Thread: Mickey Mouse House Gets A Kitchen

BEFORE ANYONE READS THIS THREAD COULD SOMONE ENLIGHTEN ME HOW TO ENLARGE THE PHOTOS TO AN ACCEPTABLE SIZE PLEASE?

I wasn’t sure whether to add this to the original thread that I started in September last year which has been placed in the famous threads area here:https://teakdoor.com/building-in-thailand-famous-threads/36175-the-evolution-of-mickey-mouse-house.html
I thought that this update might get lost as just another post so I have started a new thread but if any of the mods feel it should be moved please feel free to do so.
A great deal has happened in my life since I first posted the original thread which has resulted in the necessity for me to move from my condo in Jomtien in the next few months and take up residence in Mickey Mouse House.
I have always been employed since I first moved to Thailand in 2005, firstly working for a Thai law firm, and for the last 18 months for an English property developer preparing contracts, leases etc. Due to the collapse in the economy globally and the appalling property market here, the developer concerned has put his projects on hold and thus I find myself redundant for the first time since leaving school in 1967!
I get a modest private pension each month which will cover most living expenses in Issan, but I fear will not be sufficient to support the excesses of living in Pattaya so after a trip to England for my new grand daughter’s Christening in June I shall be moving semi permanently to Chonabot, the alternative being living on a jobseekers allowance in the UK. A no brainer really!!
I have a wealth of things to do at the house and have no doubt that I will keep myself occupied, and with the benefits of internet, which has already been connected, and satellite telly, I think I will adapt to a rural life reasonably well.
My condo in Jomtien is fully paid for and I initially propose to keep it empty and every 90 days do my report to Immigration in Pattaya and stay at the condo for 2 or 3 weeks which will give me the opportunity to play golf with the friends I have made here and thus enjoy the best of both worlds.
When it was becoming apparent that the job was going to end I decided to have a decent kitchen put in Mickey Mouse House as one of my passions in life is cooking and the room that had been built as a kitchen area, whilst spacious, was a very sparse dark room with a small shuttered window and a wash basin in the corner which should have been put in the shower room originally but with Thai logic had been put outside of it.
The area to the rear of the house was a rough soil area and was only used by Mam’s mother to chuck rubbish onto ready for burning periodically.
I decided to have the wash basin put into the shower room, where it should have been put originally, and a doorway to the rear created where the basin was sited. The rear area was to be concreted over and the washing machine that stood in the kitchen plumbed in outside under the substantial roof overhang.
I wanted a large picture window put in place of the small shuttered wooded one and ceilings put up throughout the ground floor which had never been a priority up until now.
As I was still working, as usual I had to rely on the job being done while I was in Pattaya but during a visit to the house in November, the original builder of the house came round and was told what I wanted and we received a quote from him to do the job of 8000 baht which included knocking down the entire rear wall and rebuilding it with the new doorway and picture window in, concreting the rear and a substantial area to the side under the large balcony that I had installed last year.
Mam went to the house just after New Year to supervise the work with strict instructions to take before and after photos of the project as I obviously had this thread in mind.
Unfortunately she forgot to take many before photos but here you can see the rebuilt rear wall with the opening for the new widow and the preparation/concreting of the 2 side areas. Also the lack of ceiling.











The total cost of this work including labour, cement, rebar, new 3 sliding pane smoked glass window, rear door and plumbing for sink and washing machine was less than 20,000 baht.

My job finished at the beginning of February and I went to the house ostensibly to bring Mam back to Pattaya but I was so pleased with the work that had been carried out I decided to go the whole hog and have the kitchen fitted out and we went to HomePro in Khon Kaen to check out the price of units etc.

My original plan was to have factory made units installed, but recently a friend of mine in Jomtien had to have the entire luxury kitchen of his 2 year old house ripped out as it was being eaten away by termites and having been impressed by the PVC units he had put in its place I decided to opt for something that wouldn’t be a feasting ground for bugs.

As Home Pro seemed to stock all that we wanted under 1 roof we bought 3 double cupboard frame units for under the worktops plus one drawer unit, together with 3 double wall cupboards and a half size cupboard unit for over the gas hob. A double bowl stainless steel sink was on offer complete with a basic tap for 2,300 baht. The total cost for all the units including the sink and a very impressive 3 burner gas hob was around 22,000 baht.

We decided on marble effect tiles for the worktops and slate grey/black tiles for the unit fronts. I wanted the walls tiled but wasn’t sure whether to go for a fully tiled or part tiled effect so decided to leave that in the balance.

The builder quoted 3,000 baht labour to build the surround and worktops and carry out the tiling and plumbing so to my immense excitement he and his 2 assistants got cracking while I was there. This was the first significant work to the house that I had actually been present to watch!!

I was intrigued to see how these supposedly simple people set about creating what turned out to be a superb and functional kitchen. I had not the first idea how they construct solid concrete worktops but with the assistance of some plywood and rebar I watched the transformation take place.

These pics are of the first days labour. It is amazing how much they were able to do in one day:









On the second day they started to form the worktops by fitting the rebar and towards the end of the day poured the concrete having blanked off the sink and hob areas:







On the 3rd day the worktops were tiled and the sink unit and hob installed. I almost forgot, I also had 2 new electric points put in above the work surface which necessitated drilling through from mother in law’s room behind.





