Thread: Building our Retirement Home in Nan Province

The external landings/steps are coming along nicely. Both the covered decks but in particular the level 1 deck are going to need one hell of a clean before handover.

The open robes in bedrooms 3 and 4 now have a heavy metal clothes rail installed.

The teak shelf and clothes rail is now installed in the walk-in-wardrobe.


The shelf in the laundry alcove is in place. The wife says it is too high for her and I'll need to do the clothes washing. Let's hope for her sake she was joking.


The shelf is also in place in the kitchenette.

Getting some serious handles on both sides of both front entrance doors.


Painting touch ups under steps has been completed. Could have put baseboards there but decided I wanted to see the end of each step board.

And the last photo for today...I spotted my last unopened jar of Vegemite staring out of a kitchen cupboard. The first morning breakfast will be vegemite and salted butter on thick toast. Just for me, the wife can't stand it.

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

The first morning breakfast will be vegemite and salted butter on thick toast. Just for me, the wife can't stand it.

Wise woman!
Moving along nicely now, looking good, sure you will be glad to get moved in

Absolutely A2. Got the end of race staggers now, just want to be in it and gradually sort the inside and outside out. Really tired of the Nan-Pua-Nan driving. (To my eternal shame neither of my kids like vegemite, but two out of two grandkids love it.) Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Wise woman!
Moving along nicely now, looking good, sure you will be glad to get moved in

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Thai's throw nothing away!

ime the problem is that there's no way to throw it except via fly tipping.

'Lost' some photos from posts #1004 and #1005, reposting them here.

Liking how a darker tone is starting to creep into the teak with the additional coats.


Hhhmmmm...gate on the west side will not open because of these pipes. Both gate and pipes builder supplied so Mart will need to sort out.

The hob is partially installed. Electrical wiring needs to be done and still waiting for Global House to get in the external vent cover. Last photos for today.

Site Visit 31 January 2019

No photos today. Took the last of the personal items to Pua today, plus some of the wife's plants. This is the third day for partial shipment of them. Tomorrow will be plants only in the Hilux. Onsite today we had the general duties gent who seemed to have done some clearing of the land at the request of Mart our builder (but on our payroll). And the painter was the only other person. According to the wife Mart wants the inside finished before he sends in the cleaners. Mart hadn't arrived by the time we left so no further discussion on handover. However he knows we intend for our existing and some recently purchased goods to arrive on the 2nd and no matter what we'll leave that in place. If handover hasn't occurred we'll spend a night or two in local Nan or Pua accommodation, only a slight inconvenience.

Can almost smell the end now.

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Site Visit 31 January 2019

No photos today. Took the last of the personal items to Pua today, plus some of the wife's plants. This is the third day for partial shipment of them. Tomorrow will be plants only in the Hilux. Onsite today we had the general duties gent who seemed to have done some clearing of the land at the request of Mart our builder (but on our payroll). And the painter was the only other person. According to the wife Mart wants the inside finished before he sends in the cleaners. Mart hadn't arrived by the time we left so no further discussion on handover. However he knows we intend for our existing and some recently purchased goods to arrive on the 2nd and no matter what we'll leave that in place. If handover hasn't occurred we'll spend a night or two in local Nan or Pua accommodation, only a slight inconvenience.

Can almost smell the end now.

Champagne on ice, beer in the cool buckets, a massive spread from that new kitchen and ribbon to cut across the threshold.

Then a few balloons on the stage 'out front' plus the band..

..yes welcome home... just you n she, the band and 2000 thirsty 'supporters' from the village

what could go wrong..?

I see a whole new thread opening..''How my new place got trashed at the house-warming'' !!

Now you know why we got that wall, power gates and a crocodile...

