Thailand... Don't Go Cheap

[00:00:00]One of the first things that we built on the land here was our outdoor kitchen.

[00:00:04]We built it at a time where we didn't know if we were going to stay here, to be honest. Uh this was during the COVID era and I had been working in Bali at the time. We planned to go back to Bali.

[00:00:15]We thought this was just going to be a short-term thing. And for this reason, we ended up going cheap Charlie on the kitchen, doing it for the cheapest possible price. And we ended up choosing the thinnest metal that you could get to do the roof, despite the advice of many of my subscribers on here that have said, you know, don't don't do that, it's not going to last. Uh we did it anyway and and for that reason, we have to pay now twice for the job. And so, what we've done is we've had our uncle in. It's been the rainy season, so it's been a bit difficult to get this done.

[00:00:44]We've had to wait for the rains to stop or at least chill out a little bit. He's up here, as you can see, replacing the roof. So, what we've had to do is take all of the old material off. Uh we've also taken an opportunity to check for any kind of infestations, rats, saw hornets. Surprisingly, we've had none up there, uh which was a surprise to me.

[00:01:04]He's removing this old material. You can see that the sun is absolutely blasted it here. The it's literally burnt through some sections and actually came to my attention when we were fitting the solar uh on the other roof. I climbed up there with the guys that installed the solar and even a slight little bit of pressure on there and your foot was just going straight through the thing. It was really bad. It just shows here in Thailand how powerful the sun is. And now we have a new custom-cut orange roof going on. This material that's going on now, it's a much thicker metal sheet and it's cut to your custom size. So, basically, you just give your dimensions to them at the shop. They have a machine there that uh cuts it and I suspect it's going to last maybe between 5 and 10 years. I guess we won't really know until, you know, we check it out and see what damage the sun has done. So, the lesson is don't go super cheap Charlie, pay for the good stuff right from the start. Now, saying that, even this metal sheet, which in our area is one of the best you can get, was only around 14,000 baht for the material. And to have it actually fitted, it's a one-day job, two people, that's around 7,000 baht. So, to have the whole thing done, you're talking like 20,000 baht. It also looks a lot nicer from the drone shots, not that anybody would really care about that. Any normal people are not drone shooting their house very often.

[00:02:23]However, on this channel, we do.

[00:02:25]Underneath, we also put some reinforcement of steel under there because again, we skimped out on the steel in the beginning, and this is a little bit heavier and required reinforcing somewhat. Now, this is not the only work that we're doing here at the moment, as I've also mentioned on the channel, we want to reinforce our security, basically our perimeter security. And so, it was Damo's idea to start the construction of a gate at the front of the house. This gate also will have a roof on top, and that's because we actually have packages that are delivered every day, and sometimes we have to leave those packages out because we don't want delivery drivers like coming in in and out of the house. So, this roof will allow us to store the packages, uh safe from any rain, so that they can be picked up from the front of the house. It also offers another level of security and protection from the front while still looking nice.

[00:03:16]The fence either side of the gate will be actually bamboo, as you can see here.

[00:03:20]It's already been planted, and this bamboo grows very fast and will eventually fill out the area fully. So, it makes like a natural barrier. And then, as you can see in this AI reconstruction, we also have a wall. We can put some plants at the front there.

[00:03:33]Welcome back to YouTube on the Ryan and Mo channel.

[00:03:38]But, all they ever see is my ugly mug.

[00:03:40]They never see the pretty one of the couple. So, uh this gate you was the inspiration from this gate, this front gate?

[00:03:47]>> Uh this one really I just want the front gate to be more private that people cannot look inside the house. And also I want to mix with nature. That mean we have the bamboo. It It like Bali style.

[00:04:03]Yeah, like that. That That what my idea.

[00:04:05]And also the front gate, it feel like uh when you get inside, you know, it's more personal area and also it look beautiful because my plan I want to grow the beaut- uh beautiful flower in front.

[00:04:20]>> Cuz you lived in Bali with me as well, right? So you saw how their houses are designed.

[00:04:23]>> Yes. Yes. They mix with concrete and um green plant, especially bamboo. I love bamboo because bamboo when it grow uh this bamboo we I used to grow before. It can go up high like 2 or 3 m with the green like it beautiful.