On day 4 I had to return to Pattaya to sort out the surrender of my work permit and arrange a 60 day extension of stay pending getting a married persons extension of stay on my visa so Mam remained at the house to oversee the completion of the work and the installation of the ceilings throughout the ground floor.

Tiling to the fronts of the units was in full swing when I left, somewhat reluctantly as I wanted to see the finished effect. These pics show the stage it was at when I left.





We had decided to tile the walls up to the height of the wall units and Mam was happy for me to choose tiles myself in Pattaya as I felt that there was more to choose from down here so after looking around a bit after my return I found some that appealed and opted for a bold colour to have a dramatic kind of effect an.

The builder estimated that we would need 12 sq meters for the walls but to be on the safe side I ordered 13 sq meters of the tiles I had decided on which I was told by HomeWorks on Sukhumvit Rd would take 2 weeks to come in as they were a special order. That fitted in fine with my scheduled return to Chonabot but to be safe I went to HomeWorks after 2 weeks to check that the tiles were there and they confirmed they were. I was due to return to Chonabot about 5 days later so told them I would pick them up the day before.

Upon arriving there the tiles were brought out an there were only 12 sq meters of them despite the fact that the order clearly showed 13 sq mtrs which I had paid for. The guy who brought them out apoligised and said “Mr, we get more for you in 1 week”only to be told by me that I was leaving for Khon Khaen the next day and that I needed them before I left.
In fairness I thought I would have enough with the 12 sq mtrs, given the builder’s estimate, but I have since found out that Thai builders would rather under estimate than over estimate to avoid the embarrassment of having unwanted materials left over.
HomeWorks came up trumps though and within 3 hours of leaving the store I had a phone call from them to say that they had got hold of another box of tiles for me. I don’t know how they did it but I was impressed, especially when we found out the 13 sq mtrs weren’t enough tiles either and I now have another box in the boot of my car ready to take up when we go to the house for Songkran to enable a very small area to be completed!

Anyway I went back to the house during the 2nd week of March only to be told that the original builder and his crew had started a house building job somewhere else and could not do the tiling but it seems that in Issan there is always another craftsman lurking not far away and mother in law brought round 3 more guys who were prepared to take on the job of hanging 13 sq mtrs of wall tiles and laying 10 sq mtrs of floor tiles for the princely sum of 1,640 bht plus a bottle of Thai whisky each night after they had finished their days labours. They seemed to know what they were about so they were hired.

The ceilings had been put up on the ground floor but had not been painted so it was my turn to do some work in the form of making good, painting the ceiling and the part of the walls that weren’t going to be tiled so the guys were instructed to start the tiling 3 days later whilst I set to with the Polyfilla and paint brushes.

All of the woodwork was given 2 undercoats and 3 coats of gloss, but as I was using Dulux emulsion it covered the ceiling and wall areas in 2 coats.

Here is yours truly getting down and dirty with the Polyfilla!!



The tiling team arrived on the appointed date and Mam and I went off to choose some floor tiles and we opted for a cream colour with a slight black rippled effect in them as Mam decided they would not show the dirt so easily.

The floor and walls were finished in 3 days and despite the added cost of 3 bottles of gut rot for the crew I was so pleased with the end result that I paid them 2,000 baht for their efforts. My generosity knows no bounds!!

So here are the pics of the finished kitchen which I am delighted with. It is extremely functional and has loads of working space. I picked up an offcut of granite for 400 baht which I will use as a chopping block near to the hob.







In the pic with Mam in it you can see the new door to the rear where the wash basin was originally sited.

This is the view from the new window . In the evening the sun sets behind the trees and working in the kitchen at that time is wonderful. Hopefully when we make the move to the house I will be able to practice my culinary skills and start contributing to the Teak Door food threads.



Before we left, I bought 50sq mtrs of floor tiles for the large area under the main house which have been laid in our absence but according to mother in law they look very good. I will not see them until our Songkran trip and will post some pics then.

We hope to buy some extra land either to the side or the rear of the house which will enable me to create a kitchen garden which will help keep me occupied when I make the move.

The next major projects are to sort out the garden and put in an ornamental fishpond with waterfall and to build a 2 storey side extension to provide the upstairs bathroom I referred to in the earlier thread, but that may be put on hold for a couple of years.

Apologys for the wrong colour text and thanks to whoever adjusted it and the size of the pics.

I have not been a prolific poster on TD thus far due to the fact that I have been working, and as you can tell I am not overly computer literate.

When I move to the house I will hopefully have a bit more time to perfect my posting skills.

Travelmate, Mickey Mouse House is in Amphur Chonabot, about 50 km south of Khon Kaen and the reason it is named such is given in the previous thread.

No relation to Marmer's pump though.

Originally Posted by racefan

Gas bottle is contained under the hob and is accessed via the double doors. It is a new bottle with appropriate safety valve etc and gets switched off whenever the hob isn't being used.

you may want to rethink that position on safety grounds

In Europe, gas bottles have to be outside; if they are in some sort of cupboard, the door has to be full of ventilation holes

It would be easy to run a copper gas pipe from your under-hob area through the wall to the outside