surasak's house thread....

[man with no head]

This will be my thread detailing from start to finish my house building adventure in Thailand. It may take several years. Hopefully this thread and this forum and myself will survive to detail every little piece from start to finish, from conception to construction, from initial digging of the footings to the turning of the last screw. My intention is to be as active as possible in the design and construction. My father-in-law was responsible for the supervision of many of the hotels in Nong Khai and will be helping me. The perimeter wall was completed in my absence so I won't have photos of the constrution, but, I do have before and after photos. The piece of land the house will be built on was a wedding present from my inlaws. It's an odd shaped piece of land and if you negate the triangular areas you are left with a buildable area of about 45'x80' (14m x 24m). In order to have some land for the septic tanks, a garden, and a place to park vehicles I'm cutting down the house area to about 36'x40' (11m x 12m). I posted some crude images on another thread and based on feeback I am in the process of redesigning the layout. I'm more or less done with the basic layout and will be posting raytraced images as I get around to it. The intention with the design is to make it functional, make best use of space, incorporate elements for good feng shui, and to incorporate some basic Thai characteristics as well.

The first one here is the kitchen area, which, according to good feng shui, should be located near the front of the house. You'll note that the stove is located in a position where the back of someone cooking would not be turned to a door or window, and, the window is located near the sink and not near the stove. Also the flow of energy allows air to circulate keeping the kitchen from getting smelly. I have worked in restaurants for many years and I will not have a crappy kitchen in my home in Thailand.

[endure]

What software are you using for that plan, Surasak?

[man with no head]

It is Sketchup with the SU2POV plugin and POV-RAY is what I'm using to render the final scene. It takes about 2 hours to render on my dual core Pentium 4. If I had some real textures it would be gorgeous.

[endure]

Thanks. I must try and get to grips with Sketchup.

[hillbilly]

Let's see more!

BTW, where are going to keep the gas tank for the stove?

[Marmite the Dog]

I've noticed that you like to put walls next to doorways as if to hide them. I really think that you'll regret doing that as it reduces light and space. If that one is reduced to even 50% of its current width it would improve things, imo.

[man with no head]

The idea in this case is to create a more natural chimney effect for the ventilation hood.

As to the gas for the stove it will be under the area to the left where you see the teapot. That's a small counterstop stove for things that can't be cooked in a wok.

[buadhai]

Why is it so small? It seems rather cramped to me.

(This coming from a man living in a two bedroom, no kitchen house with seven other people....)

[man with no head]

Maybe it's the view. It's 16'x12' (about 5m x 4m).

[man with no head]

This series of photos shows the wall. I don't have any of it under construction as I forgot to ask to have this done. As part of the deal the wall went around my in-law's house as well. The first image shows the layout and the camera location for all following images. The final image shows what the land looked like prior to the wall (it's the only image I have as at the time I had no idea that we'd be living there).

[man with no head]

[man with no head]

[man with no head]

[man with no head]

[man with no head]

[buadhai]

Maybe it's the view. It's 16'x12' (about 5m x 4m).

I guess based on the size of the chairs it doesn't seem that big....

[man with no head]

There's 4' of space on the chair side and 3' on the stove side of the bar. Personally I think I'd just use barstools.

[quikia]

What is the total length of the wall and cost per yard/meter?

[man with no head]

Total length of the wall overall is 270'/82m at a cost of about 120,000 baht. That works out to about 1400 baht/m or 444 baht/ft. This is using thicker rebar and high grade cement.

The reason for this is because, as you can see, certain portions of the wall are quite high to keep it fluid with respect to the elevation of the land:

[man with no head]

This is the back side of the high part of the wall:

[man with no head]

Alright, this is the computer/game room:

[hillbilly]

Good job but as a suggestion when posting the computer images, give us the dimensions. i think this might get rid of the cramped feeling.

[man with no head]

Good idea, the computer room/office is 9'x11' and this is the entertainment/AV room (17'x11'). My two major goals are to have a decent kitchen and a theater-style room. You can't see it well but the seats are arranged in a stadium-style setting (means the rear row is higher up than teh front row). Anyone guess as to why the windows are where they are?

[hillbilly]

Holy shit! Nice room!

I have no idea about the window placement.

[man with no head]

Ever get annoyed at watching TV and having glare? I have this problem now where I live due to the fall/winter/spring sun since I live north of 45 degrees. By placing the windows 'behind' the screen it's impossible for glare to be a problem. And, it's good feng shui since the windows aren't directly across from the entrance (which is to the right).

I told you guys when I'm done everyone's invited. I'm going to have the only movie theater in the village.