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HINO · 28-08-2008, 08:01 AM

Nice place and looks comfy. Stay cool

jingjoke · 28-08-2008, 10:04 AM

Thanks for sharing. Nice. Wish you and the missus all the best. Looking forward to more pixs and your website. Regards.

jedsez · 28-08-2008, 07:20 PM

thanks for all the warmth. here's some more of what is as it is today. in the future i will post the past.

but let's talk about communication.

the village in which i have been building our/nid's house is small and itself somewhat, (ok, who am i kidding. we are out there!), isolated. i was reminded of this today when, as i logged on for my email i was reminded, by yahoo, to consider the world around me.

russia has told the west to go f itself. bkk has it's own problems. although as i wrote a friend in the states that does not effect us here. a crisis here is if the neighbors cow has died, and since it hasn't, all is well here.

the corn is just about ready to be picked.

i can sit on my wrap around deck and see the seven pools waterfall in our local national park. the builders have run out of jobs. i am pleased. the sun is just now setting over the hills that form my view from my front room through what my partner insisted should be 'big' windows.

for those of you who expressed an interest in the open seating area under the house...

in SEA people live under their houses during the day, when they have the time. it is cooler.

when i first came to SEA i was in a mini van going through some part in cambodia. one of my passengers asked me why all the houses were built on stilts. my guess was for snake protection. a fellow traveler, one who had been there before, opted for flood protection. the correct answer is all the above and it is cooler.

the cost for the stilts is negligible. the cost of additions after the major construction seems to be less than for construction itself, and it is adaptable.

one more thing about communication. internet access in a remote thai village.

i am on an ais gprs monthly account for 200 B per month with 50 hours access. this is adequate but slow. but other than downloads does not present a significant problem. you will need a gprs or gprs/edge capable mobile phone. a nokia 6610 should do it (i think. check the specs.) i've got some sort of lg unknown model. which works just fine.

edge is the upgrade of gprs. it is available in the local town, but not in our village. i can either get gprs though ais or i can opt for the satellite access system, which has bad reviews. and is expensive at 900 B per month.

so my access is somewhat crippled and therefore my ability to post images and responses may be slower than some others. while a definite downgrade from what i had in chiang mai it is also life in the slow lane. either you want it or you don't.

images of the seating area. yes it does get wet in a rain, but remains dry, (enough), during typical showers. a little rain will never stop a thai meal. they just move the table over a bit.

here are a couple of images...

these are my builders and nid as seen from the kitchen balcony shortly after they finished work on the seating area. nid did the polyurethane finish. 3 coats! she also suggested and designed the area. i am proud of her!

sitting at the table, which they built for us, looking at the street waiting for the water buffalo to pass by.

life could be a whole lot worse.

so, i wish you all well.

next, i will try to remember to describe where we are. basically about centered between lampang/phrae and long/wang chin.

jizzybloke · 28-08-2008, 07:26 PM

Thanks jed, nice looking place!

sunsetter · 30-08-2008, 03:52 PM

very nice place you got there, best of luck to you mate, looking forward to more of your story, great stuff

dirtydog · 31-08-2008, 06:15 AM

Seating is too high

should be 60 cm max, that seating is at about 80cm

kingwilly · 31-08-2008, 01:39 PM

wow, great looking house. I'm jealous.

sunsetter · 31-08-2008, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Seating is too high

should be 60 cm max, that seating is at about 80cm

final screed and tiles maybe?

Panda · 31-08-2008, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Seating is too high

should be 60 cm max, that seating is at about 80cm

Will anyone care?

