lost in isaan

I have gotten zapped twice going around 10km/h over the speed limit. Never got a fine. Might be the same case with you

Good points to consider, thanks. As far as i know, the only nasty thing happening is some locals calling her playfully ma dam (black dog) sounds a bit different than madam. Yeah, there has been requests for handouts, but she keeps telling people that i control all the money and she has none. So far, they have left it at that. Her family is surprisingly nice. I have read many horror stories about families, but hers has never asked any money or caused problems. I still have a long time before the build starts. The land I plan to build on is split between family members and we're in process of acquiring it. I also want to raise the ground atleast 2 meters and let it set around a year after the heavy machinery does its work on it. The main reason i made this post is to get other points of view, not to bs or flaunt like some of the members are thinking. On the last house build i got many good advices that helped me to avoid quite a few mistakes. Many valid adviced so far in here too. I'm also travelling around thailand constantly, so maybe i'll find a better place i'd like to build a house onto. Nothing is set on stone yet :)

Cheers :) Glad it worked out at the end, looks nice.

The funds i will use for my house are currently invested in stocks and crypto. So technically they are not earned before 2024? But yeah, i'll wait it out and see how it plays out. Will contact a lawyer/tax specialists before i move anything to thailand. I totally agree with you on the health issue :) The village i live in is luckily pesticide free (They were banned quite a few years ago) and we get most of our food from locals. Meat and exported food is another story.

Thanks for sharing. Really good points

Yeah, good point. I'll have enough :) My only concern atm is how to move the money to thailand to pay for the house without paying the 35% income tax. Got to wait and see the fine prints of the new law. Good point. I'll have enough solar to run all the AC's during the day, so not really a problem for me. Yeah, that's one of the problems i'm considered also. Might need to hire someone to ensure the quality. Getting the people to work for us will be a challenge for sure, as i live in middle of nowhere. Thanks for the input :)

Fair enough. Something worth pondering on. Thanks for the input

Good luck :) It's actually from masterplan https://www.masterplan101.com/official-detail/MASTERPIECE 01

Hello dear members, I would be happy to get some ideas and inputs from old-timers in Thailand :) A bit about my situation: I moved to Isaan around a year and a half ago and built a cheap house to see if I want to settle down here and experience life firsthand. The house was a valuable learning experience, allowing me to observe its construction from scratch. Overall, I have enjoyed my time here and am now planning the next steps, which involves building a "proper" house. Initially, I planned to build a decent-sized ~600-800 sqm house, but lately, I have been considering something bigger. My wife comes from a very poor farming family and she has created a mental barrier for herself convincing that she's not "good enough" to have something luxurious. Last time we went to iconsiam, i had to convince her to go there with me, because she thought it's not for people of her "status". She has done well in life, relying on no one, got educated enough with free goverment education. Got a decent job and attended university while working. When i met her in bangkok, she had a "good" office job by thai standards, but in my view she was basically a slave working 12h per day, 6 days a week, living in a small one-room <deleted>hole with a pay that is laughable by western standards. My wife already considers me rich for being able to live without working and for being able to build a 1-million baht house. I've been living quite humbly and only hinted her that i had some extra money, but she has no idea how much. Life in isaan can be boring sometimes, so why not have some fun? I have some "<deleted> you" money and slowly planning to build a huge mansion in middle of rice fields. I already know that i have 0 need for house that big, it's mainly to heal my wives mindset of her inferiority complex planted by thai society. Your wealth and power should not limit and define you as a person. I know there's better ways to do it, but why not? I'm also not investing on someting i can't afford to lose. My question is regarding the downsides of owning a big mansion in middle of nowhere. Is it worth the effort? Here's some i thought so far: - I have to hire staff to keep it clean. - More people will annoy us when wealth is obvious. It's been quiet so far. Only had some people asking for money when we first moved to the village. (I like to keep to myself mostly) - Visible jealousy - Unwanted attention. Potential thieves and people with bad intentions. - I have seen how power and money can change character. Might happen to my wife. Picture of the house i currently plan to build

I was planning to send a hefty sum of money to Thailand for property and other goods and avoid taxes by staying out of Thailand for half a year. However, I was reading Siam Legal's post about it (https://www.siam-legal.com/thailand-law/thailand-new-tax-on-foreign-income-an-overview/) and am not sure if I can avoid it by just staying out of the country if I paid taxes the previous year. (I have not filed the tax report yet). I hope things get clarified asap. Quote from the post:

Thank you. I use "first flush" system for rainwater and 100-mesh small filter before the pump. On the wall i have 5 filters: small easily cleanable 100-mesh filter, 5-micron sediment filter, carbon filter, resin filter and lastly UV filter. The greenish tank is a 100-litre pressure tank. I don't intend to drink the water, it's just a simple and inexpensive way to make it more clean ????

