The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Panda

Dunno about mozzies, but here a tip for flies....

Every day at lunch time this dirty smelly homeless Aboriginal woman would come up to the pie stall and buy a pie for lunch.

And everyday she would go through the same ritual. Buy the pie. Walk across the road to a park bench. Take off her pants and then sit down to eat the pie.

One day the pie stall owner who had watched this ritual for a year asked the lady why she always took off her pants before eating. The lady replied,-- Keeps the flys off me pie! :-)

TizMe

This is very similar to my mother-in-laws place, except that upstairs there are far more windows and they are much bigger as well. If fact all the walls are just panels of windows (more like shutters really) joined together that can be individually opened and positioned to catch the afternoon breeze. When they are all open it's just like taking the side of the house off. Cools it down very quickly once the sun drops.

WhiteLotusLane

I'd love to see that!! And I thought I already included way more windows than the standard... You have any pictures?

hepcat

I would like to see that as well. WLL, we seem to have the same taste in homes. How much did you have in mind for that house? Another thing I'm after is a small house that is amenable to future annexes.

What did you have in mind for flooring in your ground story? I'm toying with an open japanese tea-garden type feel.

TizMe

I don't have any photos of it. I'll take some next time we go to Ayutthaya. (probably in August)

WhiteLotusLane

For the initial house (I might not even call it a house, it's just to spend a weekend) I would hope to stay well South of 500K including everything..

Future annexes is an option.. so is just starting again somewhere else, leaving the original hovel as a separate guest house. I guess with most Thai style building you just add a covered walkway or veranda/walkway to connect to another room/building.

Smithson

I really suggest you check out some of the Thai house and garden magazines, the ones sold in the newsagents, not the fancy coffee table books.

They have some nice places in there that aren't overdone with expensive features and furniture. I'm sure you'll find some good ideas. One I have at home has a place very similar to your sketch. The underneath part is brick paved with a garden surrounding.

I would also consider a simple kitchen downstairs, doesn't need to be fancy, just a gas cooker, sink and one of those rat/insect proof cabinets.

hepcat

I remember you saying that you didn't like the look of a concrete bathroom attached to a wooden house. I think the poster above has it right, a stone addition wouldn't look out of place there. Perhaps with some of those translucent glass blocks as a roof, I think they'd allow enough light to even have some plants in your toilet and give it an outdoor feel. I live in Saigon, many of the coffeeshops here have stone additions with fountains that are open to the sky and there is really no reason it couldn't work as a toilet as well.

Marmite the Dog

Me too, possibly.

Smithson

Something like this downstairs, you could pave or have concrete. The blinds are dirt cheap and keep out sun and dust


Some nice ideas for upstairs

hepcat

Smithson, the pics are great. Do you have any more? A few questions. In the bedroom the walls look made of concrete, and the living area is all wood. Is that the same house? If I use it as a holiday house, what can I do for security? The living area and downstairs look nice and open, I wonder what is done to lock it up.

Smithson

^ I found the pics here It's a resort, so security's not a problem.

It's interesting how popular resorts have nice open styles, yet few ppl choose to build that way. Security may be part of the reason.

The only real solution is to have somebody live there or very close by. Also, having very little worth stealing is a good idea.

I'd go for an open design to live in full time and would probably keep things fairly simple, I don't think heaps need to be spent to make the place look nice.

For security I'd have ppl live there, ideally a couple, the woman for housework etc. and a man to do the garden and odd jobs. A nice garden costs little.

hepcat

On WhiteLotus's computer rendered house, can anyone guesstimate the dimensions/cost of adding a stone structure as a bathroom? Is stone expensive in Thailand?