On building a wooden house

One of our close neighbours here at the Bible School has decided to do some home improvements. Blewah is a teacher at the school, and he lives here with his wife, Ratree, and their two children, aged 7 years and six months old. They live on the edge of one of the Bible School's fish ponds, and also raise chickens, frogs and a cow. Here was their house three weeks ago:

The original house - complete with kitchen extension (to the right)

Following a few days of noisy and quick demolition work, and then the first week of (re) construction, here's the house today:

One of the great advantages of building (mostly) with wood is that it's cheap, and readily available. The main posts for the new house were cut from a tree felled on site last Tuesday. And the floors and walls of the new house will use recovered wood from an old building which is being replaced during the Bible School summer holidays.

The carpenter, Kamphee, surveying his work so far

Kamphee is a third year student at Siloam Bible School - before coming to the school, he worked for some years as a carpenter. He is supervising the construction, and seems to be doing a very professional job. Health and safety standards may not be quite up to a British standard, though - there are no hard hats on this building site!

But Bob the Builder wears a hard hat...

Among the downsides, however, is that wooden houses don't last long in this humid climate. Without careful and repeated treatment, termites quickly eat away at the wood, and rot can easily set in during the long monsoon season. So they do need replacing much more regularly than stone or brick houses.

While the construction is going on, Blewah's family are staying in a small wooden hut next to their house - they are hoping to be back in the house before the start of term in May. Hopefully we'll be able to see the finished results, and celebrate the new house dedication, before we leave for our Home Assignment in June!

Temporary family accommodation (at the back left of the picture)