Our New House in Chiang Mai

By popular request, we’re sharing the details of our new house in Chiang Mai. It’s cozy, it’s modern, and it’s a place where we feel completely comfortable. We can’t help but feel excited to share what we call home these days!

When our lease was ending at our first townhouse in Chiang Mai, rather than renew it, we chose to downsize. The 150 sq m townhouse was just too big and empty for us. We also thought about how much we were paying in rent and utilities and thought we could find a place that suited us a little better.

We looked at over twenty serviced apartments and condos during one intense week of house hunting. We focused on places within a short walk of the Old City as well as in the Nimmanhaemin and Suthep areas. We love the liveliness in main part of town and enjoy the convenience of being able to walk to restaurants and markets.

We were aiming for 10,000 to 12,000 baht ($320 to $390 USD) a month and wanted something with one bedroom, a Western kitchen and bathroom, and a washing machine. Oh, and it had to be cat friendly, which was the biggest determining factor for us.

Welcome to Our New House in Chiang Mai

Welcome to our new house in Chiang Mai

We love everything about this two bedroom 85 sq m detached house. It’s brand new, just outside of the moat, and met all of our basic requirements. Although we agreed to a price that was a little outside of our budget, at 14,000 baht per month ($450 USD), there is nothing we don’t like.

We no longer live in a small neighborhood, but rather right off a small street. We have a gate that opens at the push of a button, a large brick driveway, and a small yard full of flowers and palm trees that is cared for by our landlord.

The side of our house has a covered porch area with built-in bench seating. It’s a perfect place to lounge when our friends are over. We can hear the nearby rooster calls, monk chanting, and temple music which we’ve grown to enjoy and recognize as a nice part of living in Thailand.

Open Concept Living Room and Kitchen

Living Room

There’s something to say about the first impressions of a place. We instantly loved the layout, the colors, and even the views from the windows. The choice in furniture, wall paint, and curtains made for a light, welcoming feel.

Our new house in Chiang Mai is half the size of our old townhouse, but it came properly furnished and actually feels like a home. We have a soft couch with a TV and an entertainment center where we occasionally enjoy our handful of English channels.

There is a very well made dining room table that we use as a work area. No more shared space at a single desk like at our last place! The table is against large vertically opening windows for maximum natural light. We also bought cushions for the wooden chairs to make them comfy.

Working Area

The kitchen is just a few steps away from our computer area. The fact that the kitchen isn’t in a separate room makes a big difference in how much we use it. On top of that, there are two gas burners, and that alone has given us the aspiration to cook again. We much prefer the gas burners over the single induction burner that we had at our old townhouse!

Kitchen

Although we brought over all of our cookware and dishes from our last place, this house came with a fully stocked kitchen and great cabinet space. It has a small fridge with a mini freezer, microwave, water heater, pans, and knives, as well as nice plates, bowls, and cups. We later learned from our landlord that our house was original intended to be rented out as a vacation home.

Bedrooms

Bedroom

The second half of the house consists of two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The bedrooms aren’t too big but still fit a king sized bed, large wardrobe, and a vanity stand in each with comfortable walking space. We love waking up to the sun and the bright green palm trees just outside of our window.

Master Bedroom

There is also an AC unit in each room that we sometimes use to quickly cool down the house on hot days. The guest bedroom has a TV mounted on the wall and an ensuite bathroom. This was the first place we saw with painted walls, though pink wouldn’t have been our first choice!

Bathrooms

Bathroom

Although the showers are large and open with electric hot water heaters, our new bathrooms are as close to Western bathrooms as we’ve had since arriving in Thailand. We have an American Standard brand toilet, a modern sink, and a huge mirror.

We’ve had no weird smells coming from the pipes in these bathrooms either, which was a welcomed change from our last place. Even though one of the showers has quirky grass tiles, we are actually really fond of them. We even went a little crazy and bought a shower curtain to match.

Utilities

In addition to the 14,000 baht ($450 USD) monthly rent, our monthly bills aren’t much extra. High-speed internet (21mbps) is included in the rent, but our basic TV cable costs 175 baht ($6 USD), water costs 120 baht ($4 USD), and electric bill costs 770 baht ($25 USD) on average per month.

No More Unwelcome Visitors

Our new home is better sealed than our last place. Wide gaps under the doors in our old townhouse let in large creepy crawlies more often than we liked. But in our new place, the only thing we’ve experienced are ants and the little gecko lizards, which we aren’t bothered too much by.

We felt better prepared this time for the bugs! The first thing we did was caulk up any small holes and put seals on the door frames. We also use the ant chalk and draw lines around windows and doors to discourage ants from coming in. We do our best at composting our cooking scraps outside rather than putting them in the trashcan under the sink.

Finding a House in Chiang Mai

We eventually found our house after looking through a ton of online listings. Although we asked our Thai friends if they knew of anyone renting out a place, and even looked for For Rent signs posted in Thai around the city, we didn’t find any success through that avenue this second time around.

We couldn’t be happier with our new house in Chiang Mai and agree that the size of it is perfect for the two of us. We love that it’s fully furnished, modern, and more our style. The best part is that we live near the same neighborhood we have grown to love and appreciate since first moving here in March 2013. If things stay this great, we definitely foresee ourselves renewing the lease!

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