gavin310

We're currently toilet shopping at Boonthavorn and for some reason all the toilets that we like are 3/4.2L. I'm thinking we want at least 4.5L or 4.8L, but I'm just going off of the old reputation that low-flow toilets get stuck too easily. Since there's no shortage of these 3.8-4.2L toilets, I'm wondering if maybe toilet "technology" has improved in modern times. Should a 4.2L toilet be fine? I'll be honest, I've clogged up a few toilets in my lifetime, and I'm hoping that our new toilets won't have that problem. I'd really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

7 hours ago, Susco said:

 

They will cost more than 2-3K, but are top quality

 

https://deceuninck.co.th/deceuninck-color-options/

I actually checked out this company already, but the doors on their website weren't the style I wanted. But, I just went to their German website and they actually have modern looking doors in their gallery. We called the Thai number and I was fully expecting them to say they aren't available in Thailand, but we spoke to a person and they said they can custom make them! So we sent them what we're looking for and they're going to get back to us with a quote. Obviously it won't be cheap, but if it's the same quality as their standard front doors it might be worth it. Contrary to what some others have said, many of the UPVC door and window systems are very strong and secure. Nothing like the cheapo ones in Home Pro or Boonthavorn. Thank you so much for recommending this! Hopefully what they come back with isn't a complete shock...

2 hours ago, Susco said:

 

The pictures of the doors the OP posted, can be perfectly made in uPVC with wood grain cladding, and no risk of expanding or shrinking.

That's what I figured, but unfortunately I can't find anything in Thailand. My wife (Thai) is looking as well, but all we're finding is pretty generic looking stuff. I found some nice looking stuff, but judging from the price (around 2-3k baht) it's not going to be the quality we want. 

2 hours ago, RobMuir said:

 

Rayong doesn't get much rain.

 

A wood door will work, expand and shrink a bit. UPVC won't have any issues.

Oops, I meant Ranong! Thanks for catching that.

12 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

No they are not. A good quality door that has been correctly built and correctly fitted during the wetter part of the year will not bind,  it will shrink a bit during the dry/hot season but if it’s both well built and correctly fitted you will probably not notice that. Also since you are near the sea the humidity will probably not to drop as much as more central areas. 
 

If the door warps it’s either badly built or they did not use correctly seasoned wood, though it could be that they used a species that isn’t stable.

 

Rain will have little effect but high and low humidity over weeks will. The reason rain won’t do much is the finish you put on the door will make it shed the surface water. 
 

if you have to have the door fitted during the dry season be prepared to have it taken of for adjustment sometime in the first year. 

THANK YOU! This is really helpful. I guess the only issue I'll have is knowing which doors are well built. Do you happen to have any key points we should be sure to ask whichever company we talk to?

We're currently building a house and I'm hoping to get some advice on the front door. I want a modern wood door like so many of the new modern houses in Thailand have. I've attached some examples of doors that I like. Ours would just have the door with a viewing window on the door, but no side windows.

We're using a UPVC door and window system for most of the doors and windows in the house, but the front door they offer is not what I want. I want the front door to be real wood or a wood pattern and a nice modern style. When I mentioned wanting a wood door, our builder advised against it due to warping and expansion from moisture. The land is only about 100 meters from the ocean and we live in Trat province, which is one of the two wettest provinces in Thailand (Rayong and Trat are the two wettest in the country). The front door will be under a ledge that comes out about 1.5m, so the door won't be directly exposed to the elements, but if there's strong wind with rain the door will almost certainly get wet.

I understand the concerns our builder has, but I was looking at homes for sales on Koh Samui and Phuket and so many of them have a wood front door just like what I want. So I'm wondering, how they can all have wood front doors if the issues with warping and expansion are a real concern?

From what I understand, with proper maintenance and care these issues aren't so bad with a wood door. But maybe due to living in such a rainy province and living near the ocean our situation is a bit different?

I tried finding UPVC doors that match the style I want in Thailand but have not had any luck. There are some that are very cheap (2-3k baht) that look nice, but those are not the strength and quality I want for a front door.

Sorry for writing so much here. I guess what I'm wondering is, are our builder's concerns about a wood door warping and expanding real enough that we should stop considering a wood door and just go with UPVC?

And also, I would love some recommendations for companies in Thailand that make either wood or UPVC doors that match the style I'm looking for.

Thanks!

