Looking for a house

What a week it has been. The move went well. With me doing most of the small box packing the packers were way ahead. All packed and left by 2pm. Problem was they still were not going to give me a bed to sleep on for the night. I thought with helping them get a head start that at least they would have gone to our new house and unloaded some of the bigger items. Nope, not a chance!!!

This is the sign at the entrance to our compound/village. I believe it says Perfect Masterpiece Village….

Its very good security. No one can come onto the compound if you don’t know where you are going and who you are going to visit. They give visitors a ticket and to get  out you must have your ticket stamped by the house were you are visiting. Without this, not sure what would happen.

I have noticed if a Taxi is coming to pick people up the guard comes on his bike in front of the taxi until they have picked people up. Very very good, I think.

The guard patrols every 15 mins from what I can make out.

Everyone is so friendly and there are lots of amenities here. I will cover these later

This is the first photo of our house that evening.

This is looking up to our bedroom. The house looks big from outside but I can assure you it is no bigger than a lot of UK homes. It’s just aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

OH says its called Perfect Masterpiece Village because he can’t find any flaws in the decor or structure.

 

 

 

This is a photo of the guest room and car port.

We are going to use the car port as a seating area. When its all free from boxes and rubbish from our packing or should I say unpacking I will take a photo. Hopefully it won’t look so much like a car port.

 

The first thing I notice is the lack of flies of any shape or size. What a difference to where we have come from. Where we had space and views and couldn’t sit outside to enjoy it all. Ah, I can leave my doors open now.

 

So here we are in the new house on the evening of the 3rd August 2013. No furniture, nothing. Luckily had had made chilli and rice in advance and brought some biscuits.

This is OH and our Stella, enjoying our new coffee tables!! improvise is the word to be used when moving to a new house. Improvise all the way. Deck chairs to sit on and card board boxes upside down to rest  your feet on.  Stella seems quite happy too. Making herself comfortable on the side of the box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is exactly how we all spent the night. On the floor.

OH and I realise that we are way to old to be sleeping rough on hard tiled floors anymore. Sleeping bags and a padded sleeping mat. I don’t know how the Thai people do it. It was so uncomfortable. Mind that fact that I had let the packers take the pillows as OH thought there wouldn’t be room left in our truck to take them!!! oh how we missed those pillows. Folded towels, don’t quite feel the same.

Well, we didn’t get much sleep, Buddy and Stella walked the floor most of the night!! they couldn’t settle either. Bless, Tess, never any bother, slept through the whole thing. What a star.

One and a half weeks on and we are all sorted and OH is back to work. All the boxes are unpacked and everything is in its place. Now I can not put off the ironing much longer!!! Here is the pile!!!! It took me 3 1/2 hours. To someone that is not used to doing her own ironing and hates it with a passion, it was a hellish 3 1/2 hours!!!! Oh for the laundry around the corner near where we used to live.

I guess I will have to go out and find a nice organized friendly laundry service nearby. Its not that I don’t have the time to do it. Its just I hate it so so much. Even when I lived back in the UK my mum used to come and iron for me. I do so hate it so much.

I got through it and I am still alive so I guess it wasn’t so bad. nice to see it all hanging on the clothes horse ironed

The packers came back today to collect their boxes and papers. So I have cleared the area outside now too. Just a few nice flowering plants and the place will be more homely.

The house was really clean when we arrived. Not Julie clean of course but clean enough. It meant I didn’t have to start cleaning before things could be unpacked. The landlord’s brother is looking after us and he obviously did a really good job of getting the place clean for us.

The team were still varnishing the stairs when we came to inspect the day before we moved in.

Buddy and Tess are getting used to having neighbours. The first few days were driving us crazy. Everytime anyone made a sound they barked. Glad to say now they seem to have settled down.

Stella has been out a few times now and its great to be able to leave the door open. I can’t believe the difference in the lack of flies. Its wonderful.

We have invested in a new slim line oscillating fan too. Its very quiet. As OH says I live with a fan all the time but that way I can do without air con and have the fresh air.

Can’t wait to be able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. I think this weekend we might even get to the pool

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, one relaxed cat. I just hope she doesn’t wander to far. She is far to confident for her own good. There are lots of dogs on the compound. Only a couple of strays though but there is a big ginger tom. Don’t want her to get lost. Most of the houses look similar so I don’t want her to get confused.  Mind she makes plenty of noise, I am sure I would hear her but I don’t want to tempt fate.

Well that’s enough for now, The sun is shining and Tess needs a wash. She still has the fungus and it doesn’t seem to be improving much.

A bit thanks you to Nita from Bangkok Serenity for helping me in our house search. Her details are below for anyone wanting a great agent.

Thanyaluck Boonchom (Nita)

M: +66(0) 8-3541 4161
F: +66(0) 2- 169 1655-7
Fax: +66(0) 2- 169 1657

E: nita@bangkokserenity.com
W: www.bangkokserenity.com

=======================================

Serena Property Co., Ltd
299/9 Sukumvit Living Tower
Sukhumvit Soi 21 (Asoke)
Klongotey Nua
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Thailand

 

When Cliff came to say he was selling up and going to Canada we had to start a new house hunt. After looking at many houses with some really good agents. Keith from Alan Bolton Property found our current house.

