City for me

Even in the UK I could only really enjoy life when I was in London, back out in a town with the folks, meh! Like Lucan, I do like a break out in the countryside, but I don't think I'd enjoy living there, even in old age.

One more thing about the province life....

Where I live there's no garbage collection. That means people burn it. Some burn it in the morning, some in the late afternoon, there seems to be no general agreement on the best time to do it. This means the annoyance occurs at least twice a day.

In rainy season it isn't so bad. A nice shower will wash all those dust out of the air, but in the dry season, after a few days (but certainly after a few weeks) I can feel it building up. If you've got respiratory issues that might be something to consider.

In countries where life in the provinces is somewhat more sophisticated (let's say France for example), I could probably live in the countryside. In Cambodia or here in Thailand, I would get bored very quickly, so city life it is.

I could not survive living in the Cambodian countryside. Had to build an aircon room, then added a bathroom and shower, which turned into a floor with multiple rooms, which turned into raising and putting the family house on top, for the wedding.

I admire the foreigners that can, but it’s not for me.

i got used to sihanoukville but liked it better when mikes burgers came to town .
when i HAD to move i tried kampot but hated it ,
then to the boonies of kampong thom and found i was traveling to siem reap just for whoppers
so i moved to siem reap because of burger king
now i wouldn’t live anywhere that doesn’t have burger king
i originally moved to sihanoukville to die so i might go back , i heard they got a Burger King !
mikes wouldn’t do anymore , im addicted to whoppers

Freightdog wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 4:06 am

Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 02, 2022 11:46 am Still... You can live in a really nice place for a relatively low price.This is my office:


And this house cost 33k to build (although during COVID-19):


For those wanting to know, the table under the house is 500$.

I’m interested to know more about the house.
Materials, base, time for construction, etc.

The house consist of two different parts. The back is a 7 x 3 m construction on concrete poles / slab. The concrete slab on the ground floor is 150 mm thick, has two layers of steel, and the pilles are also 150 mm, four steel bars in each. By defualt they will not use a concrete slab on the ground floor, but it's worth the extra money IMHO. The ground floor is about 4 meters high, so it's a relatively cool airy room because of that. Walls are double bricked. The concrete slab of the first floor connects to the wooden floor of the wooden structure.
The front is a wooden house on concrete poles (150mm, 4 bars). The poles are relatively high (4 meters) and interconnected so the structure is rigid. The poles are higher than normal so the view from the veranda is guaranteed. The wooden house consists of one large room in the back (connecting to the concrete structure) with small windows facing south and two large windows facing north. In the front, on the veranda, is another small room which barely fits more than a single bed. It has two rooms.
The wooden house is covered with glazed roof tiles, the concrete construction has a flat roof, another 150 mm concrete slab with two layers of steel. On top of that slab, on a small stand, is a 500L water tank.

The veranda is actually the best part of the house, it overlooks the valley as if you were in a castle and generally has a nice breeze.

Construction of the back took about 2.5 months, two people worked on it more less non stop, I overlooked the work. I had to make sure some stuff, like concrete bars over doors and windows, was done. It's something they won't do by default. They will by default use a wooden construction to smear some cement around steel bars over the hole, which will last less than a year and will start cracking very soon.
The front was a two phase process. First the concrete poles were constructed, it took about a week, they then left for 6 weeks to let the concrete settle and dry. Then they constructed the wooden structure which took them about a month. I didn't supervise them, I know too little about wood work, but I checked their work everyday and after a few days they knew they shouldn't use heavily cracked wood or they would have to replace it the next day. The roof is Khmer style with the roof in the back higher than in the front. Looking back a simple roof would have been easier and more solid.
Then there's the stairs, not part of the house. Hired different guys for that. One to build the concrete platform, another to make the wooden stairs. The first one f#cked up, the stairs leading from the wooden platform to the house rested on the platform for only about 5 mm. Lost some nice wood on that and had another one making another stair. I was not around when the guy made that part.

We provided all the materials, they the labor and experience. All together about 40 M3 of wood has been used for the house. Part of the wood we found in a local village, about 25 M3, the rest we had to buy at the 'official depot'. Village wood is generally better, already dried and cheaper. The wood in the depot needs to dry before you can use it and is about double the price.

The steel roof in front of the house is Khmer style. I lost that battle. It allows you to sit on the veranda in rain, but also makes for a loud concert during a downpoor and makes the veranda a darker place. Keeps away some of the wind too.

The goal is to rent it out to tourists. But things move slowly here, some stuff I ordered (garden gate, table, chairs) will be delivered and installed next week.

As I said, all in all it costs about 33k for the labor and the parts. The land we bought before, but the prices we paid for the land are irrelevant now. Because we live here we can simply wait for a good chance coming along. I think a piece of land like this close to this location (Ratanakiri province, about 4 km to Ban Lung, not on the main raid) will costs 10-15k these days.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 10:28 am Looks nice, great views.
Dont know about you but i found the house i built is kep was really a pain in the ass>
they wouldn't do things my way and trying to get the wife to ask them resulted in,
"Its the khmer way"

Agreed. You either freak out during construction, or you regret it afterwards. I agreed with them upfront I wanted some things done 'barang way', not Khmer way, and I can speak (some) Khmer to them, bypassing the wife. For the wooden house we set a fixed price, which I added a 'happy bonus' to in case I would love the final work. For the stone / concrete part I paid them per day. Since it was during covid they were happy to have some extra work.
I also have learned a six pack of cold beers at 5 PM stretch a long way. Or an occasional bottle of cheap rum / wodka / pastiche....

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 10:28 am

The steel roof in front of the house is Khmer style.

i refused one of those

They did a shit job on the exterior cement over the bricks and after 6 months already was cracking thru the paint
Constant problems with the water pump that brings water up from the well, (The valve at the bottom 24 meters down, keeps getting clogged)
Sourced lots of things from Global house in PP>
doors, appliances, kitchen stuff, paint etc etc
bricks came from svay rieng ( cheaper than anywhere else)
aluminum sliding windows with mosquito nets locally made
Cousin from SV came down an made all the bars & gate that are NECCESARY for living in Cambodia


I'd never build again in Cambodia

We sourced everything from this area, but that's easy to say because there's still wood here. If you want to build a house like this in let's say Kampot province, or Kep, the odds are they bring in the (illegal) wood from the Northeast at a surchange. During the construction I contatantly complained about the price of the wood with the guys working with the wood, they told me in Kampong Cham prices were much higher for the same wood (they were from KC).

Well, and about family. My mother always told me: 'Family and fish only stay fresh for a day or two'. So I refuse to hire family.

About never building in Cambodia again.... Then you'd have to buy an existing place... New places in Cambodia always look great, but fall to pieces so fast....