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  1. #426
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    Still no answer from PD House (surprise-surprise).

    Wife has sent me some new pics. They've been busy painting interior, working in the bathrooms and looks like they've been cleaning up the interior.



    Guest suite interior. I was surprised to see this color, as I thought we were going with a neutral color. I'll go with it for now, but it might have to be repainted before any male farang guests stay with us.




    Guest suite bathroom. I like the shower set-up and am really glad we got rid of the urinal (standard in design). It would have been located on the wall opposite the toilet. Which would have meant that anytime you're sitting there, your face would be near the urinal !!

    I'm still trying to figure out how the exhaust fan will vent, unless they are going to install some ductwork outside. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't understand these kinds of details. But I'm trying to get her to understand. She wants the fan in the ceiling, which does look nice, but there's got to be an exit path for that fan.






    Looking under the stairs towards the visitors bathroom and the maid room. That bright light is from the side entrance (car park area):





    A view from the stairs looking up towards the master bedroom:





    From the upstairs family room, looking towards the front of the house:





    Master bathroom suite is coming along. Looks like they will soon be able to install the jacuzzi, which has been sitting in the master bedroom for a while now.









    Front, upstairs bedroom on the east end of the house. For now, my wife's sister will stay there and she picked the color.






    My youngest daughter's bedroom. I know she really likes blue, so we went with a light blue color. Although, it looks a little too green. We may have to tweak it a little when she visits. This is also on the east end, upstairs and above the kitchen:




    The shared bathroom for these two bedrooms. I hope that the sink will be better centered than that ! And we will have to get a nice glass divider between the sink and shower (left of the sink).




    Steve

  2. #427
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    The more I see the bigger it gets !

    Huge place mate ,, I reckon your gonna be well pleased with it once the builders are all done and gone home

  3. #428
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    So you will be using as a under ground water tank, if the tank is empty & there is water in the ground a round the tank it can lift the tank.
    Steve your land looks very high but water can sit around the tank.
    Also the pump will have to draw the water from below so you would more problems.
    When you have a tank above ground it is less of a problem.

    I built some tank to go under ground at my home, the day before installing them.
    I had a rethink as I was tilling over the top of them & decided not a good I they could lift if empty.


  4. #429
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    Believe me, I argued against putting the tank in the ground, mostly because of concern over NPSH requirements for the pump. But the wife did not want to see the tank, so she picked one out, from the catalog, for in-ground purposes. I did have a say on tank size.

    2,000 liter size tank, so hopefully it should never, ever be empty. Water supply seems pretty reliable. I'm also thinking I want to dig a well in the coming years, just not sure how expensive it will be.

  5. #430
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    We've got power to the house it seems. Looks pretty good in the dark. They've also been adding the decorative red brick on many of the exterior columns.

    Some views from the front (north end)








    Northeast corner:




    Northwest corner, looking at the guest suite (ground floor) & Master Bedroom (upstairs):




    A little more of the northwest corner:




    Outside my office, looking east from southwest corner (and my banana tree):





    View from northeast corner where you see the car park (with water tank waiting to be installed):






    South east corner, outside the interior western kitchen:








    East corner of the house. This is where we will have the outdoor, Thai style kitchen and patio area to relax.







    Steve

  6. #431
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    Blimey mate , your sure gonna have some size electric bill

  7. #432
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    Guest suite bathroom, ground floor.




    Maid/visitor bathroom, ground floor. We're going to have to do something about a shower curtain or screen.:





    Upstairs shared bathroom for the two bedrooms on the east end. It's hard to see, but that vase like figure has some nice blue tones in it. The main reason why I picked it out.





    And we will put a glass screen between the shower & sink.




    No new pictures of the master bathroom. I think I posted one or two recently anyway.

    Steve

  8. #433
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    Quote Originally Posted by nigelandjan View Post
    Blimey mate , your sure gonna have some size electric bill

    We are using a lot of flourescent bulbs, and I did want a lot of light. Their standard has one single light in the ceiling of each room. I re-did the electric plan to have four lights in each room, 2 lights per switch.

    And after testing an LED bulbs here in the USA, I'm going to slowly switch over to LED bulbs. It's a nicer light than flourescent.

    I did see some LED bulbs in Thailand that were rated 50/60 Hz 110/220 V, so I'm going to check to see if the USA bulbs are the same. That would save me some money, as LED bulbs are still pricey in Thailand.

    And, as I've mentioned a few times, I want to play around and try to set up a solar/wind system to help out.

  9. #434
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    Looking from the downstairs family room out to the main entrance. Looks like they been cleaning up the interior.




    And then looking to the stairs. You also see the side entrance from the car park area. The closed door goes to the maid room. The open doorway is the visitor's bathroom.




    Looking to the left (west) of the main entrance, there's that little sitting area. In the back, you see a doorway to the guest suite bathroom. We also had them round all the columns. We first had 2 square shaped columns and one round one. We decided we liked the round ones better.




