Updated 6 July 2016:
I have just published a 750 page eBook that follows the challenges, frustrations and successes of building a house in Thailand from the very start of us buying the land through to moving in and beyond. You will be part of our building team for every day of construction and I will share many do’s and don’ts all designed to save you time, money, sleepless nights or all three. This book is a must have as part of your research on the subject of building in Thailand and you can find it HERE.
4 – 10 April, a week of finishing. Finishing the pond and wall, finishing the kitchen by installing the granite benchtop and FINALLY finishing clearing the boxes out of the kitchen/dining area.
By the Wednesday everyone had left the site and we had the whole place to ourselves. My beer consumption has decreased as the end of day drinks with the building crew has stopped. The photo above is one such final session with Ming and the A Team. It feels quite strange but in a nice way not to have people wandering around the land and house. All the construction has now been completed and we are left to finalise the unpacking and start work on all the minor things that need doing.
The week started with continued work on the front wall, which was starting to look quite impressive.
The main gate on the left and the smaller entry gateway on the right.
That access gate looking towards the house.
The walls around this tree have been an added complication but I really didn’t want just to take the easy solution and cut the tree down.
The flower bed to be in front of the main wall. Gaun checking out the mangos. The supporting steel work for the palings.
Rather than buy a bracket the guys cut the end of the steel beam and screwed it to the wall. Clever and cheap!
Meanwhile Ming had finishing up tiling the pond in front of the outside seating area.
The bridge starting to be built to the front door.
The seating area to the left.
The front wall finished. Once the render is dry it will be painted the same colour as the house. That entry ramp will be concreted.
And at night. Love it.
Once tidied, painted and planted up this will look brilliant.
From the pond to the big lounge room windows.
Across the bridge to the front door.
The front wall finished the A Team, four guys who have done a lot of the work on my build, offered to build a fenced area at the end of the pond for Barney, my turtle who has yet to join the family. I paid for the materials but the guys did the work for free. They have been a brilliant crew and I will be sorry to see them go in some ways.
They will be back in a few weeks however as I am adding a small gym, a storage area, an internal laundry and a toilet to the back of the carport!!!!!!!!!! Crazy I know but I will be bored by then and ready to re-enter the construction business 🙂
Barney’s garden area being constructed. The pond is lower at the end to allow Barney access to the water/garden while preventing him from wandering off via the side walls and ending up as someone’s soup .
Completed and after Gaun’s quick landscaping work. Koi fish will be added first and Barney will be found once the wet season starts and the turtles start appearing.
Looking across the pond to the lounge area.
Looking the other way towards the front from the lounge area. A lawn area will be going down between the pond and the sala to quickly cover the dirt. A new tree added – A$25.00.
Moving to the inside, on the Tuesday build day 158, the people who were to install the granite benchtop in the kitchen turned up. Three blokes and a ladyboy. I was so pleased to see them because the kitchen was the final area still to be completed. We had packing boxes of cooking stuff cluttering up the area, plus the water filter, sink and cooktop couldn’t be finished without the benchtop.
I have to say I was super impressed with the work these guys did – the ladyboy did nothing until it came time to clean up when she showed herself to be a whizz on a mop! The granite came in four pieces, plus we had ordered two separate pieces for the two ensuites. They took care in determining the levels and joins and the whole thing looks great. Spot on.
Before.
The benchtop going in.
I had ordered a bullnose edge to the bench and it was all done on site just with a couple of grinders and a steady hand. Amazing. We chose a black colour with a gold fleck. Very smart.
The finished result.
I can totally recommend this granite supplier located almost opposite to the new Global House heading back into Udon Thani. Let me know if you want more detailed info. I have covered it in a previous post.
On the Wednesday Tam, the head of the A Team dropped in and connected our five stage drinking water filter and the sink. We now have a fully operational kitchen – yay.
Also on Wednesday we had the front gateway measured up for a four meter stainless steel gate, which will be ready to go in on 5 May, at a cost of 10,000 THB a meter. It is the last of the major expenses for this stage of the build.
Part of completing the kitchen involved kitting out the pantry, a forgotten room but important to the overall functioning of the house. I have rented a couple of places in Thailand that had almost no storage space and didn’t want this to happen in a house I designed. The pantry is a 1.1 x 3.0 meter room in between the two bedrooms.
We bought shelving from HomePro, the only place I know of that you can find laminated shelving in Udon Thani. The supporting structure was made out of leftover AAC blocks, painted up and glued together. The end result is a bit rustic but does the job. All my own work.
The pantry providing much needed storage space.
The end of Week 23 was a very satisfying step forward in the house becoming a comfortable home and it now looks like this:
From kitchen to lounge.
The inside dining area now ready to be used.
