The HOF Weblog

This weblog is about the joy, trials, and tribulations of building a house and home-living in Thailand.

As we're now done with construction and have moved in, I'm going to start posting things that have more to do with living than building.

It all started about a year ago, when I got a bug up my ass about the fact that if I were to ever be able to afford to actually build my own home—and more importantly be able to afford it—it would be here and now in Thailand.

It was love at first site when I met my Architect. I showed up drunk on a Saturday afternoon, and he had a hangover. Khun Prasert is such a fan of fermented liquids, he named his first daughter "Beer." Over the course of several months and several cases of Heinekin, we designed a house for a piece of property the wife and I had our heart set on in Samgampeng for sale by a lady from Bo Sang. The house was great: it was two storey, with a huge overlook from the upstairs cat-walk down on the open plan living/dining/kitchen area, and it sat on the edge of a lovely little pond, which we could gaze upon while soaking in our Japanese ofuro bath.

Then the wheels fell off. Long story short: the land owner tried to hold us for randsom by demanding a 30% down payment in order for them to produce an intent to sell document that we could take to the bank and begin the process of applying for the loan. I told her it was a deal-breaker and said goodbye to her, the land, and our house...

There seemed to be a certain amount of destiny working in the background for us that presented itself in the form of one of my wife's prayers answered by the residents of our spirit house. "If there's anything wrong with this land, please show me a sign," she'd asked on the night before our deal with the lady from Bo Sang fell through. Jum's since given the spririts several payback offerings in reciprocation for their fortuitous revelations because soon after this divine disclosure, along came Khun Pong.

Literally one day after the aforementioned deal breaker, K. Prasert introduced me to K. Pong who had a property roughly 3 times bigger for thirty percent cheaper. This property was where K. Pong was to build his dream house, but due unforeseen circumstances he needed some cash quick.

We all met: K.'s Pong and Prasert, Jum, and I, at the land in the early evening, which soon turned to late evening; and we were soon surrounded by the dancing green bobs of fireflies. It was magical, and I tried to hide my excitement by putting on my best poker face; but that was next to impossible.

Exactly 11 kuat yai of Heineken later, the deal was struck after K. Pong called his wife, his father, and some other unknown third party. Then, after consulting with Ajarn Prasert, hands were shook, and the land was as good as mine (or more accurately, my wife’s). The only problem was now, that the previous house was completely wrong for the new plot of land, and everybody knew it.

In the history of MAY ’37, K. Prasert’s company, plenty of people have designed homes, or hotels, or something that were never built for some reason—be it bankruptcy, tsunamis, unrequited love, or whatever; however, no one to-date had ever designed a house then immediately designed a second—scrapping the first—simply because the land was wasn’t right. All I can say is that it was really the only decision I could have made, and I’m glad for the result, as all of the thought, passion, and compromises that had gone into the first house were re-born into HOF. HOF is the result of a synergy of old and new and IMHO a much improved design.