    Now, standing by the main entrance and looking east, towards the kitchen:



    Steve

  10. #435
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stevefarang
    concern over NPSH requirements for the pump.
    I have underground tank. Been in place 10 years. Zero maintenance so far.
    No cavitation problems with pump but house is single story. Good pressure at all faucets even when multiple are on.

    The house is coming along quite nice. Won't be long til you will have to fill up with stuff.

  11. #436
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by stevefarang
    concern over NPSH requirements for the pump.
    I have underground tank. Been in place 10 years. Zero maintenance so far.
    No cavitation problems with pump but house is single story. Good pressure at all faucets even when multiple are on.

    The house is coming along quite nice. Won't be long til you will have to fill up with stuff.
    Thanks Norton. It's a 300 w pump, so we should have good pressure. But I am worried about cavitation. I don't think the HomePro staff would have any idea about this (pump curves), so we'll have to wait and see how the pump works with the underground tank.

    The fill up of stuff will be a slow process. Eventually, there will be about 7-8 a/c units, but we'll only do the bedrooms and my office first. We have ceiling fans in every room, so that should help. I want to focus on the outside Thai kitchen before worrying about the interior Western kitchen.

    I'm hoping it will be done in less than 3 months. They are waiting for some dry weather to paint the exterior.

    And no, PD House has not yet responded to my e-mail. I even forwarded a message to one of their VP's, but he's silent as well. Really poor customer service. If they want to do business with foreigners, they have to learn to deal with them.

  12. #437
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    Question about Doors

    I like those doors in your main entrance - are they aluminum or UPVC? Any idea the brand or where PD House got them?

    Thanks

  13. #438
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    Some new exterior shots.

    Main entrance view. If you look at the columns flanking the entrance, you will see a concrete trim piece about 3/4 of the way up. Now, if you look to the right, by the guest suite corner, you will see little red brick trim pieces. They will do the same on these two main columns up to the concrete trim pieces.




    A view to the left side of the house. You see the car park, our 2,000 l water tank waiting to be buried in the ground behind the kitchen. They've installed the red brick trim pieces on the corners. You can also see the side entrance into the house from the car park.




    Looking more at the guest suite.





    Now going around to the west side of the house. The guest suite is to the left, guest suite bathroom is that small window and my office is to the right (southwest corner). Balcony off the master bedroom is starting to to look good.





    A close up of the balcony area. My wife picked out the external lights. Not what I would have gone with but c'est la vie.





    Looking at the south wall. Outside the western Kitchen. The water tank will be buried about where the ladder is sitting on the ground.






    Looking at the east wall. Entrance to the western Kitchen is that first door. Thai kitchen will be located out here, plus an outside sitting patio. Need to come up with some kind of cover to complement the house, maybe have a couple of ceiling fans stuck up inside as well.
    Looks like they've installed the red brick decorative trim pieces here as well.




    Steve

  14. #439
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ganesh View Post
    I like those doors in your main entrance - are they aluminum or UPVC? Any idea the brand or where PD House got them?

    Thanks
    UPVC. I can try and ask PD House who their supplier is, not sure if they will reply...LOL

    If you go back to the beginning of this thread, we were torn between a beautiful wood entrance and the UPVC. I was going to go with the wood but didn't know how much of a maintenance headache it would be. I suppose we could always switch to a wood entrance down the road.

  15. #440
    Thailand Expat Storekeeper's Avatar
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    Hey Steve ... Is it really as big as it looks? The reason I ask is because I saw so many houses in Thailand that from the front I could only imagine how huge they were inside ... And then come to find out it was kind of an illusion once I saw the interior.

    So how many square feet is the interior? By the pictures I would guess roughly 2200. Is it that big or bigger?

  16. #441
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    It looks way bigger than mine and I have 2100 sq ft, or 210 sq meters sk.

  17. #442
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    Quote Originally Posted by Storekeeper View Post
    Hey Steve ... Is it really as big as it looks? The reason I ask is because I saw so many houses in Thailand that from the front I could only imagine how huge they were inside ... And then come to find out it was kind of an illusion once I saw the interior.

    So how many square feet is the interior? By the pictures I would guess roughly 2200. Is it that big or bigger?
    Yes, compared to a typical Thai hut, it's big. But I wanted it, especially after seeing the large open space at the front entrance. The wife wanted something much smaller. If I end up retiring there, I don't want some small 1-2 bedroom shack, where I shuffle from the bedroom to the sitting room and back again. With this, I have room to roam and a bedroom on the ground floor, if I ever have problems with the stairs.

    I've also been crammed into a 2 bedroom condo for the past 8 years or so. I relish the open space.

    I thought I had mentioned the dimensions before, but no worries.

    The overall footprint is: Length: 22 m, Width 22 m. Although is doesn't feel like a square. You can read back and see the standard floor plan and our floor plan (via the electric plan I posted).

