Finding and Building a Residence for Mr and Mrs MTSINTERNATIONAL

[More Volts Igor]

That is one nice house, looks done to a good standard too

[HINO]

Yes Sea your place is shaping up nicely and it is above the "standard" of many places I've seen

I hope to have the same level of quality should I decide to hire Khun Loong to build my place

[Marmite the Dog]

Why has you builder not got a name?

[SEA Traveler]

That is one nice house, looks done to a good standard too

Much appreciated Khun Volts. I was fortunate to have met this builder who worked with me on the design and built to the standard I was looking for.

[SEA Traveler]

Yes Sea your place is shaping up nicely and it is above the "standard" of many places I've seen

I hope to have the same level of quality should I decide to hire Khun Loong to build my place

Thanks Khun Hino. Aa you know, we work hard with Khun while in-country to make sure things we as we wanted. Thankfully we had freinds like Mr. and Mrs Hino to send us some pics while we were not in-country in which to evaluate the progress.

You will have 1 advantage in your building project and that is that you will have eyes on for the duration of the project. Go getum Hino!

[SEA Traveler]

Why has you builder not got a name?

Khun Marmite,

There is a story behind why I don't use Khun's name.

When I first met Khun a few years ago, he gave me his business card. I could not pronounce his name as it was not a name that easily rolled off my toung. As I recall, both his first and last names had most if not all of the characters of the English alphabet in them. He suggested that I just call him Khun and I did.

It was awhile after that when Khun decided to change his name. Better luck he said. He gave me his new business card that was in both English and Thai. Parts of it anyways, the name of his company that he owned was listed but his new name was in Thai only. Didn't matter as by that time he was alread Khun to me so that is the way it has been.

So, Khun Marmite, since you asked, I will see if I can locate Khun's card and if I do, I'll sacn it and PM it to you.

Appreciate you interest in this project. Over & Out.

[Marmite the Dog]

^ Cheers for that. It just sounds/looks odd having someone just called Khun. What about calling him Khun Chang?

[SEA Traveler]

lovin it mate, floors looks pukka, not far to go, hows the pool coming along?

Khun Sun, Thanks for the nice comments. Not sure what a "pukka" is but I'll assume it isn't all bad...

Pool construction is temperarily suspended. The pool itself is complete minus the tile and concrete finishing. The surge/balance tank has been started and is near completion but I do not want it tiled to far before the house is completed and I'll wait for 2 months or so until I have a better feel for when I'll be back in country. The tile and pump/filter equipment will be ordered soon but I have purchased some Jandy Never Lube Valves that were suggested to me by a former TD member (I have not seen him participating in the last 3 months or so), and will either hand carry them my self when I come over or if I can identify someone who is going that way soon and is interested in hand carrying them for me, I might be in business.

Anyway, The pump house is started and will be completed in 2 weeks and all is good. The internal friction within the pool company that is seperate from Khun my house contractor has caused some minor irritation in that it makes it more difficult for me to do the coordination I want to do but in the end, the technical end of the pool construction seems to be top notch. Khun has been nice enough to keep an eye out on this for me as well. The end will tell.

[SEA Traveler]

^ Cheers for that. It just sounds/looks odd having someone just called Khun. What about calling him Khun Chang?

It would fit as we have had a few Changs together?

My Father always told me, "Son, never trust a contractor (or anyone for that matter) you can't sit down and have a beer with"....

[Loombucket]

Looking good now SEA Traveler, makes my place seem more like a small hut, albeit, a two story one. Nice reporting, keep it going.

[SEA Traveler]

Looking good now SEA Traveler, makes my place seem more like a small hut, albeit, a two story one. Nice reporting, keep it going.

Appreciate your comments Khun Loom. The place will probably keep me captive and turn me into a recluse but should be comfortable enough and not get too bored. Later!

[harrymand]

I had decided early on in the planning process for this house to use a hard wood flooring for the Office and Master Bedroom. I had seen a finished Makha wood floor that was in the father-in-laws house and found the sanded and varnished surface soothing to the bare feet as well as the deep rich color adding a feeling of internal warmth (I did not say heat/hot as in temperature). I was advised that the use of Makha wood had been used in Thai homes for years and was considered traditional of some sort if not as popular as Teak wood. As I recall, the Makha was also slightly less expensive than the Teak wood so I went with Makha.

