The Things I Took for Granted in an American Home

Moving is never fun, but moving out of the Spa Resort and into a more permanent place had been something that we all looked forward to.

“War Zone” on the First Move-in Night

Our official move-in date was Aug 22, but we got the keys from the landlady on Aug 21 (the owners seem very nice). Originally, we were just going to start moving some items over to the new place. However, as we were moving, we thought why not stay the night? And so we did.

The house was filled with items we moved over from the Spa Resort the first night. It was like a war zone.

Consumerism in Chiang Mai – Our 2nd Night in the New House

The second night was not any better. In fact, we bought so many more household items the second day, the new place looked much worse. But the worst thing that happened last night was that we lost internet service all together! The DSL modem just seemed to not work at all. I sent an email to our landlord (who doesn’t understand English, though his wife understands some) and our agent about this, trying to get help. I went to bed grumpy and tired.

Today afternoon, I got a little more energy and decided to take another look at the modem. It did not seem to be connected correctly. Anyway, I took it apart and took it upstairs (where it was when we came to look at the house) and re-plugged everything back in. Voila, I am online again!

It’s the 3rd night in our new home, and we all prefer it so much more than the Spa Center. It is still a mess! We have bought even more stuff! All those things that we got rid of in America in the estate sale made their ways back into our new home, like garbage cans, knives, bowls and plates etc. We’ve vowed to keep that to a minimum. Now that I have DSL again, I feel calm and happy. Gary said that maybe he could become “GSL” to have the same effect on me…

As we are getting more used to living in Thailand (Chiang Mai specifically), I have summed up quite a few items that we had taken for granted in America.

Hot water

This did not even cross my mind as we decided on taking this lease, but it almost broke the deal. The house we are renting is in a nice neighborhood with nice houses. All the fixtures look new. Everything is clean. As we were looking around, feeling good about the place, the owner asked (through our agent), if we would need hot water for the bathrooms? Hot water? Wasn’t that always part of the house? Apparently not! They would have to install an electric water heater to each shower. The owner and our agent said that we could just shower using cold water. After all, we are in Thailand and it’s warm… No way! “But what about the kitchen?” we asked. They said that we could wash dishes using cold water too. Anyway, we said that we would need at least hot water in the kitchen and in the showers or there would be no deal.

At the end, the owner agreed to install those and we got hot water. However, unless America, our sinks just have one tab. Most of them just spit out cold water (though not as freezing cold as in the U.S.). For the kitchen and the two showers, if you turn on the electric heater, it will heat up the water to your desired temperature. There is no mixing of hot and cold water to get to your ideal temperature here.

In the Spa Resort, there are hot and cold water just like the U.S. so we did not even think about this. After having learned about this, we looked at some rental ads and some of them prominently displayed “hot water” as a selling point. I guess in Thailand you can get a nice house, but still with just cold water.

Stoves and Gas

Americans have been spoiled by large kitchens and large stoves. In Asia, most kitchens are quite small. We have a 2-stove gas range in our kitchen, but the cooking range is not fitted, but just sits on top of a marble slab. The gas come from a large gas bottle connected to the stove. “How do you know when you need more gas?” we asked. Well, if you can’t cook one night, you know you’ll need to call the gas guy for delivery.

Garbage Disposal

I really miss having a garbage disposal! I wonder if I can get one from the U.S., whether it will work here.

Dishwasher

Most households don’t have a dishwasher. I saw one in one of the rental houses in the Spa Resort, so they do exist in Thailand. If I stay here long-term, I will need to buy one.

Oven

Ovens are not common in most Thai homes. Again, I have seen them, but rarely. Most Thai kitchens are either outside or completely a separate part of the house so that the cooking smell doesn’t get into the house.

Dryer (Clothes)

Most people dry their clothes on a clothes rack or clothes lines in Thailand, as in many other Asian and European countries. Sometimes I wonder if only Americans dry their clothes in a dryer.

Dryers do exist in Thailand, as we have seen them in the Home Pro store (Thailand’s version of Home Depot – they even borrow Home Depot’s colors). They are very expensive and most people just don’t bother with them. If you do the math, it’s probably not worth the money. For example, a dryer costs about 40,000-50,000฿ at a minimum. To have someone iron your clothes (after you dry them) costs about 100-200฿ each time (we paid 100฿/hour for ironing). For the cost of a dryer, you can have someone iron your clothes 200-500 times, ignoring the electricity used by the dryer. Assuming you do laundry once a week, that’s 4-10 years!

Anyway, having a dryer can be very convenient. If I stay here long-term, I will still buy one. For now, we’ll just stick with drying racks.

By the way, most of the washers here are front-loading. The top loading washers do exist but again, a lot more expensive.