[00:04:42]>> Have you heard of any cases of things being stolen in the village like houses being robbed or something?

[00:04:48]>> Uh most of the stolen is not in the house. Yeah, it's in the rice field like that. Some people they leave the what you call the machine, the tools in the rice field like that. So they go and most stealing is about uh in in the rice field.

[00:05:04]>> Sometimes when I travel though also you feel a bit scared here alone, don't you?

[00:05:08]Your mom's over there and you're kind of here. So to have more perimeter wall and to have this to to be more sec- I mean we've got CCTV.

[00:05:18]You know, we've got a many security measures here, but this is going to make you feel safer, you think?

[00:05:22]>> Yeah, uh it'll be more safe. And also when we packing, we can leave the stuff for when they pick up the, you know, the the package just in front because sometimes when they come pick up the package, they also very great side. They don't want to go inside.

[00:05:40]>> Area is now gone long.

[00:05:43]60 years old, still at it. Any babe.

[00:05:49]>> People in village 60, 65, 70, 80 that's still working. Working hard in the right field taking care of buffalo.

[00:05:58]>> Yeah. I'm going to have to disclose the costs for this in a later vlog when it is finished as well. This is the point we're up to now. We have the posts in and the concrete being prepared. I actually don't know the cost. I don't even know a budget. It's very difficult in Thailand to try and get that out of especially when you use like local builders. You ask for a quote in advance like can you tell us about what it's going to be and it's just a complete I've no idea.

[00:06:23]I not even a ball park, you know, is it going to be 50,000? Is it going to be 10,000? Is it going to be 100,000? Um it's hard to it's like getting blood out of a stone to be honest guys. I don't know if anybody else has had that problem. Material costs should be low.

[00:06:34]It's from our local supplier here where we get all of the stones and the sand that is delivered here as you can see and they're not far from us. So this is actually a free delivery. So it's not expensive on the delivery cost too.

[00:06:46]We will use our uncle and his friend in order to do the rest of the fence around the perimeter as well to offer that protection. This will be a large metal fence and you won't be able to see it because eventually the bush will grow uh through it and around it. I mentioned before on the channel that we like to see this place as a bit of an earth ship and we don't teach our kids that this is like a property for sale or we we teach our kids never to sell this this area no matter what because we describe it to them as like it's an earth ship. In this world things can go wrong. You could lose your job, lose all your money and whatnot and I want to make sure before I'm gone that my kids have a place where there's no rent, very low taxes like if not zero taxes. It's like it's nothing.

[00:07:34]And um it produces its own electricity and we produce our own water here. So we don't see it as you know a dollar figure of something to sell. I've been asked before by friends like, "How much would you sell the place for?" And I would never ever sell it. It's um not a financial thing for us. I don't know quite how to explain it, but we designed this place exactly to our taste. We love the location. We love the setup here. It It's Nobody would want to buy it probably because it's designed so so much to our specification. Uh but it's just it's just the home that we want.

[00:08:07]It's a home, not a house. My sons do have their own patches of land. One of them has a house on it as well.

[00:08:13]Um and I was thinking about building them a house there, but then when I realized the amount of fun and adventure and excitement that it gave us to build this place and to continue to develop this place, I realized that if I was to build them a house on that land, I would be taking something from them that could be very wonderful in the future. I the ability to build the the house the way they want it and earn the money themselves to build the house as well. Um you know, if you just buy something for somebody or you just pay for something for somebody and you give it to them, it's not the same as you've had to work hard to earn every penny to build something like me and Mo have. And for that, we feel strongly about maintaining the place and uh looking after the place and and just our relationship with the place is different. And so, I think that my sons also they should apart from having the land, which is given to them, they need to earn the money and build their own place and then go through that process and that exciting process. And And that's why we haven't done those projects and we won't be doing those projects. It's up to them as they get older to build their own home. They probably won't even want to live in rural Thailand. Maybe they want it as a retirement place. I I really don't know.

[00:09:30]You never know in the future, but it's there if they if they want it. So, the lesson of this vlog is don't go super cheap Charlie cuz you'll probably end up paying twice. And I'll be letting you know what the budget is, the final outcome of the gate and the new roof of the kitchen, in the next vlog.