Raised house in Nakhon Si Thammarat

[somsip]

More rain this week, but some decent progress!

The kitchen windows have been fixed in place, though not finished yet, and the balcony doors, front doors and window panels have all been delivered. These have been stained and the balcony doors have also been fixed in placing, but need finishing. And they look very nice indeed! We're just so pleased with the end results of everything which gets finished, which we should be because we've chosen how it all goes together. But it's still a very nice feeling.

Also, as enough painting has been done, we've had the aircon fitted too. This has gone in over 3 days, with one day off because it was too wet to get outside to fix a couple of the condensers, and they've done a very nice job again. I was a bit concerned by some holes drilled from the main bedroom into the ensuite and out through the wall, but the explanation of why it hads to be this way made sense (like, the waste water outlet can't flow upwards...) and they've tidied it up nicely.

And as of now, we had a dry day yesterday, no rain forecast for today, and a dry day forecast for tomorrow, and a chance of a dry day on Tuesday. The painting team is due to be there all day tomorrow so if the weather stays in our favour, we could finally see some good progress made on the painting.

Otherwise, window panels will be fitted (friction stays) as well as front doors, and the sewage tank and soakaways might get some more work done if they dry up a bit more too.

So feeling much more positive again

Outside view of balcony door

Kitchen window and aircon condenser

Aircon trunking in ensuite

Balcony door from inside

Window panels

Aircon on other side of the house

[somsip]

In the end, we got a few very dry days that were enough to drive the damp away, and although we saw some wet weather, we've managed to get the painting about 95% complete over this week. The roof eaves need another coat, there are a couple of gallows brackets that needing doing, and a bit of touching up here and there, like on the mouldings where the white paint needs another coat. Overall, this is much better than expected as at the beginning of the week I'd resigned myself to no painting at all for weeks.

The window panels for 5 out of 7 windows have been fitted and look great. The outsides have been rubbed down and restained and are smooth and fit nicely with the outside paint colour. The internal and external doors have been delivered and have the first coat of stain. The two unfitted windows should go in next week, along with the external doors and the bathroom doors. The remaining internal doors will be fitted after the parquet is down. This depends on either the glazing being done, or covering the windows with plastic to make sure the rain doesn't get it. I'd rather wait for the glass than risk a strong wind blowing out some plastic and wetting the parquet, so we'll see how this happens. We're viewing samples for clear and slightly-tinted glass on Monday to make a call on that, so will then have an idea of fitting times.

We've had a chat with the railings supplier and found ourselves being pushed in the direction of shiny chromed jobs which just aren't us. Based on 2,500 baht/m for the tube, these were going to come in around 100k which is way over the BoQ price of 30k. So we are going to stick with the design per the plan, which is just welded square-section steel, painted brown like the eaves and mouldings. If we want to go over budget on things we really want, like the parquet floor, it's not a problem. But not for something that neither of us are really taken by.

And on budget, we asked for and received a list of current overspend items. This included dumping the stones on the drive, StayCool insulation, through-flow panels in the roof, combined fan/lights in the bathrooms, different water tank, and a few sundries. This came to 56k. With the estimate for the glass (missed from the BoQ) of 70k, and extra for SmartWood on all balconies and stairs (no price for this yet), we're now at the upper-limit of 3.6million for the whole build. We can pay more, but all the little overspends (and some big ones) are coming together now with the final decorations being done. We're getting what we paid for so we're not complaining, but getting above 3.8million would be too high, and if we nudge 4million we are leaving ourselves very tight without dipping into savings plans. I can't imagine much more that we're needing to buy that we haven't allowed for, but when lockable window handles cost 250 baht each and we need 48 of them, we're suddenly spending 12k on window handles. And things like this are adding up at this stage of the build.

We're at 80% done for the whole build now, and still looking at a couple of months to completion, but maybe 6 weeks if things go well. A move in January is still very much on the cards, but having lost time for various things in the last few weeks (national holidays, funerals and rain) we have to be flexible about this. Which is going to get difficult if it goes on for too long.