 

 

 

Some advice:-

If a house has been empty for a very long time. Steer well clear!!!! The house had been built some 4 years earlier. What we didn’t stop to think about is what might be here before we moved in!!!

We started off with rats in the ceiling, then the large number of pigeons that live along the top of the roof area. They poop everywhere. So Harri who owns the house got some men to put up sticky stuff along the front area of the roof so they couldn’t land. No one thought that if they put too much on it would melt with the heat and drip down on to the terrace upstairs and take off all the varnish on the decking!!! So the pigeons just moved around the sides and the back.

Harri got a machine that sends the pigeons a high frequency noise but sends ALL the birds away which was quite spooky. It was awful without any birds in the garden. So we put up with the birds on the side and the back of the house. Pooping everywhere. Neither did we think about what happens if some silly birds did land on the glue!!! Its so cruel.

We are over run with ants, all sizes, colours etc. so much so that when we first moved in the dogs and myself couldn’t stand on the grass without the pesky critters biting at you and running up your legs. It was awful.

Then we have had a scorpion in the bathroom, thank goodness I didn’t stand on it.  Here is a picture of it in a jar. It’s dead of course but it wasn’t when I saw it.

After that I was sweeping the leaves in the garden,an every day occurrence- think about what trees are in the garden when you are looking at a house. Very time consuming if you don’t want to employ or can’t employ staff to do it all for you.,  Sorry digressed there with advice.

There in front of my rake is a bbbbb……dy big tarantula. It was standing upright on hind legs in what looked like a hostile position. Well, I hate blllooodyyyyyy spiders. No one to help so I had to kill it.  I remember my friend Joan saying insect repellant stuns nasty critters long enough for you to get yourself armed. Just so happens I had been spraying ants so I had to tin of insect repellant to hand. It got a huge blast. It might have stunned it for a few minutes but off it ambled to the big tree in the middle of the garden. Oh no I thought you aren’t going in there. So sorry to all you spider lovers but I had to kill it.

OH wanted to know if I had taken pictures. I put it in a bag and that was enough to prove it was definitely a tarantula!!!!!

Well the first one I didn’t take photos of but by the time the 2nd one appeared some weeks later, I did. This is half of it.

So after all that, what else. Oh yes, snakes. More here than at the other house. Some baby ones like this one.

Plus apart from small snakes, we have a resident big snake in the drain. We saw on a few occasions a big snake. Luckily Buddy only growled at it from a distance. Again I would have walked into it if it had not been once again for one of my pets. By the time we put the light on and gone and got our snake equipment it had disappeared. Then again at the back of the house as dusk fell it appeared again. I didn’t think it was a Cobra because it didn’t rise up or raise its head. Something I have seen a few times before.  Again it disappeared. That is how we came to the conclusion it was living in the storm drains around the garden.

When a team of men came to look at the stinky drain problem. Yep, yet another problem in the house, I happen to mention about this big snake. The team of men lifted the drain covers and started to smoke it out. One man said it was a big lizard that he had just seen in the drain. Then in that case I said, there must be 2 monsters.

Smoking it out brought it to the head of one drain. There was I poised with the snake stick. When I saw the size of its head with a huge long forked tongue. That was it. I gasped and at that point it went back in the drain. No matter how much smoke they put through the drain it didn’t come back out. When OH came back from work we cut chicken wire into rectangles and placed it underneath the man hole covers. Covering the gaps that are left for water drainage. This way there is no way anything big can come back up those drains now.

The head was the size of my hand and really thick, translucent in colour. I have looked in my snake book and watched programs on TV, from what I can see its a python. So lets hope it goes somewhere else via the storm drains.

Another mistake, don’t buy a house or rent a house with no near neighbours and waste or farm land near by. This is what we did and its a BIG mistake.

I have tackled a few small snakes but one day recently I was coming to the bin when Stella the cat gave out one of her funny noises of attack. There right beside the bin was a larger version of the smaller snakes I have killed. I would say at least 4ft.  I didn’t have time to go back, it was coming for me. On the attack. I think Stella must have made it angry and I was its next target.  My snake stick just seemed to have no effect at all. Snakes have very tough skins indeed and its not as easy as it looks on TV to kill a bigger snake. Even though my spikes were right through it, its head kept coming my way and I knew some snakes can strike from a long way away. My stick has a 6ft shaft.

I managed to flick it under the big gate but blow me it was coming back in. So I had to pursue it. I managed to keep lifting it onto my stick and flicking it in the air across to the main road.  Then a truck came past, backed up. I thought oh good he’s going to run back over it to kill it. No. He was coming to watch. Could you believe it. Then two motorbikes with side cars did the same. So much for men being brave eh????

Its not until afterwards you realize how silly and stupid you have been. After all I was sure it was a viper and I know I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital in time. Its just adrenalin kicks in and you fight to protect yourself and your animals.  I don’t ever want to fight with a big snake again.

I bet people reading this are thinking, ah but you must be way out in the Country. No, we are right near a resort called horse shoe point. OK no neighbours within shouting distance but not way out of civilization either.

Oh yes and one day the dogs were barking and there was a what looked like a large baboon on the wall. That’s a story for another day.