My wife and I are applying for a loan to buy land and build a house. After months of getting everything in order, we're nearly approved. Today the bank sent their people out to survey the land to finalize everything. What they said is even though this land is chanote, it's not a normal chanote and is not as safe as "normal" chanote land. Apparently the land used to be Nor Sor 3 Gor, but a new law allowed the land to be changed to chanote, which the owner did. They said it's not as safe as normal chanote because if a new politician comes into office, they could change this law and revoke the chanotes. I've always been under the impression that all chanote land is as safe as you can get, so this is obviously surprising to me. I made them confirm many times that this land is in fact chanote (Nor Sor 4 Jor), and they confirmed it is indeed chanote land and you own full rights to the land, but it's not 100% sure that won't change later. The lady at the bank helping us with this process said their people are researching the chanote further and will let us know, but that it's basically 50/50 if they'll give the loan for this land or not at this point.

Does anyone know what they're talking about and could explain it better to me? And has anyone gotten a loan for this type of land before? At this point I'm not even sure if we want to pursue this land if what they're saying is true.

I'm considering signing up for LUMA Asia Care Plus. Everything looks good, but it seems they're relatively new so I can't find too much info. Does anybody use them, and if so have they been good about covering what they're supposed to?

On 6/13/2019 at 1:15 PM, Misty said:

I really wish that were still true. Hopefully your CPA is aware of the changes that occurred with Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and has been filing correctly according to current law.  If not, get a new one.  A lot of headaches await....

Yep, many people aren't aware of the new laws. But these people also aren't filing their taxes correctly, so does that mean the USA isn't being strict about it right now?

On 5/24/2019 at 6:51 PM, 55Jay said:

Your Dad was the sponsor?  Does that mean he was indicated on her application as the one paying for the trip?   Yellow flag to follow up on.  Financial Ability. 

 

And that may be why he was so interested in your passport, knowing serial border runners often (not always) do that because they can't satisfy the financial requirements of in-country extensions. 

 

While getting successive Non-Os and doing border hops isn't illegal, it circles back around to financial ability.  It also kinda puts you in the basket with people who are cavalier about skirting the spirit and intent of host nation immigration laws and requirements, and that's obviously what these Embassy folks are trying to weed out.  

 

Work, money issues, wives, new born babies - all factors that motivate us to do things we might not do otherwise. 

Thanks for that perspective. It makes sense.

I've been in Thailand around 8 years and a big part of my goal to getting permanently settled in here has always been to start a company in Thailand. I live in Thailand, so I want to pay taxes to Thailand and not the USA. I'm finally in a position where I can start a company, however I talked to my accountant and he told me that the law is that if I own 10% or more of the shares of this company, it's considered a US Controlled Foreign Corporation, and I must pay taxes in the USA. I had no idea and I'm pretty upset over this. Is all this correct? Does every American who owns more than 9% of a company in Thailand have to pay taxes in America? Do they also have to pay Thailand corporate taxes? Sometimes I really hate all this "freedom" I have being a US citizen.

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

Tourist & Immigrant visa are adjudicated totally differently.

 

Getting an immigrant visa in Thailand is a very simple objective process, check the boxes and you are good go, but remember it costs ~$1000 to get it done, rather expensive if the OP did simply want to go for a vacation!

 

What I'm thinking about now is what we wasted on our last application, and there's no telling how many times it'll take before she's approved. 32k baht might not be so bad. But if she tells them she wants an immigrant visa because we'll frequently travel to the USA would they give her one? Or is it only for people who are relocating? Is the immigrant visa easier to get than a tourist visa?

1 hour ago, 55Jay said:

Your Dad was the sponsor?  Does that mean he was indicated on her application as the one paying for the trip?   Yellow flag to follow up on.  Financial Ability. 

 

And that may be why he was so interested in your passport, knowing serial border runners often (not always) do that because they can't satisfy the financial requirements of in-country extensions.  

Yep my dad was the sponsor. You make an interesting point that I didn't think of. Since having our baby in January my finances haven't exactly been in stellar shape, so I wanted to make sure we used a sponsor with a more stable account history. I can see how that could be a red flag. New baby... finances aren't great here in Thailand... no strong ties to Thailand... sounds like a good time to pack up and take the whole family to the land of opportunity (lol?). Thanks for that perspective. I need to keep that in mind while preparing for our next interview, whenever that may be.

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

The issue is you and she appear to have no tie to Thailand so application for tourist visa appears to Embassy as a shortcut to arrive in USA as a tourist and change status to immigrant bypassing the normal immigrant visa process.  

 

In my case was retired so could show income and wife had gone through the immigrant visa process (after approval decided to remain in Thailand).  So that paperwork having been done as fact we had not moved to USA removed the above issue and 10 year tourist visa was issued.

Thanks for the response. Do you think getting the 400k in the bank and getting marriage extensions will help? (I also forgot to mention my wife is employed, but the interviewer didn't look at any of her employment papers. She also has a car loan here.)

