It has been about a month since the last post, and in that time, quite a bit has happened. This is the 'fast part' of the building process and then I know everything will slow down for the finishes.
The most exciting thing ever was watching the first floor slab be laid. The builder hired an enormous pump to get the concrete up to first floor level, and several ready mix trucks came and off loaded their concrete into the pump and up it went. Amazing to watch.
They worked well into the evening to get it completed.
Once the slab was laid, the brickwork for the first floor began. It is so amazing to finally have a 3D house to look at, instead of reading off plans. Things look very different in 3D and it has been a shock here and there seeing how it actually looks.
The funniest shock of all was not our miscalculation but the plumber. The plumbing for the toilet and basin for the main bathroom has ended up in Carl's study! There have been several jokes flying around about him sitting on his throne working!!
Currently our method of accessing the first floor has been a fairly wobbly home made ladder. The stairwell is now underway, and hopefully it will be completed in the not too distant future.
While all that is going on, a team of plasterers has come on site and are already almost finished the ground floor.
In the meantime I am getting busy with all the decisions of taps, basins, baths etc. etc. It is quite overwhelming to have an entire house to think about. Normally, one does one thing at a time - renovate the kitchen, or the bathrooms or whatever -which allows one to really focus on that one thing and do it well. I hope that I am managing to not drop too many balls in this process, and not make too many mistakes.
Another awesome accomplishment is that Joburg Water finally came to install our water! Hey, it only took 7 months and 8 trips to their offices, but it is finally done. That being said, the builders are still using our amazing borehole. Really, and truly, I thank God for that borehole, otherwise we would be nowhere right now!
