Thread: Deck Ape's Big Gringo House

Welcome back mate.

Thanks for making me feel welcome back, mate.

D.A. Loved your thread , the pics are great and the house to . I hope you and the Mrs D.A. are ok ,my wife and i had lotts of bost ups and miss understandings so i know how it can be stressfull . Be happy . Nevets.

been a pleasure to watch this thread, looking forward to much more

I am really looking forward to the update, following the Homestore binge shopping.

Might as well start off with the good. Found enough time my last day in town to have some plans drawn up for the shera (cement board) which would finish the porch ceilings and under the eaves. Autocad plans, free of charge, courtesy of the same guy who drew up the original house plans. He also recommended a team to do the install. Here are the results.



That's the back porch. And here's a shot from the side.



The racing stripe is black screen- keeping the skeeters out and letting in a copious amount of cool(er) air on it's way to the top of the roof. You can also see the sidewalk there. 1m all around the house. 14,000 labor for the sidewalk. Well prepped with footing, rebar, compaction.... 16,000 labor for the porch ceiling and eaves. 24,000 for 150m2 of gypsum. Here's the bad



It's the same old thing. Lots of boo boos and carelessness. Part of the "plan" was to redo all the bad spots after seeing just how bad they'll look under the first coat of primer.

And the ugly can be seen in all of these pictures. A long distance phone call invited me to donate 3,000 baht to touch up the walls with some "white cement". Oooops. That's Mrs DA's code word for chalky gypsum joint compound, and they slathered it fucking everywhere, inside and out. And now, of course there are very smooth spots everywhere that might stand out against the rough mortar after we paint. Thank god it's water based and washes off really easily.

Plenty of lights and 400 meters of cable bought today. A good pre-paint housecleaning tomorrow and maybe some wiring?

The shera under the eaves turned out so well I took another pic. They followed the plans to a T, and the workmanship is good too.



There'll be four of these fans, and they were installed today. I was told that it's easier just to take them down when we paint. I like easy, so that's what we'll do. No fuss, no muss, no tape.




Here's Pa installing a light fixture in the Kid's room. In each room we went with one central light fixture plus four of those can lights. I read somewhere that they look good if you space them half as far from the wall, twice as far from each other. Or something like that. So in most rooms they're 1.25m from the wall, and 2.5 between the lights. Looks okay.



We made up our to do list this morning and it's long and expensive. But's it's doable. And I'm giving the guys a few more days of wiring before I start painting. Note: Isaan girls think dark colors in a house are bad luck. I was always trying to figure that one out, until this morning......

crickets chirping

Itsrobslife,Nevets, Loombucket, and Sunsetter thanks for the kind words. At the moment everything is going well. Mrs DA and I are still working at it. Half the battle won there in my opinion.

The encouragement and advice I've gotten here has been priceless. Thanks to all who've given it.

Na Nai and Pa offered to help paint today. I accepted. First we took down all the lights and fans and drove them to a secure location.



Here's the spray rig. An airless (piston pump) import. So I need the transformer with it- I built a little cart. The thing works great; very little overspray, just stick the pickup in a 5 gallon bucket and off you go. We burned through 15 gallons of paint in just a few hours.



While we were painting Prasit and friend showed up to measure the windows and doors for the security bars, skeeter screens and doors. As well as the front gate and the steel sections around "the wall". Total for 22 windows, 3 doors + exterior stuff= about 80,000 baht.



Can't tell from the picture but Prasit is huge. And I bet he can drink his weight in Beer Chang.

So here's what we ended up with. We got the whole interior primed in just one afternoon, and it turned out pretty well.



Plugs, switches (for the bitches), and other sundries will be purchased tomorrow. The cement trim (buoa) has been ordered. And so on.

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

It's your standard Thai wall. A little on the short side as it's more for keeping the critters out than anything else. Other than keeping the dirt in, of course.

If I can't get this part right my plans for the particle accelerator might need a little oversight.

anyone that can keep a sense of humor while building their home, gets a green

Kup kun maak for overlooking the parts where I didn't keep my sense of humor.

May I ask what you paid to have the wall done DA ? I will be going through the wall thing, when I go back.

If I remember right it was 200-220k for just over 200m of wall. This is a little high because our wall served as a retainer for a lot of fill dirt, so under the grade (up to 1m in some places) the blocks are doubled up and there is an extra footing, etc. The thing that really seems to make the price skyrocket are those decorative steel bar sections.

Enjoying a day of rest after yet another day at the homestore. Main power cables, ceiling trim (120m) and electrical plugs and switches, bought. As well as 15gal of primer. And anyone suggesting there is a rip off culture in Thailand should read this. We parked the truck and ate lunch, without watching our cargo or worrying about it. As we have done many, many times before. I can think of quite a few places- many in my own country, where you wouldn't want to do this.



The "to buy" list gets shorter and shorter. Windows and doors, bath fixtures, and kitchen appliances await installation. So anyone waiting to change money-- wait until we've bought our floor tiles and then the baht is sure to drop.



Living nearby and using our house as a staging area has been priceless. The biggest danger is when I tear into this stuff and lose parts.

Looking good mate. Do you reckon on celebrating Christmas in the new house?

Thanks JJ. No, this year I think I'll spend Christmas on a tugboat. Don't cry for me though. We get double time on Christmas.

I'm not quite sure when we'll finish. They're building an alligator farm down the street (no shit) so maybe if I cough up some bonus money we can get some more labor. The big jobs that remain after paint are window/door installation and tile/granite.

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

it was 200-220k for just over 200m of wall.

Thanks for that mate, it's the steelwork, that holds it all together, that, as you say, takes a large slice of the budget.

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

a retainer for a lot of fill dirt

Did you work out any drainage, like pipes, for that?

Originally Posted by Loombucket

May I ask what you paid to have the wall done DA ? I will be going through the wall thing, when I go back.

think someone on here, told me about 2000 baht per metre, all in,i did a 100 meter one with a dude in issan and he got it for 70,000 all in with family poruring building etc

Drainage problem yet to be resolved. I'll be following the advice I received earlier in the thread to improve my soakaway pits. And I'll build a few french drains around the house somewheres.

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

Anything wrong here? I guess they could've sealed it up a little better against the elements.
Any suggestions for improvement?

Definitely
A ground rod should not be completely buried in the soil, the top with the cable connection should be over ground level so you can inspect the connection every 3-5 years. It will corrode in much shorter time than that if you bury it.

Wrap the top with self vulcanizing tape from 3M to protect the connection.

Can you get the self vulcanizing tape in LOS? Thanks for the heads up.

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

Can you get the self vulcanizing tape in LOS?

Commonly available in electric shops.
HomePro also sells it.

Originally Posted by lom

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

Anything wrong here? I guess they could've sealed it up a little better against the elements.
Any suggestions for improvement?

Definitely
A ground rod should not be completely buried in the soil, the top with the cable connection should be over ground level so you can inspect the connection every 3-5 years. It will corrode in much shorter time than that if you bury it.

Wrap the top with self vulcanizing tape from 3M to protect the connection.

Oops. If this is the case, then I have made a mistake with my upcountry place. I had them completely bury the grounding rod.