Buying & Refurbishing a House on the Darkside

[Petesie]

 Pond Life

We (I) decided we would keep the pond structure and try to make a decent feature out of it. Having had numerous aquariums I had never had a pond so I was keen to explore this particular new avenue of adventure.

The basic carcass was probably around 7 metres long & resembled a half hearted attempt at lego; enough for a large pond and a smaller quiet one so I split it by building a dividing wall. I asked our work fella to tidy it up as it was bare concrete; I'd been in there & hosed it, swept it so it was clean. We returned having been out all day to find he'd only gone & painted it. 

Surplus tiles were used to tidy up the exteriors.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

Pond Life Part Deux

I decided to fill it, leave it for a week to let the chemicals leech into the water & drain it; we also dumped a load of banana tree leaves in there to assist with this process on the advice from the people at a local aquarium/Koi outlet. This was also an opportunity & breathing space for my feeble brain to figure out the next steps. 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

Pond Life Part Trois

I'd noticed a guy selling fountains & the like situated in the car park area of the Baan & Beyond complex; since the lockdown his prices had come down 30% so I bought a couple of units from him, 10k, he offered the relevant pumps which I declined as his prices for these were double that of other places; at this point alarm bells should have gone off. I was swayed by the fact I'd looked at a few other places and his display of items was better...or so it appeared. More on that later.  

Apologies for dragging this out but I'm laying the pond tale as it happened, hopefully it's relevant information for anyone who is thinking of doing a similar activity.

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

Enter the Pond Guy

We'd been in consultation with a local outlet who gave us the number of a fella who could assist in the installation of a pond filtration system. He turned up and appeared friendly & talked the talk. I have to now be careful what I say here as he is a serving member of the BiB; I also didn't know at the time that it was his shop we were dealing with; suffice to say that the price what we agreed on turned out to be less than the final figure. Also what was promised was not entirely delivered.

I'll leave that at that. 

 

 

[rainman333]

love the look of the fountain and pond.... kind of concerned about the electric outlet being so close to the water/pond? A splash of water can go badly really quick

Edited June 1, 2020 by rainman333

[Petesie]

The Price of Fish

After the melee had gone & I'd calmed down I got stuck in & did what I'd previously envisaged. I rearranged the layout and created caves and hides for future inhabitants, this involved more trips to the stone place. After a few days we introduced the fishy fellas. 

I'm not into the Koi hobby...yet, the fish we got can be classed as standard Koi...I bought them purely because they looked healthy and I liked the colours; average price for an 8" fella was 80 thb. Hindsight is a wonderful thing...I didn't look further or listen to advice from the net...so we stocked up and found ourselves to have a lively pond. We did buy a couple of bigger fellas later on and I was shocked to find an 18" Koi was 700 thb.

[Petesie]

5 minutes ago, rainman333 said:

love the look of the fountain and pond.... kind of concerned about the electric outlet being so close to the water/pond? I splash kind get badly really quick

That's being addressed; I moved the fountains further away & tipped them to one side to avoid this. I'm also having our man relocate the electrical hubs. 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

Feeshes...We don' need no Steenkin' Feeshes

Casualties & Mishaps

The pond is not too deep, water level is high. First few days some chose the Pattaya Flying Club route, we lost 4. One jumped the wall & landed in the quiet pond so I've left him there. They seem a happy bunch, hide in their caves though come out if I appear...not for my charming personality, just my bowl of food. 

My favourite is the quiet pond, I put a couple of Terrapins in there (at least I think they're Terrapins) and they are quite the wee characters.

This 18" boyo was the 700 Bahter...pun intended. 

 

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

@Petesie Love the pond and fountains.....top job. The first time we had a fountain installed in our house in Udon I went ape - came home from golf to find the fountain installed but with electric wires in the water....WTF. Turns out that’s pretty much standard practice in LoS....TiT 

Edited June 1, 2020 by LOTTELLEE WINNA

[Petesie]

40 minutes ago, LOTTELLEE WINNA said:

@Petesie Love the pond and fountains.....top job. The first time we had a fountain installed in our house in Udon I went ape - came home from golf to find the fountain installed but with electric wires in the water....WTF. Turns out that’s pretty much standard practice in LoS....TiT 

I had 2 beefs with the fountain provider; first was after he'd installed the 2 units, the larger one has an electric light in the globe, I was assured it was safe...damn my eyes for buying it anyway. A few days later I noticed that the cable for this was damaged & he had repaired it with insulation tape. He was asked to repair it but refused saying it was 'ok'...so it is not used. The second beef is that I never noticed he'd hand painted the fountains with acrylic paint for effect; I thought it was the colour of the cement used. If I turn the fountains on this now produces an oily scum in the water. This would probably be fine for an ornamental set up but not for fish ponds. Lets just say he was very fishy when asked about it.

Not too worry, lessons learned the hard way. As I mentioned before this fella is located in the car park area of Baan & Beyond. 

[Petesie]

Where are we...oh yeah. 

