Fire on Table Mountain!

Scenes from our new window.



People whetting their houses on De Waal drive.



Dante's Inferno

Woke up with smoke filled lungs in my bed at 1am. A fire had started near UCT and burned down half the mountain in about 2 hours in the gale force winds. I was running around the neighbourhood with tears streaming down my eyes taking photographs. There was general chaos around the neighbourhood especially around the houses up next to De Waal drive. Flames and ash were licking at the houses. This morning it sounds like a war zone as sirens and helicopters go past. And the mountain is a burned out husk.

Maroccan or just plain Walmer style?

We thought it would be a cheap way of avoiding balustrades. Cecile is not so sure. I like it.

The roof is up!

The trusses are placed and cemented in.



Voila! The new cieling and walls already painted with primer.

Will we make it?

We have set a deadline for our builder that we want to be in by the weekend of 21 March. Thats in only 10 days time! The roof STILL isn't up, and there is progress every day, but reporting on a little bit of plastering here and a bit of painting there is simply not as exciting as the big stuff!

I don't really like full-on thematic decor, but i love these morroccan tiles we are setting into the sement of our stoep.

Enter the tower

I love the smell of fresh cement in the morning! Provided its been put in the right place, in the right amount, right consistency, etc. etc. So the plastering is coming along nicely and the 3rd floor (codename: the tower) is looking good.

Now I must just speak to Shafiq about why there is a layer of cement on the stoep floor, when it should be a this screed??

"Finishing"

So the actual building part (brick and mortar)of our project is almost finished and now we are entering what is called the 'finishing' stage, which is misleading since its still far from being finished!

But it does mean i can start dreaming about kitchens and tiles and paint swatches, a lot more fun than concrete beams and drainage, although i suspect Ruan might disagree...






Above are my references for what sort of kitchen we want, now i'm off to our neighbour the carpenter for a quote on whether we can afford it...

Only TWO rows of brickwork to go!

I've been working so haven't been blogging at all, but much has happened in my absence. We like to come home at night and walk around in our new room upstairs, fantasizing about where we're going to put the furniture and marveling at the views, although it all looks a bit grey here.






Now we are still trying to figure out how we can get the 'exposed rafters' look on the roof and still stick to the budget.