After all the stuffing around and the games with lawyers, authorities etcetera, I finally got access to the new house. The final day was a bit nerve wracking. We had to deal with the lawyers, the land office, the woman who thought she owned the house, the loan shark she had signed the title over too and actually owned the house, the woman's husband who has been taken for everything he had, my friend who acts as the name holder, and myself. The final result was that the new house is sort of mine. Sort of, because the Thai laws say foreigners cannot own land in Thailand, so the house is mine but is actually in a friends name with an iron clad lease that gives me total control. So, as much as Thai law allows, the house is mine.
But that was just the start. I think I have found a paradise for rennovators! Anyone who has done a rennovation in Australia should take note.
Firstly there are no building regulations. If you want to build something that will fall on your head, they will let you. When it falls on your head they will shrug and send you off to be buried. The builders cope with this by over engineering. The houses are basically built of reinforced concrete and they are very solid.
Secondly there are the tradesmen. When they say they will come and give a quote, they actually turn up! They give you a quote on the spot and the quote seems rediculously low if you have ever done rennovations in Australia. You then ask the fateful question... when would you be able to do it? They look at you stupid and say 'You don't want to start now?"
The result is that I have substantially rennovated a house in a week!
I think I have had a better experience than many due to the fact that I have had a local helping me through the process. Somchai now gets called "The Foreman" and many of the workers are people he knows. At the peak there were 15 people working on the house in a single day!
The worst problem with the house was the room that had been created by glassing in the undercover car port. In doing this they had created the worlds most useless room and an eyesore of an entrance, as these photos show.
So the work started. Given that the house is made of concrete, making "adjustments" means bringing in the jackhammers. I had just got all the funiture delivered and you can imagine what sort of mess is created when you start jackhammering inside the house! Some places literally ended up an inch deep in cement dust.
I have learned that you have to be careful when dealing with Thais in what is their second language. They are likely to take you very literally. When a tradesman started measuring the size of the living area to install an aircon, I said I did not want something that would "just do the job". If theye were to err either way, err on the side of bigger and more powerful.
So this is the compressor for the Arctic Blast machine that arrived. If I put it on full for more than five minutes it is possible that I might get snow on my couch!
At the end of the first day I had a door and window jackhammered out and a new opening in its place.
I also had half the roof removed from that ugly room. What was a dingy grotto already started to look better.
After two days the roof was now replaced with a clear polycarbonate roof.
And the new entrance was framed and the steps in place.
Day three and the glass wall now has two big double sliders in it so that it can be opened right up.
The big trees were all starting to disappear out of the front garden.
I had power points in a lot of new places including the bathrooms (Thai houses never have power points in the bathrooms!)
There were six new ceiling fans installed, and the new Aircon was up and running. The view from the living area was no longer a dingy corner.
4 days and the huge (10 meter) mature tree was gone over the fence with the help of a big crane, and a bed of plants from the back of the garden was transplanted along the front fence to give the place some privacy from the street.
Big trees leave big holes!
After most of the workmen had gone I took a few days to recover from the shock and the effort of keeping up with them. Then I bought some pots and plants to finish things off a bit. So now the common entrance to the house looks like this.
There are more plants to go in and a lot of growing to be done before it will "fill out", but the improvement is already worthwhile.
The new entrance to the main area of the house through that room is a lot more inviting.
So the major work is done! Ceiling fans supplied and installed through all rooms. An Arctic Blaster aircon supplied and installed in the living area. A raft of new power points and some new points for TV etc. The roof half removed off the "glass room". A replacement transparent roof put in. A second double glass slider supplied and installed in the front wall. Remove an existing door and window and replace it with a new double glass slider. Build new full width steps. Insect screens installed on the external doors and the bedroom windows. Five trees removed from the front yard including a ten meter monster. Replanting the whole front fenceline. Painting and finishing around all the damage.
All done basically in a week and at a total cost of around 200,000 baht, or the equivalent of about $7,000 Australian. And that included the cost of all the materials and components such as the aircons, doors and fans!
Now just an electric gate to go in and some new orchid houses to be installed. Pictures will follow!