The driveway is finished, a top job indeed though they did manage to mess up the nice paint job they'd done earlier, pics posted shortly. They did a fine job on the doorstep & even tiled behind the sliding gate. Lost another fish, found outside the pond this morning with the WTF look on his face. I recognised him (sad) from the first batch of 80 bahters we'd got from the pet shop on Nern Pleb Wan, he'd certainly filled out a bit and looked really healthy for a dead fishy.

Our work fella's halfway through my rear end...oo-er. That will be finished & grouted in the next few days then hopefully no more for a while.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

Drive nearly finished, tiles scrubbed...all in all a fine job.

Before...

After

Note I've given Doris 'assist markers' for parking the truck...

Area for cleaning the bikes

Hopefully our future Thai kitchen will be here as the pong is just wrong...

My new step...

[forcebwithu]

3 hours ago, Petesie said:

Looks great, but with what looks like a gloss finish I wonder how slippery it is when wet?

[Petesie]

40 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Looks great, but with what looks like a gloss finish I wonder how slippery it is when wet?

That was wet mate, they have a matt rough finish, they'd just scrubbed it. 

I chose tiles that had a bit of a grip, the tiles leading from the Soi up to the driveway & the last 2 on the right of the drive have extra grip for the bikes.

The tiles were great value & worked out at 11.5 baht per tile.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Petesie

[Czmate]

5 hours ago, Petesie said:

6 hours ago, LOTTELLEE WINNA said:

 

I had 2 beefs with the fountain provider; first was after he'd installed the 2 units, the larger one has an electric light in the globe, I was assured it was safe...damn my eyes for buying it anyway. A few days later I noticed that the cable for this was damaged & he had repaired it with insulation tape. He was asked to repair it but refused saying it was 'ok'

Electricity and Thais what can possibly go wrong. It’s my pet topic and there seems to be no sense of danger around It even as you say where water is concerned. Bit of Insulation tape solves it all.

Came home one day the Toaster is standing on the draining board I said hey up Teerak what you been doing oh she says I wash the Toaster I’m like wtf she’s like oh it sukapuk. 
 

[Petesie]

5 minutes ago, Czmate said:

Electricity and Thais what can possibly go wrong. It’s my pet topic and there seems to be no sense of danger around It even as you say where water is concerned. Bit of Insulation tape solves it all. Came home one day the Toaster is standing on the draining board I said hey up Teerak what you been doing oh she says I wash the Toaster I’m like wtf she’s like oh it sukapuk. 

No worries mate, the fountain is now purely ornamental. Just had a funny 'fishy' moment...

I initially put small 4" Koi in the small pond but as I build hides for them I never saw them, I decided to put ornamental fish in so cleared out the hides and put most of them in with their big brothers.

I was giving them their last bowl of grub in the large pond & as usual they get all excited, I was leaning over the pond and Big Red flicked his tale & a wee 4" Koi flew out & hit me in the face...I kid ye not. 

He flapped around on the decking so I gathered him up & put him back.

Coming to the end now...just the last pic of outside & the entertainment area & I'll be done, Pete Moss should be up next.

[Petesie]

While my back passage is being tiled I'll post some pics of my comfort zone. 

Here we go...Sofa was actually from Index, we actually were in the store when they brought it in for display, this was before we bought the house so on my next trip it was straight to Index to buy it as it was easily the best one we'd seen for the princely sum of 22k...or so we thought; it was 22k for each end, still haven't been able to figure that one out. 

Anyhoo they had an offer on for 20% off so I said fook it, we're having it. They told us it would be 6 weeks to order, bolleaux. We want this one, sorry sir for display only, but you have two here! So floor manager was summoned & it was agreed we could take one. I then haggled for more discount as they now classed it as a display model...Doris was cringing. I could see they're confusion so I leapt in with just give me your normal discount for display models...heads nodded & we got a further 10%, 32k.

Coffee table was by Lifestyle from the store just outside Index, on offer at 13k. At this point we'd never been in Boontavorn...rug from Index 1.4k, lamps from B & B, 800 thb each. Recliner was on sale at Boontavorn at 7k, small seat 10k.

 

[Petesie]

The other side of the coffee table...

As ye can see Gaylord has been relocated; it was too cold in that corner under a 24k BTU LG Dual Inverter so I shifted him, while I recognised he'd been freezing his nadgers off the wee fooker wasn't having my Clive Seib table, a swift visit to B & B last night got him this functional wee table for 790 thb, it's actually the perfect size for his 30cm cube.

The Lifestyle AV unit was ordered from the place by Index & we opted for the 200 cm model as I'd fancied a larger TV...23k.

My retiring present for myself was this 82" Samsung QLED Q60R TV. I'd been looking at these in Power Buy for a while, they started at 129k, next trip it was 109k then on offer at 89k, Arrived March 1st, went to PB to find another special offer of 69k, trigger pulled I opted for the matching Q95 Soundbar, Dolby Atmos, remote rear speakers, 25k, I was sorted. 

I have an Apple TV, latest model, which I brought with me & also an Amazon 4k Firestick, Alexa, play me Jimmy Shand...

