So why not order the material yourself if you have the experience? And then ask the workers to build it. But you had to listen to your wife.

I constantly have to argue with my G/F . She will listen to gossip from uneducated clowns around us and what they say is gospel . Such as how much he should give you each month. Why has he not bought you a house. Of course they know everything and I am ignorant. Really pisses me off.

A 'like' for comedy value.

who is the boss in your house?,the wife ,the workers or you,

you knew you were correct in the quantities of materials you

needed,why did you not put your foot down,you were paying

i would think.

regards Worgeordie

Everything was done to save face.

Also if they were ordered that they were WRONG! the pillars would have been constructed to collapse after the first gust of wind.

Now it is not good for the Farang's health to hustle the Asian

brown,

For the Farang riles, and the Thai smiles and he weareth the

Farang down;

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of

the late deceased,

And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the

East."

The mind bogols at the logic of Thais, or lack of logic. The answer is simple he wanted a porch to and did not want to pay for it. Excess materials.

So why not order the material yourself if you have the experience? And then ask the workers to build it. But you had to listen to your wife.

If you took time to read my posts, you would know i am paralysed, so not in a postion to do things myself.

I have to listen to my wife, get her to order things, because i cannot get off my bed.

Just order what you want , stick t it, then after just say yes i am ting tong Falang.

Having a new veranda built on our home.

We are paying for materials, workers labour only.

Fun and games, worker gives my wife a list of materials, wife shows me. !! what is this !! list for materials darling says the wife, rubbish says i.

I had already calculated quantity of materials required, after 42 years in construction in UK i think i know what is required.

Workers ordered 3 concrete columns, i said 2, workers ordered 2 cube sand 2 cube stone 14 cement.

I said 1.5 cube sand 1.5 cube stone 5oo kilos of cement. 5 cube dry materials/mixed 3.5 cube wet.

Roof sheets workers want 68, i said 60. Steel i said 9 4x2 workers said 13, i said 14 2x1 workers said 8.

Ceiling sheets i said 6, workers said 4. shera wood workers said 100, i said 80.

Quess who my wife listened to, me or workers?

Easy she listened to (rice farmers) workers.

Now we have 1 concrete column left 5 cement 3/4 cube sand 3/4 cube.

8 roof sheets , 22 shera wood.

We had to order 4 more 4x2 steel, 5 more 2x1 steel, 2 more ceiling sheets.

What a bloody fiasco, but darling workers said, i listened, why you not listen to your husband, who has more than 40 years experience.

You work in England this is Thailand. So you require the same materials no matter what country it is.

The mind bogols at the logic of Thais, or lack of logic.

Force your wife into admitting her fault. Force her to introspect, and acknowledge the gravity of her error, and the amount of money she cost the family. Force her to apologize and to promise she will never side with a fool again, over a trusted spouse. Only in this way will she grow, develop as a human being, and improve as a person and a spouse. This kind of thing is very painful for a Thai, as introspection is not something they like to engage in. But, it works. I have used it, and it works.

why not take the whip out beat her, chain her to table and withhold rations as well, your dealing with an adult not a child, how perfectly arrogant of you

I suggest we do something similar for farangs...dunce cap and sit the corner facing the wall, based on a lot of the response on TV going to need a big wall and a lot of dunce caps...

You can stop facing the wall now.

Force your wife into admitting her fault. Force her to introspect, and acknowledge the gravity of her error, and the amount of money she cost the family. Force her to apologize and to promise she will never side with a fool again, over a trusted spouse. Only in this way will she grow, develop as a human being, and improve as a person and a spouse. This kind of thing is very painful for a Thai, as introspection is not something they like to engage in. But, it works. I have used it, and it works.

Why do some guys have this fantasy about getting a knife stuck into them while they are sleeping? LOL

I constantly have to argue with my G/F . She will listen to gossip from uneducated clowns around us and what they say is gospel . Such as how much he should give you each month. Why has he not bought you a house. Of course they know everything and I am ignorant. Really pisses me off.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, in terms of your GF parroting what others say and think.. For some reason she looks up to these uneducated clowns, God only knows why..

There is a reason though

Farang are correct many times but how about the times we are wrong. I too seem to forget about the little things that I do that were not so great. Mostly due to misunderstandings or my short temper but we do screw up never the less. When it comes to spending a large amount of money we need to cross the T's and dot the I's as Thais have a habit of padding the prices or just lazy thinking. If Thais don't like then I guess we need to find others who will do it our way.

Look on the bright side, at least now you have a nice veranda to store the left overs.

I agree , my wife tells me every day ! Mai Pen Rai , I know better , sometimes do we have an argument .

