Start a blog ;

www.marklathameitherbuildsahouseorcommitssuicide.blogspot.com

When can I come look ?

KK

Is that address still available KK.
Interesting morning today,took a detour off the highway to seek out a german NGO who do solar.There is a small village called ocha teul where one turns through the temple gate and it is only a couple of miles to another small settlement with an orphange and a couple of other substantial buildings housing pic solar and kam works.
They build and supply solar stuff and are setting up a school to teach khmers how to install the stuff in the bush.Heaps of barangs there and more in the adjacent orphanage.
The orphanage has a lovely mid fifties building on two levels and several more modern two level dormitaries(?)
There is an old framed building with a sign that says it was donated by the british embassy in 1977!
The countryside around there is lovely with a large expanse of water in the distance,this land lies between the bassac and the mekong rivers.
Apparently one can reach neak loueng on highway one by the same road that leads into the village.
Only downer,finding out the real cost of quality solar fittings.A submersible pump is 2k but the panel to run it is only $400.
To fit out a whole house with solar about 30K-crikey.
I think if i have the 2000 litre water tank on a stand and feed it every couple of days with a cheap pump and a generator that would suffice.
Fences progressing well,but I have paid too much for them of course.
Had a chat with the nice neighbour,a retired school teacher who is keen on me renting a corner of his block to build some bungalows later.
The river is near last years peak already and it flows strongly into all the creeks one crosses on the way down to the royal sa-ang sheraton,at home creeks flow the other way into the main watercourse.
The island across the way looks interesting,there is a ferry that carries motos from our side of the river.The missus says that it is a highly dangerous place because three people were murdered at a wedding there a few months ago-good!
That means that barangs have probably rarely visited there.
When the island becomes part of the links course we may have to arm the caddies and there will be no searching for the balls in the rough.

Well let's see. He doesn't own a string line. plum bob or a level so this should be interesting ..................

KK

Well ashley, KK i do now have the string line and the plumb bob and the level because my tools arrived.
I immediately established that the adopted daughter(2) has some aptitude as she pulled the trigger on the cordless drill and screwed and unscrewed the fixings on a drawer handle.Her older cousin was terrified of the panasonic 13.4v cordless drill.
Got back from saigon late yesterday and this morning drove down the bassac to the block.
Lovely cloudy,cool morning with brief showers.
Unlike saigon where even steady drizzle didnt lower the temperature,it is bloody hot there unlike phnom penh.
I think that the amount of water around phnom penh keeps the temperature relatively cool.
Anyway,wall finished today.
Pay the last instalment to the thieves sorry,builders,tomorrow -all up $600 for labour grrrrrr
As well as the extra sand and cement,about 20 extra bags of cement at $5.50 and sand at $15 a cubic metre,a geep is a cubic metre.
A small truck carries three geep of sand or dirt.
Speaking of dirt,the khmer penchant for building footings above the ground means that i have to buy dai to level the front of the block inside and outside the berlin wall,sorry fence.
I cannot get a vehicle in because of the 400mm high beam across the front that the gate slides on-it is a a ttwia roong.
But the good news,dirt or dai is cheap as chips at about five dollars a metre or twelve for three metres.
So hundred bucks will go a long way.
A trip out of the country certainly clears the mind,I have radically changed direction on the house.
I went down a few weeks ago with a mate and he said why not just build a shophouse-they are good at it.
Dont try and reinvent the wheel,he is right.
House now six metres wide not ten,and thirteen long not seventeen.
Ground floor bathroom/laundry and kitchen/living.
Upstairs two bedrooms,two bathrooms,up the internal stair to the roof.
Steel frame over the second floor slab,typical khmer shop house style.
But CLs(ceiling levels) at about 3.3 on both and 2.4 for the roof.
Went looking for those beautiful glazed roof tiles today down highway three to kampot-no have.
I know that the ordinary terracotta coloured tiles are $12 a metre compared to steel at less than $4 a metre and with many less purlins or tile battens.
But the glazed ones are spectacular.beyond interiors has a whole wall of green tiles-magnificent.
Anyway I couldnt find them-help KK am I going madder?
Took the short cut just past the irrrigation project through to takamao.
The road has been destroyed by trucks,it is terrible.
But amongst the beautiful vistas of paddy fields were villages with derelict shophouses-what the hell.
i saw one lovely, empty villa,rotting away and this is fifteen minutes from takamao-what happened here?
Back to the house,the extra cost between metal and tile roofing is probably about a grand.
Not bad in the scheme of things.
Last week we met a builder on site who had come sniffing around for the barang dollar.He claimed to be an accomplished local builder and today i saw the alleged photos of his alleged work.
Quite impressive,he is certainly a cut above my fence builders.
I will pay my boys off tomorrow,never to be seen again hopefully and tee up a meeting with the new boy.
Now I have some drawings of the house mk11 i hope to get a price from the thief,sorry builder.
I have always hated builders everywhere in the world,lets hope that this guy is different.
River is way up now,at the highest point last wet season i believe already.
Another metre at least to go I think,but the wet season did start early so maybe this is it.
Could be building within a couple of weeks,lets hope that the PP pharmicees have good stocks of valium.......

marklatham wrote
[quote]
I bought my third block of land(one stolen already) down the east bank of the bassac river a few months ago and this week started building the fence.
[/quote]

How if it isn't a big secret. On what should ppl watch when buying (leasing) land to avoid those things.

