Wow….. I have to say Wow!! I think we are into our 6th day of renovations and there has been no fighting, cussing, people accusing of other being stupid. My wife has been walking through all the mess and dust with a broom sweeping away singing as she goes. This makes me happy as she has not been singing in some time. Perhaps she sees better days ahead. The idea I/we have about these renovations is to create a homestay where all that stay here will have their own private apartment like accommodation with access to all the verandas and decks that offer
the views and social atmosphere. There is no longer any need for a receptionist or for us to wait up until wee hours in the morning for our guests to return. All Riptide homestay rooms now will have a private entrance and the building will be secure. A person will be able to reside here with the comfort of knowing that the petty crime that is so common in Vietnam, especially in tourist areas, will be a rarity. Besides having 360 degree coverage of solar powered motion detection lighting, there will always be other residents who know the coming and going of residents either long term or just visiting for a few days. Hopefully, for the first time since building this place, I can guide a tour and not worry about Mai being at home on her own having to look after the homestay.
The only issue I ran into with these renovations so far is…….. Vietnamese are not accustomed to having hot water run in the house. Mostly it is all cold and an electric heater put at the end where hot water is needed. In our case, we have run hot water throughout the building. Oh….! Did I mention in the last few blogs what we are doing? In order to make our units totally contained, we are tearing down one bathroom and building another……., Re-plumbing all rooms to install traps that will eliminate sewer odors that are so common in Vietnam.
We are also building three new kitchens and two living rooms to complete the change. It is a big job and we are keeping track of all expenses. In my final blog I will give you the final cost so yu can have a comparison to what it would cost in your country. Today we saw granite countertops installed along with electrical and plumbing work.
When we started this I was concerned about the sour mood my wife was in and her comments about how our life is not stable and we are simply building and moving all the time…… I am elated to hear her walking about the house singing………… Sing my love, sing…. You have no idea how happy that makes me………………………… More construction pics.