From the front door.
The lounge.
Paintings now up.
From lounge looking towards the kitchen.
Not that long ago.
I am still at that honeymoon stage where I just like to stand and look. Gaun thinks I am odd but I don’t care 🙂 I am so pleased with the end result that it gives me great pleasure to let it all sink in. From Excel spreadsheet to a lovely family home and all for the cost of a garage back in Australia. There is no doubt that I am a lucky man.
I am not sure if Week 24 will make an appearance. I will write a build summary at some stage, which will bring the whole thing together and list everything I think you should look out for if constructing here. I want to take the budget apart at some stage too and look at ways I could have saved money by reducing the quality in a sensible way.
I also want to return to writing some stories that have nothing to do with building and get the blog focussed on living in Thailand again.
Lots to happen so keep in touch.
Thanks for reading.
Hi Tony,
I am Thai but living in New York with my American husband. We are going to build a new house in Kranuan, Khonkaen at the end of this year. My husband tries to understand how that works in Thailand. Your website is very helpful for us to get an idea about how things work and the costs.
I do not have any questions for you yet, but maybe in the future I will. Thanks in advance.
Hello Areerat.
I would be very pleased to help you and your husband as much as I can. Farang can get very worried about the building process here and there are lots of stories online about things that can go wrong. While it is a more challenging journey than building in a more regulated country it doesn’t have to be especially hard. Doing the research is so important so the process is understood, because the way Thais build houses can be different from where we come from. However, it doesn’t have to be as complicated or risky as some people write about. My house build had some frustrations, but no more than back ‘home’, and the result has given me almost four years of pleasure since we moved in. You are less than three hours drive from us so if you were ever in Isan and wanted to drop in to look at the house and talk through issues that would be no problem.
Best regards. Tony
Hi Tony,I am an Aussie expat who has lived with a Thai lady in Phuket for 10yrs+. Two years ago she built a lovely 2bedder/2bathroom house at Umper Phen (30klms north of Udon Town. We are contemplating getting addit kitchen cupboards put in her large kitchen and both like some pics MJ Kitchens have (located in Global) I am amazed how expensive kitchen cupboards are up north, so… a) can you recommend good value, good quality suppliers/installers + b) the granite supplier you recomm are they opposite Global on the road to INDEX ?? thanx
Hi Phil. Sorry to be slow in responding. Between the beautiful weather and lots of social events I have kept away from the computer for a while. Back to it now. I put a MJ kitchen into my place and compared to prices back home I didn’t think it was expensive for full timber units. As an alternative I have an Aussie mate who bought his kitchen and had it installed by Do Home on highway 2 heading to Nong Khai. They do a computer mockup of the end result. That was a laminate version. Home Hub is just before Do Home heading north and they have kitchens. HomePro have a nice range, including MJ I think, and can do computer designs but I doubt they do budget prices. Living Index is another place that has kitchens. ToolPro on the ringroad (216 northern side) and St Mall (HERE) have more budget ranges when I was looking (now four years ago).
I used a granite supplier almost opposite Global House (north) on highway 2 heading to Khon Kaen. This is a larger, newer version of Global than the one on the ringroad. They did a good job.
If you need more info please let me know. Good luck.
Tony
Hi Tony
Very enjoyable blog and thank you for the time and effort you have put in to produce. Pleasant change from usual other sites.
One question, you posted a photo of your water filter, the black unit.
Did you buy locally in Udon? I have the same problem with gritty water supply from a well but when I look for a decent filter all I can find is the usual drinking water units. Help appreciated.
Alex
Thank you Alex.
The unit we bought was from Global House, in our case the one in Nong Bua Lamphu, but it is a standard stocked item. It is a Master water softener and retails for around 16,000 THB. The unit comes with two components the resin filter and the brine (salt) tank best explained in this article here
http://www.aptaquapure.com.au/new/how-water-softers-work/
Bore/well water has high levels of calcium in it which leaves stain marks on everything it touches and clogs up pipes and any drinking water filtration unit you may have.
I am a total newbie to the whole DIY water filtration and it is only more recently that I have been doing more research into the system mainly because mine hasn’t been a total success. The cheaper Master system is a manual one so you have to decide when you flush the resin tank with the brine, something I do every couple of weeks. It chews through salt as the system is flushed and I am worried about polluting the soil around the unit with the backwash. I find it doesn’t do a great job as the RO (Reverse Osmosis) filter in the drinking water filtration unit (the finest filter removing 99% of rubbish and the most expensive to replace at 1,200 THB) gets clogged up really quickly to the extent we have stopped using it until I can find a solution. It does however stop big flakes of calcium forming in say the toilet cistern, which was happening before I worked out how to flush the system regularly.
