The construction of Ms. Buad hai's house

[Anonymous Coward]

I finally got a look at our new neighbors; the ones building the massive two story house behind us that will enable to peer down at our little lives at will. They were friendly and smiled and waved and said "hello".

They're Chinese.

No, wait, strike that. I don't want to be accused of bragging about my neighbors!

[lom]

They're Chinese.

Lucky you, they are usually well behaved..

[Anonymous Coward]

They're Chinese.

Lucky you, they are usually well behaved..

Maybe....

It was sort of an odd couple. Both women in their mid-20's; one very chunky, the other very skinny. No idea about the rest of the family. It will be interesting to continue to observe....

[Anonymous Coward]

Six or seven years ago a friend of mine bought a condo in Cha Am. He installed curtains with traverse rods (the ones where you pull a cord to open and close the curtains). Of course, these were an instant failure. The cords got tangled. The curtains pulled off the hooks. People yanked so hard on the cords that the brackets got pulled from the walls. It seemed like I was doing curtain repair every time I went down for a visit. (My buddy is not much of a handy man.)

Last time I was down I was happy to see that he'd abandoned the old curtains and installed these much simpler ones:







This is the sort I want to put in our new house. Today's outing will be in search of a shop to make them.

[in4zip]

I finally got a look at our new neighbors; the ones building the massive two story house behind us that will enable to peer down at our little lives at will. They were friendly and smiled and waved and said "hello".

They're Chinese.

No, wait, strike that. I don't want to be accused of bragging about my neighbors!

as I said elsewhere AC, find out if they got some formal university education, police affiliation... without that the bragging dont get you nowhere

btw nice curtains

[Anonymous Coward]

find out if they got some formal university education

They all have degrees, but most of them are from Rajabat; which sort of moves this out of the realm of bragging. They all work for finance companies, too, so a lot of our furnishings are repos....

[Marmite the Dog]

I've got curtains like that. They don't pull across the pole very easily.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got curtains like that. They don't pull across the pole very easily.

Spray the rod with a little silicone lubricant and they'll slide like the breeze.

(Not, not THAT rod and not THAT sort of silicone lubricant....)

[Anonymous Coward]

The money to pay for this house has been in a US bank account jointly owned by Ms. AC and me. Since my bank doesn't do foreign wire transfers we decided to have them send a check. We'd done this before and it worked well. If you plan ahead it's actually cheaper than doing a wire transfer and the exchange rate is good. Bangkok Bank says it takes up to 45 days. Last time it took us about 20. This is fine. We won't actually need it until the end of March.

However, because of the changes in the law regarding incoming foreign funds we were concerned about the 30% rule. We asked at the bank several times and were told that there would be no problem and that no proof of what the money was to be used for would be required. We later asked a Bangkok Bank official who was in from Bangkok to attend the "Money Expo" in Korat. She also said there would be no problem and there would be no need to prove that the money would be used to purchase a house.

The check arrived early this week and Ms. AC went to deposit it on Wednesday. As advertised, no problem. However, she failed to again ask about the 30% and I urged her to call the bank the following. She did. Again, no problem.

That evening the bank called and told her she had to come in to file the required report under the "Foreign Business Act". Of course, no mention of this had been made previously. When asked about it, the bank people said that they didn't know the report was required. Ms. AC has just been to the bank to fill out the required form. Oddly, she was told to fill it out in English, not Thai. It asked things like the source (address) of the money, the previous owner of the money (us) and the purpose of the money.

Ms. AC asked the bank if proof of the purpose of the money was required. She had taken along the house contract, just in case. The bank official said she didn't think proof was required, but Ms. AC gave it to her anyway.

And, so it goes.

[Anonymous Coward]

First Beer


Front door in and fence almost done.


Anyone know why they put four hinges and in this arrangement? Is it because the hinges are sold in pairs and they didn't know what to do with the fourth one?


View from the front porch. Ours is the smallest house in the neighborhood.

[hillbilly]

Good job, please keep it up!

[Thetyim]

Anyone know why they put four hinges

Because the doors are teak and bloody heavy

[daveboy]

Because the doors are teak and bloody heavy

Why aren't they equally spaced

[Anonymous Coward]

Why aren't they equally spaced

Exactly what I was wondering. Maybe because of the window on top? Door's not so strong there so needs more support?

[daveboy]

Maybe because of the window on top? Door's not so strong there so needs more support?

Yes thats probably the reason

[weescotsguy66]

have you decided on your cabinet maker yer I saw a example in another forum linked to this is that your maker ???

[Anonymous Coward]

Still looking at cabinetmakers. The one you saw looks good, but I think he has a tendency to overdo a bit. We want to see a few more before making a decision. As you can see from the house, we kind of like things plain and understated. We want cabinets that are plain, simple and well-made.

[Spin]

Anyone know why they put four hinges and in this arrangement? Is it because the hinges are sold in pairs and they didn't know what to do with the fourth one?

Weight is not the issue. 2 of those hinges will do the job unless the door is warped all over the place and then the other hinges are used as forcible straighteners

There not evenly spaced because even spacing is not something that your average Thai construction worker has ever pondered

At my old job with a local construction company i noticed that they put 4 hinges on internal doors. now these doors are made of cardboard and dont weigh nothing.
i pointed out to the MD that he was wasting money.
He did not look too concerned until i told him that at his current construction rates he was wasting nearly 200,000 Baht per year on hinges.
he soon changed the expression on his face.

[Anonymous Coward]

He did not look too concerned until i told him that at his current construction rates he was wasting nearly 200,000 Baht per year on hinges.

The amount of wasted materials is astounding. My guess is that they overbought the floor tile by about 40%. There's tons of it just sitting around and the number of broken pieces is huge. Ditto with cement and concrete. Huge amounts of it just sitting around discarded because it hardened in the mixing container.

[ChiangMai noon]

The amount of wasted materials is astounding. My guess is that they overbought the floor tile by about 40%.

They overcooked ours aswell.
Used what was left when we built the kitchen extension.

[Spin]

they overbought the floor tile by about 40%. There's tons of it just sitting around

grap a couple boxes of each tile. later when you have moved in and cleaned the floors you will find maunufacturing blemishes or chips.
you will have some spares from the same batch to make repairs.

[stroller]

Mistakes cannot be corrected later, I was told by the bright guy who managed to place a few tiles pointing the wrong way in the pattern.

[Spin]

^ he didn't want to chisel out the wrong ones then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good advice. One overhanging tile on the front porch is already chipped. Some idiot walked on it before the facing edge was finished. That will have to be chiseled out and replaced....

Not much happening over the last few days. Ms. AC's day off today so we went inspecting after lunch:

[BallBreaker]

I've noticed that exteriors are painted in the LOS. Is there a reason a coloring agent is not used in the final render coat here in Thailand?