A Not Showing-Off Blog about Building a House on Ko Samui - Introduction (03/07/2020)

in OCD4 years ago (edited)

I mentioned recently and quite briefly that I'd been in discussion with an architect about some house plans we had bought so we could build a house on the wife's land on Ko Samui, Thailand

After a lot of last-minute minor edits, as we and the team from the house company sat in a coffee shop, contracts were finally signed, deposits paid and the build commences next week.


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Simple. Cheap. Built from concrete. LOTS of concrete. Not beautiful but functional and easy to maintain.

I want to create a permanent blockchain record of the process as a blog for no other reason than to document the whole process and have something to look back upon. Hopefully, if anyone reads it they may find it entertaining, interesting or even useful but it's primarily a self-indulgent endeavour, it would horrify me if anyone thought I was simply 'showing-off'!

The Background

The wife and I have been debating for almost three years whether to make the move down to Ko Samui where her parents and family live or to stay in Bangkok and buy a small place here. Work and the close proximity to family were the sticking points but we have struggled to find anything in Bangkok larger than a knackered run down shed that will fall within the budget. We don't want to be sat having lunch one day only for old @slobberchops to drop through a hole in the roof on one of his Urbex missions!

The wife and her sister both have quite large chunks of land courtesy of her Grandfather and sister has already built a house on her strip where the parents reside. Fon's sister and her husband then buggered off back to Scotland.....anyway, we decided to risk it and build our house.

I say 'ours' but its the wife's of course! Foreigners can't actually own land in Thailand and although they can lease land and build a property, or they can start a company as a 49% shareholder, either way, it's an expensive legally grey area of potential pitfalls and a money pit setting it all up.

Houses are built in Thailand mainly using simple Post and Beam construction. Simply put, this creates a frame of reinforced concrete posts and beams between which, bricks or blocks, windows and doors are placed. Normally, unless a very high-end luxury build, there is no 'double-skin' and no double glazing. Then a skim is applied to the whole lot to finish it before its painted. Its simple and cheap construction but very flexible.

Insulation here is almost non-existent as its expensive to insulate homes. Insulation world both ways don't forget and we are looking to keep the cool air in and the hot air out which is the opposite of colder climates where the reverse is true. It's all about cost and compromise. Our house is south-facing and being fairly close to the equator, heat will be a problem and the electric bills for running aircons, large. There are things we can do to alleviate this but that will come after the house is complete. I'm already bored and frustrated with architects and builders and we haven't even broken ground yet!

The Planning Process......

.......has been fraught. The 'architect' appears to be young fella whose only credentials appear to be an ability to competently use AutoCad and simple things seem to throw him into a panic attack. The language issues don't help but there are many technical terms that appear in English within the Thai language hence it seems my Thai has improved no end. How I'm going to fit 'spring-loaded butterfly valve' into an everyday conversation to make it appear I'm fluent is a problem that hasn't been satisfactorily solved as yet!

Sawadee khrap. Lorn mak wan-nee, au Spring-loaded butterfly valve mai khrap?

So, the other problem was the usual elephants in the room, tradition and culture. We took a stock plan that was being advertised as a complete build with a big discount due to the current financial problems caused by the COVID pandemic and wanted to make a few changes, the first being the kitchen. Now I love cooking and wanted a decent western style kitchen and an open plan living and dining area. The kitchen, as you can see from the original plan was a room at the rear of the house, and from the final plan, you can see where it is now, at the end of the ground floor where I've also had a wall removed. This initially and surprisingly caused consternation....

But kitchens go at the back of the house! The cooking smells will fill the living room.

No they won't, because I have two sets of sliding doors at the front, an extractor over my cooking island and two ceiling-mounted fans.

But its tradition!!!

But it's my fucking house!!!!


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Not complicated, is it?

Then there was the issue of electrics. The wife wants a bath, very rare in Thailand, that has a jacuzzi feature. She cares not about anything else but this is her little treat. I checked the plans and found the electrics for the tub running as a spur off a bedroom socket and managed to get into an hour-long discussion about circuit breakers, cable diameters and agreeing to fork out 'extra' for a larger, split load consumer unit and I just know I'm going to end up doing most of the 'first-fix' myself, which if I'm being honest, is something I'm looking forward to. Electric for the cooking island by running a conduit in the floor and out also appeared to perplex him so I got my red pen out and started drawing on his plans. Didn't go down well.......

"Can you run the wiring into the walls for the aircon units and hot water heater too please?" I cautiously asked. Another sharp intake of breath. I'm genuinely not being fussy here but I really don't want wires running externally on the walls. Better to get it all done during construction than adding on afterwards. Extra sockets and Cat 6 cabling and that was another extra hundred quid. Before starting work, 4 trees to move and a hole to be knocked in the existing boundary wall for site access, another hundred quid.

At our first meeting with the team from the house shop, I asked about mains drainage and they openly guffawed when I asked about drainage. I had a feeling there was no mains drainage on site from closely looking at the sister-in-law's house and I dared to raise the question about where they were going to sink the septic tank and construct the soakaway. "This is Thailand, we have mains drainage system." They retorted indignantly.

At the meeting yesterday, I saw two pages dedicated to the septic tank and underground drainage system. He saw me looking, and I hope he noted my look of smug satisfaction. They didn't dare to charge me extra for this!


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Get a load of my septic tank baby!