And upstairs painting is very nearly done!

Painted, except for those two gallows brackets

Window panels, prior to other painting

Interior doors

Bathroom doors

Parquet wood

[pipoz]

More rain this week, but some decent progress!

So feeling much more positive again

20151114_112826.jpg

20151114_112902.jpg

20151114_113327.jpg

20151114_114716.jpg

20151114_114843.jpg

20151114_170418.jpg

Nice timber window panels, will want to talk with you about them sometime

pipoz

[somsip]

Nice timber window panels, will want to talk with you about them sometime

No problem. Drop me a PM or something anytime

[somsip]

A bit more painting over the last week, and we've now had at lease one coat over everything outside. Still more to do, but for some reason if feels like the pressure is off to get it done now. We can move in with it how it is and it looks nice. The rest can be done any time, and realistically we've probably got couple of months so there are plenty of chances for some dry spells to get it done.

Turned out the carpenter has been sick which is why the last two windows hadn't gone in, and we saw him one day and he was clearly pretty rough. He said he'd be working the next day, and he did, and now we have the last two windows in. And the front and back door, the storage room door, and the kitchen and bathroom doors. The others will wait until the parquet is down. Handles should be fitted this week too. Maybe some work on the plumbing too, which will allow work on the bathrooms to start up again.

We've chosen the glass and have opted for 6.3mm clear laminate. We've having another measure done tomorrow to confirm the builder's measurements, then the order will go in with a 1-2 week delivery time. As we have the kitchen being fitted in 3 weeks, we're very much hoping this is delivered and installed on time. Also, once the glass is in, everything else inside upstairs can be absolutely finalised.

On the outside, we're dependent on the weather. A couple of steps and the balcony needed a bit more concrete to level them off, and one day with occasional showers they did it 3 times, only to have a heavy downpour mess it up a few minutes later. So we wait until the right time to get that done, then the SmartWood can go down for the balconies and stair treads. And lastly the railings. There are other items like concreting around the sewage tanks, but that's mostly it outside.

And we have about 7 weeks for that. We've given notice on our current rental property, and it's got a bit ugly because we've been suspicious of the owner all along because of various stunts she's tried to pull, and we've had advice from numerous sources to either accept that we'll lose the deposit, or not pay her for the last two months. We've gone with not paying her, and in a fairly abusive conversation with my wife, the owner has admitted that she was going to keep the deposit if we moved out before the end of the current contract, even though we gave her 3 months notice of moving out as required in the contract. So we made a good call here, but will have to leave by 19th Jan whether the house is ready or not. We'll see what happens, but the rooms above my wife's office are available right now, so we might be dossing down there for a while if we don't get completed in time.

And on Saturday evening we were sat at the house chatting to the builder, the neighbour and the project manager and the view was rather lovely. And I realised that in a couple of months we're going to have that every night. So it's all going to be worth it in the end

Last windows are in

Front doors

Bathroom door

Kitchen door

View from the front stairs

[olavhome]

Congratulations on soon finished.
Well done.
Guess there is nobody who manage to stay on bugdet and the house look really nice.
I still have long way to go, but now it is getting interesting with different rooms taking shape.
I am very happy to be on site every day to check out and also do some minor adjustments if needed
But guess after some nice weeks enjoing the sunsets you can start planning some gardening

The good thing about having a house is that you never bored (if you want some activity )

[MGV12]

And on Saturday evening we were sat at the house chatting to the builder, the neighbour and the project manager and the view was rather lovely. And I realised that in a couple of months we're going to have that every night. So it's all going to be worth it in the end

Good to hear that the end is in sight .. congratulations.

When you sit in your house ... the realisation of your dream ... it will all be worthwhile.

As women say after childbirth ... when the pain subsides it is SO worthwhile.

[somsip]

Congratulations on soon finished.
Well done.
Guess there is nobody who manage to stay on bugdet and the house look really nice.