That explains it, thank you

I recently built DIY water filtering system. I have two water pumps: mitsubishi water pump that pumps from rainwater tanks and hitachi for well water. The thing i'm curious about is why does mitsubishi pump keep pumping even after i hear the pressure switch click off? It runs couple of mins and stops at around 4 bars. I thought the issue was with pressure switch, so i got one that switches off at 1.9 bar. Previous one switched off at 2.8 bar, but that did not change anything. My hitachi pump switches off at 1.8 bar and works like it should. Not a critical problem as the pipes should be able to handle the pressure, but in a long run more potential leaks and i don't really need that much pressure. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. Pictures of my DIY system:

Greetings! After receiving several excellent suggestions on a previous thread regarding carport(https://aseannow.com/topic/1289707-building-a-carport/), I have decided to share updates on my current building process here. I would greatly appreciate any additional insights or advice that the community may have to offer, and I hope that this information will prove useful to others in the future. I've been lurking the forums many months, without posting and many of the posts have contributed some of the ideas, so thank you for that! To give you a better understanding of my goals and intentions, let me share a bit about myself. I am in my early thirties and was fortunate enough to retire thanks to some lucky choices I made earlier in my life. Seeking to escape the cold and dark winters of Finland, I moved to Bangkok on an elite visa where I eventually met my wife. After some time, we decided to relocate to her hometown of Yasothon, as neither of us was fond of the polluted and hectic environment of Bangkok. Unfortunately, there are few rental options available in our remote location, and the house we are currently living in, despite adding running water and AC, is of very low quality. While I have grown quite fond of living here, I am still uncertain if I want to settle here for the long term, which is why I am hesitant to build a proper Western-style house. Instead, I have decided to start by building a smaller house to gain firsthand experience with the building process and learn from any mistakes that may arise. In addition to the aforementioned issues, living here has its own set of challenges. For instance, the water supply from the main line is only available for a few hours in the morning and evening. Unfortunately, this limited supply is not enough to fill our water tank, especially during the dry season when it may not run at all for many days. Furthermore, even the water from the well may dry up during these periods. Another problem we face is power outages during storms, which can last for hours, if not days. To mitigate these challenges, I have decided to implement a two-pronged approach. Firstly, I will rely on a combination of well water and rainwater collection, rather than the main water supply. Additionally, I plan to install a 10 kW solar system with a 20-30 kW battery backup, which will ensure a reliable source of electricity even during extended power outages. I also plan to to construct a 17x5m "carport" adjacent to my house to house the solar panels. To ensure an efficient use of space, I plan to collect rainwater from both the house and carport using a rain gutter system, which will then be stored in five 2000-liter tanks situated beneath the roof. Both the well water and rainwater will be filtered to ensure their purity. I'm still open to ideas and nothing is set in concrete. Our house has been built by a small building company that also specializes in construction projects within the Isaan region. The blueprint for our house is as follows: Although the cost was relatively low, I understand that you often get what you pay for, and I am fully prepared for any drawbacks. We did make some modifications, such as increasing the size of the bathrooms, which brought the total cost of the house to 750k. We plan to further enhance the default material choices, which will likely raise the price to around 850k. While the building company has demonstrated their knowledge and helpfulness, there was one instance where they insisted that insulation was unnecessary in an Isaan house due to wind. Nevertheless, overall, I am content with the decision to work with this company thus far. Step 1: We raised the ground around 30-40 cm and waited few months it to settle while watering it almost daily. A 33-meter hole was drilled on the corner of the elevated land. The driller discovered multiple waterlines in the area, but fortunately none of them were located directly under the house. Water was already found at a depth of 10 meters. I installed the hitachi pump that pumps the water from ~27m. As you can see i also installed the consumer unit and water tank for the builders to use. Step2: Building the foundation. The builders manually excavated 15 holes, each with a depth of 1.4 meters, for the foundation. Not sure why they installed panels and didn't just fill the holes with concrete? To save money? Septic tank. I'll make sure the waste water will be atleast 30m from water pump. The 2 bathrooms look still bit too small? Oh well. Pouring the concrete. I was sad to see that they did not use concrete vibrator. Not looking too good, but they said this will be fixed later on I asked them to fix this right away as this hole is under the supporting pole This is the latest picture. Couple of the poles went a bit over the foundation. They said it will be fixed, but I did not understand how due the communication barrier. I'll keep posting the updates. Feel free to give me tips as i have no prior experience with building a house. Thank you for reading ????