Building a huge mansion in Isaan. What can go wrong?

[lost in isaan]

4 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Here's a photo of us abuilding in Dec 2016, 3 months before moving in. And a couple in mid-2022.

 

And yes we made every mistake known to man. Went thru 3 sets of local/family 'builders' of varying levels of incompetence & thievery. Only when my boy took over the daily management & supervision did things improve. Took 15 months all up and the end result isn't bad, with some rough bits and some areas for improvement when we can afford it. But overall solid (built on stilts down to the bedrock below the usual hundreds of truckloads of 'soil'). Comfortable inside, plenty of room for all my books, large rooms, high ceilings. We used an architect design which I modified to reduce the number of bedrooms and build the main library u/s.

 

An interesting experience. If I were doing it again (God forbid) I would employ falang builders.

 

 

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

[soi3eddie]

It seems the OP already knows how it is likely to go. Not Isaan but southern Thailand, a farang built a huge house in the village. Totally out of place with tennis court etc. Much discussion and gossip amongst the villagers. Eventually he divorced his missus and the house was up for sale at 10 Million Baht (over 20yrs ago). After a few years of it becoming derelict, a local bought it for a bargain price.

 

[K.Samakee]

Forget about healing your wife's mind as there is a high chance of failing in this. 

Sorry to say, with 11Mio. Bath on hand, you only can build a very small fraction of this dream castle... ....stop dreaming...

[Gottfrid]

3 hours ago, Adumbration said:

Sigh....

 

Another fake account posting nonsense.

 

Are there any real people left posting on this forum?

A real person would never post that.

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

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

 

 

Don't ignore your wife's concerns. There's a good chance locals at the market will say nasty things to her, and possibly put pressure on her to give them handouts.

 

Plus, in your 'journey' so far have you have requests / demands from her siblings for handouts?

 

Keep in mind that the 'mansion' you propose strongly reinforces the belief that all farang are extremely rich with no limits. The pressure they might put on your wife could be quite intimidating for her. And quite possible she won't tell you about this for fear you will get nasty.

 

[lost in isaan]

30 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Don't ignore your wife's concerns. There's a good chance locals at the market will say nasty things to her, and possibly put pressure on her to give them handouts.

 

Plus, in your 'journey' so far have you have requests / demands from her siblings for handouts?

 

Keep in mind that the 'mansion' you propose strongly reinforces the belief that all farang are extremely rich with no limits. The pressure they might put on your wife could be quite intimidating for her. And quite possible she won't tell you about this for fear you will get nasty.

 

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 :)
 

Edited January 28 by lost in isaan

[worgeordie]

You must have more money than taste , it's a terrible design , will stick out like a sore thumb in Issan ,or anywhere really,

35 years living hear I found out its best to fit in not stand out , no good can come of it...if you are real ...

 

 

regards worgeordie

[Kinnock]

3 hours ago, mfd101 said:

Here's a photo of us abuilding in Dec 2016, 3 months before moving in. And a couple in mid-2022.

 

And yes we made every mistake known to man. Went thru 3 sets of local/family 'builders' of varying levels of incompetence & thievery. Only when my boy took over the daily management & supervision did things improve. Took 15 months all up and the end result isn't bad, with some rough bits and some areas for improvement when we can afford it. But overall solid (built on stilts down to the bedrock below the usual hundreds of truckloads of 'soil'). Comfortable inside, plenty of room for all my books, large rooms, high ceilings. We used an architect design which I modified to reduce the number of bedrooms and build the main library u/s.

 

An interesting experience. If I were doing it again (God forbid) I would employ falang builders.

 

 

Nice! 

Ah yes, the project management.  I forgot to mention that in my post. 

 

I was working out of Thailand during most the build phase (to pay for it 😀) - so the Missus had to spend 2 years sitting on a deckchair in the middle of a building site, micro managing the builders, architect, plumbers, electricians, painters, joiners, window contractors, vintage hardwood restorers, anti-termite pipe installers, AC engineers, WFI/CCTV installers, tilers, well pump contractor, painters and gardener.  She also had to manage the site project manager.