Panda · 31-08-2008, 05:09 PM

Thanks for sharing. Looks nice. Good luck for the future.

jedsez · 01-09-2008, 10:46 AM

the builders left a couple of days ago and we have been busy painting the interior of one of the downstairs rooms.

you are correct, the seating is too high. i just measured it and it is 70 cm. i am tall, 185 cm, and sitting there my feet do not easily touch the ground. a thai dangles.

however, the table is at a perfect height to rest my legs on and kick back against the slanted railing. not something to do at dinner time, but not so bad.

someone else commented that it looked like the grade, under the house, was lower than that outside. it is and there is a story to that...

at 185 cm i planned the lowest point under the house to be 200 cm. as the ground slopes downward everything else would be greater than that and i would have sufficient headroom. i kept it at 200 because of the trees around the house which i didn't want to start infringing on. turns out nid's papa cut therm all down while we were gone, but that's another story...

so my plans came to be reality. and i was pleased. for awhile. then it came time to actually make a floor under the house. hmmm ... suddenly my headroom was gone and i was back to slamming my head into various over head structures. in my own house yet! something had to give. and it wasn't like;ly to be the concrete pillars and posts.

i spent a week or so hand grooming the dirt under the house to lower it 5 cm. it was difficult but i was pleased. then i thought some more about floors and ceilings. 5 cm wasn't going to be enough, so back to the rake and hoe.

eventually, as i lay prostrate from my dirt moving efforts, the builders showed up and simply decreed that they would drop it another 10 cm allowing for 5 - 10 cm floor and still ample headroom. so, in about 4 hours time, that is what they did. i now have 210 cm at the lowest point, and they somewhat leveled it so 210 is fairly consistent under the house.

but it is also about 10 cm or so lower than the exterior grade. that is why there is a stub wall on the uphill side of the house on which the seating is built. the seating is too high because i planned the wall to be high enough to use as a retaining wall for backfill dirt to allow a slope away from the house for drainage. turns out it didn't need to be that high, but it works for us so i am pleased.

images ...

this may explain a bit better about the drainage and the retaining wall. the cut away is for the motorbike access to overnight parking.

a beautiful misty morning from my balcony. with corn, oranges, and bananas in my front yard.

i recently archived all my older house images so i have to dig them out so other images will come later.

WhiteLotusLane · 01-09-2008, 03:03 PM

Ah, thanks for the explanation!!! My eyes didn't deceive me.

DrAndy · 01-09-2008, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jedsez

at 185 cm i planned the lowest point under the house to be 200 cm. as the ground slopes downward everything else would be greater than that and i would have sufficient headroom. i kept it at 200 because of the trees around the house which i didn't want to start infringing on. turns out nid's papa cut therm all down while we were gone, but that's another story...

........

but it is also about 10 cm or so lower than the exterior grade. that is why there is a stub wall on the uphill side of the house on which the seating is built. the seating is too high because i planned the wall to be high enough to use as a retaining wall for backfill dirt to allow a slope away from the house for drainage. turns out it didn't need to be that high, but it works for us so i am pleased.

.

ah planning! a wonderful thing

sabang · 01-09-2008, 03:25 PM

Idyllic outlook, and a good practical village house for the right price.
You've done well.

nevets · 02-09-2008, 03:27 AM

very good, thanx for the pics and happy story i wish you both a long and happy life in your lovely house.

ota · 02-09-2008, 07:29 AM

Never bring her to the USA to live!!Keep your wonderful life.

Ota

rainmon · 02-09-2008, 08:25 AM

why don't you apply for a retirement visa here in Thailand, when I came here 2 years ago I had a type O non immigrant visa and the Pattaya Jomtien immigration had no problem converting my type O visa to retirement visa for 2000 baht. My friend had a regular tourist visa making monthly visa runs and they charged him an extra 2000 baht to convert his tourist visa.

Look forward to seeing more info on your nice home!

