House Front. West Is Dangerous....!or Is It East?

[harrymand]

Have a land ready to build on. The design of the house is almoust agreed. But there is a problem.( According to my g/f.) Now way she will have a bedroom where the bed must have the headboard facing sundown! You can die!. I like,or WANT the front of the house facing the sundown! No good she says.Thai don't do that..

Can you share your experience regarding this? I am tempted to say she can turn it where ever way she likes when my ashes is gone with the wind!

Harry.

[naka]

Just from looking out from my balcony, there are bedrooms facing all which way.

Naka.

[meemiathai]

Well here in HK, no one likes their house facing west coz(I think) it get really hot during the afternoons. Facing south or southeast is the best and are the most expensive ones.

[apetley]

Just keep visiting different monks/fortune tellers etc until you get the answer you want

[Mosha]

In our house. One head board is facing south, and in the smaller bed room it faces north. My wife swithes the smaller one around at a whim to any direction except to sundown. She also says it is not good to have a west facing headboard. East is best and south is good from my wife's point of view. I'm owt for aquiet life. Naka it does'n't matter where the window faces as long as the bed is alligned "correctly". I bet if you could look in the bedrooms you would not likely see the bed head facing west.

Edited December 3, 2007 by Mosha

[slapout]

This same topic came up when we built a house about 11 years ago. I made the bedrooms large enough that beds could be positioned in the direction desired. Now that I have checked the position 2 beds north (headboard) to south, 2 beds east (headboard) to west. Have not heard about house direction being a concern with them but am aware that bed position is very important.

[threelegcowboy]

Traditional building of Thai home etc. Monks come out and do service for a fee. Monks decide where front door to home and where the spirit house(alter) should be.

I am sure there are alot more do's and dont's of the Thai home.

[tartempion]

Well the house plan foresaw kitchen door opposite bedroom door.

When the walls were built the gf said: "No good, can't do!!! Kitchen hot, bedroom fresh, can not have doors opposite each other like that.

Result: she had the bedroom door removed and rebuilt 4m to the left, away from the kitchen door....

[Scott]

I think the point here is one of power and control. Whatever you want is wrong. Heard every variation of this crap before. My favorite one is that you can't have your head pointing toward the bathroom!

[Mosha]

Traditional building of Thai home etc. Monks come out and do service for a fee. Monks decide where front door to home and where the spirit house(alter) should be.

I am sure there are alot more do's and dont's of the Thai home.

We had a shamen? certainly not a monk. She did go down to the Wat to get a starting date though. That consisted of a hole being dug, a pile being driven and a single reinforced concrete pillar being built. The thing was stood on it's own for about a month.

[jonniebkk]

Tell her about the Golden Rule...he with the gold makes the rules If and when she pays for the house construction, she can face the rooms anyway she wants...until then...tell her to stuff a sock in her cake hole

[Stephen Cleary]

It is believed that most of this Thai belief in regards to the positioning of furniture and direction of the house and so and so..... originates mainly from the Chinese practice of Feng Shui.

From what has been recorded, the urban Thai-Thais began to follow the ways of the Thai-Chinese as they witnessed how succesfully rich they were getting (one of the main modern objectives of Feng Shui). The true origins therefore of such a belief are not really Thai, but Chinese. Just that most Thais and business-orientated monks, don't realize it.

Edited December 3, 2007 by Stephen Cleary

[cmsally]

Thais don't like to be with head to the west as that is how you are supposed to lay out a corpse.

In Northern Thailand many say auspicious for your house to face north. But as plots of land become smaller , most people now lay out their house as to how it fits best.

[draggons]

Our house had to be built with the front door facing east. No good any other way.

[londonthai]

read somewhere recently that prevailing winds in thailand are from the S-W. The general rule in the nothern hemisfere is a morning breeze from N-E. So S-W or N-E for the front of the house is the best to stay cool naturally. You might want to check wind charts for the place you live in

[chanchao]

It's interesting because around here (Chiang Mai) the consensus is a bed headboard shouldn't be at North. In the end I won though.

But seriously, positioning a house is VERY important, especially to make sure you keep the sun off your walls and get the breeze in, in all seasons.

But anyway, just because the house faces North doesn't mean that your bedroom(s) need to?

[JimsKnight]

Yup I find that having the windows facing east or north-east is best. The setting sun is a scorcher on anything it hits! So make sure you get the bedrooms on the east side or get ready to feel the heat;)

[thaipete]

The front of my house faces west and I see some of the greatest sunsets in the world from my porch, I have 5 rai here so could have built any which way, my biggest problem in this house and another I had built was the 3 metre Thai room size also they would not build certain number of rooms, length wise 3 was fine but 4 no way but after building I put an extension on, no problem. RSJ's were unheard of, an Australian Architect friend drew me up some great plans for a Spanish type Villa but the builder drew me up his type of plan on the back of a fag packet and I adjusted as I wanted, equally he built me a lovely place for half a million baht as opposed to getting Pattaya or Bkk builders in for probably ten times that amount.

[blizzard]

building house for you and girlfriend sir.

shouldnt it be for you and your wife.

you got a lot to learn.

and its not just a thai thing.

[Samuian]

the face of the house is facing south... click me: well however, thee is a lot more to it then which direction it should face - besides local beliefs and customs - already mentioned heat and air circulation are most important considerations above all!

google provides a lot of information about this highly complex topic!

[xyborg]

<br />Have a land ready to build on. The design of the house is almoust agreed. But there is a problem.( According to my g/f.) Now way she will have a bedroom where the bed must have the headboard facing sundown! You can die!. I like,or WANT the front of the house facing the sundown! No good she says.Thai don't do that..<br />Can you share your experience regarding this? I am tempted to say she can turn it where ever way she likes when my ashes is gone with the wind!<br />Harry.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Pah ridiculous tell her "your" (assuming your not) not Thai and wont die that ant kids you have will only be half Thai and therefore only half die and you want it facing west and if she doesnt like it you wont bother building see what she says to that. If its bye bye find a more grateful woman assuming she could never have afforded to do this on her own. If she could then you will have to change your standpoint. I want to see a bit more gratitude from "some" Thais and not the expectations of free money and then two fingers in your face. Yes I know they are not all like this, bang some common sense into her.

[JimsKnight]

Some hard words and views but they mean well Harry, so take heed and good luck!

[PattayaParent]

In VN the rule is that the feet shouldn't point towards the bedroom door or all your luck will run out.

But what if we sleep with the door closed honey?

[jing jing]

Certainly the house should be oriented to take advantage of prevailing breezes and afternoon shade. For whatever reason it is a no-no for Thais to sleep with their head toward the west, but if you pay attention when drawing up the house plans, avoiding that shouldn't present a huge problem. If it's important to your mate but all the same to you, why put up a fuss? Save fighting for the important stuff... like the color of the curtains or which shower head is best. ;p

[CHdiver]

Tell her about the Golden Rule...he with the gold makes the rules If and when she pays for the house construction, she can face the rooms anyway she wants...until then...tell her to stuff a sock in her cake hole

I like the way you are thinking

[Rimmer]

As the sun rises in the East to open and enliven the day so the headboard should be placed in the East.

The sun dies for the day in the West so you should not have your headboard facing that way.

I've been in Asia too long to scoff at Feng Shui

Edited December 3, 2007 by Rimmer