts, and that if we continue as is, the house will be sh*t. Jit had told Mak to piss off, that he only takes orders from "the owner."
So the next morning we went out to the land and had a Come-to-Jesus talk with Jit. When Mak showed him that one post was off by 60 cm, Jit admitted he had "eyeballed" some of the work. Since the uncles were still not available to take over the project, we reluctantly agreed to allow Jit to fix what he had messed up.
I was told that only a couple of posts had to be moved. And that only some of the ironwork had to come down. But in the days that followed--I had to go to Bangkok, and was busy at home on a project--it became clear that someone had some "splainin'" to do.
Using a trusty old angle grinder and working slowly--ALL OF THE IRON WORK CAME DOWN. Sorry, I don't have photos of the dismantling.
Cr*p, when I finally got back to the job site, I couldn't believe it! And I find out the wife has now paid him 10,000 baht, and that all of the posts have to be moved, except those first two, which can't touched. That's when I spotted a bunch of empty Lao Kao bottles. I decided to fire him then and there. But sometimes things have to handled delicately.
My wife's uncles had finally become available, but Jit and his crew are thirty-ish bad boys. They wanted the rest of their money, but I didn't want to pay. Why should I? They weren't completing the job and had ******-up royally.
It was going to create bad blood in the village between families. Jit's dad, while drunk, physically accosted Mak (Mak is a village government pooh-yai) and accused him of meddling to get his son fired. Mak took the dad out to the job site and showed him the misaligned posts. Even though he was drunk, Jit's dad said something to the effect of "My son did this?! I wouldn't live in a house this badly laid out!" The man apologized later, but Jit demanded his money.
I knew he would cause trouble, so I told the wife to pay him, just to get him to go away. She gave him 5000 more, but held back 600 baht. Maybe it was symbolic on her part, I don't know. He and his crew removed their tools from our land. A few days later, my father-in-lay said some of his tools were missing. I did a roof panel count and two roof panels were also missing, So the ***** stole about a thousand baht worth of stuff, to get his 600 baht payment.
I wasn't feeling too good about things. I was down 15,000 and had nothing but 12 misaligned cement poles in place.
The best gadget is the human brain.
