I've got 1 rai of land on Koh Lanta and at some point would like to put up a house that is as open as possible. Do mosquitos and other creepers and crawlers make an open plan a bad idea?
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I've got 1 rai of land on Koh Lanta and at some point would like to put up a house that is as open as possible. Do mosquitos and other creepers and crawlers make an open plan a bad idea?
Maybe have a 4 poster bed with mozzie nets - quite romantic...
half pissed, trying to exit a mozzie net to piss. tangled ball of mess of arms legs, net and ms on the floor, desperately trying to get untangled before eruption of 5 qts of beer.
Quite an image. Mozzie nets? no thanks :)
E. G.
Once you have it down, one can easily manage a net pissed as all get out.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Gibbon
personally, i would try and make rooms such as bedrooms,kitchen, lounge all closed areas,
but i would also have a large open area which acts as a main room/entertainment area,dining area,lounge room.
that way you have the best ofboth worlds.
Just piss through it.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Gibbon
I like to have my own room away where I can't hear Thai television.
Yer right about the outdoor room.
Once, just about every Thai house was built up on stilts and the space below was where the living was done. The wind could blow through and cool the wooden sleeping room up top.
I'm living in one of those houses, and like just about every one of them, the downstairs has been blocked up and off. It doesn't keep out the vermin. They like an enclosed place. But I can lock up my appliances.
When you see those houses out in the country, they're way to open for my farang blood. A few hammocks strung up, and grandma asleep in front of the whole world.
I've seen many a restaurant and resort where they were able to keep it open and get privacy with plants and partial walls.
Thailand is too hot to live inside.
I like the open house, it can provide a nice living space if you've good a decent garden. Also cheaper because you don't have to build walls.
Vermin aren't a worry, biggest problem is theft, best if you can have someone around most of the time.
99% of the heat coming in comes from the roof and walls. The wind blowing thru underneath has little to do with cooling upstairs. Though the open, well ventilated, shady space downstairs is certainly a cooler retreat. Hence the reason why Thais often sling hammocks up there to rest in the heat of the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by satapadak
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2009/06/807.jpg (Mosquito and insect screens..had them on all but one of my rented houses for 6yrs)
Total solution for you and your critter and mosi' needs just remember to close them...or just squrt the room 20-30mins before entering...or do as follows...
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif I prefer the yellow can..A: It smells better B: It seems to whack everything in the room except some of the bugs I like..
This way you can still get fresh air rather than that horrible air-con cack....
^Isn't that shit carcinogenic? And what happens after you go to sleep and the mozzies sneak back in?
they can't sneek back in if it's fitted right??? and to answer your 1st question...what ain't carinogenic these days....wife, kids, work, food, etc etc etc
:rofl:
If Pattaya, the BIB don't get ya first!!! :spin:
I prefer the citronella mozzie coils, if you put a few about and turn on the fan they work fine. Even fans alone do a good job.
Screens are OK, but mozzies are clever buggers and will find tiny hole or hang around until someone opens the door.
If you search for Bali style you'll find some really nice pics, although it looks pretty expensive so it depends on the budget.
The Thai house and garden magazines also has some really nice stuff, that would cost a lot less to build.
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Open or closed the beasties will get in. As others have mentioned, you should plan an enclosed room or two to keep out the thieving two legged vermin.Quote:
Originally Posted by hepcat
Mosquito Netting Curtains: An elegant inexpensive alternative to a screen porch
May be something to think about.
How does it do that. I simply copy/pasted the url from the browser?
do it yourself mosquito trap and insect repellents
Quick and Dirty Mosquito Trap | DIY:happy
How to Make Natural Outdoor Fly Repellent with Essential Oils - wikiHow
Dunno about mozzies, but here a tip for flies....
Every day at lunch time this dirty smelly homeless Aboriginal woman would come up to the pie stall and buy a pie for lunch.
And everyday she would go through the same ritual. Buy the pie. Walk across the road to a park bench. Take off her pants and then sit down to eat the pie.
One day the pie stall owner who had watched this ritual for a year asked the lady why she always took off her pants before eating. The lady replied,-- Keeps the flys off me pie! :-)
Why, you're saving on walls and lowered ceilings? ;) Couple old fasioned light bulbs and it suddenly looks like the Oriental hotel. (The expense may be in a maid to dust it off twice a day.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Smithson
Anyway, as it happens the 'open living' concept is one of the parameters I'm toying with for my 'cheapo cottage in the rice fields' project.