Apparently the longer and wider sections of Makha wood flooring are more expensive than the shorter and narrower pieces. This did not impose any issues with me at all as I liked the appearance of the shorter 40 cm or so lengths. I decided on the shorter 40 cm lengths to be installed.

The next consideration was in what design I wanted the wood put down. Although not opposed to a herringbone design, I was more inclined to stick with something more traditional and advised the contractor to follow a simple template placing the wood slats lengthwise with the length of the room. As it turns out, it looks just as I imagined and had hoped that it would.

The following pictures show the work in progress of the placement of the Makha wood flooring. It has yet to be completed and the surface has not yet been stained or the clear protectorate applied yet. That should be interesting in itself. In any event, the efforts of the contractor in putting down the wood flooring look fantastic. Take a look.


Above Picture: Unfinished Makha Wood flooring in the Office.


Above Picture: Another view of the unfinished Makha Wood flooring in the office.


Above Picture: Unfinished Makha Wood flooring in the Master Bedroom.


Above Picture: Unfinishe Makha Wood flooring in Master Bedroom Walk in Closet.


Above Picture: Unfinished Makha Wood flooring in the Walk in closet.

My plan all along has been to bring the electric line into the property via underground. Received some advisement not long ago that, for various reasons, there would be some difficulty with bringing in the electrical underground and into the property. I was not necessarily buying the electrical company's reasoning or explanations nor did I completely understand, because of the language differences and to what I attribute the Thai way of not really answering a question, why it would be a problem. Long story short, I was told that because the electric poles on on the opposit side of the street from my house and because the road is not yet blacktopped/concreted, it would be required for me to put an electrical pole on my property at my expense. It did not make all that much sense to me and working from a afar, did not feel inclined to want to contractor to pursue this for me. So, slightly dissapointed, I went with a tradition approach for bringing in the electricity. It is what it is and I'm over it already. Lets move on to the next issue.... I just consider myself fortunate that all else is going well with the project.

Wery nice floor! Did you glue the wood direct on the concrete? For how long has is cure ( the contrete)?

[HINO]

Khun Marmite,

There is a story behind why I don't use Khun's name.

When I first met Khun a few years ago, he gave me his business card. I could not pronounce his name as it was not a name that easily rolled off my toung. As I recall, both his first and last names had most if not all of the characters of the English alphabet in them. He suggested that I just call him Khun and I did.

It was awhile after that when Khun decided to change his name. Better luck he said. He gave me his new business card that was in both English and Thai. Parts of it anyways, the name of his company that he owned was listed but his new name was in Thai only. Didn't matter as by that time he was alread Khun to me so that is the way it has been.

So, Khun Marmite, since you asked, I will see if I can locate Khun's card and if I do, I'll sacn it and PM it to you.

Appreciate you interest in this project. Over & Out.

Khun Sea & Khun Marmite,

As an interested bystander and a potential new client of "Khun" the contractor. SEA I happen to have his business card handy and my Thai wife to assist in reading the name and such on the card.

As written in english on the card:

name of the company; LUEDNITI Construction Co.

Khun's name in english spelling; Pathompong Luednitirunglid

My wife heard Sea calling him Khun also. I can see why ST has called him Khun all this time as his name is not easy to pronounce at best, so, when I inquired to my wife she says it is perfectly acceptable to speak to him as Loong which means "uncle" in Thai . My wife says this works saying "Khun Loong." We have not asked for his "nickname."

[good2bhappy]

Pukka means fine. It is hindi

[Marmite the Dog]

We have not asked for his "nickname."

Why not?

[SEA Traveler]

Wery nice floor! Did you glue the wood direct on the concrete? For how long has is cure ( the contrete)?

Thanks for the nice comment Khun Harry and welcome to the forum.