I'd also wanted a flat roof on which to later build a roof terrace but this was knocked on the head too, this time due to Samui's planning laws. No idea why, and no getting around this but we did get a reduction in planning approval time from 60 days to 10 due to the father-in-law being a drinking buddy with the head of the local planning department. This family ties come in handy sometimes. I will wait till we get down there next week to find out at what cost!

Normally, of course, I am a very mild-mannered easy-going soul with a sunny disposition.....no, really. I am.....but this is already 'testing' me as I knew it would.

How the building process works...

So now we have plans signed off and contracts and deposit paid, they start. We have a list of materials and everything that's included in the price such as doors, window frames, plumbing items, floor and wall tiles, and light fittings. Even paint, the brand and type are on this list. Each one of these items has a cost attached and they are the cheapest shit that it's possible to buy. So as I don't want NHS white wall tiles in the bathroom, I can choose different ones and add on the cost. That Chinese plastic bum gun in the downstairs bathroom? Get a nice stainless steel one that won't leak after a week and again, get your wallet out Nathen! And so it goes on until the house is finished as per the contract.

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'X' Marks the Spot!

Chill Nathen, chill.

I've come to the conclusion that the best course of action is to keep my eye on proceedings but chill until its finished as per the contract. Then I can start work! I've almost planned and costed my kitchen which will be subject to having enough money left after the 'unforeseen' extras and I will definitely repaint the interior with a decent brand of paint in the colours I choose rather than the bulk, white, 'best-buy' emulsion they will have used from top to bottom. We can then make the house into our home.

It's not quite my dream design, but it does incorporate major elements such as a decent-sized master bedroom with a balcony and the open plan ground floor with a nice, usable and western style kitchen that doesn't have more rats and roaches than it does knives and forks, which is the case with the afterthought, bolt-on semi-external excuse for a cooking area we have at our present address.

What about snake blocks?

Yes, before you ask, the toilets will have 'snake-blocks' installed. Thirty quid for 3 of them but at least I can be assured that when the King is on his throne, there will only be one python in the room!

Before I forget, one final P.S.

@livinguktaiwan asked about the squat toilets and why they were perched on a ledge. As promised, I asked the architect cad operator. His answer was that its due to a more gradual slope being needed on the waste pipe rather than a simple drop and 90% bend which can easily block. He also thought if you were stepping off backwards, you were squatting the wrong way around......I think we will leave this discussion though and move on......

Everyone take care, stay safe and stay sane.

@nathen007

PS The plans are mine. I bought them so no copyright issues.
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Lovely, i enjoyed reading this and giggled about the idea of @slobberchops falling through the ceiling. Building, houses, they're all destined for aggravation and stress, anywhere in the world, so you are managing very well :) It's really exciting, look forward to reading the rest!

Thank-you. Hope you're well and getting through some very testing times. I'm afraid you will have 6 months of my nonsense to come....then the cooking posts will start lol...Can't wait for a kitchen!!!!!!!
You take care there.....oh, forgot to mention. Was looking at some 'before and after pictures' of Leicester Central station. A nicely sympathetic refurb it seems. Can't wait to see it completed :-)

'snake-blocks' - do they come in via the shitter and bite your arse while you are unloading? We don't have a snake problem here so this is all new to me.

Well, social media makes a big deal of this but its perhaps still quite a rare event although someone actually had their arse bitten last year. It was a big news story for a day or so but these snake-blocks are now being pushed out to people to retrofit.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say there were teams of people from the snake-block manufacturers driving around and shoving snakes in the drains!!

As I've written this comment, I realise I've just being robbed. I have a septic tank and soakaway as there is no mains drainage and so I have a closed system...I don't need fucking snake-blocks.....words will be had tomorrow....

No wonder that architect is cheap, those kind of minor changes shouldn't send anyone into a panic/

have you asked to see his certificates? It sounds like he may have qualified from the university of the Internet.

That aside, it looks great, defo the right move to get out of the city and build something with longevity!

I love building posts, so I'll look forward to some future posts on the topic. I imagine it's going to take some time to complete!

@tipu curate

Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 24/32)

Hi mate . The problem with the young 'architect' is that he is new at the company and so due to cultural implications, is afraid to either speak-up, be original or dare to question his superiors. I did actually see his license and he graduated from a top university.
This is a common problem here that crops up in all walks of life and runs deeply right from early school years. Probably worth a full post on my interpretation of it but as you are a sociologist, right up your street I'd suggest!

As for timescales. The clock starts on August 4th and has a 6-month timer before penalty clauses kick-in......wait until you see 'the team' lol!!!

Oh I see, so he's held back my his company!

6-months sounds like a ridiculously short time span !

mmmm.... I could never figure out which is front or back.....

Anyway, I saw this on my FB page recently, you might want to check your architect CAD operator hasn't include them in your plan

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LOL ...I try not to be a snobbish 1st world expat, but there are whole websites dedicated to Thai builders, signs and ridiculous solutions like the one in this picture!

Simple things that just shouldn't be, drive me insane such as in the sisters house, they put the light switches behind the door so you have to enter a bedroom, then close the door which makes it totally dark while you then fumble for the light switch. The light switch for the en-suite is on the landing rather than in the bedroom....Door frames are different heights which is a common one here etc etc Perhaps it's just me being fussy!! But its the silly little things like this I have been desperate to avoid. I am sure I will miss something though!!!

You just need to be on-site, constantly checking because it seems the builders will just alter or change things from the plans as they go along for ease of construction. Nightmare.