Improved house floor plans
New plans that give the downstairs more interest and character, more spaces and flow. Next Electrical!
a rule of thumb for points and lights, put them everywhere even if you think you won't need them there
things change and they might become useful
better now than adding later
that is a great looking place you have constructed there Ben. I have always loved the timber look yet i was convinced to use concrete as have most places around me. I believe the houses with the most character are the wood structures by a country mile and yours is one of those. Again a great job mate
Just a Member number
totally different feel and life to them
but difficult to insulate from noise, so not really suitable for the city
Hi Dr.A
Thanks I have definitely done that with sickets and lights in the main house. I have used LED for less heat and hopefully to stop insects gathering. I have 4 months to think about it, but the hardest thing is to put the wires in the concealed wood underneath. the other option is to copy the upstairs and have joists exposed but put up plaster in between to run wires.
I dont want to do this but we shall see!
Hi Ossierob Thank you it would have been a 3.5 year project from start to finish, but we have come up with a house that we love. My wife has cried going back to it the last few times because of the space and feel that a wood house gives.
I agree with Dr.A I would have something more modern in the city, but this is ideal for where we are.
Cheers
More to come soon....
im hot its so hot today.......milk was a bad choice!
If the joists are nice wood it seems a shame to hide themOriginally Posted by benlovesnuk
I don't mind the wires being exposed to a point if neat, and if you paint them wood colour they just about disappear
Great to see you have used an underground service from the road! When I built in Isaan, the locals were quite amused that I had put all services (including a conduit for future telephone /fibre optic cable from the road)underground. They did not value the beauty of the trees and landscaping, and the impact of overhead wires! I did however have a second agenda..........which silenced all dissent! I simply showed them a piece of copper cable....and indicated to "snip" with my fingers! ....... Then they all thought that I was quite clever...... and had gone for the underground option to stop the thieving bastards in the area stealing my cables while away!.....That is certainly a consideration and worth the cost.
And in a couple of weeks, now that broadband is being locally rolled out even out here in the sticks, quite cheaply...... I hope to get that high speed broadband cable installed...so worth the effort.
Isn't "Jablite" available in thailand. That would kill 2 birds with 1 stone, keep sound down and heat out.Originally Posted by DrAndy
Think the blue stuff is made by Dow. There is the site I have
Thai Foam Co., Ltd. : The largest manufacturer in Thailand.
Originally Posted by BKKBILL
Yes, thanks for that billOriginally Posted by BKKBILL
This house started being built almost 3 years ago, from a small 80m2 Traditional wood house top storey only. To a 320m2 Lanna wonder house with lots of interesting learning in how to build in Thailand.
I have found the experience reasonably calming and easy, the main asset was finding a builder that was sympathetic and mostly capable of doing everything we asked of him.
We have been lucky in finding people that have treated us with warm and welcoming friendship. When we go to the woodyard we get BBQ and whisky even when we dont buy anything.
We have developed an idea and now we are very close to fulfilling a dream, that both myself and my wife could not have thought possible at our young ages of life in both our native countries.
We have something Traditional with a flow of modern conveniences, as well as English nuances in the roof and kitchen design. I am happy to call Chiangmai my home and look forward to living in this house very soon.
Thank you and keep a look out for work and pics to start in the forecoming months.
Happy Thai New Year
Very nice.
You and your wiffe have done a wonderful job building this teak house from scratch. I am planning to build a house (unfortunately not teak) in Don Kaew next December and am looking for the kind of great builder you had. Can you give him my name or vice versa - i.e. some way we can get in touch? Thanks for your help.. . . . and any other help from any of the knowledgible guys on Teak Door - you know who you are.
Thank you, here are the final plans for the bottom.
The main thing here is that the kitchen will be split into 2 areas the main kitchen in the open kitchen lounge area. This will be handmade from wood and have both wood and granite or slate tops. There will be an open door at the back, that for now will not be a walk through door but instead a big open window to the mountain view. The lounge is big and open and goes to a study by the window. This area is split to the 2nd kitchen for thai cooking and all other kitchen paraphenalia. This also leads to the upstairs terrace and master bedroom.