Natural “Friends”

We’ve got visited often by unexpected friends. If you leave any food in the sink for just a while (even just a few minutes), expect small ants. We have seen geckos outside our windows many times in the Spa Resort. Yesterday morning, as we went outside to our car, we saw this large snail on the floor. Later when we got home, it moved onto our wall. According to Gary, it was there the night before as well. There are also cockroaches, red ants, mosquitos, So if you ever feel lonely, you can maybe make friends with these creatures. We personally like the geckos since they eat mosquitos.

High Speed Internet

The house I am renting has ADSL. According to the owner, the download speed is 7Mb/s, which is pretty fast according to them. When I tested the speed earlier, we were getting just over 5 Mb/s, not fast enough for Gary. We’ll probably look into getting faster speed as most of what we do is online. I do have to say that this is already a huge improvement over the Spa Resort as our internet connection is consistent. When we were staying in the Spa Resort, the WiFi went in and out. Every time I wrote a blog like this, it would take me at least an extra hour in connecting and reconnecting. Sometimes I lost part of what I had written because the connection suddenly went out. Sometimes my photo uploads would have to be redone due to the same issue. You can’t tell how happy I am right now that I haven’t lost connection once tonight!

It’s getting late and I am getting tired. Tomorrow, I am looking forward to yet another day in cleaning and putting things away. We still have a few minor items to buy (or to hold off until we absolutely feel we can’t live without them). We are so glad that we have chosen Land and Houses Park instead. It’s much closer to town and to most stores, very convenient (for spending money). It is certainly not as idyllic looking as the Spa Resort nor Premburi, but for now, it’s a good compromise.

A Roof over Our Heads

I am glad to report that our housing saga has reached a satisfactory conclusion. We signed a house contract today! After all, we won’t become homeless come this Friday. As much as I would like to write something unusual, it’s perhaps that I spare everyone this particular subject.

We looked at the house in the Spa Resort again with Sammy on Sunday and she really liked it. She immediately claimed the large attic bedroom for herself so that she can have her friends visit and stay with her in the same room. I was still worried about the safety of that spiral staircase, but I had to admit that it was looking pretty good compared to all the other houses we had looked at so far (though not Premburi) and we both had little faith that Premburi would come through.

Nan called and we visited another two houses in a Mu Baan close by. The houses were bigger and one of them was a little cleaner than the other ones we had seen but still looked and smelled abandoned. They were a bit cheaper than the Spa Resort house (and Premburi) though.

As we headed out to Land and Houses complex (where Samantha has her tennis lessons), we were pretty sure that we would be signing the Spa Resort contract assuming the owners agreed to our requests.

We met up with our realtor friend Alisa in Land and Houses (she moved there recently). She showed us 3 more houses in that development. Land and Houses Park is huge, like a small city onto itself. It consists of quite a few smaller compounds within the development.

The first one was a 3-bedroom house in the same compound as Alisa for 30,000฿. The owners were teacher(s), very nice people. The house was new and clean. It was definitely doable, though a bit on the small side.

The second house was 4-bedroom for 27,000฿. It felt a bit darker than the first house. For whatever reason, we just did not like it as much.

The last one was also a 3-bedroom, in a newer compound with its own swimming pool and sauna outside of the main Club House. The pool was just a lap pool, but good enough. The cost was 35,000฿. Alisa said that this was her favorite compound, very quiet.

 

The owner and his son were inside. The house was new and everything looked new inside. The furnitures etc. were of modern style, mostly black and white. Alisa said that this house was bigger than the first one, but Gary said that he did not see much difference.

After looking at these 3 houses, Gary preferred the first one and I preferred the last one. We both felt that this development was better than the Spa Resort, and even Premburi. The development was located about 25-30 minutes from school, and about 20-30 minutes from Chiang Mai city, so it was pretty centrally located to all the main places that we would be going to. It would be really good to have Alisa there so over time we could get to know her and her family better. She and her sister were both crazy about Sam and we could have free babysitters 🙂 With this location, we may have a better chance of a social life!

We went back to look at the first house. As we were looking at it again, Gary came to the realization that it was really too small. Two of the three bedrooms were quite small and there was no extra space for an office.

We went back and looked at the last house again. Gary agreed now that it was indeed bigger. There was a little den on the second floor which would serve just well as an office. There were some negotiations back and forth, both at the house and later on over the phone through Alisa. At the end, we reached an agreement with the owner. This morning, we looked at the draft contract, pretty standard and reasonable, unlike the Premburi one. We went over to the development and met with the owners (his wife was also present this time). We went over the contract, made a few minor changes, and everyone signed. We paid the first month’s rent and will deposit the 2 months security deposit shortly. We will be moving in this coming Thursday!