If you are in the market for a large TV then get yer bum over to Baan & Beyond as they have some great discounts on at the moment; 86" LG for 56k, 75" Samsung for 32k...

I'm using my ex wife's Netflix account (I swiped her password) and I subscribe to Prime Video for 6 quid pm. I also have a wee X95 IP box purchased from Lifetech in Tukcom, we don't use this much as I downloaded the HD Cinema app onto the Firestick. We take it in every year to Lifetech & they upgrade all the installed software FOC. Lifetech also installed 4 security cameras & a 2TB hard drive which is located in the roof space for 11k.

I replaced the 3 legacy ceiling lighting units with a 4 speed ceiling fan from B & B, 2k,  2 units from Boontavorn (1k ea) which has one of the best lighting displays I've seen in Patts.

The one legacy item that came with the house which we haven't yet replaced is the dining table; this is because as it doesn't really bother me, the size is fine, perfectly modern and functional but the seats are crap, hard and looking their age, so I may just replace those. 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Petesie

[Petesie]

It's not finished yet!

The house actually has 8 rooms; the last 2 I call the Udon rooms as all contents are destined for Udon at some stage as Doris refuses to let things go...

Before...

After...

The 3rd bedroom remains untouched as it has stuff for Udon and the bar stuff while we are closed, I've drank all the whisky, beer & cider during lockdown so that needs replenishing shortly...

[Jebb]

Fuck me! It has been an expensive exercise Pete but worth it in the long run. You have put my story about establishing a gaff on the Darkside to shame.

[Petesie]

2 hours ago, Jebb said:

Fuck me! It has been an expensive exercise Pete but worth it in the long run. You have put my story about establishing a gaff on the Darkside to shame.

Some of the stuff was bought over the last years 5 trips; we also already had items that we had never unpacked till we had a house.

In the 3 condo moves we had prior to the house Doris managed to forget quite a few things we'd gathered, phrases like, 'where's my garlic press?' or 'where's my Pyrex jugs?' , 'I forget' were repeated more than once...grrr. 

Still not finished yet, my guy is currently changing 40 downlights which we bought this morning, 1k. When he's finished that they have to bring the paintwork back up to scratch. He needs some finishing touches to the drive too. When he's done all that I'll drag him back down the bar to finish there. Once the first trip to Udon is completed I'll start on the 3rd bedroom; I'd like a Sofabed in there, small TV and a chest of drawers, paint, wallpaper & more blinds, then I will...have a kip, I'm fookin' knackered. 

Some stores we've established a good rapport with, Boontavorn & B & B have been great, as has Powerbuy, Homepro not so much, in fact I'm reluctant to use them for anything. The wallpaper place outide the Big C on Klang was a wee gem of a find.

Anyhoo, time for PeteMoss to kick in, I may chirp in if I've anything to add!

Stay safe all.

Pete

[Jebb]

43 minutes ago, Petesie said:

In the 3 condo moves we had prior to the house Doris managed to forget quite a few things we'd gathered, phrases like, 'where's my garlic press?' or 'where's my Pyrex jugs?' , 'I forget' were repeated more than once...grrr. 

The Thais have fantastic memories.........When it suits them.

[Petesie]

The Final Curtains..

I'd like to add that nothing was pre planned in the house refurb; we did it room by room and decisions on how it should look were made on the day. We haunted the DIY places to see what was available & for ideas & inspiration. Mistakes were made, thankfully by others with a couple of my own thrown in for good measure.

The acrylic lime green & bright yellow paint being the main cock up by a colour blind forgetful fella who wasn't even a painter...you live & learn. I chose my own Hong Nam items, the tiles & shower unit were ok but the toilet bowl is Thai size and not conducive to a Scottish bahoukie. I use Doris's Hong Nam when she's not looking...

Oh the paint...my eyes, my eyes.

He's finished with my back passage and a good job was done on my non slip tiles. 

There's not much I would change...apart from the curtains. 

 

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

@Petesie That is a really nice place your putting together. Classy and comfortable. I know that some people don’t mind how they live or what their surroundings are like, but me, I like a nice place. Yours looks great - job well done.

[Petesie]

4 hours ago, LOTTELLEE WINNA said:

@Petesie That is a really nice place your putting together. Classy and comfortable. I know that some people don’t mind how they live or what their surroundings are like, but me, I like a nice place. Yours looks great - job well done.

Thanks bud; appreciate it. 

One of the things that always bugged me with the condo's was that it was never your own place. I even asked one guy as we were coming up for signing another lease if he could take all his stuff out as it all needed replacing. It was cheap, 10 years old and an eyesore. The mattress and sofa were done in. I told him I'd buy stuff for myself, including a new hob which I'd leave. He told me fine but you can't take anything with you...lease not renewed, not an issue. 

It's nearly all done, just a few more things now but I'll wait till the bars finished. I'd like some guttering from the back, up the left side to the front; it's been done on the other side. We're also looking at replacing the front fence & refurbishing the sliding gate...