4MyEgo

I would very strongly recommend it, especially with the heat entering the house through the roof/ceiling, that said, you also want to stop the cool air escaping via the gypsum ceiling, hence the cool air can't escape because the ceiling batts stop it going out via the ceiling. We just got back from a 2 week domestic holiday, when we got home today at 3pm, it was 44 degrees, when I opened the house to enter it, it wasn't hot, that said I opened windows to allow fresh air in and the stale air out with some fans turned on (house locked up for 2 weeks), then it got hot, so off went the fans and I closed the windows, then put on a couple of air cons, front and back and two fans, front and back to move the cool air around, it's been 2 hours 20 minutes since I put on the air cons and the house is cool, will turn them off in 10 and then back on for half an hour before we go to bed. I do remember when I didn't have ceiling batts up there, it got hot in the house by 10am, so been there, done that, but the reflective sisalation went in first when the roof tiles were going on, a year later the batts, no regrets what so ever. ust depends on your budget and how much you like your comforts.

Your entitled to your opinion, but if you don't get what I am saying, can't help you, i.e. there are other alternatives to making an income without putting your money into risky fixed businesses. On the other hand look at what Covid did, how many bars/beer gardens and other businesses survived that ? I don't see it as blowing my own trumpet, I see it as learning new ways to make money and for me it has been very good way, suffice to say, currently travelling around Thailand on holidays at the moment and see many businesses still closed while I trade on the stock market, and it is paying for my trip up to this point, i.e. I am making money while travelling on holidays, could I do that in a bar/beer garden, nope, as that would be a fixed business and there would be tax payable etc. All I need is Wi-Fi and my laptop and I'm good to go, is the stock market risky, sure, as is every business, but if you don't buy for the sake of buying and buy particular stocks that you are familiar with, good chance you'll make money. Bars and beer gardens are not for me, and as you said, I am ......... in your opinion. Have a good one.

Like I said, each to their own.

I just don't get guys who want to open up bars to make a 100k baht a month. For one, your stuck there, you have staff wages to pay, brown envelopes and all the headaches that go with it. I have been trading on the stock market with 4 million baht for over 5 years now, I buy when the stocks I know are low and sell when they are slightly up, sometimes they open way up so it's a bonus to me, that said, I make 100k baht a month, you do the math on the return, it's crazy, that said, I buy no less than 1,250,000 baht of stock at a time. The above said, I have no staff to pay, no brown envelopes and zero headaches to deal with, and I visit my local bar 3 times a week. Self taught, and NEVER ever thought of buying a business in Thailand, let alone anywhere else, why would I, this way, I pay no tax and if a particular stock that I know declines, I wait for it to come back up. Owing beer garden or a bar in my opinion, is only for fools. Your friend should look at other alternatives, know too many farangs who have failed in business in Thailand, but each to their own.

Sad to see a guy so young as this go, especially with a young 2 year old daughter that I am sure he adored. It could well be that he had a drinking problem and his relationship was stressed due to the fact, yes I am speculating, that said, if he did have a drinking problem, as he said to his girlfriend, half an hour before he was taken away, i.e. he drank too much, then locking him up in a cell would not have been the best thing to do by the BIB, if there was no other alternative, then sure he should have been stripped of anything that could cause harm to himself and been monitored. But we know, life here is cheap, and expecting the BIB to think outside the box is hard, i.e. unless there is a few baht in it for them. RIP m8

Totally agree with you there. I call this totally irresponsible, as I have said before, this problem could go away very quickly, if the Thai government would fine and prosecute those who rent bikes without proper insurance and or make people who travel to any country in the world take out travel insurance, sure that would be controlling the masses, but no different to everyday control. Thailand on the other hand is not a nanny state like back home, and therefore these types of accidents/deaths will continue to happen, so the way I look at it is, is that, it is what it is, and I will look after myself, i.e. read the fine prints on travel insurance polices when I travel and make sure that I am appropriately licensed, as for the others, well, can't say I give a fart, so to speak.

If his hands weren't tied behind his back as I have read of others in the past, then it could be possible that he hung himself. Must have been a long rope for his belt, did anyone look for any plastic bags in his cell. RIP way to young to go.

