In my last post I was extolling the virtues of Home Mart; where the extremely enthusiastic sales lady arranged to supply us tiles by the following day. I lavished praise a little too quickly.
Come the following day, she called my wife to explain she had read out the wrong code to the factory, and in fact the tile we had chosen was not actually available. But, never mind, she was on her way to show us another tie which was just as suitable, if not more so. Of course it wasn’t, and we had to head back to her store to get a refund of the deposit. Lesson learned, not shopping there again.
We had actually been on our way to the other Home Mart, which sits close to Theppasit Road, but had stopped off at the other outlet just to take a look. In retrospect, a mistake.
So instead we went to the originally intended shop to find it had recently been upgraded and had a sparkly new showroom, with a man with an umbrella to shield you when you walk from your car, another man to open the door for you, and a lady to offer you cold water once in the store. My sort of establishment; although shoulder rubs from scantily clad pretties would add to the experience. Best of all, they had a good selection of tiles at good prices; and the one we chose was in stock and delivered to the house within two hours of our placing the order.
Tiles sorted, we awaited the arrival of “the family” with their two pickup trucks and dreams of using them to transport the furniture contents of our house back to Ubon. Detailed discussions had revealed that they intended taking not only a refrigerator to the post office to have it sent north; but a couple of mattresses were also going to have stamps stuck on them and inserted into a very large post box. I charged my camera batteries in anticipation.
In the event, it took them less than fifteen minutes to realise that they didn’t stand a chance of transporting a fraction of the furniture on their little trucks; so we had to start looking for a “six wheeled lorry” to do the job. Not so easy at dusk on a Friday night. It was by pure chance that we followed a lorry down the road with a telephone number on the back and an indication it was for hire. She who must be obeyed was on the case and in no time they were booked for this afternoon.
The price quoted was suspiciously cheap, and the lorry looked of a vintage that would indicate that a ten hour drive might be a little too much. And I could see no indication of any covering that would waterproof the contents. “Does it come with a waterproof tarpaulin” I enquired of my wife? “Yes”. I bet it doesn’t. So, if it ever arrives, all that will be left may be some soggy chipboard. But I don’t care, as long as it is not cluttering up my new abode.
I did try and fight a rearguard action and suggest that even the big lorry might be too small, and shouldn’t we send the refrigerator and mattresses by post anyway; but sadly the post office option was cancelled.
Meanwhile, the contractor’s workers are in full destruction mode and it looks like they will have completely ripped out the required flooring and the kitchen by the end of today. Then on Monday they will start laying new tiles and the gradual transition from bomb site to liveable dwelling will commence. What could possibly go wrong…?
Comments 🔗
2014-07-05| Barry saysThis is going to be fun, your ongoing tales of Life With Somchai & Son. A good start has been made. I moved from Bangkok to Deepest Issan - or Essan, or I-San or Isarn - and had a similar lorry saga. My wife identified a company and showed me a photo of the lorry and I said “Not big enough”. But I’m a farang and know nothing and it was booked. And Somchai showed up with his wife as co-loader and they walked into the house and said, “Oh”. It actually took two trips, all the way from Bangkok to Nakon Nowhere. I could have said “Told you” but I didn’t dare.
2014-07-05| Chang Noi saysAlong Sukhumvit, near the entrance of route 7 are always trucks parked that are for rent with driver. We used a very good one to transport our belonging from Pattaya to Khon Kaen. I think my wife still has the phone number.
Now that the destruction work is done I assume the price of rebuilding will rise.