There will be many characters that I cant put into the 2d plan but will try to show in 3d pics. You can now see we have put a ensuite in the bedroom downstairs, which means we now have 3 bedroom all with ensuites and lounge for each bedroom. The next thing to do is work out the electrics and I have a pretty good idea on this I think we might use metal conduit downstairs, but we shall see.
Tiles downstairs will be terracotta clay in the 2nd kitchen leading to upstairs space, and porcelain tile for every where else unless I can find a cheaper stone compromise.
Building will start in August, hopefully the house has lastest well from the rain, and the rice barn has not been infested.
Construction starts again to finish the house, here we have the back wall where the kitchen will be placed. This will be a western kitchen with electirc oven and hob. The thai kitchen is placed to the right which will have a gas hob.
There will be an island in the kitchen and this will lead to a lounge/study.
You can see this in the plan above.
Here you can see the golden Teak doors that will lead out to an outside terrace space. Although for now might just be an open window and will have railings across it. You can see the steps that go up to the terrace upstairs, this is through a closed door to the thai kitchen.
The builders are finishing up the walls and rendering them. Once all the walls are in the electrics will go in and plumbing finished. then the Tiles will go down which will be a square tile that is staggered in a brick layout. Then we will finish on the wood house upstairs.
So lets continue, at the moment we are just finishing off the walls downstairs and fitting all the windows and doors. We want to fit as much wood inside downstairs to let in light, make use of cross ventilation which is the best way to ventilate the house and continue the aesthetic of the wood house upstairs.
so here we have the front door, the walls on the outside are being rendered as we speak. The height from the ground is quite substantial and this gives us plenty of room for water on the ground and ground flooding in heavy rain.
Here we have the on the right a nook for hanging out, this will be an area for books and games and general chatting and beer drinking (albeit one of many). You can see the rendering has been done and we have used Q-con block. Im really happy with the work of the block/rendering team the finish is high ans when painted the walls will have a nice feel to them with the wood windows and posts. The window here will open to the sala on the way upto the main sala above on the terrace.
Here we have the left hand side coming in from the front door. You can see the consumer unit section where the mains will come into the house. As mentioned before the cables are under ground and come up the wall to the opening you can see. all the cables you see are for the main house, and still need the whole of the downstairs and upstairs extension to come through. Window with nice bars across it and again the louvre vented frame to add some wood character.
Here is a bit more of the front door and space on the left its quite light downstairs but with the wood ceiling we will add light porcelain tiles that will lighten the floor and overall room and spaces. again LED lighting will be used in downspots.
The wood from the sale gives interest and will probably be incorporated into the internal finishes.
Here you can start to see the finish of both rendered walls and wood posts and doors. Once the tiles are laid and the finishes are all set I think the downstairs will look great. We were going to put the kitchen here in the back, but with a bit of juggling about we are going to keep this 6m x 8.5 m space as one lounge room.
Here to the right you can see the door that will lead to the thai kitchen and steps to the upstairs terrace and master bedroom. This will be blocked and rendered and the space under the steps will have a door and be kept as a larder. The big doors as mentioned before will open out to let in light and views of Doi suthep and in the future will lead to outside bamboo terrace area.
Here you can see the space that was reserved for my studio, however we have noe removed this door to let in more light from the window and make this the western kitchen area that will be open to the lounge. This will sink, oven, microwave and place for preparing food. My wife likes the English cottage look so something along that aesthetic.
Here we are looking down one of the house through to the other. On the left is the third bedroom which will be the one air conditioned. It will have its own ensuite and outside opposite its own lounge area. The room is 4m x 8.5m including ensuite.
more to come..........
Ok so here are some more shots of the house, we are now into 3.5 years since we purchased the land. The house is 320m2 of living space, 4 times bigger than the plan. We are nearly at the end, and I hope you can start to see what we have tried to build.