Doesn't matter which club it is in what country it is, you start a fight, expect to get hammered by the bouncers. The American should have known better, if he thinks he is going to get justice, someone should tell him that he did and is lucky that they stopped at just breaking his nose. No sympathy here, however I have seen these guys in action and it's usually because of others being intoxicated and starting it, som nom nah. Go home yanky, start it there and let's see what happens, maybe you can get a different type of justice there that your looking for.

Are you sure it's not (SAD), Seasonal affective disorder, I'm not taking the pi$$, Google it ???? Things aside, I have had what you think you have for decades, no one could fix it, except one Thai massage lady in Patong, every time I would visit, she would fix it, that said, 100% you have aggravated it at the gym, you wouldn't have felt it at the time. Just leave it be, sit somewhere comfortable, put one leg over the other, starting with your right leg and pull your knee towards your stomach, while your pushing it to the left at the same time, you should feel a hell of a sore area in your bottom, if you do, hold that for as long as you can, (minimum 20 seconds) and then slowly release it, then do the other side. When you have done the above, put your shoulders back and make sure your chin is not forward, sit in the position for a while and also get off your feet and lay down for a bit, turn your head to the left as far back as you can allowing those neck muscles to stretch then do the same to the right, whatever you do, don't push it and don't aggravate it. Leave the gym for at least a week, see how you go, as for bone cancer, nah, too melodramatic. Let us know how you go Georgie

All that money and you'd think he'd go to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. Not that bright if you ask me.

The higher the ceilings, the cooler the house, first thing I learned in construction, that and room sizes should be a minimum 4m x 4m. The only reason Thai's build 3m x 3m rooms and have lower ceilings, is because they can't afford the extra costs to have higher ceilings and bigger rooms, i.e. the extra cost in materials is a lot to them, but peanuts to us. We have 3 metre ceilings and the house is cool up to 2pm on the hottest days in summer 40-41 degrees, (well insulated) and as one can stand up in the roof space in certain sections, the higher the roof space, the better chances you have of getting that hot air to circulate back out of the roof space. Room sizes are important as well because most people believe it or not live in their rooms these days, especially the kids. Mum and Dads room is 6m x 8m and was originally the family room, but as we saw the kids didn't take to it, or the lounge room, I put my name on it, suffice to say 48 square metres of bedroom is exceptional if you can have one that size, we have our King bed in it, a lounge suite to watch TV, my desk for work and still loads of space.

Yep, kill each one of them over 40 baht, life in the LOS is cheap. Anyone have his number, he could become useful in the future ????

Your welcome. Just make sure you choose good quality sisalation (insulation) as you refer to it, and good quality insulation batts, the ones I recommended are made from fibreglass so don't burn well if you have an electrical fire. I had a look at the plan and this is my take on it, the hallway will benefit from a door/s where the walk-in wardrobe wall ends, you would also benefit from having the door to the shower in that area, e.g. before the door/s that will block access to the hallway to the master bedroom and bedroom 2 when closed. The reason I suggest this is for the air conditioner, it will cool that room ( open plan living/dining, as opposed to allowing the air to circulate all the way down the hallway which will take longer for the house to cool, suffice to say, you should also have an air conditioner in the master bedroom and other bedrooms for hot nights, you will only need to turn them on for 30 minutes and then let a floor or wall fan take over on speed 1 or 2, and if it gets hot during the middle of the night at say 2am-3am you can turn the air conditioner back on for 30 minutes, but don't do what I do, i.e. fall back to sleep and wake up an hour or so later freezing, that said, I have our air conditioners set on 26, that is comfortable. You might also entertain an inside kitchen, cupboards, benchtops, sink, because outside kitchens can get hot, suffice to say just behind bedroom 1, butting up on the same side as the outside kitchen would work well. Last but not least, doors, we have sliding doors to all bedrooms and bathrooms, the only place that has doors, is the main entrance, family room and the external kitchen, sliding doors don't take up any space and slide out of your way easily, the front doors open outwards and butt up against the external wall, the family room door open to the right and stops against another wall and the external kitchen door opens outwards and butts up against the wall. To me it has always been important that doors don't get in my way, i.e. take up space, and of course these days depends on the hinges you get as they can get the doors out of the way, but for bedrooms and bathrooms, they work really well.

I thought so, I have the Pink ID card and the Yellow Book, no idea what they are good for, if anything, because I know you can't use the Pink ID card on domestic flights (Policy), same with hotels, as for the Yellow Book, no idea, but I suppose they have to be good for something, please don't say for reduced prices at National Parks or the like which I don't go to.

