Encid

We plan to have the water lab tested, as we plan on using it in the bathroom and kitchen for our guest house. It is definitely not salty but I suspect it has a high calcium content. The domestic water supply for our main house is planned to be rain water supplemented by the well water. Depending on the test results, filtration may be required. In any case, my FIL will use the well water for farming purposes.

Yes it does have a thin red stripe on it. I looked for the blue striped HDPE but it wasn't available at Global House Khon Kaen. This was the only available pipe.

Then my nephew just had to commission it... 555

And today the 750 watt submersible pump was installed, along with the PV solar panels, and the 180 metre long pipeline to the pond. The piping is 1 1/2" PVC at the pump, then 65mm HDPE overland in a trench. Control cables have been attached to the pipeline and a switch in a weatherproof housing installed on the power pole at the corner of the pond. This will enable us to turn on the solar powered pump at the pole instead of walking across to the panels/pump. Total installed cost was just over 60,000 baht.

Then the PEA called to let us know that they were going to connect the meter. We are now live!

This was the most exciting part... 20220406_160758.mp4

We hired a local contractor to drill a well for us. We found plenty of good clear water at only 27 metres depth, but we went down a few metres more just for good measure. 20220406_123200.mp4

Our new power poles and cables are all ready to be connected to the PEA grid. Not too bad... some are leaning slightly but the result is better than I expected. I'd be interested to get some feedback/opinions from those of you who are electrically minded. I do not see any grounding or earth... is this normal? Is this just a temporary measure to be used by the builder until the main house is built? I assume that when we connect to our house we will have a breaker box that will be earthed via the footings, and I am also planning for lightning rods to be installed on the roof which will also have it's own separate earth.

Well it's been a busy week for me! Some updates by photos to follow. There has been some very heavy rain for an extended period so I was expecting to see some serious erosion, however it wasn't as bad as I thought. I have ordered 1000 vetiver seedlings from Lazada (cost just over 600 baht including delivery) and we will be planting them 50mm apart in rows 1 metre apart. Hopefully they will take root and grow quickly before the big rains come in September/October. We will have water available so the plants can be regularly watered.

I just found some more information on Vetiver Grass here. In the article they call it "Ya-Phaeg". Same same... but different. And from another website: From the article: "Its dense and fibrous root system can extend to 10 feet (3 m) deep in the first 2 years, making it a powerful tool to assist with slope stabilization, erosion control, soil and water conservation, rainfall runoff management and flood mitigation, and the general rehabilitation of degraded lands." Very impressive and sounds exactly what I need.

A 2m or 3m roof overhang is not excessive if you use correctly sized structural members. See this for example:

Here is a layout showing the raised area and the locations of both the main house and the guest house relative to the government road and the pond. Area (including the pond) is approx 3700 m2 or 2.3 rai, with a perimeter of 264m. Area (excluding the pond) is approx 2600 m2 or 1.6 rai, with a perimeter of 210m.

Thanks for the tip... I might have to give it a go.

@MJCM Thanks for the compliment! I am using AutoCAD to produce the drawings (to scale) in 2D. But I am by no means an expert using the software... self-taught! I too am using Sweet Home 3D to produce 3D images of the main house, but I find that although the results are very good conceptually, they are not accurate and the libraries available don't have everything I want. For example, steps and stairs are just not intuitive... neither are ramps and slopes. I will post some of my preliminary designs for the main house later.

Stewart and his wife Barbara go to the county fair every year, And every year Stewart would say, "Barbara, I'd like to ride in that helicopter" Barbara always replied, "I know Stewart, but that helicopter ride is seventy quid, and seventy quid is seventy quid!" One year later Stewart and Barbara went to the fair, and Stewart said, "Barbara, I'm 75 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance" To this, Barbara replied, "Stewart, that helicopter ride is seventy quid, and seventy quid is seventy quid" The pilot overheard the couple and said, "Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word I won't charge you a penny! But if you say one word it's seventy quid. " Stewart and Barbara agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy manoeuvres, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, But still not a word... When they landed, the pilot turned to Stewart and said, "By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't. I'm impressed!" Stewart replied, "Well, to tell you the truth I almost said something when Barbara fell out, but you know, seventy quid is seventy quid!"

I have also revised the roof outline and the location for the water storage tank for the Guest House. (Thanks for those suggestions!) Having larger eaves will help keep the weather out of the open kitchen/rest area, and also provide cover to park motocycs and other vehicles, as well as possible future water storage tanks The expanded roof area will also assist in the collection of rain water which can be added to the water storage tank. The rain water will help to dilute and soften the well water. Changing the orientation also means that we must change the orientation of our bed... your head must never point towards the direction of the setting sun (west) when sleeping. Another Thai tradition/cultural thing...

More on this subject... My dear wife has informed me that we cannot have this kind of gate... it must not be able to be "see-through", as it has to keep all our money inside and a "see-through" gate will allow the money to escape.

What a beautiful leelawadee... I might have to sneak by your place and alibaba a cutting...

Thank you. I just found some very useful information about it from the Land Development Department.

Climate-wise I think that Pattaya/Jomtien is much more pleasant than Hua Hin. Hua Hin has a very low rainfall in comparison and gets very hot and dry (no sea breeze). Pattaya/Jomtien on the other hand is cooler (due to the sea breeze) and gets more rainfall. Land and house prices seem to be similar in either city. Both are about the same distance from Bangkok, although Pattaya is much closer to Swampy International Airport and also has Utapau International Airport nearby. Both have Central shopping malls (and other shopping malls) so you can get your essential falung goodies. If you like to play golf the choices are many in the Pattaya region, whilst Hua Hin is rather limited in comparison. Just a few pro's and con's for you to consider... I'm sure others can find more. Sound advice.

So probably a good plant for a privacy hedge, but not as an erosion preventive plant on a slope? I need something to plant on a slope as well as the first metre of flat land at the top of the slope. Erosion prevention is priority one, having a privacy screen is secondary.

Looks great! Is that 30cm apart or 30cm high? How long ago did you plant them? Planted from seedlings? Can I assume that the root structure is about as extensive as the branch/foliage structure?

But our land is not in the village! We are 800 metres beyond the last PEA pole in the village, and are the only ones building out there (except for the occasional minor shack for farm workers).

Thanks to everyone for their input on what is and isn't legal wrt how far you can build a domicile from the boundary of your property, however this does not concern me at all as neither my main house nor my guest house will be built less than 5 metres from our legal boundary (as defined by a red chanote). I am more concerned about the comments about obtaining your neighbours' permission to build on our own rural (not village residential) land. And it would seem that the local Tessabaan or Orportor requirements may override government requirements... TIT! I plan to find out next week.

What is the root structure like? Do you think they could be used on the sloping walls of our filled land to help prevent erosion and provide a good privacy hedge?