Thread: New Build Near Udon Thani

OK guys, it is finally time to start this building thread and is a result of about 5 years or more of research. As many on this thread, I wanted a teak house and did the normal thing of finding as many threads on this site with that title to read what others have learned. This dream came from my original visit to Thailand in 1985 when I was working in Saudi Arabia and started coming through southeast asia on my way back for home leave and vacations. I saw several teak houses back then in Bangkok and other resort towns and thought it would be nice to have one of my own to retire in. The price back then was about $60,000 and I thought that was reasonable compared to what I would pay back home to have a house built. As we all know, prices have increased significantly over the years.

In 2002 I was is the process of buying a two bedroom 1 bath teak house on Koh Samui for approximately $100,000. It was 30 meters from the water and in a small resort that contained about 20 homes. I was able to rent it out and the maintenance was taken care of by a home owner association. This was in the days when I thought I wanted to retire near the water and be able to fish every day. I travelled there about every 5 months and was pretty happy for about 4 years. As Koh Samui grew and grew, I began to regret my decision due to the amount of tourists visiting the island. It was becomming another Phuket which I was not wanting or looking for.

About the same time, I met a food waitress at a local restaurant who spoke good English and it became a regular thing to have breakfast at this restaurant and ask for that particualr waitress. It was not an attraction other than having someone to talk to and learn about the Thai culture. She knew about my dream to live in Thailand and I told her about my regret for picking Koh Samui. She was from the Udon Thani area and she asked if I would like to visit? At that time I had no idea of what Udon was like and graciously declined. My next visit to Koh Samui, she told me that her younger sister was visiting and would I like to meet her. I said sure and the rest is history. We wound up taking a trip up to Udon Thani and stayed in town. She took me to her parent's home, who were both deceased, and I met the entire family. It was a great experience and we definatly had the chemistry needed to start a relationship. Shortly after, I sold the house in Koh Samui and banked the money that I had invested to that point.

I continued to visit Thailand every 5 months and stayed at my lady's parents house. In 2007 we bought the first building lot. It was about 2 rai for 350,000 baht. I had no idea of the value of land at that time, but it seemed a good price. It was on a main village road about 1/4 km from her parent's house and we had the fill dirt delivered to start the process of building a home. I will include some pics later.
In 2009, we looked at another piece of land that had a pond with good views and was more to my liking. We wound up buying 4 rai which was also very close to my lady's parents house. We now had two building lots. One that the family keeps saying would be good for a shop of some sort and the other that is more suited to a residence and growing some small crops. I have no plan to open any kind of shop and told my lady that land is the same as money and not to sell it.

Last January we had some fill dirt brought in and I finally decided on a house plan. I have traversed away from a desire to have a teak house and for several years had looked at a knockdown teak house. The cost kept going up to a point where I thought it was too expensive. I also read other threads like the one of Dr. A about his country house and his buying an existing house to use the wood for his build. Others have done the same and this sounded like a reasonable solution to the rising cost of wood. I began my hunt for an existing home with teak wood that was in good shape. JJ has done the same on this site and now has a very nice house. Over a three year period, I had several different renditions of the house I wanted to build. I prefer wood, but understand the reasonable price of cement and that most all Thais know how to build with this material.

After a lot of thought, I decided to build a concrete structure with some teak panels. I will post the rendition showing the original plan for the house. I have made some modifications to suit my own taste and give more living space. I have already ordered four 5 meter x 5 meter teak panels, each with two windows that are currently being constructed and will be the center piece of the house. They will be on the second floor. I know it is difficult to visualize everything without pictures, so I will try to upload the initial renditions that gave me the idea for the house.

The fill dirt is now going through a rainy season and I will start constuction the end of October or beginning of November when I retire and will post my progress. I am on a budget, as we all are, and hope to build the house at a reasonable cost with the help of all the threads I have read on TD. Stay tuned........