 

The workers (men and women) were from Myanmar and lived in huts on site, and one had a baby so my wife was also a part time childminder.

 

After several mid-build redesigns, endless arguments, changes to sub contractors and disputes with suppliers - she delivered a perfect house with a unique style ..... and was left totally exhausted.

 

The physical and mental effort required to ensure everyone does a good job is astronomical .... I was lucky that I only needed to generate the cash.

 

So in answer to the original question .... the bigger the house, the bigger the challenge.

[Bday Prang]

   How many Rai of land have you bought your wife for this project, was it  expensive ?  Have you seen the papers/ deeds.  I strongly suggest you seek some advice, perhaps employ an experience project manager,      It is a role to which I would be perfectly suited    I would be prepared to assist for a modest retainer of 400,000 per month, cash ,  paid in advance. 

Out of interest, how large is your wifes extended family

[Elkski]

To pompous.   You wull regret this monstrosity.  Your reason for building this is absurd. 

[BenStark]

Curious which school the OP is teaching English

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, Elkski said:

To pompous.   You wull regret this monstrosity.  Your reason for building this is absurd. 

 

Given the house picture, I have some suspicion this is a troll activity.

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

   How many Rai of land have you bought your wife for this project, was it  expensive ?  Have you seen the papers/ deeds.  I strongly suggest you seek some advice, perhaps employ an experience project manager,      It is a role to which I would be perfectly suited    I would be prepared to assist for a modest retainer of 400,000 per month, cash ,  paid in advance. 

Out of interest, how large is your wifes extended family

 

"Out of interest, how large is your wifes extended family".

Good question. And where is your wife in the birth order? Is she the eldest, the youngest etc.

 

Why? My Thai daughter is law (DIL) has two elder sisters and two elder brothers. My DIL is reminded often by all of them that she must respect/follow whatever she is instructed to do by elder siblings. 

 

E.g. One of her elder brothers turned up at the almost completed house (5 bed, 4.5 bath) my son and his wife (my DIL) were building in Chiang Mai.

DILs elder brother started to try to tell my son:

- Who should sleep in each of the bedrooms.

- That two of the bathrooms should be changed into Buddha rooms.

- That the fairly big space assigned to be the indoors western style kitchen was a waste of space and should be changed to a bedroom.

In fact elder brother give instructions on these changes to the building supervisor.

 

My son quickly also spoke to the development company and made it plain that their contracted builder should never take any instruction from any other party even if it was another family member.

 

Son called a family meeting requesting his wifes two elder sisters and two elder brothers attend. Son raised hell and warned them all off and indicating he would call the police (son realised of course that the police would be less than interested unless there was a substantial payment, this never happened).

 

The two elder sisters and two elder brothers were insulted, son ignored their attitude and told them they were not allowed to visit the build site.

 

Still today one loud older sister does visit but calls in advance and tries to tell her younger sister (my son's wife) and my son how to bring up their children. She is totally ignored. 

[thaibeachlovers]

9 hours ago, Celsius said:

Go for it. Nothing can go wrong.

 

Be sure to check back in a year or two tho

You should put a smiley emoji on that or people might think you are serious.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

Picture of the house i currently plan to build

 

Till I saw that photo I was wondering if the OP was serious or just taking the Mickey.

I wonder no more.

[Ben Zioner]

8 hours ago, scorecard said:

Keep in mind that the 'mansion' you propose strongly reinforces the belief that all farang are extremely rich with no limits. The pressure they might put on your wife could be quite intimidating for her.

Where do you get that from? 

 

And this was covered by OP:  "I have some "<deleted> you" money and slowly planning to build a huge mansion in middle of rice fields. "

 

 

Edited January 29 by Ben Zioner

[Ben Zioner]

6 hours ago, Elkski said:

To pompous.   You wull regret this monstrosity.  Your reason for building this is absurd. 

You reckon Mumtaz Mahal regretted getting the Taj Mahal built?

[roo860]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

"Out of interest, how large is your wifes extended family".

Good question. And where is your wife in the birth order? Is she the eldest, the youngest etc.