With the contract signed, we finally went out and bought some sheets and pillows etc. We will be buying a few more household items on Thursday. We feel relieved that this has finally settled and now we know where we are going to live for the next 12 months. I had imagined my life living in Premburi, walking Samantha to school every morning, and then go swimming or walking around the school grounds. Now, I have to throw that vision away and start imagining a new life living closer to town, but both Gary and I feel this is likely the right thing to do.

Living Homelessly in Thailand

As our current lease with The Spa Resort ends on next Friday Aug 23, we are facing the possibility of being homeless!

The Crazy Contract of Premburi

We have decided to rent the Premburi townhouse over a month ago and have been waiting to move in ever since. It looked like we could move in on Aug 23, but we haven’t signed a contract. The person in charge of renting said she was working on it. We pretty much stopped looking as well. We knew that it was a bit overpriced, but for the convenience of living on campus, we were okay with it for this first year. Finally, this last Tuesday (first day of school), we got a copy of the contract. Gary read it quickly and told me that the contract was crazy: it was very punitive and completely biased towards the owner. I took a look at it with Gary on Wednesday. It was crazy! For example:

• If the house were to be burned down by a fire due to our negligence (how will one prove that?), it would be our responsibility to rebuild the whole house.
• If anything stops working while we rent the house, it is our responsibility to fix them. For each day that the repair is not being done, we will be charge a fine of 10,000฿. In Thailand, good luck getting anyone to come out to fix things immediately even if you call for the repair immediately. If somehow they do, you will be charged accordingly.
• If the house becomes unlivable due to a force majeure, we can leave but will need to give a 30 day notice. Seriously? We would be in a dire need of looking for a new place to live but still have to pay rent for a place that’s unlivable?

These were just the major issues. There were minor things such as visitors etc. It was incredible that such a contract was even written. We took out our pen and started crossing things out! As I was doing so, Gary said, “You know that we are basically losing that house, right?”

We took the marked up contract back to the Residence Spa and gave it to the woman in charge. We explained that some of the clauses in the contract were just unacceptable to us as they were completely biased towards the landlord and no protection for the tenants. I also tried to explain that in the U.S., the landlord would be responsible for the structure of the house and would be purchasing home insurance for that, whereas the tenants would be responsible for their own personal contents and would purchase a renter’s insurance for those in the event of theft or destruction. The lady said that she would take a look and get back to us. We dropped by on Thu to check on the progress, but she hadn’t had a chance to do so yet. She said Friday. We stopped by on Friday, still the same and she said that she would look at it over the weekend. So we emailed her today but no response. Gary called her after lunch and she told Gary that she could only make minor changes to the contract, and not deleting whole clauses. This basically meant that the contract would not be acceptable to us and we wouldn’t be living there! We have to move out of our current townhouse in The Spa Resort by Aug 23 as a new tenant is moving in, but now we don’t have a house to move into. We have wasted the past month looking forward to move in there so that we could focus our energy on other things, such as living a healthier life style, or firming up business plans etc. Oh well, we were looking for excitements in a new country, but this is way beyond what we have bargained for!!! In a last attempt, Gary emailed the lady and let her know that we would be signing a different contract by Monday 1pm unless she could make some changes to her contract involving the repairs and penalties. If so, she should let us know so that we could take a look and make a decision. She wrote back later that she would have a draft for us to review on Monday. So we can continue to hope that the new contract will be reasonable, though we both think the chance of that is very slim.

More House Hunting

Meanwhile, we have been back on the house hunting circuit. The bad news is that we haven’t found anything we really like.

The Spa Resort on Wednesday Robin showed us a 3-bedroom house (duplex) in The Spa Resort for 40,000฿. It feels much better than our current 1-bedroom. The first floor is the kitchen and living room. The second floor has the master bedroom and a second bedroom. The third floor is accessed through a spiral staircase that creaks when you walk on it (even with my weight). It’s like a very large attic but I can’t imagine putting Samantha there as I will be constantly worried about Samantha having an accident on the stairs.

A house in the Mountain View Mu Baan (Thai gated housing development) on Wednesday

We pass by the Mountain View development everyday on our way to town. There is a little restaurant right outside the development in which we have eaten several times. There were cows (or water buffalos) lying right outside the Mu Baan gate on the grass before they cut the grass, so Gary called it the “Moo Barn”.

Anyway, when we went to have lunch there on Wednesday, we asked the waitress if she knew of any houses for rent there. She gave us a realtor’s name and phone number, and Gary called him immediately.

Ron came to meet us on a motorbike. He was in his late 60s or early 70s (I am not good at judging people’s age), from South Africa. He showed us a two-bedroom for 12,000฿. While we liked the price immensely, there was really nothing else that we liked about the house. It was dirty and cramp. Ron said that he had another unit in town for just 10,000฿, but it was also a 2-bedroom, so we decided to forget about that.

