My wife met with her Khon Kaen House legal mediator last night and told him to call the whole thing off.  She is on the verge of a meltdown and just wants to get the house completed and not spend the next five years going to court.

Khon Kaen House Wall

So, today, she started again looking for contractors to complete the work on the house in Khon Kaen.  She told me she is not going to go with one team (jack of all trades) instead she will look for specific crews to do specific jobs.

We still need the wall completed, the gate in front installed, a concrete driveway poured, some interior work, burglar bars installed, electrical work, awnings in front and back, and some other miscellaneous items.

I am guessing that it will take at least another month, if not longer, to get the house livable.  And, we just wasted a little over a week “negotiating” with the Khon Kaen contractor and that went absolutely nowhere.

So, he doesn’t get the remaining 246,000 baht since he didn’t complete the work, and we will not pursue any money that we think it will cost us above and beyond that to get everything done.

I just hope that this is the end of the pain.  My poor wife has been running around like crazy, spending hours on the phone explaining all this to about 1/2 the population of Khon Kaen, and meeting after meeting with family and mediator, and Khon Kaen contractor.

My wife will head to the local temple tomorrow, along with her friend, the architect that designed our house, and pray that all this is over with and we can get on with the house.

Can’t hurt to go to a Khon Kaen temple and pray.

Khon Kaen House Construction Truce is a post from: Khon Kaen

Arranging to get electricity run to our property was a bit more costlier than I expected. The property is on a small, dirt Soi with no other houses built yet.  We will have the first building on the block.

So, we get stuck with bringing power to the Soi.  This will involve a couple of utility poles and some wire to run from the main road to our land.  I am guessing about 150 meters.

Cost for this service – 63,117 Thai baht – approximately $2,000 US dollars! I knew it would cost a bit but this is a bit more than I expected.  And, we will still have to pay an additional 8,000 Thai baht to have the electric meter installed once the lines are run.

My wife said that she will try to ask our future neighbors to chip in to help pay but I seriously doubt if anyone will kick any baht in.

Lesson learned – don’t be the first on your block to build a house or be prepared to pay.

Electric Bill Shocker is a post from: Khon Kaen