Baan Waen, Hong Dong, Chiang Mai

Yesterday was the two week anniversary of being in our new home.  It came furnished and we've been to Baan and Beyond a couple of times to get the essentials.  It will really be ours when our personal belongings arrive.  That's going to be quite some time in the future.

Until then, here's a tour of our spacious and modern Thai home.

This is essentially our front step.  It's very pleasant here under the trees.  There is a tile patio that we hose down to keep it just a little cooler.  The weather is starting to change here.  It's definitely cooler than when we arrived, but I think we'll still be sitting out here in the snows of winter. 555

Backing up a bit from the last picture, which was taken at the gate, this is the view of our house from the street.  It's a fairly new Moo Baan, but it has a lot of big shade trees.  The one in the front will have beautiful yellow flowers on it, but we're not sure when it will bloom.  As we're going into the dry season now (Jason says maybe no rain until April) I would guess it will bloom when the rains return.

This view is taken from where you saw Barbara sitting in the first shot.  It has a lot of orchids which were in bloom when we arrived, but not now.  I've been soaking them every morning so at Mom's suggestion we will go get some orchid vitamins and see if we can get them going again. 

We do have one bloom since we've been caring for them, but nothing like it was two weeks ago.

There are a lot of monkey toes (as Papa calls mosquitoes) and a lot of non venomous spiders eating them.  Our guide to northern Thailand, Jason said that this is the peak and they will go away after the rains end.   

The Thai have many weapons to use against the mosquitoes.  The most fun is the tennis racket.

I'll take you on around the house before we go inside.

This is the left side of the house looking from the street.  It is one of the nicest features of the house.

Stepping through the offset bamboo curtains we come to the Jacuzzi.  It can be nice and cool on a hot day, but has plenty of hot water when winter comes.  We just learned that that will be mid November, but a couple of years ago they didn't have a winter.  The young man who told us grew up here and he says it has definitely been getting warmer and warmer each year.  We'll probably have snow this year because Ed and Barbara live here now.

Looking back on the Jacuzzi and our covered lanai. It's a great place to hang out when it's raining.

Turning around now we see the part of the yard with a lot of "potential". It is our little orchard with a jack fruit tree doing well and the other two I don't know yet.  This area is also quite shady so I'm not sure what kind of ground cover will work.  Barbara says we should put in a tub like Kiwi had at his place. Another option would be more tile.  Really why not both?  That's something for us to decide after we are sure this is our long term home.

 Coming around the corner and looking back at the Jack fruit tree, we are standing on our working deck.

Inside the double doors to the left is the Thai kitchen / laundry room and in the foreground you see our clothes rack.

The fence is quite high giving us lots of privacy, but holding the camera over my head I can see the community spirit house.  We get a lot of protection as the closest house to it.

Continuing on our tour, as we head to the north east corner of the house we have our systems including this large water holding tank.  City water pressure varies, so this home has this tank which is filled by the city water and then it is pumped in from there.  This eliminates the problem that can happen at Mom's house when sometimes there isn't enough water pressure to take a shower.

Notice the fence to the right in the picture above and the previous pictures.  The owner, Kuhn Near, is an animal lover.  The fences are so you can let dogs into different areas around the property.

Walking through that gate and down the right side of the house (east side) you can see the dog kennel that's built in. We would never ask Wurstchen to be in there, but if we needed to foster a big dog this could work for a temporary home.

 Inside the kennel there was a nice surprise.  This place comes equipped with a pressure washer.

As we come back around to the front, you see the electric gate.  It comes with a remote control, but that doesn't help when the power goes out for a couple of hours.  It's done that twice in the two weeks we've been here.  As Jason says, "This is Thailand".

Looking left from the same vantage point you see the servants quarters.  Seriously that's what they called it.  It has a toilet/shower and a fan.  Since I'm the gardener, I use it regularly.

It's not bad for a utility washroom.

It all works very well for Wurstchen.  He loves to lay in the sun in the driveway.  If we open the gate he'll lay right next to the track because he knows that's the edge of his territory.

The front door is just behind Wurstchen.  Let's go inside.

