Hello everyone.
I am at the very start of building a house in Thailand at the instruction of my good lady Air. I will try to give this ordeal a narrative so that everyone can laugh and enjoy the trials and tribulations that are sure to beset and attack me from every angle.
I will try to include all the mundane but so necessary pieces of information that may/may not apply to others attempting to do the same.
At the moment, Air has soundly rejected my preferred option of building on a lovely piece of land , family owned , because it is too far out. (That's why I preferred it).
Her preference is to build a baan noi in the yard of mama and papa's house. Well that's where it all started and it's grown from there into a four bed two storey house blah blah etc etc. Oh and a patio ! I have designed up a proposal loosely based on my house in England as the layout works well for me, but with a few tweaks and additions such as a downstairs shower room/wet room. I also propose to have a Thai style roof in tiles so that it doesn't stick out in the village like a sore arse !! Obviously it will be very different to all the other traditional (read this as bloody awful) Thai houses in the village but I feel that I should try to blend in a little bit. Some Thai roof designs that I have seen are quite intriguing to my western eye.
Anyway, my outline plans are with a local builder who is going to come up with a proposal of some sort and I am waiting for his reply.
I am coming back to Thailand 1st September for two months so I am hoping to advance the project to an outline before that date and make a definitive plan when I am present with him later.
I have seen several of the builds done by the builder and they all seem to be of an acceptable standard compared to some of the rubbish I have seen. So I remain optimistic at this point. However I fully expect bitter experience to tread heavily on that optimism.
So , That's all folks for now at least. I will keep you all up to date as everything progresses or turns to 5h1t before my very eyes............
Best Regards to you all
Mike /Ling Noi