Peter077 · 02-09-2008, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jedsez

there seem to be many people who are able to build multi-million Baht mac-mansions. i can't. but i could build a house in thailand that i couldn't even conceive of doing in the states. so this will be the story of my little hovel.

it is mostly done now. no paint and still some finish work to do downstairs, but we have been living here for several months now and are quite happy with it.

i have a web site that has a page describing our life in a small thai village. i will post it later, but for now i think a rambling narration of what we have done and are doing might be more fun for us all.

i am 60 years old (male) and am on a tourist visa and doing border runs when necessary. i could have gotten a retirement visa but the LA thai consulate denied my application due to a clerical error on my part. and since the plane was waiting on the runway (no, not really), i couldn't re-apply in time so i have just been hanging for a few years. oh well...

i have been in SEA since shortly after the usa invasion of iraq. about 2 years of that was spent in chiang mai. it was there i met my partner, Nid. she is 32, her b'day was just last week. i feel lucky to have her and now to have our home.

for those of you who imagine they see portents of future calamitous endings, yea, so what...

meanwhile, here is an image of the current state of the house.

my partner's father donated the land so the final cost does not include that, but as it stands now the total cost, labor and material, is about $25,000. it is 2 levels, has a 3/4 wrap around porch and when finished will have space underneath for guests or work area. there is no swimming pool or jacuzzi. corn grows in the front yard. and we love it.

i will post pictures of the construction and our story as time goes on.

I am about to build a small house in Udonthani for my wife's family I already have the land. It's going to be single story about 80 square meter I can't get a price from the locals to build and supply materials only for labour, suggestions please. I am not going to give them the money to buy things unless I'm there as they will spend it on other things and that includes my wife. What would you estimate the materials cost to be for your house and maybe the a single story 1.
All the best Peter Bysouth Pattaya

bobbysan124 · 02-09-2008, 12:11 PM

Always nice to be content with your love and your life. Congrats.

bobbysan124 · 02-09-2008, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter077

Quote:

Originally Posted by jedsez

there seem to be many people who are able to build multi-million Baht mac-mansions. i can't. but i could build a house in thailand that i couldn't even conceive of doing in the states. so this will be the story of my little hovel.

it is mostly done now. no paint and still some finish work to do downstairs, but we have been living here for several months now and are quite happy with it.

i have a web site that has a page describing our life in a small thai village. i will post it later, but for now i think a rambling narration of what we have done and are doing might be more fun for us all.

i am 60 years old (male) and am on a tourist visa and doing border runs when necessary. i could have gotten a retirement visa but the LA thai consulate denied my application due to a clerical error on my part. and since the plane was waiting on the runway (no, not really), i couldn't re-apply in time so i have just been hanging for a few years. oh well...

i have been in SEA since shortly after the usa invasion of iraq. about 2 years of that was spent in chiang mai. it was there i met my partner, Nid. she is 32, her b'day was just last week. i feel lucky to have her and now to have our home.

for those of you who imagine they see portents of future calamitous endings, yea, so what...

meanwhile, here is an image of the current state of the house.

my partner's father donated the land so the final cost does not include that, but as it stands now the total cost, labor and material, is about $25,000. it is 2 levels, has a 3/4 wrap around porch and when finished will have space underneath for guests or work area. there is no swimming pool or jacuzzi. corn grows in the front yard. and we love it.

i will post pictures of the construction and our story as time goes on.

I am about to build a small house in Udonthani for my wife's family I already have the land. It's going to be single story about 80 square meter I can't get a price from the locals to build and supply materials only for labour, suggestions please. I am not going to give them the money to buy things unless I'm there as they will spend it on other things and that includes my wife. What would you estimate the materials cost to be for your house and maybe the a single story 1.
All the best Peter Bysouth Pattaya

There's a site called: Thai-Land-House.com where they can do a 3D rendering of your house and, I believe, they will also give you an approximation of the cost of materials etc. Their fee seems to be reasonable. Might be worth checking out.

