New Year... New site design and logo... New Projects

If you were familiar with our previous branding and website design, you would know that there was a large emphasis on the "House builder" side of our business.   Whilst this is still our core business, we have increasingly been taking on design of commercial premises and also offering consultancy and construction management services, so we felt that our site needed to be updated to reflect this and also generally just to give it a fresh new look to start off 2014.  We hope you like it...

We have already started 5 new construction projects in the first few weeks of this year with additional projects scheduled to start over the coming months.   We are also working on the design for six new homes.  I will add more details and pictures of all of our projects as they progress. 

Initial landscaping phase complete

We completed the excavation of the lake over a month ago and since then, nature has been doing its part in filling it up!  The lake has been filling up a lot more quickly than one might imagine as the surrounding land has also been draining into the lake through the top metre of porous soil.    The lake will fill up by another two metres before it reaches the limit of the clay soil that retains the water…. certainly, by the end of the rainy season it will be full to its natural level.   

Once this level has been established we will carry out some more re-sculpting of the edge of the lake to add a path way just above the water line.    In terms of the rest of the land, the excavation of the lake was enough to raise the level of the rest of the land by about one metre.  We will allow this land to settle for some time and then we will add another layer of top soil that is more suited for planting.  There is another area of the land where the house is to be situated that will be raised up by another meter or more, in places.   However, this will be raised closer to the time the home is built, once the design is finalised.

In the mean time, we will be planting about 40 saplings to add to the 35 mature trees already growing on the plot.   We will also be transplanting a number of additional mature trees on to the land.

 

Modern two bedroom two story home

This is another of our stock designs.  This house features two large bedroom suites each with walk-in closets and spacious bathrooms.   The bedroom suites are linked by a walkway overlooking the large open plan living/dining room.   There is also a separate lounge area.

Finishing details and boundary walls

We are close to completion with this modern two bedroom home.   We are adding finishing details to the house and building the front and rear boundary walls.  Once the walls are complete and the site cleared a little more we will pour the concrete driveway and also build a modern style sala in the back garden, though we have not been contracted to carry out the actual landscaping of the gardens.

Roofing complete, additional sub-projects underway

We have completed the roof tiling for this interesting project in Sangkhom.   We are now adding the typically Thai decorative detail and facias to the roof sections.

We have also completed the roofing of the 'cottage' which actually houses caretaker's accommodation as well as parking.   The next stage is to add the timber cladding and rendering that will give it the appearance of an Elizabethan timber framed wattle and daub cottage.  The timber framed windows will also be added shortly.

The two buildings on this project sit on a plot of about 4 acres and we are undertaking a number of other works on the land.  One such project is the construction of a spill way for a large drain that runs underneath the land taking water run off from the hills behind the property to the Mekong river.  

We also installed another drain and spill way that will handle surface water drainage on parts of the land as well as the roof run-off from the house itself.

We constructed a terrace that is located on the river bank, just out of sight of the main house.   Being on the river bank it was necessary to build the terrace on piles, as with the spill way.

There arer a number of other sub-projects on the plot of land, but I shall save those for a later post.

An island is born...

We have been a little hampered by heavy rain recently, but the future lake on this project is slowly growing in size. We have now created what is soon to be an island within the lake, once filled with water. We shall be transplanting some additional mature trees on to the island before the water rises, and there is also a lot more excavation to be done.

Five Bedroom Laos Home Design

We have recently completed the design and engineering of a home which is to be built later this year in Vientiane, Laos.   The design features five bedrooms, six bathrooms, open plan living and dining room, and home theatre.   There is a strong emphasis on outdoor living with this home and there is an extensive terrace featuring a covered lounge and dining area and also a large sala.   There are a number of large folding doors to completely open up the interior areas to flow onto the terrace.

Interior and exterior painting and tiling completed

The last time I posted about this project, we had completed the main concrete structure and were beginning the roof frame and block work.   We have now completed these tasks, as well as the interior and exterior painting, floor tiling, architectural detailing and more.   Windows are now nearly all installed, and we are entering the final phase of installing bathroom and kitchen fittings.

Home Build Completed

The last time I blogged about this project was on the 5th December, when we were working on the roof frame and block work.   We have since completed the project, so I shall just include a few pictures of the various stages between then and now.

Installing heat reflective sheet and tiling.

Roof tiling and wall rendering.

Architectural detailing being applied around doors and windows etc...

Suspended gypsum ceiling installation.

 

We have in house designers who are happy to give any guidance needed to clients regarding the colour scheme and interior decoration of thier homes.   When we present our 3D models during the design phase, we also include our recommended colour scheme and tiling scheme.   However, the final choice of colour and interior decor is obviously entirely the choice of our clients.