 

Why? My Thai daughter is law (DIL) has two elder sisters and two elder brothers. My DIL is reminded often by all of them that she must respect/follow whatever she is instructed to do by elder siblings. 

 

E.g. One of her elder brothers turned up at the almost completed house (5 bed, 4.5 bath) my son and his wife (my DIL) were building in Chiang Mai.

DILs elder brother started to try to tell my son:

- Who should sleep in each of the bedrooms.

- That two of the bathrooms should be changed into Buddha rooms.

- That the fairly big space assigned to be the indoors western style kitchen was a waste of space and should be changed to a bedroom.

In fact elder brother give instructions on these changes to the building supervisor.

 

My son quickly also spoke to the development company and made it plain that their contracted builder should never take any instruction from any other party even if it was another family member.

 

Son called a family meeting requesting his wifes two elder sisters and two elder brothers attend. Son raised hell and warned them all off and indicating he would call the police (son realised of course that the police would be less than interested unless there was a substantial payment, this never happened).

 

The two elder sisters and two elder brothers were insulted, son ignored their attitude and told them they were not allowed to visit the build site.

 

Still today one loud older sister does visit but calls in advance and tries to tell her younger sister (my son's wife) and my son how to bring up their children. She is totally ignored. 

." One of her elder brothers turned up at the almost completed house (5 bed, 4.5 bath) ".

 

 

So the 5th bedroom only had .5 of a bathroom?🙂

[metisdead]

A troll post contravening our Community Standards has been removed:

• Do not flame, troll or stalk other members

[norfolkandchance]

Oh No. He's back on here.

[uttradit]

Big house won't make up for a boring location. Forget it. Move to the city you like the most and rent. When you are bored go to a bar or restaurant.

[uttradit]

2 hours ago, roo860 said:

." One of her elder brothers turned up at the almost completed house (5 bed, 4.5 bath) ".

 

 

So the 5th bedroom only had .5 of a bathroom?🙂

0.5 means no shower. Small room with toilet and basin.

[uttradit]

With FU money I'd rent a condo on the 50th floor in Bangkok on the river or a deluxe bungalow on an island.

 

 

[fredwiggy]

This is exactly why most locals think all farangs are rich. Fact is, most farangs are alike. They get by monthly and have to pay bills which eat much of their pay, even while retired. Building houses, meaning huge out of proportion to the local area, makes the locals jealous, and isn't a good thing for relations between. Gossip here is as huge as anywhere on earth, and much gossip is derived from jealousy. If the locals knew the truth about most farangs, they wouldn't be talking negatively about us and realize we are a lot like them. Some more money and things, but the need to pay more for them, so our higher pay balances out the same. Many Americans, and this does mean many, live paycheck to paycheck, and have huge credit card bills monthly, or they wouldn't have what they have in possession. many lose their homes and autos daily. This isn't news to the locals here, as I hear myself from my girlfriend, who's pretty smart on things farang and knows how much many of us make. It isn't what a lot of her friends think, as some of them get cash monthly from farangs overseas, and they brag about getting this free money, many times with no intentions of ever meeting the men who send it. The ones who don't have contact directly with an idiot sending money think we all have a lot of money to throw around. People building huge houses where the rest of the area has old, mainly wooden structures which leak air, have bugs and vermin running around, no AC and where most of them sleep on the floor on mattresses, aren't helping with the thinking of these locals but furthering their attitudes that we're all wealthy. This leads to jealousy between friends here, when some have farang mates who give them everything, the rest just get by on 300 baht a day, and the gossip never ends. It's always better to fit in . having a nice house is fine, with AC, so you live the life you used to back home, wherever that was, but being extravagant just to show off isn't a good thing. A lot of farangs had jobs that ruined the environment, hurt others, developed areas that didn't need development, or moved money around just to benefit the rich. The rest of us worked many years to get to where we could retire, in jobs that helped out the world and it's people. People here brag daily on what they have. Many are liars, and some are these types, who didn't do much with their time besides hurt our world. Again, better to fit in than stand out. Jealousy comes easy for the majority of the world's population, who either just get by, or struggle to make ends meet.

