Well my guage on the Thai side of thing when was the day that I could get local help. At first I was looking at a paint job. Enough craftsmen avialable to go for major modifcations. I'm getting a great job done. Illiminating the middle man, so the price is good and the money is going directly into the workers hands, where it's really needed. I am absolutley running out things for them to do, so I hope something esle pops up for them later.

nice of you ray. does that mean the Udon Economy is doing good or bad?

three months ago you could not find a workman available in Udon at all. No it's a bad sign. I waited so I could help when it would really mean something. It's amazing no contractor there I'm getting thing exactly as I ask for them. So maybe all these complaints about Thai workman are more about the contractor cutting cost for more profit then the workman not performing well.

To tell you the truth I will this thing is so low I will add some to the bill myself, just top feel I'm being fair and I'm not a newbie been here for seven years and don't throw money around.

My wife is a pack rat. She saves everything. She had odds and ends of ceramic floor tiles. I told her to hire the local tile guy who is hurting because of no work. He has put down these tiles and now half my garage/workshop has a tile floor. There are about eight different colors and two different sized tiles. At least it is easy to keep clean. The same guy is good at cement work and is now re-doing my driveway and other work that was done very badly in the past. He does nice work.

My wife is a pack rat.

You're not alone...

My wife is ridiculous - being thrifty is one thing, but... seems more like OCD or something.

She saves everything including their original boxes. We had an entire spare room filled waist-deep with her junk. Couldn't even walk in without moving stuff out of the way .....until I decided I needed the room back, and hired a few ladies to throw all the junk out.

I even had to convince her of the "spiritual merit" of giving away the 10-year old clothing that no longer fits her to some needy people... that worked

Perhaps it is a Thai thing.

Yuor not alione one of our projects is huge a storage room so we can walk through and around the house. She keeps the things that are broken and can't be fixed.