Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst 12345678 LastLast
Results 151 to 175 of 182
  1. #151
    Thailand Expat
    Phuketrichard's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Last Online
    01-03-2024 @ 05:38 PM
    Location
    Phuket
    Posts
    1,341
    Looking very good and i have to agree with ya. I built one house in Thailand and will Never ever go thru that again.

    Bet ya cant wait to head to the furniture market and really starting spending ur hard earned $$
    got to have that 60" flat screen, surround sound and one of those comfy chairs that massage ya!!!
    and the full size sealy posture bed!

    I'lll be in PP the 13th of Dec , will i be on time for the house warming?
    "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol or insanity, but they've always worked for me" HST

    View my pics

  2. #152
    loob lor geezer
    Bangyai's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    02-05-2019 @ 08:05 AM
    Location
    The land of silk and money.
    Posts
    5,984
    Classy looking house there. I like the style and I'm green with envy.

  3. #153
    Member

    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    29-01-2016 @ 05:41 PM
    Posts
    426
    Nice looking house.
    I am in Phnom penh as well and nearly built a house on the riverside block down the bassac a couple of years ago.
    The block is now knee deep in water.
    Being in the building game all my life means I hate building and couldnt stomach the hassle of building so bought instead.
    Good to see the double brick,brick here never carried a load,only beams are load bearing.
    Khmer bricks are very light and not very strong.
    i wouldnt have any cupboards,everything would be open.Cupboards harbour damp and insects.
    Khmer terrazzo very good.
    I would go for louvres,the old fashioned ones are cheap and allow more air flow but the PVC looks good.
    I like your wrought iron pattern screens but i fear that the vertical bars are wide enough apart to enable the thief with the rat glue and the stick to extract objects like lap tops!
    Is the roof insulated?
    Steel doors are great in cambodia.
    last question-which suburb are you in?

  4. #154
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    We're okay for water so far, the area hasn't flooded yet and this will be second wet season I've owned the plot. The neighbours have told me that the area where I am didn't flood in 2000, so I'm quietly confident.

    Yep building has been a challenge, we've built some other things here before, but nothing on this scale. Been more f-ups than I can count, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. We've got a contractor who I'm really happy with, he's got the right attitude when things go wrong, cool as a cucumber and doesn't try to wriggle out of it.

    I went back and forth a few times on whether to go with uPvc windows, but now I've done it I'm really glad, it's got heat resistant film on it and a great seal, keeps the place nice and cool.

    The bars are mainly to stop anyone getting into the house, we've got a big German Shepherd that I think will make most opportunists think twice.

    The roof is insulated and I can't believe the difference it makes! All of the rooms in the roof space have insulation on top of the plasterboard except one, that room has no plasterboard and houses the water tank, heater and stuff. Walking from that room into the landing you can feel a very noticeable change in temperature. The insulation for the whole roof cost less than $500, talk about value for money!

    I'm in Prek Pra commune. A little bit further down than the mosque.

  5. #155
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    Almost forgot, brilliant fuck up this week. Probably the best one I've seen so far. The area where the septic tanks are buried has a big mole hill like ring of dirt around it as that's where the dirt fell when they were digging the hole.

    Anyway with all the recent rain it had turned into a bit of a duck pond so I told the plumbers lacky to pump it out as the waste system isn't sealed yet and I didn't want sediment and what not working it's way into the tanks or the pipes for the leach field.

    He does as instructed but also took it upon himself to pump the rain water our of the septic tanks and not put any water back in. It's the middle of the wet season, the water table is about 1m below water and those tanks are displacing about 3m2 between them.

    You don't need to be Einstein to figure out what happens next, the builders wake up in the morning to see both tank out of the ground and sat there on the mud in the middle of the garden.

    It took six guys, one heavy duty pump, two day and several failed attempts to get those things back in the ground again. Double face palm!!

  6. #156
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    Quick update, with a few assorted pics:
















  7. #157
    Member

    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    29-01-2016 @ 05:41 PM
    Posts
    426
    One cant have too much insulation,try telling khmers that.
    We were in prek pra too,nice part of town.
    That road down the bassac leads to our block,nicest quarter of phnom penh by far.
    Your house has come up really well,there are always fuck ups.
    the trick is to know how to deal with them.

  8. #158
    Newbie

    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Last Online
    01-08-2021 @ 02:29 PM
    Location
    Dun Sat Pattaya Stavanger
    Posts
    20
    Hi, I wonder how much you paid for your windows? And how will you do with mosquito net.

  9. #159
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    The larger windows you can see in the pic were $338 each, the narrower ones were $154. That included slightly green tinted glass, smoked glass on the bathrooms and heat resistant film on the few east and west facing windows.

  10. #160
    ความสุขในอีสาน
    nigelandjan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Frinton on sea and Ban Pak
    Posts
    13,332
    The cove finishes the ceilings off very nicely Chris ,, wondering what that bit of wire was doing coming throu the middle of the kitchen cupboard ?

  11. #161
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    Quote Originally Posted by nigelandjan View Post
    The cove finishes the ceilings off very nicely Chris ,, wondering what that bit of wire was doing coming throu the middle of the kitchen cupboard ?
    That's the power for the extractor fan that will be installed above the hobs.

  12. #162
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    We're in the final stages now, just few bits here and there plus a clean up and I think we're good to go. We've decided to move in first and then let them do the carport and the garden while we're there, my mum's arriving next Friday so that's incentive enough to just move in.