Well for one - lets just say that hard title means shit in this country.......

KK

mark,
Please see my link here;

http://thephnompen.asia/2008/03/14/planning-a-house/

i think the idea of building a shop house when there is so much else you could do is pretty boring.

Have a look at the Kampot Coastal Waterways office in my blog entry. It is unreal.

I have hundreds of photos of houses in Cambodia if u r interested.

thanks

www.thephnompen.asia

If boring means easy to build then Im in.
I like the shophouse,high ceilings and that roof is great.I now plan a ground floor,level one and level two the flat roof with the steel frame roof above.
The khmers are good at building these things but i will insist on several courses of damp proof in the bricks and a modern waterproofing product applied to the external walls before painting.
I may even paint the place that lovely pink colour,the house could be called big pink.
Going down tomorrow to supervise another few truckloads of dirt,ten gone in already.
If the water gets any higher the we may have the worst floods in 25 years,the last time my block flooded was before my wife was born according to pop.
I have no idea of the cost of this house but at $200 a square metre shouldnt be more than 30K.

I actually don't mind the shop houses but if I were to build one I would have the large tri-fold steel and glass doors not only at the front but at the rear as well AND I would have one coming off the shaded side of my living room with a terazzo porch and roof over it. heaps of extra light and then you can open your living room right up for the breeze etc.

No mezzanine and LARGE bathroom( with WINDOWS. I actual fact I would build an all Terrazo concrete shower block with NO roof to the rear of the house with a nice rose head shower and some bamboo features. If you have ever been to the sailing club at knai bang chatt ;

How's the building going? Any updates?

I've just bought a 600m2 plot out that way (I think), mines the first right as soon as you get off the Monivong bridge then follow the river for 2km's. Once we've sold this house we'll be building something there, so interested to hear how you have got on?

Complete change of plan actually chris.
Sick of dickhead khmer builders,all builders are dickheads all over the world but anyway....
Got a new place,near you.
No more srok sa ang.
Bought a small shophouse probably only a k from your block,finished soon and very cheap.
Can add a floor on top but in the meantime I will build the steel roof for a big living area.
Got sick of khmers stuffing me around,took the simple route.
After spending my life in the building industry I knew exactly what sort of ordeal i was going to have with the khmers when trying to build myself.
Now relieved and happy.

Actually it isn't builders who are dick heads, it is grumpy old clients who think they are builders, don't know what they want,expect 1st world service in a 3rd world environment,keep changing their minds and cannot speak the language so cannot purvey their wishes in an intelligent way.

Now who would that be ?

Dont know who you mean?
I have been in the game for forty years and builders are dickheads everywhere.
(jeeung som nong gbaal gdaw)-like that epithet?
Only ever shopped around two designs which I priced myself to within probably five per cent of the true cost.
Never expect first world service,only honesty-severely lacking here.
Can speak the language,I know the khmer terms for every part of the building.
I have spoken with many builders down srok sa ang way and in phnompenh.
Only grumpy when the builder is a complete dick like the last one I dealt with.
Two level shop house,very simple,cost including builders margin no more than 30K.
Builder is insistent that it is a 40K house despite me remonstrating with him in khmer that i know the game and the cost of this house.
We drive away and within ten minutes the dick is on the phone offering to build it for $22,500.
And he kept phoning for days!!!
Sure you could build it for $22,500 but how much reo and cement would you leave out and how much would you water the paint down?
The silly bugger could have started the next day with a deposit but he chose to play silly games with a barang who had insisted that he knew the real price and speaking khmer.
How dumb was this provincial builder?
After i had driven away he would have thought,shit Ive got bugger all work,this guy obviously has the money and Ive lost him.
I have walked onto numerous sites all over cambodia and I know what things should cost and how they should be built.
Khmers are really good at solid plastering,good at lightweight steel and not bad at formwork.
But electrical,ceramic tiling,painting,bricklaying and plumbing is shocking.
And they only use the shittiest,cheapest materials often because that is all that is available.
Anyway watch this space because i plan to offer 1st world service in a third world environment.
You will have to pay a premium though, hardhitter.

Sorry it didn't work out. What can I say builders and taxi drivers? A global problem.

Our place is a couple of hundred meters after that Cham village if that narrows it down. Do you have any idea what the rents are like out there on a largish shop house or small villa? Once we sell our current house (whenever that might be) we'll be renting out there until construction is complete (whenever that might be x2).

Ok we'll be neighbours then, that's the exact turn off where our plot is, ours is the first right down the same turn off right near to that big wind turbine.