A pictorial view of the building of the 'cool thai house' prototype.   Arranged in sections as follows, please click to see the details!

Intro

This first section includes views, a road story and the cool shot of the week, which is a summary of the building process.

This readme contains a little background information about the project.	Views from the land.  Includes a shot of bare land (as seen on January 1, 2004) and other shots of the area.  The land plot is 84 sq. wah and had already been leveled with dirt fill by the time this picture was taken!
The entry road.  Something I never thought about when I bought the land was this -- 'Would I actually be able to drive all the way to the land, or not?'  One of those things we take for granted that can turn into a nightmare.	Shot of the week.  Digital cameras don't use film.  That means photos are free right?  Yes, but with this project there are about 750 photos, so if you want a quick and easy overview -- start here.
The finished house.  The house was officially 'finished' on the 6th of July, 2004.  There are still various things to get done, eg. entry gate, but the final contract milestone of the 'building the house' is complete.  These shots show how it turned out, including a windows media player movie.	Project hindsight.  Now that I have your attention... they say hindsight is 20/20.  Ah ha!  If only we could all share our building stories.  The house turned out great, although there are some things I would do differently, some major and some minor.

Basics

The basics of building the house, including the foundation columns, concrete pour, walls, windows and the roof.

Foundation columns.  These are the oh so important supports which hold up the roof!	Concrete pour.  Concrete is poured over a wire framework which is laid on leveled sand.  The wire framework and the depth of concrete give the floor its strength.
Wall.  The walls of the house are constructed from concrete blocks cemented on on top of another.  Then stucco is applied to the outside.	Tile.  The house has many different tiles, with different patterns in the living room, kitchen, bathroom and patio.  The floor tile is laid down on wet cement and then tapped into place, using nylon line as a 'straight line'.
Roof.  The roof is supported by a metal truss which sits on top of the foundation columns.  This is a tile roof, each tile weighing about 4 kilograms and the roof contains about 3000 tiles.  This makes for one heavy structure, which is supported by a reinforced truss structure.	Windows and doors.  This house uses wood windows and doors.  There is a hardwood frame which is framed in the wall.  A concrete base is set below and above the frame.

Details

The details of the house, including ceiling layouts, roof eves, the kitchen, bathrooms, and electrical.

Ceiling.  The ceiling is a drywall ceiling.  The drywall is attached to a aluminum frame which is hung from the metal roof truss.	Eves.  The eve is the overhang of the roof.  A wood frame is affixed in place and grc sheeting is then applied to the frame.
Kitchen.  The kitchen is 3 meters square.  It contains built-in cabinets which are built from inexpensive raw materials; red brick, cement and tile.  The cabinets have wood doors which are framed and anchored to the adjoining cabinet wall.	Bathrooms.  There are two bathrooms, one with a saftey glass shower enclosure and one with a bathtub.  The sink cabinets are constructed from red brick, cement and tiles.  All of faucets in the house are hot and cold.
Electrical.  The house has an eight station circuit breaker and grounded electric.  The system is grounded with a metal rod placed 1.8 meters into the ground on the carport wall near the entry way.

Other

The details of the perimeter wall, water system and gate.

Perimeter wall.  There is a perimeter wall which surrounds the house.  The wall is constructed by digging post holes and forming a cement base within the hole.  Then a wire frame is set in place.  This becomes the framework for the support column, which is poured after the cement blocks which form the wall are laid.	Water.  The water is supplied via a dug well.  There are two automatic pumps, one runs the water through a filtering station into a 1600 liter tank, and the other one runs it from the tank into the house.
Gate and security metal.  There is a large 4.5 meter opening for the car port which is serviced by a sliding gate.  The gate has four 3" stainless steel wheels which slide along a track.  There is also a separate metal entry gate.  On the front and sides of the house, decorative security metal sits on top of the perimeter wall.  The sliding gate, entry gate and security metals are all done in a similar design, with decorative gold painted arrow heads at the top of the structure.	Planter boxes.  Planter boxes are used to form a natural wall to separate the patio from the front entry and carport.
Gutters.  A 6" galvanized gutter system is used.  The gutters are laid in brackets which slope to allow the rainwater to flow to the downspout.

Feedback plea	This site is free, but needs your comments and corrections to make it a valuable resource. If you've got comments, corrections or other information please leave feedback here.