Did you cover the yellow Tabien Bann book yourself ?

and what happens, to you, before the cops arrive......blade pulled out, or 3 guys start beating the crap out of you ? No rights, no wrongs, just got to assess the situation when it happens. You just jogged my memory, back in the 80's was out at a club with a girl friend, she just busted up with her boyfriend who was also a mate of mine, anyways, he was there as well as her, she was being chatted up by a guy of middle eastern appearance and the ex boyfriend didn't like it and told the guy to FO, I went over at the same time the guy puled out a blade, which gave me enough time to pull my mate away and exit, but not before telling the door man who I knew well what had happened. Long of the short, guy was ejected along with his mates and we re-entered the club, suffice to say, it could have been worse, so sometimes it's best to eave things alone for your own safety. Different story if it's your Mrs or daughter IMO. Just saying.

You call the cops and step back, taking on 3 blokes alone is crazy, unless your prepared to knock out some teeth and have the ability, pack of wolves set upon him, cowards. Hear what your saying, but it's a dog eat dog world here, I remember an Ozzie in Banfla Road being set upon about 8 Thai's I did go to intervene until my Mrs pulled me back, she said, you want to die, are you crazy, this is not Australia, so if it were a one on one scenario, ok, lets roll, but 3, more than I would be prepared to take on for a stranger, just being honest, that said, she knows where she's working, Karaoke are notorious for this type of crowd/behaviour.

My 1st wife, westerner was a real pain in the ass. My Thai wife of 16 happy years is the perfect wife, not controlling and doesn't break them at all, but when I say I want to do this, she is usually ok with it or it might be a, no, no, no, eventually I will get my way, although I do give in sometimes, got to be flexible, give and take. She won't tell me what to do because I told her from day one how it was going to be and if she wasn't up for the part, then best we move forward before we go any further, life is so less complicated when people don't change from the outset, although no one has control over change, but I do see $'s as being power, if you hold that as opposed to handing it over, your in control so to speak, I mean why hand over your power, most do and I just don't get that for the life of me. I also have one I see on the side and she also knows how it is and doesn't bust them, I suppose it's up to us to be able to read them loud and clear and set clear boundaries, as for wanting to do things here and there on the house, well there really isn't any boundaries set, it's about negotiating and communicating and if it gets to heated, then we have choices, go full speed like a bull dozer or just let it go, I'm 50/50 most of the time, the bull dozer is getting slower....LOL

I went to a Dr who thought I had the flu, gave me antibiotics, went back a week later as I was worse, gave me different antibiotics, went back a week later was worse, sent me to the government hospital for an x-ray and for them to put me on some oxygen as I was having trouble breathing. Was told to come back the next day to see specialist as they couldn't see anything wrong on the x-ray. Went to the specialist the next day, did a breath test to see how much air I could blow out, for whatever reason, specialist said, all good, you are at the end of your flu, I said even though I am coughing up brown phlegm, yes yes, you should be fine. Said to the wife, is there a private hospital around here, yes and hours drive, good, let's go, long of the short, saw the Dr there, he ordered a chest x-ray as I didn't have a copy of the one I did at the government hospital, he told me when I finished the chest x-ray to wait outside the specialists door, saw the specialist who said chest was clear, and wanted to order a sinus x-ray, which I agreed to, also showed nothing, the specialist could hear my wheezing and said that she is of the opinion that I had a severe chest infection and also noticed that my wind pipe had a narrowing and was inflamed, specialist went on to ask if I had been exposed to any mould lately and that is when the penny dropped. I work from home, had a roof leak above my desk which I fixed 6 months ago, but this black mould appeared above my chair area, unbeknown to me that it was bad and of course I was exposed to the mould spores which I would have inhaled. Was given antibiotics, a steroid puffer and was feeling great after an hour of taking both, my condition improved every single day from there on, had a weekly follow up, then a fortnight and then a month. 1st bill was 4,000 baht including 2 x-rays, Dr and specialist and antibiotics and inhaler. 2nd week was less about 2,500 with specialist fee and drugs, 4th week just the specialists fee as we found the drugs cheaper outside the hospital and told her that my wife's cousin had a pharmacy and would sell them to us at cost, which she was fine about, and that was it, so to answer your question, specialist could have admitted me for observation as I was that crook, but didn't, so my experience in that private hospital was very good, and I have been to another for other things and found them to be very good, not looking to eye gouge me. I suppose it could go either way, especially if one has private cover, but I still have faith in the privates I have visited.

