Fitting out your Thailand condo

[dirtydog]

Shouldn't be a problem, the owner isn't an Aussie and there is a toilet that can be used

[Mid]

should of known ..............

seriously though , is there an accepted practise ? the kitchen sink here is deadly .

[dirtydog]

The plasterboard is all up for the ceilings, next job is the taping and jointing, then finding all our electric cables

You may notice in these pictures that the walls have turned a strange color, this is just a quick undercoat which was supposed to be a nice soft cream, for some reason the paint doesn't match the color chart and it is bright yellow, looks pretty awfull, still it is only a base coat so don't make much difference.



The kitchen guys are hard at work fitting the cabinets, they actually got quite a bit of work to do to finish these off.





Looking more like a kitchen now.

[dirtydog]

Well the kitchen is nearing completion, they got about 3 more days of carpentry work to do then it is the final stain and laquer.



Nice red granite counter tops.





Ceilings all taped and jointed.



Someone else's worker having a nap by the lift

[MeMock]

I am always amazed about the high safety standards in Thailand.

Whats the problem? At least one of them aren't wearing those dangerous flip flops

[jizzybloke]

I did go back to look on the thread (not very well) but can't find if you said how big this place is, is it a studio type thing?

[dirtydog]

Well after a little holiday it is back to work, the ceilings are all nicely finished and painted so time to get the lights in, the vogue for the last few years has been halogen lights, also got some hidden uplighters in there for evenings of romance.



The lights going in, with these halogen lights you need a 12 volt transformer, there are 2 ways of doing this and one is really the wrong way but cheaper, you can use a wired transformer with the big coil in it, this saves a lot of money but really causes problems with dimmer switches and also if the transformer dies the whole section of lights don't work, or you can use electrical transformers, for this you need one for each light, this is the proper way to do it.



The kitchen we had a few quality control type problems, not sure what they were thinking but this has been sorted out now as kitchens are bloody expensive here.

[Alex DeLarge]

I wonder why nobody ever has a carpet?

Much better than tiles.

[dirtydog]

I bet you have a 3 piece carpet set in your bathroom don't you, the carpet cover over the toilet that you piss on when pissed, the carpet piece round the toilet that everybody pisses on as they sway about whilst having a piss, bet your bathroom smells real good

[Sparky]

Dont like those Thai made kitchens always look crap .

[dirtydog]

So what would you suggest sparky?

[sabang]

I wonder why nobody ever has a carpet? Much better than tiles.

Maybe in the frozen north, but crap in the Tropics. They just become damp and infested with nasty wee insects- and invariably make the place small musty. I even prefer hotel rooms not to have carpets here.

Tiles and maybe a few floor mats is the best way to go, or wood.

Nice thread DD.

[Sparky]

So what would you suggest sparky?

I did a couple of studios up 2yrs ago and used the Kitchen shop on the right side of the road fron Jomtien to Pattaya as you go down the hill , Siam Masjestic they do very good European Kitchens hardwood doors or laminate , Granite tops appliances the lot .

I looked at several in Jomtien some were really taking the pis on prices but this company are very reasonable and do a very good job . well pleased with the results .

[dirtydog]

As the job nears completion thank god, we start the final painting, here you can see the original disaster when the can of paint went wrong, this can was described as something along the lines of a soft lovely cream, as you can see bright horrid yellow may have been a better description.

The original first coat.



Now it doesn't look too bad and people want be shocked by the color anymore.

[dirtydog]

Time to fit the sliding door and put up the fake plaster board wall, this door is actually teak laminate or something, just over 5,000baht, the real teakdoors are 8,000baht, seems to have been a few price increases over the last couple of years.



This is the aluminum C Line frame work used for plaster board walls or dry lining as the Yanks call it, real nice and easy to work with, you can see the Q Con insulation blocks behind it on the original wall.



For the taping and jointing here in Thailand they use a cloth tape, got to admit I am not sure why as we used to use paper tapes in the UK even when I was there, I think this is something they probably used in the UK well before I was born.

[dirtydog]

Well time for the finishing touches and see what works and doesn't work, the kitchen granite looks nice, actually the red and black granite are the most expensive you can get in Thailand so if you like this stuff expect to pay a lot.



You can see we are testing out the lights, most of them work, need one new starter and one new tube, yep these shops don't garauntee the stuff they sell, notice the nice black curtains, looks pretty good.



Uplights and halogens, choice of either.

[mrsquirrel]

Saw stip lights made of LED's the other day.

Appeared to be stanard stip light fittings (tube) and just whack it in.

[ThisOldHouse]

^^How much for that expensive granite DD?
=TOH=

[Loombucket]

It's looking really nice now DD, though that kitchen is not quite to my taste. Granite top certainly beats the English style formica worktop, but at what cost?

[dirtydog]

Hmmm, red and black granite are around 5,000baht per meter length, the cheaper granites which I reckon are just as good about 1,500baht per meter length, that includes fitting and rounding or bevelling the edges of course.

So lets go back to the beginning and thinking of buying a condo, now when you first look at the rooms you have these lovely seaviews, that has to be the main selling point to my mind, a room is just a room, yeah you can make it look nice but with a condo you do expect a nice view, sadly things do go wrong, this condo is in central Pattaya where land is at a premium price, they aint going to be building bungalows on land with beach views here no more.

So lets have a look at the views, this looks pretty damn good don't it, it's a view of South Pattaya from one of the balconeys, quite a tempting purchase isn't it, of course everybody had the choice on which side of the condo they wanted to buy, sadly 50 percent of them made the wrong choice



Here we are looking over the Northern side of Pattaya, whats that crane you may ask.



This will be the view from 99 percent of peoples condos from the Northern side

[dirtydog]

Now have a look at this picture and tell me what is different about it.



Just looks like a matress don't it, but this beasty is 7 foot by 7 foot, yep the same size as the whore mongers that stay at Nana Plaza use, you can get a couple of girls on here and not be crowded out, these can be ordered from the index store in Pattaya on Sukhumvit road, they cost 25,000baht and take 7 days to be delivered, made by Seely so they are pretty good, but then you got to make a platform for your bed, so here we go.

[dirtydog]

We seem to have a bit of a missunderstanding on how strong the bed should be, I tried to explain to the staff that they got to reckon on 200 kilos bouncing around on the bed, (ie the owner and a couple of girls) and not 2 50 kilo Thais, I mentioned that it had to be real strong, hmmm, this beasty bed will take about 600 kilos of naked flesh bouncing around in it, a bit over the top I think, normally to support the baseboard is 3 pieces of wood, this has 5 plus under supports, wood is bloody expensive got to try and keep this under 12,000baht





The kitchen looks pretty good now albeit a bit dusty.



Lets talk about kitchen sinks, now Pattaya has a fine selection of kitchen sinks all made to different standards, this one was like about 1,500baht, ie the cheaper end of the scale, and, no, that didn't include the tap, trouble is with the cheaper ones when you put a cup on the draining board they bow under the weight, yep they are really thin anyway a bit of 2 inch by 1 inch wood under that soon sorted it out.

[dirtydog]

This bed has gone way over the top, this bed could take the weight of several overweight American wrestlers having a wild orgy with a load of Thai girls

[Gerbil]

^ Sounds good to me. I'll have one please.

[mrsquirrel]

I'll have one please.

Why do you want an overweight American?