There was talk here of having some rooms closed and some open... well that implies multiple rooms. I may be going for both at the same time. See below, there's a huge outdoor deck, and then a single room that's also fairly big, but the entire wall is one of those folding door panel thingies, so you essentially open up the whole lot of it. And then there's the downstairs area to play with.. Some nice tiles, plants, etc. (Bathroom area is still the ugly after-thought that it seems in most rural Thai houses.. Need a solution for that)
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Those door panels are fairly expensive though, for example Häfele make that shit where it all folds very smoothly but solidly. But I see these panels also in a much more crude form in old Thai shophouses, where it goes on a steel rail, with clunky wooden panels. Either way the concept is the same.
You could make the toilet/bathroom in natural stone downstairs or make it double story (in natural stone) next to the house with an upstairs toilet/bathroom and a lockable store/bath room downstairs
Cheers johpam
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
This is very similar to my mother-in-laws place, except that upstairs there are far more windows and they are much bigger as well. If fact all the walls are just panels of windows (more like shutters really) joined together that can be individually opened and positioned to catch the afternoon breeze. When they are all open it's just like taking the side of the house off. Cools it down very quickly once the sun drops.
I'd love to see that!! And I thought I already included way more windows than the standard... You have any pictures?
I would like to see that as well. WLL, we seem to have the same taste in homes. How much did you have in mind for that house? Another thing I'm after is a small house that is amenable to future annexes.
What did you have in mind for flooring in your ground story? I'm toying with an open japanese tea-garden type feel.
For the initial house (I might not even call it a house, it's just to spend a weekend) I would hope to stay well South of 500K including everything..
Future annexes is an option.. so is just starting again somewhere else, leaving the original hovel as a separate guest house. I guess with most Thai style building you just add a covered walkway or veranda/walkway to connect to another room/building.
I really suggest you check out some of the Thai house and garden magazines, the ones sold in the newsagents, not the fancy coffee table books.Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteLotusLane
They have some nice places in there that aren't overdone with expensive features and furniture. I'm sure you'll find some good ideas. One I have at home has a place very similar to your sketch. The underneath part is brick paved with a garden surrounding.
I would also consider a simple kitchen downstairs, doesn't need to be fancy, just a gas cooker, sink and one of those rat/insect proof cabinets.
I remember you saying that you didn't like the look of a concrete bathroom attached to a wooden house. I think the poster above has it right, a stone addition wouldn't look out of place there. Perhaps with some of those translucent glass blocks as a roof, I think they'd allow enough light to even have some plants in your toilet and give it an outdoor feel. I live in Saigon, many of the coffeeshops here have stone additions with fountains that are open to the sky and there is really no reason it couldn't work as a toilet as well.
I don't have any photos of it. I'll take some next time we go to Ayutthaya. (probably in August)Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteLotusLane
Me too, possibly.Quote:
Originally Posted by TizMe
Something like this downstairs, you could pave or have concrete. The blinds are dirt cheap and keep out sun and dust
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2009/06/905.jpg
Some nice ideas for upstairs
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2009/06/906.jpg
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2009/06/907.jpg
Smithson, the pics are great. Do you have any more? A few questions. In the bedroom the walls look made of concrete, and the living area is all wood. Is that the same house? If I use it as a holiday house, what can I do for security? The living area and downstairs look nice and open, I wonder what is done to lock it up.
^ I found the pics here It's a resort, so security's not a problem.
It's interesting how popular resorts have nice open styles, yet few ppl choose to build that way. Security may be part of the reason.
The only real solution is to have somebody live there or very close by. Also, having very little worth stealing is a good idea.
I'd go for an open design to live in full time and would probably keep things fairly simple, I don't think heaps need to be spent to make the place look nice.
For security I'd have ppl live there, ideally a couple, the woman for housework etc. and a man to do the garden and odd jobs. A nice garden costs little.
On WhiteLotus's computer rendered house, can anyone guesstimate the dimensions/cost of adding a stone structure as a bathroom? Is stone expensive in Thailand?