Lost track of the days - too many public holidays!

The outside of the house has got 2 layers of paint in most places - I think when I took the photo, it still only had 1 layer of paint. The darker colour still has to be put on the pillars and outside wall. I actually like it with this uniform colour, but the darker paint has already been mixed...

What used to be the "bathroom corner with bath" in our old bedroom, is beginning to look like the shower corner. I'm hoping they will come on Monday for the measurements, as it takes about 10 days to have the shower glass manufactured. Wilsons glass will put in both the glass screen in the apartment and the frameless shower in the house.

The Kitchen: instead of 2 to 3 days, the kitchen seems to be taking 2 to 3 weeks! On Monday they will come and replace the damaged counter top, fit the glass doors, the 2 missing handles, finish the bulkhead above the counter, align all cupboard doors as well as the cupboard in the bedroom. Will they be able to finish on Monday? I will rather not bet on it!

The bedroom carpet was also fitted yesterday - we're getting there, slowly but surely.

I must ask Alan on Monday, but I get the impression that he will be doing the roof on the verandah himself. I suppose the roofing people will just cut the sheets and he will fit them. He's waiting for Leon to finish all the painting. Will also have to ask him about the carport. Time is running out.....

Day 51 - 23.04.09

I'm not counting yesterday, as it was a public holiday - only the kitchen guys worked. Alan wants Leon to finish in the front before the sheets com on - he does not want them to damage "his" sheets. Leon does not want them to damage "his" walls. Anycase, they have to sort that out between them. At the moment it feels as though they are doing a "go slow" on me. Alan is basically waiting to get the kitchen guys out of the way, so apart from finishing the little wood structure for the "afdakkie" on Tuesday, his guys have not been working here. The afdakkie gives me the feeling that we now have our own church! Do you agree that it looks a little like a church?!

Leon's guys have been working on the outside of the house, first with high pressure hoses (cold) and now they are (or better were - as they left because it was raining too much)busy scraping loose paint off and opening and filling cracks. Alan has got 1 guy - Jan - still here painting and patching. He does not get on with Leon's guys and absolutely refuse to talk to them.! It's quite hilarious. I've just been to the apartment, they will hopefully finish tomorrow, but I think they will still need a full day tomorrow. Now they have just asked Alan's guy to remove the skirting in the bedroom as it was in the way behind the bedroom cupboard. I think that is another something which is shown on the house plan as finishing hére and EasyLife(luckily for us) is ending with the cupboard thére. But it means changing the skirting to fit just the small area between the cupboard and the door opening, and repaint the damaged bits on the wall again. Aggh, it never ends. The carpet is being fitted today a week - next Thursday.

Alan has just been around to see how they're doing with the kitchen and has touched on a few points with the young subcontractor working for EasyLife - discussing light fittings, etc. For the time being, we are not cutting the corner diagonally, can always do it later if it is a problem. The kitchen is at least looking a lot better than on the above photo that was taken yesterday morning.

Day 46 - 15.04.09

I haven't written for a while! The gutters were put on yesterday - I think it looks good, don't you? There was a consideration to let the water run off on the grass, on the other side at the last pillar, but in winter it might make quite a hole as there will be some volume of water coming down.So now the downpipe is on the outside, next to the blue door and it will just run over the paving to the street. Alan thought it might have looked neater being on the end pillar in the garden, but he also had his doubts about just letting it run on the grass.

Last night the bathroom window/hole was just blocked up with a piece of wood and today by lunchtime the window was already in place. They are now busy plastering it and the shower floor is also almost done. The edges (down the side) of the staircase in the apartment have also been plastered and the painter is painstakingly busy fixing all the unevennes.

Tomorrow between 3 and 4 the first interested people are coming to have a look at the house...

Video of new flat, 26 March 2009

Building progress, 26 March 2009 from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Thursday 26 March 2009

Quite a few things has happened since I last blogged. the ceilings in the apartment are almost finished, the stairs have been cast, the electrician and plumber have been and gone. I think the next step is probably tiles. In the mean time things have gotten very busy and hectic in front of the "old part" of the house.The lawn is unfortunately not looking as healthy as it did a week ago...The 2 bougainvillas have been transplanted and don't look to happy eitther, but maybe they'll survive. The irrigation pipe is lying there, half broken, part closed up. I still have to decide tomorrow what can be done there. The foundation for the pillars for the little portico in front of the apartment has also been cast. Anneliese has made a video clip of the apartment which we'll also put on this space - either tonight or tomorrow.

Day 26 - 16.03.09

The other half of Africa that wasn't here on Thursday, was on site today. It is now already 19h10 and the guys are still busy plastering. They have almost finished plastering the outside to the front and the street. The back and the inside still remains to be done. (Still no staircase - must ask Alan about that...)

The electrician was busy in our garage most of the morning - connecting the telephone and the geyser connections for the hot water.

The roofing guys came rather late - as on Friday - and they had just started taking off the roof from the left, when the rain came pouring down. There was 30% rain forecasted for tomorrow, but this morning it didn't even look like rain - we had 2 loads of washing on the line which we had to rescue. Apparently tomorrow they only come with a bakkie - they have already cut most of the sheets today, so I suppose they don't need the lorry then. So tomorrow they should be here earlier.

We had another mishap today - no broken windows, but a hole in our ceiling....They dropped the roll of sisalation through our ceiling. I haven't spoken to Alan about it yet. There will be little spots here and there on the ceiling which will have to be repaired once the roof is on. Specially where there are nails in the ceiling, the white cretestone covering breaks off from all the hammering. So there's lots of little white bits all over the house.

Day 21 - 25, 09 - 13.03.09

On Monday the window between our room and the new apartment was removed und closed up with bricks. The next day the window to the front was also removed, Atlantic Aluminium came to take the measurements and manufacture the window. The gaping hole was blocked up with a wooden board until Thursday, when they came to install the window. Thereafter the plaster on the in- and outside was also finished off.

On Thursday we had half of Africa working here, installing the rooftrusses. Alan's guys built up the wall between the house and the apartment, so that one is unable to climb into the roof of the house and walk over to the apartment and climb down through the trap door.

Today, Friday, the guys from "Seamless Roofing - on site rolled and formed roof sheets" are putting on the sheets and the "tin foil" isolation. Are we going to put in thermoboard too?

This is a very interesting process to watch. The lorry has these huge rolls of flat sheeting on the back, as well as a little computer. Once they have calculated how long and wide the sheets must be, the order is typed in and the sheets are shaped with lips on the sides as they are being rolled out! Unfortunately the photo is not very clear. The computer sits to the left at the back of the lorry.