1 hour ago, Blue Muton said:

Sorry, I can't help but sympathise with you, I've been succesfull with a fiance visa and a couple of tourist visas for Mrs BM but can imagine what a nightmare it would have been had the outcome been different, even more when a child is involved. Just keep pushing and I wish you better luck next time.

Thanks for the sympathy. It's especially frustrating since they won't tell you the exact reason.

My wife recently had her visa interview and she was denied. She brought our 4 month old baby into the interview with her. We meticulously prepared all the required papers, including sponsorship papers (my father was/is the sponsor), plenty of photos, and everything else I read we should have. The interviewer looked at NONE of that. He asked for my wife's passport and my passport plus all my old passports (I have my current passport plus 2 old passports). My wife said he looked through her passport quickly and then spent about 10 minutes going through all my passports and asking why I have so many entries and exits to and from Thailand. He then told her he won't give her the tourist visa.

I've been staying in Thailand with various visa types for 8 years. I've mostly had multiple entry one year visas where I had to leave at least every 3 months, so obviously I racked up quite a few stamps and Cambodian/Laos visas in my passport. I've also had tourist visas and visa exemption stamps for the times I was in between "real" visas. For about a year I was employed by a Thai company and had a non-O visa and work permit (but to get that I had to go to Cambodia, get a 30 day entry stamp, and then fly to Hong Kong to apply for the non-O visa). I left that company and now have a 1 year non-O visa based on marriage that I got in Savannakhet, Laos. Soon I will be putting 400k baht into my Thai bank so I can get extensions of stay based on marriage at the local immigration office.

So obviously I have a lot going on in my current and previous passports, but I'm not doing anything illegal, so why was he grilling her so hard on the contents of my passport(s)? And then denying her a USA tourist visa without even looking at anything else we brought?

If anyone has had a similar experience I would really like to know how you fixed it. She emailed the ACS and they sent her back some prewritten/template response, so that wasn't any help.

Thanks for any help!

On 3/24/2019 at 11:43 PM, Elkski said:

I would think since you're married they would be relatives.  when I filled out the form for my girlfriend I thought it was very confusing and even knowing the stupidity of US government and being American I was hard pressed to guess the meaning or  intent of a  few questions.

Yeah I was a bit surprised they didn't make some of the questions clearer. My wife has her visa interview in a couple weeks so hopefully everything is correct ????

On the USA tourist visa application it asks if you have relatives in the USA. Does this include relatives through marriage? The application is for my wife, so for relatives would she list my mother or father?

We're thinking about buying a used/second-hand car (2017) in Bangkok from one of the larger used car lots ("car tent" as Thai people say). We called to ask about the car and the price and of course they said they can't go lower on the price. I'm assuming that's BS, right? What has been your experience with getting the price lower on second hand cars? How much lower were you able to get the price? I'm a foreigner and I've heard they're less willing to give foreigners any discount, even sometimes asking for higher prices. I'll probably be bringing the wife's entire family, so maybe that will help dilute my foreignness and give us more negotiating ability? Any precautions I should take? 

Edit: Forgot to add that we're also planning on using a 3rd party vehicle inspection service before making any purchase.

We have a new baby on the way and would like to pick up a baby monitor when we're next in Bangkok. Which baby shop will have the best selection of monitors?

I would never send the laptop unless I had cash in hand, which would mean waiting to make sure the payment cleared my bank without any issues and then withdrawing the cash, or using Western Union. Western Union is a much safer idea, so I sent him a message saying that is the only payment I will accept and I have not heard back from him. 100% a scammer.

I didn't even think about Western Union or Moneygram. That's a good idea. Thanks! I'm almost positive it's a scammer, but I still don't understand why he said he'll transfer the money to my bank before I even ship it. He said his bank is Bank of America, so maybe after transferring the money he'll claim someone defrauded him and get the money back from the bank. Since it was transferred to a Thai bank maybe they'll believe him.

This topic has been discussed many times on TV Forum. Here's one example http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/742907-craigslist-thailand-is-full-of-scammers-what-happened-to-real-people/

This isn't the same. That topic says the buyer pays with PayPal and then opens a dispute. The guy in Malaysia says he will transfer it direct to my bank and wait until I withdraw the cash.

I'm selling an expensive laptop on Craigslist. Someone who is in Malaysia wants to buy it and said they will arrange a courier to pick it up. They said they will transfer the money to my bank first. It sounds scammy to me, but I'm not seeing how they could scam me. If I only supply my bank account name and number, there's nothing nefarious they can do with that, right? The only thing I could see is they claim it never arrived and say I need to send their money back. If we agree beforehand that once it leaves Thailand it's officially "sold", and I already have cash-in-hand, is there any other way they could screw me over?