First off the master bedroom 5.75m x 5.5m extends out to terrace and has views of Doi suthep and the temple at night.
floors have been sanded for the polyurethane, a matt clear finish all over 160m2.
looking back at the room where the bed will go, you can see the joists where these will be shown for detail on the ceiling. spotlights and led light will be used as they produce very little heat.
Looking at the doors that open to the terrace. Old wood doors from samkampaeng. They will be a pleasure to open every morning.
Constructing the chairs in the terrace out the back, these are wide so you can lye on and fall asleep.
You can see these complete from below and the back section of the house, rendered and ready for painting.
Bathroom ready to install, these all teak wood with a shower cubicle going in the corner. This is an experiment to see if tiles will work if it floods then plastic will have to go in, but i have a cunning plan....
Here you can see the bedroom from the doorway, with the ceiling plaster boarded. This is foil backed and really feels cool, midday but thats also due to good cross ventilation.
Terrace now has rail balustrade and look pretty good, the floorboards are very special hand sewn and wide about 37-40cm. They are not being sanded just matt clear poly to keep them good.
Looking down the stairs to the Thai kitchen. This will be clad with wood and have traditional shutters to open and close.
Very nice,will be cosy.
Now for some bad news the tiles in this room hadnt been put on correctly, we had used viva cement fiber board. However they hadnt been applied properly and had started to move. The mosaic tiles on the floor were also badly applied. This is currently being redone with clean white tiles to match the suite.
Unfortunately these things happen, but it is being corrected.
Another mistake was that water was coming in on this side of the wall when raining, it was from an open terrace above and connection with wall. We decided to do something that would stop the problem as the consumer was on this side.............................................
This is what we ended up with a new wood wall double clad with windows, it actually adds a bit of privacy from the road side over, and finishes the front terrace off quite nicely.
here you can see the roof added to move water away, with concrete tiles and metal. This will be painted when the wall is, although im not sure what colour maybe blue?
Right moving to the back of the house, and we have a little addition called the thai kitchen. This will be authentic with cheap gas hob, tiles and all. This is a room that you can get to from the upstairs terrace and from the downstairs lounge through a locked door.
Let see some progress shots...........
Scatty forms, the best kind, we made a slight elevation change just as they started to pour. Was just in time.....
This is what it turned out like, doors for gas and to check sink and thats about it. Massive sink from Ikea a nice little wood window for gazing out of, and we are nearly done.
Here we added some colour for the splash walls, where the cooker and hod will go. We are getting the builder to make cabinets for holding a few plates and bits and pieces. This is the second kitchen and just a utility room.
Moving away from the kitchen we have 2 lounges downstairs a lounge kitchen, and this informal lounge outside bedroom 3. This has 2 big doors that open like windows to let in light, and will have books for casual lounging and downtime.
Downstairs toilet, very big and spacious with just sink no shower, this is where ill do all my serious thinking. plenty of books in here......
Here you can see from the almost the front to the back of the house, there are doors to separate the 2 areas of living if we have guests. and you can get an idea of space.
Right back to the main house section, here you can see the main entrance and lounge from the front terrace. Traditional split level, there will be traditional seating/lounging going on here. This leads to bedroom 1 and master bedroom as well as back terrace.
Again you can see the 2nd bedroom door, the walls have been finished but the floor is yet to be polyd. This should really set the house off when it is done.
Looking back at the main entrance and big doors, from the back terrace.
Nice sunny day outback, we are 6km out on superhighway 2 and easy access to all of chiangmai. Not to close, not too far!
You can now see the completed the bench running across the whole section, it will be a great place to sit and relax.
Reverse looking back at the end of the house. the terrace wraps around the north side and is screened from the sun about 90% only the last 1 hour of sun hits some of the terrace. We are also screened from the road on the south side so the deisgn works really well.
Thats it for the mo, thing are going on so more pics to come as the colour gets done and finished and bathrooms fitted we are almost there in the house. The land is another thing all together...
Dang !!! That's looking very nice Ben !
I didn't read back to the beginning, but I'm assuming you are taking steps to dissuade any termites.
Amazing, it's so beautiful! Just love the baluster poles too!
What about the ceiling, are you going to leave it like this or cover it with something?
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