Isan Homes

We built ours in Isan. Call us before you build yours.

A two-story family home in Rattanaburi, Surin, on a plot that was banana trees and red dirt. Every stage is below, in our own photographs.

Ben, in English+66 63 935 5021 Ploy, in Thai092-376-1627

The build, in order

Six stages, photographed as they happened.

  1. A narrow strip of red earth with banana plants, old concrete posts and a new block wall along one side
    The plot, before anything

    The plot

    Red earth, banana plants, a neighbor’s roof on each side. This is what we started with.

  2. Workers building a concrete block wall at the edge of a sandy plot under a bright sky
    The wall goes up first

    The wall

    We built the boundary wall before the house, so the edges of the land were settled before anything else went in.

  3. Freshly spread red fill dirt between two long concrete walls, with a small excavator at the far end
    Fill, spread and left to settle

    The fill

    Truckloads of earth raised the ground, and a small excavator spread it between the walls.

  4. The house from the air during construction: dark roof on, bare ground and building materials all around, village roofs on every side
    Roof on, from the air

    The frame and the roof

    The structure went up and the roof went on. From the air you can see how close the neighbors are on every side.

  5. Looking out through new sliding glass doors and a balcony rail at the yard still full of building materials
    Doors in, yard still a work site

    Doors, windows, screens

    Sliding glass on the upper floor, with insect screens on the openings, while the yard below was still a work site.

  6. The finished covered terrace with a wall of folding teak and glass doors, potted plants and steps down to the yard
    Teak folding doors onto the terrace

    Finished

    The monks came on April 16, 2026, and the village came with them. The film at the top of this page is from that morning.

The house under construction seen from a drone, its dark roof among green, orange and blue village roofs

A village plot is tight. Ours sits between four neighbors, and the build had to work inside that.

The rooms we live in

Not staged. This is the house on an ordinary day.

Inside looking out through a wall of folding teak doors to the lawn
Teak doors, from inside
A large white and charcoal kitchen with built-in ovens, a long counter and a washer and dryer
The kitchen
A bedroom with built-in white cabinets and warm strip lighting above a low bed
A bedroom, built-ins and warm light
A living room with tall paned windows and dark curtains, looking onto a green lawn
The living room
Outside corner of the house with teak-framed windows above a teak bench
Teak window wall
White French doors opening from the kitchen onto the covered terrace
French doors to the terrace

Thinking of building in Isan?

Call before you buy land or sign with a builder. We will tell you what ours took, what we would do again, and what we would not.

Ben answers in English. Ploy answers in Thai.

Ben, in English+66 63 935 5021 Ploy, in Thai092-376-1627