summer camp is over

goodbye, doggie ice cream from thonglor pet hospital.

goodbye, interesting traffic on soi 12.

goodbye, maid who fed me by hand.

goodbye, Virasingh family -- and thank you for taking care of me this summer when I was so sick.

love,

sarawat

Our Home, Courtesy of Messrs. Smith and Murray

Our "special project" while on home leave was to buy a house. We've been thinking about it for a few years now, and with the housing market in the U.S. declining, we thought this summer would be an ideal time to buy.

After some -- but not much! -- debate, we decided to look at Asheville, NC. We were in Asheville last Christmas and fell in love with the town. It has so much that we like: lots of interesting people, a small town feel, a vibrant arts & music scene, and proximity to some of the most beautiful national parks in the U.S.


We started looking at houses on the Internet in January. By May we felt we had a pretty good idea of what would be available in the market. Jennifer interviewed our agent, June, over the phone from Bangkok. "We want to start looking at houses on a Monday and make an offer on something by Friday," Jennifer told her. "Is that possible?" June responded with what we would soon learn was her usual (and well-founded!) confidence: "If you haven't found a house you love within three days, then I'm not doing my job."

So that's what we did. We showed up in Asheville at nine-thirty on a Monday morning. We saw seven houses that day and seven houses the next. We decided on a house -- number 13! -- on Wednesday, put together an offer for delivery on Wednesday night, and by three o'clock on Thursday afternoon we had a signed contract with the sellers. Closing on the house took another month, but thanks to our crack team from Beverly-Hanks and Associates, everything worked perfectly. We closed on the house four days before we left the States to come back to Bangkok.


Here's our new home: 129 Pearson Drive, Asheville, NC.


It was designed and built in 1907 by a man named Richard Sharp Smith. When George Vanderbilt II, one of the richest men ever to have lived, decided he wanted a country estate, he built the Biltmore House. Biltmore, a 175,000-square-foot mansion modelled after the châteaus of the Loire Valley, is the largest privately-owned home in the U.S. Richard Morris Hunt designed Biltmore for Vanderbilt, and brought a man from England to serve as the supervising architect for the construction. That man was Richard Sharp Smith.

When Hunt died, Smith became Vanderbilt's personal architect. Smith built a number of homes in Asheville, including ours. The original blueprints show the name "G.R. Murray, Esq." We don't know who Murray was yet, but we're working on it.

The house itself is on the smaller side, about 1900 square feet (not including the basement). Behind the house is a guest cottage with an additional 480 square feet.



Both houses have been meticulously preserved and restored. Almost everything, from the cedar shake siding and hardwood floors to the blown glass windows, is in pristine condition. The house sits in the Montford neighborhood, one of the largest National Register Historic Districts in the southeastern U.S. Our neighbors include two famous bed-and-breakfast inns, the Lion & the Rose and the Black Walnut.

The main house features two fireplaces, one in the main room and one in the den. Ceramic tiles surround the firepit in each.


The main room also has built-in oak bookcases, original to the year 1907.


The kitchen is long and narrow, with beautiful tiles and beadboard walls.


The office, set up here as a bedroom, was once part of the front porch. The bathroom in the rear is not original, but the installation was done with wonderful sensitivity to the history of the house.



There are two bedrooms and two baths upstairs. Like the downstairs bathroom, the guest bath features a clawfoot tub. The master bedroom features additional closets that were built into the room -- again, done with great style!


The master bathroom was once a sleeping porch. It has been enclosed but still shows the original cedar shake siding from the exterior of the house.















The guest cottage has its own fireplace, kitchen and bathroom -- with another clawfoot tub! The ceiling was raised in the center to create a wonderful feeling of spaciousness in what is really a tiny little home.



This house really is just the perfect place for us. It's fifteen minutes' walk from the center of downtown Asheville and fifteen minutes' drive from the national parks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We even have a swing in the front yard!


It will be a few years before we can move in, but we're so happy we've decided to buy this now. So from now on, when people ask us where we’re from, we'll be proud to tell them: "Asheville!"

What's for Dinner?

Much of our home leave seemed to revolve around food. We ate barbecue in four states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and sampled lots of local produce, like this at the Raleigh Farmers' Market:



Thailand wasn't far from our minds, though -- we couldn't bring ourselves to eat any Thai food in the States, because we knew there was no way it could hold a candle to what we get here.


We managed to avoid fast food for the most part. After all, some of it sounded kind of scary:

There’s No Place Like Home ... Leave

During June and July we were in the U.S. on "home leave." The government requires us to go back to the homeland every couple of years to reacclimate to American culture and remember who we're working for out here. Patrick took a two-week course on federal contracting (mmm, exciting!) while Jennifer did some networking with her old contacts, but we were able to spend almost five full weeks on vacation, visiting family and friends. Patrick's friend Tammy flew down to Washington, DC from St. Paul, MN to visit for a weekend and meet with their friend Judy, who Patrick hadn't seen since 1996!

We started our vacation in Columbia, SC with Jennifer's dad. Art & Kerry ensured that we got off on the right foot with quality relaxation. We went to see Kung Fu Panda -- great film! -- and enjoyed a nice picnic along the river.




We spent a lot of time in Asheville, NC, working on a special project (more on that in a separate post). Asheville sits in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, so we got a chance to do some hiking, reconnect with nature, and enjoy some peace & quiet -- something we miss, living in Bangkok. (Can you spot the moth?)





Of course, we spent a lot of time on the road.



We drove down to Georgia to visit Patrick's extended family, including his grandparents, a couple of aunts & uncles, and many, many animals at the farm in Hawkinsville! Then it was off to the Isle of Palms, near Charleston, SC, to visit the Beall family: Ben, Mary, Jack, Sara, and Max. We had a great Fourth of July weekend with them, playing on the beach, helping Ben & Mary shop for houses, and renewing our friendship.

After another quick trip to Asheville, we spent a week with Jennifer's mom, sister and aunt in Raleigh, NC. There were some home projects to help out with -- cleaning out storage and re-sealing the deck -- but also lots of good time to simply hang out. We also had a wonderful but all-too-brief visit with Tina and Mark while Helen enjoyed playing with Charlie.



Then it was off to Prince George, VA to Patrick's parents' new house. We earned our keep out in the yard with various construction projects and managed to find time to pull a few fish out of the lake with the newest member of the Wilson family, Guinness.





Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Bangkok! We squeezed in a quick visit with Eric, Sheryl and Katie Johnson, and our last official visit was with Eric's mom, the night before we left. It was an ideal trip -- we were ready to come back to the States, we made the most out of our time with friends and family, and we came back to own home here refreshed and ready to continue our adventure abroad. Thanks to everyone who made home leave so much fun!