Reading your post TD I couldn't help thinking perhaps we need some armed security to enforce a quiet couple of weeks. Definitely no parties, I'm going to start work on my reputation with the locals as an unfriendly farang upon moving in. Even went to Makro in Nan yesterday and got sufficient groceries to not have to come back for a couple of weeks. Just so over the driving. I'm actually looking forward to a few weeks of quiet chaos as we slowly but methodically sort out the house and a few key jobs outside. Should be less anti-social towards the end of the month and throw out the welcome mat for selected folks such as yourself one day and Klondyke. There are a couple of others who have expressed a interest in visiting and that would be welcome. Regards, -BiP

Site Visit 1 February 2019

Took the tenth Hilux load up today. Still got a handful of the wife's plants to take tomorrow that is now officially...MOVE IN day. Mart has essentially completed the inside of the house and a walk-around today we found only a few issues, two bathrooms have leaks from the washbasins and the keys to bedroom 2 don't unlock it. The hob installation is not complete but we're still waiting on getting the external outlet cover. Mart has a bit of work to complete outside but it is progressing. Before we left the cleaners arrived.

After leaving the site today we got back to Nan and had lunch at Crossroads Nan. Then back home to print documents, then off to Nan Immigration to do the change of address. Didn't even have to complete any forms, the gent there just took our docs and my passport and five minutes later returned the passport with the advice receipt in it.

Then it was off to Global House to buy two thermometers, intend to hang one in the level 1 dining room and the other in the level 2 living room. This is part of the monitoring to decide if I should put thermal insulation above the living room ceiling. After Global House it was off to Big C where somehow we got a sound system in addition to a few trinkets for bathrooms 2-4. Then back home to load up our recycling and drive the 100 meters to the recycler. Got 50 baht, not much, but the first baht to flow towards us for some time.

Now it's time to relax and enjoy our last night in Nan. Big day tomorrow.

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Now it's time to relax and enjoy our last night in Nan. Big day tomorrow.

Have a good night, hope everything goes well for you tomorrow and you have many happy years in your new home - congratulations

twas the night before handover, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Thanks A2.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Have a good night, hope everything goes well for you tomorrow and you have many happy years in your new home - congratulations

Thanks SS, suspect the mouse was busy eating the wife’s lettuce garden. See the Greenscaping thread. Regards, - BiP

Originally Posted by senor spark

twas the night before handover, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

BIP - broken eggshell and coffee grounds around the lettuce garden will deter snails. They will probably be the biggest threat if Nan is anything like Chiang Mia

Get started on a few omelettes with coffee.

Happy moving in day, friends... hope at the end of today its all gone to plan!! good luck!

Thanks cyrille, eggs purchased, back to the fritatta tomorrow morning. When I find my coffee plunger may look at that style of coffee. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by cyrille

BIP - broken eggshell and coffee grounds around the lettuce garden will deter snails. They will probably be the biggest threat if Nan is anything like Chiang Mia

Get started on a few omelettes with coffee.

Thanks TD, went reasonably well. About to post on it. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

Happy moving in day, friends... hope at the end of today its all gone to plan!! good luck!

Move In Day 2 February 2019

Well we've done it, moved into our new home near Pua.

Things went reasonably well. The removalists arrived on time near 8:00am and over the course of the next two hours loaded a six wheel truck to capacity. They were a bit rough and if it were just about anywhere but Thailand, I might have exploded. But I stayed calm. There was no sign of the furniture delivery folks who were supposed to come and dismantle our bed and take it to Pua with the other new furniture pieces so the wife went with the removalists. And thank heavens she did. I waited at the house in Nan until mid-day (three hours past the time agreed the day before) before we managed to find out what was happening with the furniture shop folks. To cut a long story short the person who arranged everything went to Bangkok last night and didn't communicate arrangements very well. Then once they did understand they couldn't find the details of the 50,000 baht of furniture we had purchased and paid. They didn't know what we had purchased and needed our copy of the receipt.

Anyway by 2:30pm they had arrived and everything was finally in our home, albeit in an ungodly mess that will take days to organize. Mart our builder arrived and we finalized the finances. We needed to pay the last 10% of the contract plus the net change orders which pleasantly came to 110,000 baht. I was expecting something closer to 200,000 baht. Looking at the list Mart had prepared I could see several omissions but my gut feel was that we would end up the worse if I wanted it to be 100% accurate.

For various reasons we will sleep in bedroom 3 on level 2 tonight and are already noticing the quietness compared to where we have lived over the past ten years. Tomorrow we will focus on getting bedroom 1 and the kitchen more organized. Also tomorrow the curtain folks are coming to do the curtain installation.

To top off a good day, there was a nice sunset this evening.

The carport is still being painted.