Landlords tree, he cuts it without discussion,  you move.

I know the OP said this was not the issue, but I agree. Why would you want to live in one of those concrete tarmac houses? The Thais are insane when it comes to that. Just move. Get a real house with real windows and a garden. Your quality of life is the main thing here. 

 

On a side note, I see and have been part of the tree-cutting mentality here. What I want to know from these idiots is, "Why now?" The tree has been there for 40 years and just now you decide it's "unsafe" or "too big"? 

<deleted> is that supposed to mean? 

It's a very cool house, as in we like it, not the temp. It's also large and serves us well in the things we get up to. And the rent is extremely reasonable. The location is very good if you want to skip a rock in the moat, among other things. It is very secure and my wife feels safe staying in it alone. Finding a place we are this fond of will not be easy. Most likely the rent will be much higher. It can probably be done but it's hard work and will most likely mean moving out of the city...which is not terrible perhaps but a change to get used to nonetheless. Moving all the things we have will be no picnic either. It is time consuming and disruptive. It is more than a couple trips with a pickup truck. Packing up a household is not a job done in one day, nor is organizing one anew. There is an expense involved, too, and I'm not so flush that it won't make an impact on my financials. I'm not just moving a studio room. It's a huge time "loss" or time not spent on what you need to be spending it on. This is the reason I am trying to find a work around. In the end, I may indeed be forced to move.

The concrete yard is gross, yes, but we have potted plants/trees around and a couple garden/dirt areas. The tree did a HUGE part in softening the concrete effect visually.

In laws had a Few monks come to house to chase out bad spirits causing the wife problems. Had a beautiful large tree at front of lot 

plenty of shade and red edible berries that are sweet and quite good. 

 

Head Monk said the tree was causing the bad spirits not to leave to cut it down. So the in laws cut it down and broken the metal on top of wall (decorative) or whatever it’s called. 

 

They came back back again as the problem didn’t stop. I told the in laws we are not cutting anything down! 

 

I think the bad “spirits “ was in a bottle....they’ve not been back the Monks 

 

 

 

 

The in laws live with you, or you with them? What a miserable lot of bad-advice monks.

Since the landlord cut the tree down, is he opposed to having another tree altogether? 

I'm not sure. Probably not adverse to a small one but it would not do a lot to cut down the heat. A large one...would cost a lot to purchase/plant or a lot of time for a smaller one to grow big enough. But I might purchase a few smaller ones to at least beautify the place. I have some already which I will probably move around to better suit the current needs. I bought some netting today and will see about hanging it. Sure gonna look pretty....

My wife has once put a passion fruit plant (1) in our garden. After a year or so the thing had already grown up to about 20 meters long. As it is a climbing plant you can guide it (with simple wires f.e.) in any direction you want it to grow. Beautiful and abundant flowers, leaves a bit like vine, fruit, if you are lucky, and you can even eat the saplings. Only thing is, it will attract insects like bees etc.(and butterflies) I think 3 or 4 of them would give you a good result within not too much time. And you could use the wires (or whatsoever) for the instant solution with the plastic stuff.

On 28 September 2018 at 5:48 PM, Kurtf said:

I really can not believe the idiotic topics and questions put up on here. Buy a room air conditioner. Duh. They sell portable ones you can take with you when you move.

But, but, but, Prawit and Big Jock are behaving, and Koh Tao is old news.
We have to have something to comment about....

I have a house on one rai in Bo Sang and built it in 2003 with nothing in the lot.  I planted all trees and most were good choices but some not so good or they died from my “black thumb.”  I’ve cut down 2 trees that my wife didn’t like when they were mature.  One tree that provided shade to an area where I have one of those checker, concrete tables, was cut down by the caretaker that stayed at the house when I’m gone (which is most of the time).  It was a tall tree but had started to rot and the caretaker was afraid that when it fell, it would hit the house.  The mango trees that I planted on the south side are now mature and supply that side (south) with shade during the hot part of the day.   When I’m back in March for a couple of weeks, I’ll devote time to new landscaping ideas, particularly replacing that tree that the caretaker cut down.

Chamchaa trees (https://www.google.de/search?biw=1920&amp;bih=966&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=1&amp;ei=Su2wW_3AOpD2rQGAsavgDA&amp;q=chamcha+tree&amp;oq=chamcha+tree&amp;gs_l=img.3..0i19k1.4087.5289.0.8193.5.4.0.1.1.0.88.301.4.4.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.5.299...0i8i30i19k1.0.liBL2-wQCyI) will grow as the fastest I've ever seen. Planted at the right place a single tree can shade your entire house after 3 - 4 years.
On the other hand it makes quite a lot of mess dropping all its small leaves all around the year but I can hardly imagine a tree which gives better shade for a large area.
Very common here, you will get seedlings in your close neighborhood, simply keep your eyes open ...

Just a thought on how much you're willing to invest in the project...baht, that is.  Whatever the costs involved, if you spread that amount over the number of months you've already been there and the months that plan to be there, and add that to what you're already paying each month for rent, you'll realize that your monthly housing cost has not increased by much at all.  And the longer you're there, the cost per month decreases. 

 

Also, given the lump sum of whatever improvements, would all the hassle of finding a hopefully better place to live be worth not having to put up the cost of the outlay now?  I understand that you're not considering moving, but even if you were, there are so so many unknowns in a new house and neighborhood.  Plus you'd be giving up all the features that make you happy where you presently are.

 

Considering that except for the heat you appear to be very satisfied where you are, spending a few thousand baht trying to make the place more comfortable would seem to be the way to go.

Hey guys, yes, it is worth my while to put a little money into the place and find a workable solution...I think. It takes some time to get over the shock of breaking something that was working just fine to then have to output time and money to "fix" the thing that wasn't broken in the first place, if you follow me. 3 or 4 years down the road is too slow. I don't imagine I will still be here in this house. I have a new 2 year lease. I think by that point, if I'm still in this house, the area will be so over built and busy that I will have had enough of CM city living. Such a shame as it used to be such a tranquil "town" but don't get me started on that.

 

I'm certainly going to look into the passion fruit tree/plant. That sounds like a quick grower. I have rigged up some netting, oh what beauty, and it needs some serious tweaking to be effective but it's a start. I bought the 50% blockage, silver color (for those familiar with it) but realize I should have gone with the 80%. Well, it's cheap enough. Sad the place looks ever more like an industrial lot but for the time being, so be it. We have our eyes open for any house that may come along with super appeal and the rent is cheap enough here that I could do a slow move over a couple months. That would ease the pain. The tree that was cut was also one of those small-leafed, continually shedding types so one benefit, perhaps the only one, is that the drive/yard doesn't need a sweep every night. Well that's something.