Concrete sat for about 5 weeks before the Makha Wood Floor was put down. I am not sure if the 5 weeks was the result of needing that much time to cure or because the placement of the wood floor did not fit into the schedule until the time when it was placed.

I'll have to ask Khun if he actually used an adhesive between the wood and concrete or if he used some other method. I'm not sure but I do believe that some type of vapor barrier was used between the wood and concrete.

[SEA Traveler]

[quote=HINO;650492]

Khun Marmite,


As an interested bystander and a potential new client of "Khun" the contractor. SEA I happen to have his business card handy and my Thai wife to assist in reading the name and such on the card.

As written in english on the card:

name of the company; LUEDNITI Construction Co.

Khun's name in english spelling; Pathompong Luednitirunglid

My wife heard Sea calling him Khun also. I can see why ST has called him Khun all this time as his name is not easy to pronounce at best, so, when I inquired to my wife she says it is perfectly acceptable to speak to him as Loong which means "uncle" in Thai . My wife says this works saying "Khun Loong." We have not asked for his "nickname."

Like I said, "Pathompong Luednitirunglid" sure is a mouth full. Mrs SEA Traveler also calls Khun, Khun Loong. Although I truly like Khun and respect him in every way. I've alread enough uncles and he advised my calling him Khun so, there we have it.

Khun Hino, thanks for saving me the headache of looking through my stuff for the business card.

Caio!

[SEA Traveler]

Pukka means fine. It is hindi

Thanks Khun Happy. Learning something new every day...

[More Volts Igor]

Pukka means fine. It is hindi

Thanks Khun Happy. Learning something new every day...

It's also a best-selling brand of pies, made in the central UK Pukka Pies... for some reason we used to call them "puke-a pies", shame really, they're actually pretty good

[SEA Traveler]

Pukka means fine. It is hindi

Thanks Khun Happy. Learning something new every day...

It's also a best-selling brand of pies, made in the central UK Pukka Pies... for some reason we used to call them "puke-a pies", shame really, they're actually pretty good

Thanks Khun Volts. We have similar in US but they have a more appitizing named company making them.

[good2bhappy]

Are you sure your not mixing that up with the polo term to 'have a chuka"?

[Told Stool]

I was looking around for Matthew in here. I seem to remember him saying he was going to hang around the construction area on here for awhile.

[SEA Traveler]

I was looking around for Matthew in here. I seem to remember him saying he was going to hang around the construction area on here for awhile.

Haven't seen him.

[Told Stool]

^hmmm...guess he's busy saving "troubled young children from becoming troubled adults."

[SEA Traveler]

OK, back to the topic of this thread............

9 June 2008:

Khun and his crew continue to remain on schedule. Their focus on the past 3 days has been with the final preparation of the driveway and the placement of the driveway tile, continuation of the painting of the house and putting the first coat of paint on the perimeter wall, completing the tile for the front terrace, and getting the swimming pool pump house in order.

It seems as though any of questions related to the swimming pool have been worked out as there was a competent work team there today completing the placement of the PVC pipe to the pump house and doing other prep work in and around the pool area. Although things seem to be on track with the pool, Khun is keeping me posted regularly on this subject.

Otherwise, I continue to be content with the progress of the work as well as the quality of the workmanship and the over all efforts of Khun and his Team.


Above Picture: After preparation of the driveway, the driveway tile is now starting to be placed.


Above Picture: Here is a closer view of the tile work. As a strength test of the tile, I had Khun have one of the team member's children present on site ride his tricycle ride on the tile. All seemed in good order...


Above Picture: Continuation of the Antique Roman Tile that was used on the Front Terrace was used for the Front Terrace steps that lead to the lower patio. Lower patio will also have the Roman Tile.


Above Picture: Various doors for the house are all being stained the same color.


Above Picture: The single door of the house that has glass in it is the one you see here. It has beveled glass and will be an interior door to the office.


Above Picture: The Swimming Pool Pump House still in construction.


Above Picture: The first coat of paint on the perimeter wall was applied over the mildew resistent primer coating. The color of the perimeter wall paint is not too different than the primary color used on the house. The picture does not show a real good comparison so I guess I'll just have to wait until I get there to get the full picture.