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  1. #1
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    Extending our Existing Terrace and Balcony

    Hi, We are Neil and Meechai and this is our first posting here. We met each other in December 2001 and have lived together ever since in a very nice house in the city center of Amsterdam in Holland.

    Chonburi - Thailand Chonburi was the birthplace of Meechai and the place that we decided to build our second house in Thailand. Our new house is on the outskirts of the city of Chonburi and only a few kilometres from his Mums house in the city centre.

    Amsterdam - Holland Where we both live and work most of the year, although we have just suffered a very cold and snowy winter, which makes Neil think he would rather be in our house in Chonburi than our apartment in Amsterdam. Meechai is manager of a large jewellry and accessories store on the prestigious Rokin in the centre of Amsterdam, and Neil is Rayon Manager for a large shop concern with 16 top locations throughout the centre of Amsterdam. Our house in Amsterdam in in the very centre of the city, on the third and fourth floors of an old Dutch house just opposite the royal palace and for both of us within walking distance of our work.

    I don't understand where the "Pattaya" comes from under our name? Never even been there! ... Can anyone help how I can change this? .. Thanks in advance.
    It cost's nothing to be nice!

  2. #2
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    The location name under your name changes every couple of posts you enter dont worry about it.

  3. #3
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    Thanks for the help ...

    Thanks for explaining that. Although I don't see the logic in it? Now hopefully I can get on with posting .. Thanks again.


    Our house is the "Last House in the Village"

    We decided to choose the "Last House in the Village" for a very special reason. Firstly we would have no traffic passing our house, although there are very few cars most of the day after everyone leaves for work.
    Our house is also one of the few free standing houses with no neighbours opposite. Although there were a few palm trees planted along the boundary wall we decided to plant more trees during our 2009 visit.
    The house is located in a beautiful walled village just outside Meechai's home town of Chonburi where his family still live and work. Access to the village can only be achieved with special access passes and with it's 24 hour Guard patrols and CCTV surveillance it feels very secure.
    I am hoping in this thread to explain how we managed to extend both our terrace and balcony.
    Last edited by neilandmeechai; 19-01-2011 at 02:14 AM.

  4. #4
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    Our existing Front Porch

    Designing and Building a large Extension to our First Floor Balcony and Extending our Front Porch into a large Spacious Shaded Terrace started off with some rough ideas that we both had. During the process we changed our minds many times or decided to add or change something. We had a lot of help from Meechai's family and especially from Lek (Meechai's sister) doing a lot of the work of contacting the builder, getting estimates and sending us lots of photo's of the situation before we start the project.
    Although we spent many a morning enjoying our breakfast and morning coffee the porch was far too small for us to dine outside with the whole family, hence our plans for extending this space into a royal sized covered terrace and at the same time extending the first floor balcony into a huge sunbathing area.
    Shade and Sunshine
    Two important things we needed were a large shaded area for Meechai to relax in and listen to his music as he doesn't like too much sunshine, and just the opposite for Neil who loves to be able relax in the sun.
    The Solution
    The solution was to extend our first floor balcony which would give us a large semi private sun trap and at the same time the new balcony would provide us with lots of extra shade on the ground floor with a huge extension to our existing front porch.

  5. #5
    On a walkabout Loy Toy's Avatar
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    Some pictures would help Neil.

    Check the user instruction pages and get some up so we can understand and help you accordingly.

    Oh and welcome to Teakdoor.

  6. #6
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    Hi and thanks for your welcome. I already tried to upload an image as you can possibly see on the previous post but something seems to have gone wrong? I already uploaded some images to the user gallery, and thought that I could use them from that location but possibly not? The other problem is when I go to "Insert Image" it asks for an http:// location and not a local file? ..... Rather confused at the moment but I am sure I will sort it out eventually. Then I can start posting lots of photo's.

  7. #7
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    I seem to have found some information that may be causing my image posting problem that I found at the bottom left of the page ......

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    Sprayed On Member
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    Here try this thread from one of our very esteemed but recently departed members.

    https://teakdoor.com/how-to-use-stuff...with-pics.html

    You've got enough posts now so should be able to work it out.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilandmeechai
    Access to the village can only be achieved with special access passes and with it's 24 hour Guard patrols and CCTV surveillance it feels very secure.
    welcome Neil and meechai, you sound like nice guys

    so it is a villa development, or "moo ban"?

    charming

    I await your pics with bated breath, it should be a good project

  10. #10
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    sunsetter's Avatar
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    welcome to the forum, awaiting pics

  11. #11
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    Thanks guys ...

    Thanks so much to the three previous posters (I also haven't found out how to "Quote" something yet!) .... but I learn quick (sometimes!) ....


    I have printed out the (what looks like!) a very helpful tutorial on how to upload, sort to file and eventually use the pictures in my postings. If all goes well (ha, ha!) pictures should be forthcoming today ???

  12. #12
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    good luck with the pics

  13. #13
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    This could (Possibly?) be a picture !!


  14. #14
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    That is what Forums are all about I suppose ...