If you are pulling up water that requires proper filtration, apart form the calcium, magnesium and maybe iron, then you will need to look at a charcoal filter separate from this unit. Our water is very clean just high in calcium.
I am happy to share anything I find in my research if you’d find that useful.
Hi Tony ,
Your building blog is the best ever , so concise and informative,I have a question of you don’t mind ?The labour cost,does that includes the plumber and electrician?I’m starting my build in Sakaew and in the process of looking for quotes.
Regards,
Gavin
Much appreciated Gavin.
The labour cost included plumbing and the electrical that was shown on the plans, which was very basic as the draftsman drew that part to Thai standards. I ended up paying 30,500 THB extra on the electrical for 92 outlets (350 THB per installation). That was for wires in conduit run between the double block walls, junction boxes and all fitting of powerpoints, switches and lighting fixtures. A lot cheaper if you do Thai style and have the bare wires tacked to the wall. If you have a look at the final costs in about week 25 or 26 I think you will see all the electrical costs there.
The quote I got was a very good one as Ming the builder did a special deal for my Thai family. I don’t think he ended up making too much from the deal.
Good luck with it all and let me know if you need any additional information.
Tony
tony I just came across your blog and could not stop from start to finish. I have been with my girl for 4 years but keep coming back home to melbourne for various reasons but have spent a lot of time with her and family in Sawang dien about 100 km from udon. Everything you wrote about thai family and life and women was spot on. It was like I was reading my experiences all over again. I am having trouble though taking that final step to leave and make a home there. We have land already. It’s not so easy to just do what you,Ve done and I admire you so much for having done so well in making your new life. You are correct when you say we can learn so much from what they still have that western culture has lost. I will be a regular follower. Good luck and keep writing.
It’s comments like yours Peter that keep me writing. Thanks very much.
I can understand the hesitation in making that final step. Thailand works for some but not for others. I have seen a lot of sad looking farang in my travels. In the “retire to Asia” articles too much emphasis is placed on the financial benefits of living here and I think many people become economic refugees from their own country stuck here because it is the only place they can afford to retire to.
The main decision to make is could you live here, and there are many negatives as well as the obvious positives. If that decision is yes, then look at whether the finances support that decision. If you can tick both boxes then Thailand offer a very comfortable lifestyle for half the money it would cost in Australia.
I hope your decision works out for the very best and if I can provide any additional information please let me know.
Thanks again. Tony
thanks tony.
if i do make the leap i will definitely be leaning on your experiences. For the design of your house did you use an architect? in udon if so? how did you get to the final building and design plan stages, what was the process, because when i ask my GF its “it will be ok, its issan, but i like to know what i,m getting and how its to go down, because as you know things get lost in translation sometimes but if in black and white i can see it all. hope you can help
Hi Peter. I designed the house myself and then used a local draftsman to draw up the working plans. I was lucky in having a builder who could both read and follow plans. Many can’t. If you want plans drawn try your local Tessaban, which is the town admin centre. They will have a planning department who might be able to produce plans on the side. Let me know if you want more details.
Just awesome Tony! I know Gaun and you are so proud and happy to be settled in. It truly is a wonderful home and a great layout. Gaun’s gardens are looking great and I love the beds outside the wall. Just the thing to break up what would have been a beautiful wall anyway but that is a really nice touch.
Relay my best wishes to Gaun on the home. Great job friend!
Cheers Clay. Always a pleasure to get such positive feedback from you. The house is great and the garden is quickly taking shape. Your turn will come.
Looks fantastic Tony.
Thank you Jenny. You can review your opinion in person at some stage.
Hi there Tony Been following you from week 1 and i say very well done to you and your wife and her family and of course not forgetting A team
.
Did you put an
overflow in the pond allowing for rain and fall off from roof. ?
Hi Derek. Thanks very much for your comment. I am still a little amazed at how well it has turned out.
The pond surround is lower at one end to allow for runoff and to give the turtle access in and out once he/she is found in the wet season. Excess water will just run into the garden.
Tony,
One of the best Thai building blogs ever and I have read many blogs daily from several sites for over a year. You nailed it. Looking forward to your summary and of course the living in Thailand reports.
Regards
Mike
Cheers Mike. Wow, that’s quite a vote of confidence and it is much appreciated I can tell you. I am pleased you enjoyed the read and your words will motivate me to complete the summary.
I am in the middle of writing a piece called “Living with a Thai Woman”, which will certainly break up the endless building reports.
Thanks again. Tony
Tony it looks fantastic. I have really enjoyed following your journey through the blog. Thank you
Hope to see the finished product in person sooner rather than later
Thanks Graeme. You will be most welcome anytime. Tony
Back in England following your posts and very jealous