[iLuvThai]

15 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

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 think you're looking for attention building a house like that photo. Do what you want is your money, but I'm pretty sure changing someone's financial thermostat in Thailand is probably not a fantastic idea. Knowing you can Provide for your families needs is in my opinion a better use of resources because you can live humble and still do everything you might want to do. If you want to spoil her, take her somewhere awesome and stay in and stay in a 5 star resorts. Again you'll do what you want but I know what I would do if I had that kind of bread. Be well.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, roo860 said:

." One of her elder brothers turned up at the almost completed house (5 bed, 4.5 bath) ".

 

 

So the 5th bedroom only had .5 of a bathroom?🙂

It's an Americanism. Half a bathroom has a toilet and a washbasin and I assume isn't in a bedroom. I'm not sure if it has a shower, but I don't think so.

[newnative]

   Some good advice from other posters.  Ignore the usual posters who always question a thread if it concerns anything to do with more than meager amounts of money.  Apparently for some, the only farangs living in Thailand are on small pensions with no COLAs and anybody with any money would be living somewhere else.  Just an afternoon's drive around Pattaya would put paid to that.

   My spouse and I built our first house this past year, after renovating two other houses.  Three bedroom four bath pool villa outside of Pattaya.  Project started in February and finished around October.  It was much more stressful than what we thought it would be.  The project developer did not provide what we considered to be adequate day to day supervision of the work so we took it upon ourselves to do this--which meantwe were on site almost every day except for a few breaks when we did a little traveling.  

    The massive project you are considering would, of course, take much longer and be much more complicated.  No matter how good the construction crew, there will be a lot of work for you, with a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of planning to get things right. 

    In our case, the construction crew would do the work but they first needed to know what to do.  For example, we had to come up with the electrical plan, which is more work and more complicated than you might think if you want to get it right.  Where exactly do we want plugs?  How many?  Which light switches need to be two-way?  Where will ceiling lights go?  How many?  Ceiling fans?  Etc.  Ditto for designing the kitchen and its layout to get it to function at its best and have everything where it should be.  Also armoires and vanities--what size, how many drawers, location in the rooms, etc.   We did all the designs ourselves.   You can hire designers, for example, for the kitchen, but you still need to work with them so you get exactly what you want. 

     Just some examples.  Most every day was a new challenge, with a new set of problems to solve.  Most of the interaction with the work crews fell to my Thai partner, as I don't speak Thai and the workers had limited English.  So, it was a lot of work for him.   Is this massive project something you want to take on with the work involved?

     As others have said, I don't think building the mansion you have pictured is a good idea.  I doubt your wife would ever be comfortable living there, to start.  I don't think I would, either.  And, as a foreigner, I don't think it's a good idea to stick out so much with such a grand dwelling.  I, myself, prefer to blend in and not call too much attention to anything I am doing here.  Our house, once finished, is very nice but it's surrounded by houses of the same calibre so we don't stand out as a specific target.

     In your shoes, I would build a house that meets all your needs and fits your lifestyle.  If you want a home gym, put it in.  We like to swim so a relatively big pool was important for us.  I would build a house that has absolutely everything you want and be happy and satisfied with that.  You might end up with something in size between your house photo and the house photo shown by another poster.  You might also think about having a getaway place, perhaps Bangkok, to break things up from time to time.  My spouse and I have a condo in Bangkok and we try to visit about once a month for a change of scenery.  Good luck with whatever you decide and keep us posted! 

[northsouthdevide]

Do you have a large family? 

When i was planning my new home a few years ago, i was discussing it with my wife. 

The kids have grown up and started thier own lifes journey. 

When we were discussing the size and amount of bedrooms

She said to me, " small birds dont build large nests." 

[thaibeachlovers]

I'm pretty sure the OP is taking the Mickey, but if he is he seems to have caught a lot of fish!

 

 

[YaDongImproved]

The more you invest, the more legal protection you need.make a sap ing sith with other documents. Better than a lease or usufruct.

 

We already registered 3 in the last 2 months.

 

Sebastien.