DrAndys Wooden Cottage in the ricefields

[DrAndy]

and this his friend and co-guard puppy Jill

[DrAndy]

This will be the fishing deck. Eventually, the wood will be sanded down and poly'ed. The bed/sitting thingy was made by our resident farmer from left-over bits of wood.

[DrAndy]

The upstairs inner roof; this will be lined with teak once we have cut up enough. The lining will be right to the top, not across the lower beams as the architect envisaged.

The walls will also be lined; we have not yet decided with what, but maybe bamboo board as it is lighter and easy on the eye. Too much wood can look very heavy.

All the electrics are in place and waiting for lamps etc

[DrAndy]

This is the entrance arch to the kitchen. It may not look it but the floor has been laid in granite. There are two windows, above the worksurface where the sink and hob will go respectively.

[DrAndy]

The verandah has great views. The wood floor also needs a good sanding down! If you look carefully, you can see the rows of wooden lotus leave shapes put below the roof.

[DrAndy]

OK this is the small pond and two of the guest houses we are also building. As we are keeping the main house as one big room, we thought guests may like some privacy

[DrAndy]

One of those guest houses

[DrAndy]

another one. We will have to get some lorry loads of earth to build up the height of the land as they are built in rice fields, so flood at the moment

the rice is sticky rice, by the way

[DrAndy]

Inside a guest house, some strange bloke examines the outdoor seat backs

[DrAndy]

As you may remember, we have been away and have just returned to restart the building works

presently, they are making the square concrete pillars round

then they will tile the whole of the downstairs area

then they will redo some of the roof (once the rains stop)

then they will line the roof

then fit out the bathrooms

then sand down the floors and seal them

keep them busy for a while

I hope to build a nice kitchen myself, and fit all the lamps etc

[pugforever]

dr.andy,you house is great both in design and function. i wish i could read the whole thread, i'm a snake phobia so i gotta skip one page. i might miss some info there. you post the wooden house that you bought, is the wooden part of this new beautiful thing from that old thing? your guesthouse, is it seperate purchased? i will have to do something like this in 2 year time. hope you don't mind answering. thank you.

[jizzybloke]

Only just found this thread, lovely looking place DrA!

[Jet Gorgon]

Originally Posted by DrAndy

and this his friend and co-guard puppy Jill

It is a beautiful home and location, DrA. I love your Thai doggies, too.

[DrAndy]

Originally Posted by pugforever

dr.andy,you house is great both in design and function. i wish i could read the whole thread, i'm a snake phobia so i gotta skip one page. i might miss some info there. you post the wooden house that you bought, is the wooden part of this new beautiful thing from that old thing? your guesthouse, is it seperate purchased? i will have to do something like this in 2 year time. hope you don't mind answering. thank you.

snakes are fine as long as you leave them alone! oh whoops, now you can't read this post

The wood is mostly from the old house we bought, and rejuvenated. If you buy good old wood it is almost always better than using new; it has been matured and probably will not move much when reused. New sometimes has not been dried properly and can split.

The guest houses were bought seperately. We found them on an estate next to the Ping river, badly maintained and slowly falling to bits. The owner had decided to build new places for his guests. They are being rebuilt more or less the same as they were. They have really nice design features, like solid one-piece doors and shutters.

[DrAndy]

oh, and thanks for the compliments folks!

we are very happy with it all so far

housewarming in January!

[pugforever]

thanks, dr.andy, for the response and the thread. your place looks inspired nuf to got me in korat now, checking out some info about the houses. please keep us update how you're doing. cheers!

[DrAndy]

If you are thinking of buying an old wooden house for the wood, it is best to find a carpenter who knows what he is doing. Not only can he build your house eventually but take him along to the old house to see if the wood is a good buy.

[DrAndy]

OK, the build is progressing

They are in the middle of making the support posts round, just for fun

You can see the near smaller posts are round, the far ones are not yet done

The big post in the foreground is partly completed




This next pic shows the large posts and the structure we had to make to support the house without any internal posts




once all the posts are rounded, they will build top capitals and bases

I don't think they can slowly narrow the columns upwards, as the Greeks did, to make them more graceful!! oh well

[Texpat]

Nice thread DrA. Beautiful house. The water in the lake appears very close to your verandah. No chance it will rise?

Very fun to watch the progress of a house going up -- especially when it's yours!

[DrAndy]

Originally Posted by Texpat

Nice thread DrA. Beautiful house. The water in the lake appears very close to your verandah. No chance it will rise?

Very fun to watch the progress of a house going up -- especially when it's yours!

Thanks Tex. yep, it is fun, besides the stress!!

the water is tidal, strangely. The pics show it at the highest level; the water is let down into the canals about once a week, so the level changes by about 50cm sometimes. There are canals on two sides of our land, so the pond is tidal too, keeping the water fresh. It cannot rise more unless all the surrounding rice fields are totally inundated and rise also. Our land is built up quite a bit higher than the fields.