Thanks It's close-ish on budget, given I expected to be at least 10% over the BoQ and it'll actually be more like 25%. We can account for all of the excess, so it doesn't feel like we've had a problem. We just forgot some things entirely, some things were missed from the BoQ by the builder, and we've chosen some more expensive materials.

I still have long way to go, but now it is getting interesting with different rooms taking shape.
I am very happy to be on site every day to check out and also do some minor adjustments if needed
But guess after some nice weeks enjoing the sunsets you can start planning some gardening

The good thing about having a house is that you never bored (if you want some activity )

We *need* some quiet weeks It has all gone pretty well, compared to some of the nightmare builds I've read about. But it's still been stressful, and it will be a huge relief to be in there and to be able to enjoy it. And once we've got a bit settled and saved up for some new furniture, it will be time to plan the garden and then it will never really end.

But that's okay. It's what we're looking forward to

[somsip]

Good to hear that the end is in sight .. congratulations.

When you sit in your house ... the realisation of your dream ... it will all be worthwhile.

Many thanks It's at a strange stage now when building it has just become a normal part of life. It almost feels like it will never be finished, or that what happens once it is completed is a bit difficult to imagine after so long planning and building.

Hopefully we'll find out in about 5 weeks

As women say after childbirth ... when the pain subsides it is SO worthwhile.

LOL. Well, the house has been about 2 years in gestation and 10 months in labour. And that's enough!

[somsip]

We completely lost a week because the builder's daughter went off to Vietnam to study, so he went to Bangkok to see her off. Which seemed fair enough

While he was away, the false ceilings were done downstairs to cover up the water/waste pipes under the bathrooms, but still allowing access. They need painting, but seemed like a sensible solution and the job looks good so it's all fine.

This week has been very good. The carpenter has been on site after another illness (very experienced, very old, and rather ill-looking, but done some nice work) so we now have all the doors fitted, inside and out. And locks and handles throughout. The inside doors will need to be trimmed after the parquet is down, but that should be a simple job now that they're hung. And the back door has either been supplied too short, or it's been cut too short, because there is a finger-width gap underneath. So that'll need extending with a bit of extra wood and neatening up.

After deciding against the shiny-shiny railings, we've seen good progress being made using box-section steel in a simple design as per the plans. These were welded together in place over about 3 days, then taken down in sections to be tidied up and painted. The tidying was being finished off today (Sunday) which is not normally a working day so it was good to see them making the most of a few days of dry weather. Which should continue into next week so we could see the railings up and fixed in place. Then the concrete on some steps and the balconies needs patching, and the smartwood can be cut and fixed in place. And except for further coats of paint, the outside is pretty much done at that.

We've had confirmation that the glass will be delivered on Monday, and fitting will start on Tuesday. The supplier knows we need to get this in ready for the kitchen to be fitted (21st Dec) and are prepared to put in some overtime to get it done if need be. Then the kitchen can be finalised, as some of the floor tiles and other bits and bobs are waiting until the fitting is done, the floor prep for the parquet can be done, and finally the parquet itself. Then we should see final painting of the inside walls, windows and doors while the parquet settles down, with sanding and varnishing the parquet to finish.

The water supply is coming together with the amphoe supply now feeding the house, and work was being done on getting the pump in the system when we were there earlier. Though when the pump kicked in, it took power from the welder so the railings guys were getting a bit ticked off And as we will soon have water, the bathrooms can be finalised (I seem to say this every week...) and that's it for inside. On the water system, the sewage tanks still need some work, as though it has been drier over the last few days, there is still a lot of standing water, and the wet sumps are very wet. But it's in hand, it's just getting it done at the right time.

We were sat outside on the bike on Saturday night and the builder turned up just to have a look at the day's progress. I asked him if he liked it, and he replied that he did, and said it with a pride that was pleasing to see. We've had a few issues, and some things won't turn out not exactly how we expected them to be, but we made a good choice with this builder. No doubt about it.

