Time to build a house!

[BigHewer]

Nice one . Well on the way.

[GMoney2312]

Ok! A Busy Day! Next few days will be Madness! The good kind!

 

[Faraday]

Do you or your wife give the Happy Campers any food or beer?

Some of them have such a Nomadic life & little money, having some treats would be appreciated.

[GMoney2312]

6 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Do you or your wife give the Happy Campers any food or beer?

Yes we do from time to time. Especially if they have kids, we get them chips and sodas. And lots of energy drinks for everyone. But no booze. I want the house to be level.

[Bluesofa]

46 minutes ago, GMoney2312 said:

Yes we do from time to time. Especially if they have kids, we get them chips and sodas. And lots of energy drinks for everyone. But no booze. I want the house to be level.

If you bought them some takeaway Italian food you might end up with the leaning tower of Pizza.

[Normaljoe]

Always enjoy your videos and appreciate the effort to make them interesting. Curious how high are you making your walls?

As far as buying beer for the workers you have the correct idea. It is not that they won't drink on their own, but knowing that the owner encourages it is not a good idea. On our hotel project we made it clear that they cannot drink on the property. FWIW always note that in Thailand you can be sued for almost anything, so negligence by giving workers alcohol on premises could cost a bit of money if one of them injures themselves or each other after drinking.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Normaljoe

[GMoney2312]

14 hours ago, Normaljoe said:

Always enjoy your videos and appreciate the effort to make them interesting. Curious how high are you making your walls?

180cm high. I am 193 cm tall.

The top of the wall will be right at eye level for me.

[GMoney2312]

Its Fast and Furious Time Now! Boom! (But without the flashy cars and hot babes, sorry)

 

[GMoney2312]

Here we go guys!

 

[Bluesofa]

Morning Greg,

I only watched your March 28 update just now. I see the counter top and island counter are shown as 90cm tall.
Ours is 1m15cm.
Do you think 90cm will be tall enough when you are up to your elbows doing your manly duties washing the pots - like I do?
Or will you be having one of them thar new-fangled dishwashing machines?
My wife seems happy with the higher worktop. Even our gas cooker is on a concrete plinth to keep it at the same 1m15 height.

[Bluesofa]

8 minutes ago, Transam said:

His wife could be 4'6"......

What's that in real money?
I suppose if his wife is in charge of the kitchen and Greg keeps the flock out, it will be fine.

edit: I see 4'6" is 1m37. My wife is 1m60, so fairly tall.

[Faz]

90cm is the standard height for kitchen worktops.

[Marble-eye]

Do you have to pay tax on the land you buy to build a house on and when the house is built is tax payable on the house too. What is the % tax payable if required?

[Noble_Design]

I think this question was not asked before - did you lay some pipes underground for termite control chemicals?

[Normaljoe]

90cm is pretty much the world standard for kitchen counter heights. Having my prior profession in RE it is not a sound decision to ignore the norms as it will dramatically affect future value. I know Greg is building his retirement home, but when you build you always have to think of the liquidation factor. None of us know what the future holds and you make your money when you buy/build because it affects your profit/saleability in the future. Lord forbid things change and you need to sell a 115 cm kitchen counter height. Where Greg lives and all of Thailand, your primary buyers are Thai. They will see that and immediately have an adverse reaction and may even just not be interested.

Greg, I wanted to mention to you if you have rectangular tile and want offset setting, make sure you are clear on that. Thai tile layers always set everything even not offset. I literally had to make drawings of each area of our hotel how the tile was to be laid because I learned on our rental here in Bangkok the hard lesson of coming out and seeing the tile set completely the wrong way.

I saw the mention of the termite pipes too. This is a great concept that is gaining support, but I do not believe they have the special rubberized pipes here in Thailand that should be used. I think for a residence it is better (more cost effective) to just have a termite prevention/treatment contract that comes and treats every 3-6 months. Just plan to take a mini 4 day vacation when they spray because the chemicals normally used here are quite effective and quite strong.

[Bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, Normaljoe said:

90cm is pretty much the world standard for kitchen counter heights. Having my prior profession in RE it is not a sound decision to ignore the norms as it will dramatically affect future value. I know Greg is building his retirement home, but when you build you always have to think of the liquidation factor. None of us know what the future holds and you make your money when you buy/build because it affects your profit/saleability in the future. Lord forbid things change and you need to sell a 115 cm kitchen counter height. Where Greg lives and all of Thailand, your primary buyers are Thai. They will see that and immediately have an adverse reaction and may even just not be interested.

While I understand you're talking about buying and selling houses, I would completely disagree about following the 90cm height of worktops, just in case you want to sell.
Are you saying that someone very short or very tall should have to put up with 90cm even though it wasn't suitable for their needs?
All our 115cm worktops were specified to the carpenter who built everything to a custom spec.
The only standard thing bought was the gas cooker, and as I said earlier, it was put on a concrete plinth to keep it the same height as everything else.

I remember in the UK everything in our kitchen was 90cm, as everything I bought was ready to assemble using the industry standards for kitchen units. Being tall I constantly had to bend down when preparing food.
Having 115cm height is so much better for me. The last thing on my mind is thinking about selling a house that I will eventually die in.
Who knows, perhaps one day in the future if our house is eventually sold, there might be someone who buys it purely due to the fact the worktops are the right height for them too.

[Faz]

2 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

While I understand you're talking about buying and selling houses, I would completely disagree about following the 90cm height of worktops, just in case you want to sell.
Are you saying that someone very short or very tall should have to put up with 90cm even though it wasn't suitable for their needs?
All our 115cm worktops were specified to the carpenter who built everything to a custom spec.
The only standard thing bought was the gas cooker, and as I said earlier, it was put on a concrete plinth to keep it the same height as everything else.

90cm is the standard height, for a number of health and safety reasons.
A minimum of 40cm should be left between the top of the worktop and the lowest part any overhead cupboards or shelving. That's to provide a sufficient safe area for any heat generated from such as a microwave or rice cooker to dissipate without burning the base of the cupboards.

If your worktops are 115cm, then a 40cm space to the bottom of any wall cupboards, your wife can't even see in the bottom cupboard, and would require steps to reach inside the top one. What about reaching the controls on any fitted extractor fan above the free standing cooker, especial if the burners are on - you've got a Mrs Doubtfire situation . And the reason you have a concrete base under the cooker is not because it's more practical, it's because otherwise any heat generated from under a pan would burn the sides of the kitchen units/worktop.

The above is why the standard height  for kitchen worktops should be 90cm.

[GMoney2312]

23 hours ago, Faz said:

90cm is the standard height for kitchen worktops.

Thank you! This is right about 36 inches- which is the universal standard in America. 3 feet high.

Glad to see someone had it right! Thank you Faz!

[GMoney2312]

19 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

following the 90cm height of worktops,

I am 193 CM tall and have no issue with 90 cm height. My wife is 158 cm and loves it! Boom!

[GMoney2312]

22 hours ago, Noble_Design said:

did you lay some pipes underground for termite control chemicals?

Yes!

[GMoney2312]

22 hours ago, Marble-eye said:

Do you have to pay tax on the land you buy to build a house on and when the house is built is tax payable on the house too. What is the % tax payable if required?

Would you believe it that I do not know! ?

[GMoney2312]

On 3/29/2022 at 8:43 AM, Bluesofa said:

Do you think 90cm will be tall enough

The perfect height! We already tested out our bar chairs that will go on the island and they work perfect. I even sat on one, measured my leg thickness ,(no jokes please), and made sure I had comfortable clearance for 90cm.

[Marble-eye]

11 minutes ago, GMoney2312 said:

Would you believe it that I do not know! ?

Thanks Greg, I have just opened a new thread to ask the very same question, we are hoping to do a similar project as "an American in Thailand" but we are looking to call it 'a Yorkshireman in Klong Song' but on a much less financial scale.

[GMoney2312]

1 hour ago, Marble-eye said:

Yorkshireman in Klong Song'

That is a great name!

[Faz]

2 hours ago, Marble-eye said:

Yorkshireman in Klong Song'

30 minutes ago, GMoney2312 said:

That is a great name!

Hey @Marble-eye, Yorkshire men are known as 'Tykes'.

How about 'Tyke in Klong Song' that will throw a few