This is the view as you come inside.  We love the high ceilings, the open floor plan and the western style kitchen which means it has an oven.  One thing we've never seen in a Thai house is a dishwasher, but since we only have dishes for four we would be washing them each time anyway.  What this house has that many do not, is hot water at the kitchen sink and treated drinking water there too.  Chiang Mai has some of the best public water in Thailand, but Khun Near says she wouldn't drink it.  It saves us from having the big water bottles delivered to our house as most people do.

 Looking to the left from the same spot you see the living room and the front lanai.

Same thing, but taken from the kitchen.

The kitchen has a lot of storage space, but it's kind of weird for us.  Large storage cabinets high up and a lot of open shelving.  We've seen from being in other homes that the food is kept out like this.  Perhaps to keep an eye so it doesn't get insects in it.  We don't have that problem, this house is treated.  We have seen an ant or two, but they probably hitched a ride in.

The oven area with the recycle bin below. We (that would be Jason and I, mostly I) have gone through a couple of cases of Chang beer so far.  Barbara prefers Tiger beer, which she discovered in Singapore years ago, but is now it is licensed and brewed in Thailand.  It's not easy to find Tiger beer, but Chang is everywhere.

Ok, now looking to the right as you come into the front door, you see the office and the stairs.

Under the stairs there is a huge storage area.  To the left is the office.

The office is very comfortable.

It's nice to be able to work in a dedicated room room rather than a on the kitchen table.

And the downstairs wash room and shower.

Before we go upstairs there is one more room to show you downstairs.  Going back into the kitchen and looking to the right you can see the Thai kitchen / laundry room.

It's called a Thai kitchen because the Thai generally cook outdoors.  This would have a two burner hob and wok normally.  We don't have the hob yet because it's a little hard to justify cooking Thai food when it is so plentiful, so inexpensive and so alloy dee (delicious) when you buy it at the market.

Also in this picture on the left is our big refrigerator with automatic ice maker.  Unlike the US, the water is not plumbed into it directly.  There is a water chamber inside that you keep full of fresh water.  To me this seems like a pretty good design.  You can put it anywhere you have power.

Ok, let's go upstairs.

At the top of the stairs is a large family room.  I found the parts to the gaming system inside the drawer.  I guess that could be the real use of this room.  We've not been into video games in the past but this could be a good room for virtual reality.

To the left is the master bedroom suite and to the right are two bedrooms and a bath.

This is the guest bedroom.  Barbara and I are acclimatizing at different rates so I come in here when she needs to get the temperature down in the master bath.  The bed is different.  It is made to look like a fold out couch, but it's not.  That is just the way the bed is designed.

This room looks over the spirit house and two large traveler palms.  Through the palms you can see the main gate of the Moo Baan.

The closet in the spare bedroom was a little shocking when we first saw it.  It sure has a lot of storage space and the color is growing on me.  Maybe that 's because it's the color of algae.

The other bedroom upstairs had two twin beds in it.  We asked them to remove them.  This will become Barbara's project/sewing room.

The rest of upstairs is the master bedroom.

The views from upstairs look out on the foothills of Doi Suthep.

That's another Moo Baan being built next to us.  There are three homes under construction within a few blocks of us in our development and lots of room to grow in the rest of the project.

The picture above is taken from the balcony of the master bedroom.

From the other end of the balcony we look down on the front gate and the neighbors across the street.

Have you had enough?  How about a walk around the neighborhood?

Normally Wurstchen and I go out for a stroll after dark.  Some of these were taken before it got dark so it will be a little time shifted.

We are the second to last house on our street.  It's called a Soi not a street.

Looking to the right as you come out of our house you see the end of the Soi and the edge of the Moo Baan.  It has an electrified barbed wire fence giving it a definite prison look.  Jason says these are concentration camps because they are concentrations of farongs.  While true, both families next to us are Thai only and the couple across the street is mixed.  He's an American a with a Thai wife and child.  There are a lot of mixed couples in here of various nationalities.  Our landlord Khun Near, is married to a Brit.

Looking to the left as you come out the gate.

Here's some more pictures as we take our walk.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come see us for real if your in the neighborhood.

Sawadee Khap.