Jomtien is a crapshoot for extensions, if they are busy they will say only the last 3 days if their not busy they will do early...nobody can gauge what they will say, so just go and see
You can always travel to Melbourne Australia and apply for the 6 month METV with proper extensions and border bounces you can get 9 months out of a 6 month visa...all you have to do is meet all the requirements for the visa
Back to back METV’s you can get a total of 18 months out of them (9 months x 2) with proper visa runs and extensions...all you have to do is qualify for them...FYI you can apply for the second one in Melbourne Australia if you don’t want to travel back to the USA...
Get the 6 month Multiple Entrance Thai Visa (METV) if you can meet all the requirements...with proper border runs/extensions you can get 9 months out of the 6 month Visa
the one advanatage of the EV compared to the Retirement visa is you do not have to have the mandatory Health Insurance for the EV unlike the Retirement visa...this may change or it might not, but that in and of itself is a huge savings as well...