    The outside, still a few little bits left to do on the wall, but not much:







    Here's my shed / hide out, and as you can see there's still a lot of tiding to be done:



    The veranda now has tiles:





    The kitchen now seems to be the dumping ground for all the builders stuff:



    The stairs turned out well, only having wood on the treads worked out a lot cheaper and looked pretty good I think:







    Hopefully the next time you see pics we'll have moved in and you'll be looking at the finished product!

  13. #163
    Special member
    jizzybloke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    7,877
    Lovely place that, well done and thanks Chris!

  14. #164
    Member
    Dino's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Last Online
    16-11-2013 @ 12:51 AM
    Posts
    115
    Very nice.

    How much of your hair have you lost during this project?

  15. #165
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    Quote Originally Posted by Dino View Post
    How much of your hair have you lost during this project?
    Too much. Although I've come out of the other side now, getting to the point where instead of getting angry I just do a half deranged sounding laugh.

    There's that list somewhere of the most stressful experiences a person can experience in life, was surprised that building a house in Southeast Asia wasn't listed.

  16. #166
    Member
    ShilohJim's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    31-08-2016 @ 10:35 AM
    Location
    Shiloh, Tennessee
    Posts
    145
    Very nice house and even if you're only slightly batty after the experience, you have something you and the wife wanted. It looks really good and you should be very proud. Hope your mum liked the place and had a nice visit.

    Jim

  17. #167
    Thailand Expat
    Phuketrichard's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Last Online
    01-03-2024 @ 05:38 PM
    Location
    Phuket
    Posts
    1,341
    looks great and very big
    enjoy

  18. #168
    Member
    MrBoJangles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Last Online
    17-07-2012 @ 11:39 PM
    Posts
    77
    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo View Post
    Things are really starting to take shape now, so

    Here's the master bedroom, through the archway is a dressing area that leads on the the en-suite:

    Hi Chris,

    Firstly, congratulations on a superb build.

    I am soon to be having the ceilings done in mine and I want to get the same look as yours. Have you got any more pictures of the framework and what systems did you use?

  19. #169
    Member

    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    29-01-2016 @ 05:41 PM
    Posts
    426
    The ceilings are the standard khmer very light weight furring channel where the hangers,main bar and furrings are all the same section screwed together.
    Along with the 9mm gyprock sheet where they never stagger the joints.
    In the west we always stagger the joints so the flushing is less noticeable and it is less likely to crack.
    Her it doesnt matter,no one knows why?

  20. #170
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    ^^ What he said

    Just looked through my pics but didn't get any good ones of the mountings. Thailand also use concrete slabs for the floors in residential buildings so I'm sure they do it the same way there.

  21. #171
    Thailand Expat Hampsha's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Last Online
    31-08-2012 @ 07:47 PM
    Posts
    2,298
    Looks great Chris. Thanks for posting this ongoing masterpiece. Must be interesting living over there in Cambodia.

  22. #172
    Member

    Join Date
    May 2011
    Last Online
    09-08-2013 @ 06:56 AM
    Posts
    73
    I echo what everyone else said. Congrats. Can't wait to see it when you have moved in.

  23. #173
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    Quote Originally Posted by OneSureThing View Post
    I echo what everyone else said. Congrats. Can't wait to see it when you have moved in.
    Thanks guys!

    You won't have to wait long, we're moving in tomorrow. There's still work to do on the outside, but we figured it would be quicker to get it wrapped up with us there.

    We've also had to delay some things like the landscape gardening and motor for the gate due to cash flow, a customer decided to pay late at the worst possible time. So those things will have to wait.

    All in all the budget was pretty accurate, when all is said and done we will have come in $10k over, but that was mainly due to scope creep and price increases on curtain materials. It was a huge amount of stress building ourselves and sourcing all of our own materials, but at the end of day it meant we got a hell of a lot more for our money than we would have if we had of just gone and bought from a developer. it also has those small personal touches that are missing on cookie cutter houses.

    Next week's a holiday here, so I'll have some time to fiddle around and clean up the little bits of sloppiness left behind by the builders.

  24. #174
    Member
    ChrisInCambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Last Online
    17-01-2014 @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Phnom Penh
    Posts
    174
    So we've finally moved in, but don't think that this means the place is finished, there are still builders here and lots to do. Lots of little touch up jobs on the inside and quite a bit left out side like the car port and some work on the fence that sits above the exterior wall.





    As always there have been some teething problems, the water table is insanely high at the moment due to all of this flooding, in fact it's higher than the inlet to our septic tank which create a trapped air pocket in the pipes when water is passing through, bottom line is that the downstairs toilet doesn't clear quickly when flushed. Plumber thinks the water table will be back down in a week or two.

    Also had a few electrical problems, firstly we had irregular voltage, which is a common problem here, under heavy load it was sometimes dropping as low as 170v which obviously isn't good for any electrical goods with motors as they risk over heating. Had to fork out $450 (which I'd rather be spending on furniture) for this bad boy, now steady as a rock 220-230v:



    Second problem is we're paying the price for skimping on the wire from the box 400m away to the house, bottom line is that we have a 63 amp connection but can barely draw 50 amps, only a problem under heavy load, such as loads of air-cons on and oven etc, but still something I'd like to get fixed at some point (when I have any money again, 2022 estimate).

  25. #175
    ความสุขในอีสาน
    nigelandjan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Frinton on sea and Ban Pak
    Posts
    13,332
    Well done Chris ,, looks fantastic , I love your choice of colours on the outside of your home , I bet your missus is well pleased

Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst 12345678 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •