Why A Family Home Must Have Sufficient Space for Everyone

When I was still in college, I used to frequent the Siam Square area. After I graduated, I decided to relocate from Bang Kapi to a condominium in On Nut where it is more convenient for me to commute to work.

For the past seven years that I’ve been working at the World Bank, I’ve achieved financial stability, which made me think about buying a larger home to accommodate my family once I get married.

And then I got married. Before my wife and I had children, we lived in my sister’s small townhouse. With plans of buying a bigger home, I knew I had to stay financially disciplined to grow my savings.

Initially, we rented the townhouse from my sister. But after we got married, my wife and I decided to purchase it, which my sister graciously sold to us at a reasonable price. It was after living for 14 years in the townhouse and having two children that we decided to move to a larger home with a front yard to play football and a space where we can park our car instead of on the road. Our eldest son also required more personal space, convincing us further that we needed someplace bigger, one that would accommodate all of our needs.

One of our main considerations for choosing a new home was a safe neighbourhood for our children, free from disputes with neighbours and an ideal environment to accommodate the lifestyles of our growing family.

Once we’ve settled on our requirements, we started searching online and attending several presale housing project events. We also decided that our new dream home should not be too far from the main road, must be reasonably priced, has a land plot of at least 60 square wah, and easily accessible to public transportation for when we go to work and school.

We searched on Google and discovered DDproperty, which presented us with plenty of useful information and enabled us to compare housing projects, helping us reach a final decision.

We feel blessed to have found our new home because it was discounted, while the other available properties did not meet our dream home criteria – they were either too small or the price was way beyond our budget. We eventually found this house right next to my sister’s.

She asked the owner if they had any intention of selling, and fortunately they did. It sits on a decent 72 square wah land plot, and was sold to us at THB 3.6 million, leaving us with an extra THB 2 million of our budget which we used to spend on renovations. It was a good deal and it gave us the home we wanted.

It feels rewarding to be living in this house that has lots of space and to be next-door neighbours with my sister, allowing us to easily bond. Every morning, we catch up over coffee, while in the evening, we share meals at dinner – it truly warms our hearts.

Our kids have more room to play, and we finally have our dream yard, an office, and a bigger kitchen. It has been five years since we moved, and over time, our home has served the changing needs of our family. I can say without a doubt that our dream home has met all of our expectations, making us happy homeowners.

The most popular area in the house is the office area, which was converted from a garage, while our living room is mostly used to entertain our guests. After becoming a full-time mother, my wife secured some freelance work selling insurance to provide additional income, and she uses the office to do her job. Meanwhile, I use the office to work while our kids use the space to play computer games.

Although they are quite addicted to gaming, I feel more secure being able to keep watch over them rather than have them spend more time outside. After work and school, we all gather in the comfortable and brightly lit office that has space for computers to play and work. Without a doubt, the office area has become our favourite spot in the house.

In addition, commuting to work or dropping the kids at school is a breeze as the school is only a 20-minute drive away. However, we need an early start to avoid getting stuck in traffic, which could lead to a two-hour hold up before reaching the inner-city area.

Since our family loves to eat, we are planning to improve the kitchen – our two refrigerators are always well-stocked with food! The kitchen area is now quite inadequate, so we need to expand it and allocate space for our housemaid’s room.

But what I really love about our home is the front yard. It has always been my dream to have a space like this – we even planted the garden ourselves. On weekends, everyone spends time here to relax in the shade, and we have no desire to go anywhere else. We are also proud that our house has won the ‘Attractive Housefront Award’ for three consecutive years.

The roads in our neighbourhood are also decent, with the nearby main road being eight metres wide and only 100 metres away from the guardhouse. Moreover, our house sits back-to-back with our neighbour, giving us a spacious and clean front garden with plenty of space for my kids to play football or ride their bikes.

After fulfilling our dream home aspirations, we decided to venture into real estate investments, and recently bought a block of five commercial buildings in Ao Nang, Krabi. This opportunity arose when a building project geared as a new Krabi tourist attraction was being developed. I saw its potential, so I secured a special price, with plans to sell three of the five units and renting out the remaining two. I see a huge potential for development properties in this location due to their close proximity to a department store, a community mall, a night market, a beer garden, and an upcoming mixed-use development.