28-08-2008, 07:20 PM	#23 (permalink)
jedsez Grand Palace Last Online: 16-11-2008 08:45 AM Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 45	thanks for all the warmth. here's some more of what is as it is today. in the future i will post the past. but let's talk about communication. the village in which i have been building our/nid's house is small and itself somewhat, (ok, who am i kidding. we are out there!), isolated. i was reminded of this today when, as i logged on for my email i was reminded, by yahoo, to consider the world around me. russia has told the west to go f itself. bkk has it's own problems. although as i wrote a friend in the states that does not effect us here. a crisis here is if the neighbors cow has died, and since it hasn't, all is well here. the corn is just about ready to be picked. i can sit on my wrap around deck and see the seven pools waterfall in our local national park. the builders have run out of jobs. i am pleased. the sun is just now setting over the hills that form my view from my front room through what my partner insisted should be 'big' windows. for those of you who expressed an interest in the open seating area under the house... in SEA people live under their houses during the day, when they have the time. it is cooler. when i first came to SEA i was in a mini van going through some part in cambodia. one of my passengers asked me why all the houses were built on stilts. my guess was for snake protection. a fellow traveler, one who had been there before, opted for flood protection. the correct answer is all the above and it is cooler. the cost for the stilts is negligible. the cost of additions after the major construction seems to be less than for construction itself, and it is adaptable. one more thing about communication. internet access in a remote thai village. i am on an ais gprs monthly account for 200 B per month with 50 hours access. this is adequate but slow. but other than downloads does not present a significant problem. you will need a gprs or gprs/edge capable mobile phone. a nokia 6610 should do it (i think. check the specs.) i've got some sort of lg unknown model. which works just fine. edge is the upgrade of gprs. it is available in the local town, but not in our village. i can either get gprs though ais or i can opt for the satellite access system, which has bad reviews. and is expensive at 900 B per month. so my access is somewhat crippled and therefore my ability to post images and responses may be slower than some others. while a definite downgrade from what i had in chiang mai it is also life in the slow lane. either you want it or you don't. images of the seating area. yes it does get wet in a rain, but remains dry, (enough), during typical showers. a little rain will never stop a thai meal. they just move the table over a bit. here are a couple of images... these are my builders and nid as seen from the kitchen balcony shortly after they finished work on the seating area. nid did the polyurethane finish. 3 coats! she also suggested and designed the area. i am proud of her! sitting at the table, which they built for us, looking at the street waiting for the water buffalo to pass by. life could be a whole lot worse. so, i wish you all well. next, i will try to remember to describe where we are. basically about centered between lampang/phrae and long/wang chin. __________________ A Euthanasia Clinic would provide a place where a Compassionate Law could be implemented allowing people to choose the time, place, and manner of their own death while in the company and companionship of their friends, family, and loved ones. What's wrong with that? To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Last edited by jedsez : 28-08-2008 at 07:28 PM.

01-09-2008, 10:46 AM	#31 (permalink)
jedsez Grand Palace Last Online: 16-11-2008 08:45 AM Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 45	seating the builders left a couple of days ago and we have been busy painting the interior of one of the downstairs rooms. you are correct, the seating is too high. i just measured it and it is 70 cm. i am tall, 185 cm, and sitting there my feet do not easily touch the ground. a thai dangles. however, the table is at a perfect height to rest my legs on and kick back against the slanted railing. not something to do at dinner time, but not so bad. someone else commented that it looked like the grade, under the house, was lower than that outside. it is and there is a story to that... at 185 cm i planned the lowest point under the house to be 200 cm. as the ground slopes downward everything else would be greater than that and i would have sufficient headroom. i kept it at 200 because of the trees around the house which i didn't want to start infringing on. turns out nid's papa cut therm all down while we were gone, but that's another story... so my plans came to be reality. and i was pleased. for awhile. then it came time to actually make a floor under the house. hmmm ... suddenly my headroom was gone and i was back to slamming my head into various over head structures. in my own house yet! something had to give. and it wasn't like;ly to be the concrete pillars and posts. i spent a week or so hand grooming the dirt under the house to lower it 5 cm. it was difficult but i was pleased. then i thought some more about floors and ceilings. 5 cm wasn't going to be enough, so back to the rake and hoe. eventually, as i lay prostrate from my dirt moving efforts, the builders showed up and simply decreed that they would drop it another 10 cm allowing for 5 - 10 cm floor and still ample headroom. so, in about 4 hours time, that is what they did. i now have 210 cm at the lowest point, and they somewhat leveled it so 210 is fairly consistent under the house. but it is also about 10 cm or so lower than the exterior grade. that is why there is a stub wall on the uphill side of the house on which the seating is built. the seating is too high because i planned the wall to be high enough to use as a retaining wall for backfill dirt to allow a slope away from the house for drainage. turns out it didn't need to be that high, but it works for us so i am pleased. images ... this may explain a bit better about the drainage and the retaining wall. the cut away is for the motorbike access to overnight parking. a beautiful misty morning from my balcony. with corn, oranges, and bananas in my front yard. i recently archived all my older house images so i have to dig them out so other images will come later.

