The House I Built Part 1

[chiangrai57020]

Prologue

The wife and I arrived back in Thailand after a 14 year absence in October 1998. Until we made up our mind as to whether to remain in Thailand it was decided that we would rent a house. The wife wanted to rent her sisters house in the village. I wanted to rent away from the village. She won.

Renting for at least a year is an option that I would recommend to anyone that is contemplating living in Thailand. Give yourself this time to decide if Thailand is for you.

More than a year passes and the wife decides she has to have her own place to live. I suggested we move away from the village. She decided that ‘we’ would build in the village! I will not go into the Why.

The wife finds a ¾ Rai plot of land and I purchase it for 60,000 baht (registered in her name, of course). This was January 2000 and she wanted to have a house by the end of April 2000.

The Beginning:

When I left the USA in 1998 I had no knowledge of the home building trades. Using the 1st year we were here I learned, through the internet, everything I could about concrete, plumbing, electrical, roof and rafters, etc. I strongly advise anyone that is planning to build a home to do likewise.

Design Phase: During the 1st year I spent many hours doing pencil and paper drawings of houses that I could probably get built. When the lot was finely bought, I sketched out the dimensions of the lot and designed several more house plans that would fit the lot. I wanted something small but livable which resulted in the drawing below. The initial plan was to have a basic house, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, large living room, with an attached carport and outdoor kitchen. It did not quite work out that way!

Materials Pricing Phase: Not having any idea what it would cost to build the house and not wanting to take a WAG (Wild Arse Guess), I decided to start going to various businesses to get prices. In 2000 there was not much in the way of choices as to materials or suppliers. I took the measurements of concrete blocks and using the plans determined the number of blocks that would be needed, remembering to subtract for windows and doors! There were only two alternatives for building a house at that time - bricks or hollow blocks. I went with the hollow concrete blocks because I could use vertical rebar for structural integrity. The pricing of materials included everything from electrical sockets and plugs, PVC pipe for water and sewage, paint, floor tiles, wall tiles, windows, light fixtures, faucets, shower heads, sinks, toilets, and the list goes on. I missed almost nothing.

The items that I could not price, such as, steel for roof rafters, bags of cement (estimated), sand, gravel, etc. I simply took a WAG. After the completion of the house, and during the course of building, I compared the initial price I came up with and the actual cost of materials. Surprisingly, the actual cost to build was 57,000 baht more than I had estimated. So it pays to price materials before beginning construction. You do not want to run out of money before the house is completed!

In the next part I will provide a picture of the completed house and the actual cost to complete the house. It may surprise a lot of people!

[Gazza]

Renting for at least a year is an option that I would recommend to anyone that is contemplating living in Thailand. Give yourself this time to decide if Thailand is for you.

This is very good advice that I very rarely see or hear.

When I first went to live in my wife's village in Nakhon Phanom I was in the "Wow, I want to live here for the rest of my life" phase. It was a great experience at first with all the parties, festivals, customs etc. But after about a year, I realised that village life wasn't really my scene. There was times when it was complete sheer boredom for days on end, especially during the rainy seasons. OK, maybe things would be different now, because back then there was no internet, mobiles, sat/cable tv, farangs were very few and far between, visa runs had to be done by going all the way down to Malaysia, western food hard to come by etc. etc.

So I feel fortunate that I didn't have enough money at the time to build my own village home when I first went to stay there.

Now, I'm living in a little mooban partially surrounded by fields with Bangkok on my doorstep. My mooban offers me a nice little fusion of village and city life and allows my children to go to decent schools/university very nearby and then hopefully employment in the future somewhere close to home.

Now, anytime that I or my family wants to sample the 'real' village life, we can stay in my in-laws house any time and for however long that we choose.

So, I too would strongly advise renting or staying with inlaws as long as possible and also to bear in mind the future of any children that you may have. Where will they be getting their higher education and eventual employment?