With lots of progress, and decreasing items to do, and a dry weather forecast, it's feeling positive

Back railings

Front railings in progress

More front railings

Dismantled railings being tidied

Suspended ceiling covering pipes

Inside doors and handles

[eyecatcher]

Your house looks great Somsip; of course you will notice where the inspiration for my build came from!

You have handled the whole process with quite a laid back attitude it seems and for someone without the building background that's very creditable. bloody well done!

Our regular blogs on here are of course to an unknown and unseen audience yet just knowing there are a hundred pairs of eyes looking on with interest gives us that extra confidence. The readers are like ghosts, we know they are there but what happens when the house is finished;? it will be like going home after making friends on holiday.

Hope you keep returning even to tell us what maintenance was necessary, what in the design didn't work for you and would have changed, and any additions to the family

For me, I have no particular desire to finish the house, building, drama, and conflict is my hobby so it can be a go slow for the next 2 years, until I get deported or shot, you just relax now Somsip and continue to read the other dramas unfolding.

[somsip]

Your house looks great Somsip; of course you will notice where the inspiration for my build came from!

You have handled the whole process with quite a laid back attitude it seems and for someone without the building background that's very creditable. bloody well done!

Thanks very much Like I said in my PM to you, not having any building knowledge works both for me, and against me. I don't know enough to be sure that everything has been done in the best way possible, or with the most appropriate materials possible. But it was stopped me from micro-managing where I have no need to, and I just don't have time to do that so it's a good thing. When we started building I had vague ideas of going on site some days and helping out, but realised very quickly that I should concentrate on what I need to do, which is making design decisions, and earning the money to pay for it all. It's worked out well

Hope you keep returning even to tell us what maintenance was necessary, what in the design didn't work for you and would have changed, and any additions to the family

I will. There are some things that are "wrong" because of design faults, and a few things that are down to implementation. But I'll wait until it's all done and I've been in there a few weeks until I really know what it's going to be like living in it. Also, there are lessons I've learned during the build about timing (of key tasks) and continuity of work (things being left for later) that might help others with their build.

And we might get a cat. That's the only planned additiont to the family

For me, I have no particular desire to finish the house, building, drama, and conflict is my hobby so it can be a go slow for the next 2 years, until I get deported or shot, you just relax now Somsip and continue to read the other dramas unfolding.

And I hope it works out well for you. I'll keep an eye on your build

[somsip]

A good week, if not a great week! Almost everything happened exactly as expected, and we're still possibly on for it all being done in time for us having to vacate the rented house we're in now. So, 4 weeks and counting!

The glass went on Monday and Thursday. The delivery was split over the two days, but the fitting has gone well except for two pieces which were supplied to the wrong size and are being remade. That was the factory's fault, so no extra cost to us and no big deal overall. Fitting looks good, though the sealant on the bottom strip of the front door is a bit crap compared to the rest of it. Looks like they were coming to the end of a tube and tried to eek it out instead of starting a new one, so that can get redone when they come back to fit the other two panels. The glass feels heavy and decently soundproof, and though the sun hits the front windows until about 9:30am, this morning it was a few degrees cooler in the house than in the direct sun, so the UVB filter seems to be doing something.

The handles and locks for the windows proved to be a sticking point. From the start, I wanted two cockspur-style locking handles on each big panel, but haven't been able to find anything like what I want in Thailand, and shipping from the UK seemed silly. We considered various options, but ended up finding mortise draw bolts in the Hafele catelogue in the local SCB and decided to go with two of these, and a simple U handle in the middle to close. We're not expecting to be opening and closing them much, so they don't have to be that convenient - just secure and neat. And the mortise bolts will be neat if they're well fitted, so I'm hoping the carpenter does a nice job on those. It'll be a bit fiddly with 28 panels to do, so we'll have a bit more wages to pay to the carpenter, but that's fair. And Hafele...so that's about 22k for window handles. And I did get stuck on this. After spending over 3.7m on the whole thing so far, I really had an issue with spending 22k on handles, which is not rational and I could see that. But it was a pyschological stumbling block that had me stymied for a few days. So to have a made decision is good.