A house near Four Seasons Resort on Thursday

Our friend Alisa (she was the realtor we met last October when we came to visit for the very first time) showed us a house near the Four Seasons Resort for 60,000฿, but possibly can be rented for 40,000฿.

The house has a separate guest bedroom and bathroom downstairs and a separate Thai kitchen. When you go upstairs, you will enter the house on a long corridor, which is the western kitchen (a bit strange), and then enter the living room. The living room is quite large and has balconies on both sides. Then there are two bedrooms after the living room, accessible again through another corridor. The house is not bad but the flow is a bit strange.

The development itself is quite pretty. There is a beautiful pond full of lotus flowers. The swimming pool overlooks large open grasslands. The problem is there is hardly anyone living there! It’s a pricy place for vacation homes and the only people we see are maids and gardeners. They hang out by the pagoda and by the pool. The pool water is cloudy. It seems that rich people just buy houses for their maids and gardeners (same thing in China). Maybe I should become a maid and live rent free!

7 houses around Mae Rim area on Friday

We looked at quite a few houses yesterday with another realtor Nan who specializes in Mae Rim properties only. She’s a former high school English teacher and is married to a Canadian. Her English is pretty good.

Anyway, the first house is just a few minutes away from the school. It is advertised as 95% finish. Well, not quite. The whole site is a complete mess. The doors to all the bedrooms (3 or 4) are all locked so no one can see them. The road to the house is a dirt road. Even if we really want this house, it is difficult to imagine that all these problems can be fixed by next Friday for us to move in. Nan said that the owner bought this house from the developer who went bankrupt. The house is also for sale for 5M฿. Not for us…

The second house is at the Mountain View Mu Baan again, but a 3-bedroom for 25,000฿. The landlord lives close by. Looking from the outside, the house is quite nice, but the inside is dirty. There is water leak on the floor. The furniture looks tacky. Not really for us. It’s amazing that most owners don’t bother to clean up the place before showing, but Nan agrees with us that’s the mentality of a lot of the owners in Thailand and she has a hard time convincing them otherwise.

The third house is in a local Thai village just off 107. It is a beautiful 3-bedroom Thai house for 35,000฿. Everything is made of wood, and well crafted. It’s quite dark inside until you open the thick wooden window frames. The house has views of the rice paddy fields right outside.

While I like many of the details of Thai house, it still feels too dark to me. Gary on the other hand really likes this house because it has a lot of character. We both agree that the location just won’t work. It’s with a bunch other houses that don’t look very good and there is a dog constantly barking in the background. Not really for us…

The fourth house is located in the Summit Green Valley Country Club, about 20 minutes from Prem, right off 107. It’s a two-bedroom house located on a large plot of land for 50,000฿. The owner has a construction business in town and had been using this as his vacation home when he wanted to golf, but has become too old and too busy to do that for quite a while. The house itself is quite large, but most of the room is taken up by this circular large living room. The two bedrooms are not very big at all. Just not a very functional design in our opinions. The price is also too high.

The country club is quite nice and this home is located on a quite patch with only one other house next to it. Apparently someone from the Swiss embassy lives there. If only the Thai house were in this location, then Gary said he would rent it. I am not so sure if I would.

The fifth house is also in the same development, next to a policeman’s home. It’s a 3-bedroom for 35,000฿. The outside looks okay but the inside is just not that great. There is no view to speak of and you can be intimate with your neighbors.

The last two houses are located in the Palm Spa Village, very close to the Green Valley Country Club, right off 1260 (on our way to tennis lessons). Both houses look quite attractive from the outside, but not so great inside, especially the first one. The development itself again is very quite, with no life inside. It’s not really the kind of environment we want to live in. We want to be around some people, just not noisy ones.

After looking at these houses, I was quite happy when I got back to my small 1-bedroom townhouse in The Spa Resort. Even though we knew that we were overpaying for the Premburi place, it looked like a paradise and we just hoped that they would be reasonable with the lease.

A house in a local Thai village today (Saturday)

We looked at one more house today with one of Alisa’s friend Alice (Chinese Thai grew up in Australia). She took us to a Thai village not too far from Prem.

The house is located on a large plot of private land not dissimilar to the Spa Resort in terms of feel (though quite a bit smaller). There are about 5 properties on this land all owned by the same Thai owner. The grounds is quite pretty, with fruit trees everywhere. We were told that we could pick the fruits and eat them for free, just not for sale. Good deal!

The house is a 2-bedroom for 15,000฿. It’s a very attractive price, but not the house itself. Samantha also said that she wanted more space! We couldn’t disagree…

Well, more houses to look at tomorrow and Monday!