    It took a while, but with everyone's help I seem to be "getting there"! Now I hope that I can begin with the content. Anyway, the previous picture is our house.
    Now a bit of background info ...
    Chonburi - Thailand was the birthplace of Meechai and the place that we decided to build our house in Thailand. Our new house is on the outskirts of the city of Chonburi and only a few kilometres from his Mums house in the city centre.
    Amsterdam - Holland Where we both live and work most of the year, although we have just suffered a very cold and snowy winter, which makes Neil think he would rather be in our house in Chonburi than our apartment in Amsterdam. Meechai is manager of a large jewellry and accessories store on the prestigious Rokin in the centre of Amsterdam, and Neil is Rayon Manager for a large shop concern with 16 top locations throughout the centre of Amsterdam. Our house in Amsterdam in in the very centre of the city, on the third and fourth floors of an old Dutch house just opposite the royal palace and for both of us within walking distance of our work.
    Our house is the "Last House in the Village"
    We decided to choose the "Last House in the Village" for a very special reason. Firstly we would have no traffic passing our house, although there are very few cars most of the day after everyone leaves for work.
    Our house is also one of the few free standing houses with no neighbours opposite.

  15. #15
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    Our existing Front Porch

    Extending our Existing Terrace and Balcony
    Work Started 22nd June and completed in early August 2009

    Our existing Front Porch
    Designing and Building a large Extension to our First Floor Balcony and Extending our Front Porch into a large Spacious Shaded Terrace started off with some rough ideas that we both had. During the process we changed our minds many times or decided to add or change something. We had a lot of help from Meechai's family and especially from Lek (Meechai's sister) doing a lot of the work of contacting the builder, getting estimates and sending us lots of photo's of the situation before we start the project.

    Although we spent many a morning enjoying our breakfast and morning coffee the porch was far too small for us to dine outside with the whole family, hence our plans for extending this space into a royal sized covered terrace and at the same time extending the first floor balcony into a huge sunbathing area.

    In this photo you can see the arched area downstairs (front right) with directly above it the small balcony leading off the bedroom.

  16. #16
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    Downstairs Front porch

    Our small "Porch" was only wide enough to allow the double doors to open, but then only if we first removed the small terrace table and two rather uncomfortable fold-up chairs.

  17. #17
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    Shade and Sunshine and the Solution

    Two important things we needed were a large shaded area for Meechai to relax in and listen to his music as he doesn't like too much sunshine (Typical Thai!), and just the opposite for Neil who loves to be able relax in the sun (Typical European!).

    The Solution
    The solution was to extend our first floor balcony which would give us a large semi private sun trap and at the same time the new balcony would provide us with lots of extra shade on the ground floor with a huge extension to our existing front porch.
    Our Existing First Floor Balcony

    Although it was very nice for our new house to have a balcony with double sliding doors leading off our master bedroom we very soon realized that it was just too small to lay and relax on, measuring only 3.25m x 1.30m.
    The Planned Extension
    Our new extension will extend the original balcony with an extra 4.75m and at the same time transform our original front porch into a beautiful terrace large enough for the whole family to enjoy dinner in the cool of the early evening.

  18. #18
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    I suppose that being at the front of the house is no problem as you are the "last house in the village"

  19. #19
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    We chatted with the neighbours before we started.

    Quote Originally Posted by DrAndy View Post
    I suppose that being at the front of the house is no problem as you are the "last house in the village"
    True, but we also didn't want to block anyone's view or build something that altered the whole flow of what is a very beautiful village. Although our nearest neighbour did at one time think we were building another floor on the front of the house! .... and when they saw the foundations being sunk they thought it was some kind of skyscraper that we were building!
    First we had to dig up a lot of the initial planting that had just started to find it's roots

  20. #20
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    The big dig started on June 29th 2009

    At the moment we are not at our house all the year round but we are very lucky that Meechai's familly are close by. His sister Lek and her husband Kob are in the house many times a week and look after the general upkeep when we are not there. Also his brother Yut and his wife Ough with their son (and our nephew) "Anfield" who is only 2 years visit the house most days.
    The big dig started on June 29th 2009 and we were very peased to receive these photo's virtually every day, which kept us up-to-date with everything.
    If anyone has any questions on any part of the build (or anything else!) I am at my PC most days and would love to hear from you.

  21. #21
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    First four Photo's of the dig








  22. #22
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    Rocky and Parched Ground

    In the previous four photo's it is quite easy to see exactly how rocky and parched the whole plot is and we certainly noticed this when it came to planting and laying a lawn (which turned so many different shades of brown that we eventually put it out of it's misery and had a complete rebuild of the garden which I will explain in another thread later).
    I have been coming to Thailand for many years and have always admired how they seem to be able to use virtually anything to complete the work, when they have hardly any purpose tools.

    These photo's continue the very rocky ground theme .....




    The conduit they found was the power going to the front wall and gate lighting and a secondary wire for the door bell.


    This view from the original upstairs mini balcony ...

  23. #23
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    They came across a huge rock

    This huge rock had to be broken up with a hammer


  24. #24
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    Dug with only hand tools and nearly ready for the concrete support poles to be sunk.


    Eventually the huge rock was broken into smaller pieces and removed.


    Down to ground water level ...


    On the left you can still see he original small front porch.

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat jandajoy's Avatar
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    Not that I know anything about these things but those footing seems to be way over the top to support a deck.

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