The balcony and stairs railings have been sprayed up, fixed in place, tidied, and touched up with paint. And we're very happy with them. They're in-keeping with the style of the whole thing, in a way that shiny chrome just wouldn't have been. So we're glad we went for a simple approach and saved about 70k in the process.

And now the glass is in, the parquet has been started. This is something that's real important to me as I've wanted a natural wood floor in the house since we first started thinking about it, and I very much want this to be done well. I'd found a few dips in the floor after the last skim was done, and expected these to be filled with self-levelling compound if needed based on what I'd read around the subject of laying parquet - basically a tolerance of 2-3mm over a metre was okay (depending on which source I read this from), but more than that would need filling. So far, the bedroom has been done which did have a slight dip, and the dip has been filled by using a bit more latex adhesive. I've told the builder if it's not level when it's finished, it'll be taken up and done again, and time will tell if he delivers on this. And he has on pretty much everything else, so I'm accepting his judgement for now.

The big ball-ache are the electricity office. We had an extra pole put in a while back, and it's shy of the corner of our land by about 2 metres, which means the wires would cut over someone else's land. Out lawyer-next-door told us about this as we hadn't realised the problem, I agreed with him and said to get it moved, the project manager spoke to the owner of the land and said it was okay to leave it as it was (notwithstanding potential problems with a future change of owner) and my wife sided with her. So it was left as it was. Thursday the technician came to price us up for running the cables and stated we'd need another pole which would be positioned in front of our bedroom window. Which, unsurprisingly, we were not thrilled about.

End result, we're going to run the connection to the house underground. We'd considered this when position the entry point for the mains wires to the house and decided that stringing them through the air would be simpler than underground, so we chose that. Now we'll have conduit running down from that point and into the ground. No big deal, but with a bit of foresight we could have done this in the first place. And we spoke to TOT and they've confirmed that fibre can be run in the same conduit so in the end it's not a disaster.

More of an issue is the technician who came on site. He'd recommended 3 phase 15 amp, and having read about this I could see the advantages. We've got 5 aircon units (3 x 18k BTU and 2 x 13k BTU), 2 shower heaters at 3.5kW, extractor fan, oven, washing machine, and an embarassing number of computers which isn't excessive in itself, but a reduction in brief power-outs would be good and reduce our reliance on UPSs for the PCs. However, we're about 600m from the nearest 3 phase supply, and research suggests we could be looking at 100k baht per 100m to have the new supply pulled. And the advantages aren't enough to justify this expense. Still, we were getting a proper quote so went to the office to hear what the number was going to be. Someone we know works there and asked what we were doing, and my wife told her we'd been recommended 3 phase 15 amp, but other people (the builder, the project manager, the neighbour) were telling us single phase was enough so we want to check it out. She confirmed single phase would be fine, whereupon the technician appear from behind his computer and basically threw a tantrum. He'd given us his advice, why didn't we just take it, why were we questioning him...etc. So we asked how much his recommendation would be, and he couldn't tell us. We walked out.

We went straight to see the project manager who said she knew the technician and his boss and they both like money and will push for the more expensive option, or a bribe to fit what the customer actually wants. But she knows the boss above them and she'll sort it. Maybe a couple of grand tea money, but that doesn't concern me if we get this sorted cleanly. So a friendly technician will be on site today and will give us the real low-down on what we need. And if it's 3 phase, and it's a reasonable cost, fine. If single phase is good, and they recommend higher ampage, also fine. If we must have 3 phase and it is going to cost 600k to pull cables, we're a bit stuck. We'll find out later.

Finally, on Saturday a number of boxes were delivered that contained bits of dissassembled kitchen. Yesterday these were assembled into a very nice kitchen that just needs extractor, hob, oven and sink to be fitted, which will happen on Tuesday. And we're delighted about it. Well, I'm delighted, and my wife is nigh-orgasmic. She's made the decisions on this, with some input from me, and it's turned out to be exactly what she wants. The fitters worked hard and did a fine job and seemed very happy to get a few baht for food and beers at the end of the day.

