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.