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28-08-2008, 08:01 AM	#21 (permalink)
HINO Koh Lanta Last Online: Today 08:29 AM Join Date: May 2008 Location: Phala Beach, Banchang, Rayong Posts: 105	Nice place and looks comfy. Stay cool

28-08-2008, 10:04 AM	#22 (permalink)
jingjoke Wat Arun Last Online: 17-11-2008 01:34 PM Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 35	Thanks for sharing. Nice. Wish you and the missus all the best. Looking forward to more pixs and your website. Regards.

28-08-2008, 07:26 PM	#24 (permalink)
jizzybloke Special Member Last Online: Today 06:41 AM Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 3,437	Thanks jed, nice looking place!

30-08-2008, 03:52 PM	#25 (permalink)
sunsetter Elite Member Last Online: Today 04:46 AM Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: londonthani Posts: 1,187	very nice place you got there, best of luck to you mate, looking forward to more of your story, great stuff

31-08-2008, 06:15 AM	#26 (permalink)
dirtydog The Dog Last Online: Today 09:44 AM Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Pattaya Posts: 33,940	Seating is too high should be 60 cm max, that seating is at about 80cm

31-08-2008, 01:39 PM	#27 (permalink)
kingwilly Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 23,211	wow, great looking house. I'm jealous.

31-08-2008, 05:09 PM	#30 (permalink)
Panda Elite Member Last Online: Today 10:36 AM Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1,813	Thanks for sharing. Looks nice. Good luck for the future.

01-09-2008, 03:03 PM	#32 (permalink)
WhiteLotusLane Trat Last Online: 29-10-2008 03:12 PM Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: at home Posts: 403	Ah, thanks for the explanation!!! My eyes didn't deceive me.

01-09-2008, 03:25 PM	#34 (permalink)
sabang Watching the Wheels Last Online: 14-11-2008 09:44 AM Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: east of Pattaya Posts: 8,268	Idyllic outlook, and a good practical village house for the right price. You've done well.

02-09-2008, 03:27 AM	#35 (permalink)
nevets Patong Beach Last Online: 10-11-2008 01:55 AM Join Date: May 2008 Location: PHETCHABURI Posts: 25	very good, thanx for the pics and happy story i wish you both a long and happy life in your lovely house.

02-09-2008, 07:29 AM	#36 (permalink)
ota Krabi Last Online: 13-11-2008 01:14 AM Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Adirondack Mts. Posts: 60	Never bring her to the USA to live!!Keep your wonderful life. Ota

02-09-2008, 08:25 AM	#37 (permalink)
rainmon Karon Beach Last Online: 21-10-2008 12:41 PM Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangkok Posts: 5	why don't you apply for a retirement visa here in Thailand, when I came here 2 years ago I had a type O non immigrant visa and the Pattaya Jomtien immigration had no problem converting my type O visa to retirement visa for 2000 baht. My friend had a regular tourist visa making monthly visa runs and they charged him an extra 2000 baht to convert his tourist visa. Look forward to seeing more info on your nice home!

02-09-2008, 12:11 PM	#39 (permalink)
bobbysan124 Phuket Last Online: 30-09-2008 05:05 AM Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Atlanta Posts: 20	Always nice to be content with your love and your life. Congrats.

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