Well, obviously your wife thinks you know nothing. Now the question is, is that just in relation to building a house, or does it go further than that?

It actually is logical.... They always order extra to take back to their base camp (builders yard)... Only way the stocks are kept up.. My builders yard has more stock than Homeworks and all from extra ordered from other jobs..

Bingo.....

Obviously the OP didn't let them spirit away the excess.

sounds to me you need to get control of your wife, tell her farangs do the thinking and thais do the s- - - - - - g and the f- - - - - g stick to what ur good at.

I love the way everyone is blaming the WIFE for the OP's administrative shortcomings!

I have no problems with the wife when ordering materials, she has seen some of the things I have built over past 8 years,

it's my mother in law, she doesn't understand maths at all

fun watching my wife telling Mum she doesn't understand construction at all,

Mum yelling, this is not a ship, what does he know about concrete and post/piles

wife's final answer, what does his ship sit on during construction??? 10,000 tonnes of steel floating in thin air???

mum in law, in huff goes back to baby sitting duties

'You know nothing, John Snow.... err, farang man,'

Yes ,i always survey what is left on the last day and remove it to a safe location,my builder is very good and actually a family friend,but it's the labourers who are prone to walk of site with leftovers.

And tools if you close your eyes for a minute

I went through the building of an entire house like this, ...... the ground was covered with red roof tiles that had been chipped or broken, and there was still a pile of bundles unused. The lack of logic astounds me, ..... they laid the tile floor then erected scaffolding to work on the ceiling and walls. The floor was covered in slopped materials and several of the tiles needed to be replaced!

The house was supposed to cost 1.5 to 2 million baht and take 6 months to complete. .... costs exceeded 7 million baht and it took 2 years! I would never advise anyone to build anything in Thailand.

I was fully expecting the excess material to take missing and end up at one of the worker's homes...that is why most construction workers over estimate...or they take the material back to the building supply center and get money back to line their pockets...

You're a farang, which guarantees you will get screwed. JUst lie back and think of England - TIT. Unless you are prepared to learn enough Thai to communicate directly with the workers, this will always happen.

I feel your pain buddy.

I am a qualified electrician, yet my loving wife doesn't think i am capable of changing a light-bulb or a plug-top.

She thought I was mad for wanting to earth her shop and use an RCD. The local hoodlums who call themselves electricians were saying, "Mai pen rai..in Thailand you don't need that stuff".

She was saying, "Yes dear, I think they are right."

She will believe ANY Tom, Dick, and Harry about construction before me. The only criteria is: he must be Thai.

And don't get me started on buying a refrigerators in Thailand which come with the earthwire sticking out and a little note telling the customer how to earth his own fridge! Of course, none of the methods the advice are usually possible. Gauld, the looks i get when earthing our fridges via plugtop.

She thinks I'm mad.

dont get me started on thai logic

Sounds like it's time for a divorce.

Hello,

My GF and I made a pact: if we have the same opinion she decides, if different opinions it is me who decides...

In any country in any renovation if you know what you are doing insists on your plan and acheive the results. Do not whine.

She would not be my wife for long if she didn't know who she must listen and obey...

we are just having these 2 guest rooms built, i orderd all the materials, the builders like it that way,

im over on a few bags of cement and a little sand, but ill use them up doing something around here,

col mate if thats all you have to worry about you arnt having a bad life mate, enjoy your new veranda,

im having the 2 guest rooms built hopefully for paying guests to come and have a look at a thai falang working farm, and ask me questions on how to get things running with pigs,chickens ducks and fish, ive made a few mistakes along the way, maybe ill be able to help other not to,

can tell them the prices for building works ect,

we all know the score man meets girl and they want to start a farm, well come and stay here for a week or 2 to see if its your kind of life,,lol

take care all

jake

Jake i would love to come, only 1 snag!! You have wheelchair access?

As i am now paralysed from the chest down, it is difficult to go anywhere.

col i know you are mate,

in fact i think ill put a ramp in, so if you want to come and look at a farm working, with a thai lady and falang man come along, but we just arnt there yet, another month or so and we will be ready for guests,

a good tidy up after the building work, ive started a bit of a web page, not much in that to see yet, just pics of me and the family on the farm and a bit of how we got started,

ill pm you when we are ready,

you take care Col

jake

Hi Jake,

Mate I would be really interested in paying you a visit when you are running, you mentioned a web site, is it possible to post it or pm me with it so I can follow your progress,

Cheers mate

Oh my my my... This sounds suspiciously like a complaint or a criticism about something characteristically thai - which is of course not allowed - and is going to set the apologists & deniers all a-twitter. 'Best get your answer ready: why are you still here?