For what it's worth, it's not just Isaan women, had an ex western wife who would dig in, suffice to say, long of the short, I demolished the rear of the house on day when she was at work, it was all part of my plan to redesign the house to have a kitchen dining area overlooking the rear yard with a timber deck with roof covered area (pergola) which she didn't want, she wanted the small crappy kitchen at the side of the house. That's not why she's my ex, fact of the matter is she fell in love with what I did, some Biatches can be super stubborn, just depends if your prepared to take them on. My Isaan wife who I built the house for, can be stubborn when I want to do something as well, so I either tighten up the money belt until she give in, or I just go ahead and do it, they get over it sooner or later. I think the problem you have is it's here house so to speak, and yes, so is the house I built my wife, but what I found out is when you control the $'s you have the power, suffice to say if she makes $'s you might have a fight on your hands.

Depending on your type of roof, e.g. gable, I put in a couple of "whirly birds" extractors as some call them, and they do suck the heat out, mine spin practically all day long, one at the front and one at the rear.

I forgot to mention as the poster above just reminded me, make sure you get whoever is doing the wiring to feed the cables through either PVC pipes or those coiled aluminium looking ones so as to stop the rice field mice eating through your cables and short circuiting your place, that and circuit breakers and an emergency (red) safety switch in your main switchboard.

Your on the money. For what it's worth, we built a bungalow or small house back in 2008 for us to stay here when we would come on holidays, 2-3 months at a time. It was a one bedroom 4 x 4 with a lounge/dining/kitchen 8 x 4 plus a bathroom/laundry 4 x 4 so it was about 64m2 all up plus a front porch 8 x 3 and it cost us 500,000 baht back then, materials were up, especially steel. That bungalow was later extended in 2014, in other words we built our house forward from the bungalow as the bungalow was down the back away from the street front and is now my man cave, the old front porch was extended forward and made into a family room, but I use it as my bedroom 8 x 6 and the old lounge/dining/kitchen is a gym 4 x 4 and a sitting room 4 x 4 but both open like the old lounge/dining/kitchen were, except we took out the kitchen and the bedroom is used as his and her clothes room, wife has too much sheet to put in one of the other rooms....lol We added 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, an 8 x 4 kitchen/dining room, and a loungeroom/entry foyer 9 x 4. We purchased all the materials 1,000,000 baht and 500,000 was for the builder. We went for the polished concrete floor look and did some nice matching featured arch's/left and right matching the floor with shelves. The kitchen and bathroom were done by hand, e.g. concrete basins counters, timber doors etc. It's important to buy your own materials otherwise they load the price, the sisalation, and insulation was separate to the bill, but built in wardrobes (open) no doors included, we later bought concertina style sliding PVC doors and added them on ourselves. Also doesn't include air conditioners, but if you set them up right, you can have one at the front and one at the back looking straight at each other, close all doors and let them rip for a couple of hours and they will cool the house down after 2pm in really hot climates. Just remember, only invest as much as your prepared to walk away from, 10%, 20% max and have the balance as your plan B exit. EDIT: The concrete floor as of this year are no longer, we covered them with that timber flooring look, 5 square metres for about 600 baht, cheap enough and easy to lay for the Mrs as she is handy, so instead of tiling, you might look at PVC flooring on Lazada, just watch out for the delivery prices as they can charge 200 baht per 5 square metres (box). The timber look has brought the house up to date vs the polished concrete flooring of 8 years ago.

You will be surprised how much you can save getting the materials yourself and getting someone else to do the work once the builders have finished. Amen to that. Be interested to know what the build has cost you, e.g. builders cost to lock up stage + materials if your willing. If I were to take a guess, I would say around 700k baht including rendering inside and outside

You won't regret it. If you can, get the thermal reflective sisalation, it will work wonders. Here is a link https://www.polytechinc.com/products/thermal-insulation-foam and it's the 3rd one down when your scrolling. I purchased mine at DoHome, however I don't know if they stock it any longer, not cheap, but very very affective. Then once you put in those insulation batts on top of your ceiling, your laughing. R38 Stay Cool are the ones we put in, the thicker the better. Picture below. Purchased at SCG.