    What the heck, here's the link to the PD House standard floor plan for our little humble abode You can even see the standard floor plan for each floor. That may help you understand some of my pictures.

    If I recall, when we were pricing the granite flooring, the ground floor is about 170 sq m, and upstairs is 150 sq m. So ~320 sq m, which is about 3444.5 sq ft.

  18. #443
    Thailand Expat Storekeeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stevefarang View Post
    If I recall, when we were pricing the granite flooring, the ground floor is about 170 sq m, and upstairs is 150 sq m. So ~320 sq m, which is about 3444.5 sq ft.
    Wow! 3444 square feet ! Yep, that's plenty of room to roam. Thanks for the response. It's a grand looking house. Cheers.

  19. #444
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    wow... thats like "tara"...

    but very nice, and the colors also of nortons house really awesome...

    there is on the concrete ground layer seen "holes", as if the ground wasnt prepared straight, flat
    e.g. as on this one

    isnt this dangerous?

    why do they paint white dots and stripes everywhere ?

    the doors...
    in europe, there is a metal shield on the frame, with a "hook" (a metal pole) and the door has such metal-lids/caps, so that the dore is hanged into the poles on the frame...
    why do they in asia this two-shield-thing... one on the door and one on the frame - even in SUCH LUXURIOUS houses ?
    Last edited by alitongkat; 01-09-2013 at 03:23 PM.

  20. #445
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    Quote Originally Posted by stevefarang
    the ground floor is about 170 sq m
    That's a nice size. I'm building a tiny and cheap place; 120sqM (one floor) inside and about 80 sqM covered outside space; that's about as small as I could reasonably go, so 170sqM (2 floors) is very nice - I wouldn't say huge...

  21. #446
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    what is the room height in the regular rooms ?

    personally, i think in asia you can "go big" with the house, as buying the place isnt that expensive and you dont have to pay for the extraordinary heating costs...
    so big and high and open space - is quite good here and even of advantage, might stay cooler...

    the problem is however, that most people use almost the whole place to fit the house onto, with almost no space around it anymore...
    thats very stupid... huge house, ok, but have PLENTY of space to the neighbours... otherwise, better go smaller... 3 meter is the very minimum to the neighbour imo...

  22. #447
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    and if they pay 500 baht per day compensation for not finishing the house in time, then its not overly much - 30 * 500 = 15,000 THB per month...

    because normally, you will have to pay longer rent, while you already have to pay for the loan at the bank... - because of the construction delay...

  23. #448
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    Quote Originally Posted by alitongkat View Post
    wow... thats like "tara"...

    but very nice, and the colors also of nortons house really awesome...

    there is on the concrete ground layer seen "holes", as if the ground wasnt prepared straight, flat
    e.g. as on this one

    isnt this dangerous?

    why do they paint white dots and stripes everywhere ?

    the doors...
    in europe, there is a metal shield on the frame, with a "hook" (a metal pole) and the door has such metal-lids/caps, so that the dore is hanged into the poles on the frame...
    why do they in asia this two-shield-thing... one on the door and one on the frame - even in SUCH LUXURIOUS houses ?
    Wow, that is an old picture you pulled up. LOL

    That hole should be where the outlet pipe to the septic tank goes (possible ease of access to the plumbing under the bathroom?). I don't even recall seeing it now. If it is still there, it will be filled.

    I'm not sure what you mean by white dots and stripes. Some of those are lines to ensure things are straight.

    And you totally lost me on your door question. They look like the typical doors used in houses in the USA. I'm not European, so I can't compare to what is done there. Could we have gone with fancier doors ? I'm sure we could have, but that is not a big concern for us. We can always replace them later, if we discover something really interesting. For now, I want PD House done and gone.

    Steve

  24. #449
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    Quote Originally Posted by alitongkat View Post
    what is the room height in the regular rooms ?

    personally, i think in asia you can "go big" with the house, as buying the place isnt that expensive and you dont have to pay for the extraordinary heating costs...
    so big and high and open space - is quite good here and even of advantage, might stay cooler...

    the problem is however, that most people use almost the whole place to fit the house onto, with almost no space around it anymore...
    thats very stupid... huge house, ok, but have PLENTY of space to the neighbours... otherwise, better go smaller... 3 meter is the very minimum to the neighbour imo...

    LOL, the closest neighbour is across the road from us. And they are very happy we developed the lot and built the house. They used to have problems, during heavy rain with water washing across the road into their place. Not anymore.

    The back side of the house is close to a rice paddy, but we are thinking of buying it one day. The house begs for a swimming pool behind it and that lot would be perfect it. My wife is friends with the granddaughter of the guy who owns it and is working that angle.

    I posted this before, but here's a Google Earth snapshot of the 3 lots we own.




    Room height ? I never measured it, but it looks like a "standard" room height.

    Steve

  25. #450
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    chose the picture because of the hole...


    european door...


    in thailand, and apparently in the US the middle bolt is entirely missing ?
    i have never seen other doors in europe than the style on the pic...

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