So even with the deal with the electric office, it's been a good one. A big chance it might throw it down badly tomorrow so not sure what will happen outside, but plenty of parquet to get on with inside. Which is nice

Glass and railings

Bedroom parquet

Bit more parquet

Boxes of kitchen

Kitchen assembled!

[pipoz]

A good week, if not a great week! Almost everything happened exactly as expected, and we're still possibly on for it all being done in time for us having to vacate the rented house we're in now. So, 4 weeks and counting!

Finally, on Saturday a number of boxes were delivered that contained bits of dissassembled kitchen. Yesterday these were assembled into a very nice kitchen that just needs extractor, hob, oven and sink to be fitted, which will happen on Tuesday. And we're delighted about it. Well, I'm delighted, and my wife is nigh-orgasmic. She's made the decisions on this, with some input from me, and it's turned out to be exactly what she wants. The fitters worked hard and did a fine job and seemed very happy to get a few baht for food and beers at the end of the day.

20151220_180303.jpg

Kitchen, looks nice, can I ask where you bought it from

pipoz

[pipoz]

A good week, if not a great week! Almost everything happened exactly as expected, and we're still possibly on for it all being done in time for us having to vacate the rented house we're in now. So, 4 weeks and counting!

More of an issue is the technician who came on site. He'd recommended 3 phase 15 amp, and having read about this I could see the advantages. We've got 5 aircon units (3 x 18k BTU and 2 x 13k BTU), 2 shower heaters at 3.5kW, extractor fan, oven, washing machine, and an embarassing number of computers which isn't excessive in itself, but a reduction in brief power-outs would be good and reduce our reliance on UPSs for the PCs. However, we're about 600m from the nearest 3 phase supply, and research suggests we could be looking at 100k baht per 100m to have the new supply pulled. And the advantages aren't enough to justify this expense. Still, we were getting a proper quote so went to the office to hear what the number was going to be. Someone we know works there and asked what we were doing, and my wife told her we'd been recommended 3 phase 15 amp, but other people (the builder, the project manager, the neighbour) were telling us single phase was enough so we want to check it out. She confirmed single phase would be fine, whereupon the technician appear from behind his computer and basically threw a tantrum. He'd given us his advice, why didn't we just take it, why were we questioning him...etc. So we asked how much his recommendation would be, and he couldn't tell us. We walked out.

We went straight to see the project manager who said she knew the technician and his boss and they both like money and will push for the more expensive option, or a bribe to fit what the customer actually wants. But she knows the boss above them and she'll sort it. Maybe a couple of grand tea money, but that doesn't concern me if we get this sorted cleanly. So a friendly technician will be on site today and will give us the real low-down on what we need. And if it's 3 phase, and it's a reasonable cost, fine. If single phase is good, and they recommend higher ampage, also fine. If we must have 3 phase and it is going to cost 600k to pull cables, we're a bit stuck. We'll find out later.

I have single phase and run,

4 No x Air Conditioners ( 3 No x MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73BTU Super Inverter & 1 No x MIT MSY-GK09VA 8656.93 BTU Super Inverter)
5 No x Ceiling Fans (Mr Ken DC Motors)
2 No x Mitshubishi Bathroom Exhaust Fans
1 No x Hot Water Boiler Tank - Stiebel Eltron EHS50 WH 50L
1 No Shower Water Heater - Stiebel IJ 45E WH-BK 4500W
1No x FujikaFCP-250 250W Constant Pump

32 GPOs
72 No x Internal Light Fitting
20 No x External Verandah Lights
5 No x External Columns Lights
4 No LED (Large Garden Flood Lights)

1 No Fridge Freezer

All run off a Schneider 18 Way Square D Panel Board - SDCS118 (with various Breaker sizes )

I am not an Electrician, but suggest that you have yours do a Electrical Load Schedule and balance you loads on each circuit, so as to determine your Breaker size (Amp Rating for each). Then do you Schematic Diagram.

Others can advise you more

pipoz