steady progress

Our house is really starting to take shape.  With the addition of the gables, it is easier to see how the house is going to finally look.  Sadly, there have been a lot of small changes that have had to be made - many wall have been built off centre and have had to be bashed down and corrected (one wall was knocked down, rebuilt and it is STILL in the wrong place - eish!!!). 

The ribs and blocks for our garage slab have finally arrived, and the roof trusses should be arriving this week.  Then we'll really have something to show for ourselves!

In the meantime, my head is swimming with all the decisions to be made.  I wish I had a nothing box in my brain that I could escape to every now and then!!

This is the view as you come down the drive way.  If you look carefully,  you can even see the columns have been put in at our front door (I won't even go into the fact that they cut them too short and had to add an extra piece onto them!!!)

The front of our house is looking great now, with the addition of the gables. 

Here I am standing in the kitchen looking  north towards the open plan TV room/dining area and out to the patio and garden.  

This is our formal lounge looking south.  On the right it goes through to the formal dining room, and on the left is the entrance hall.

First Floor Slab and beyond

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!

Rib and Block

Or ribbonblock as I first heard it!  This is what our slab first floor roof is made up of.  Quite an interesting procedure.  They order premade long lengths of reinforced concrete ribs, which are laid on the brick work at first floor level.  Then into that they drop specially made blocks that wedge into the ribs.  These things all weigh a ton - it is quite scary to think about the weight of the roof just above our heads.  But, as my mom said, dad isn't worried, the builder, Esrom isn't worried, so nor will I.   We might just be like chicken licken for a while worrying about the roof falling on our heads!

This is how the ribs look:

Then they put the blocks in between.  This is what it looks like from below.  The support structures apparently have to stay in place for 2 weeks.

The wood at the front of the house forms a structural beam across the front of the patio.  We have others elsewhere but this is easy to see.  They make a box out of wood, put steel reinforcing inside, and then when the first floor slab is laid, it gets filled with concrete and forms an incredible strong beam.  Please admire our pillars at the front of the patio.  They are erected as hollow pillars, and they too get filled with concrete and steel.  This house is surely going to stand for a loooong time!!

I braved it up the ladder to the first floor and this is how it looks from above.  Next step is to pour the 100mm slab of concrete on top of this.  There was a mad scurry of builders, electricians and plumbers to get all their piping laid before the slab went down.

Ground Floor Slab

Apparently it goes by a different name, but for all the other lay people out there, I'm sure you know what I mean when I talk about the ground floor slab. 
As usual, I am far behind on my updates, and by now the ground floor slab is old news.  However, it was such an exciting process, and a landmark moment in the building process that I have to still write about it.  Actually, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking....
Firstly, before the slab went in, there was a scurry of activity - we laid polystyrene for insulation, then a layer of plastic, then mesh.

 Then the plumbers and electricians had to get busy and lay all their pipes ...

Then finally the cement mixers arrived and spilt their guts all over my new house.  It was an amazing process to watch. 

All the builders were given a new set of gum boots and they stand right in the cement and move it around with spades and rakes. 

Once that is done, it gets smoothed over and levelled out with a long metal rod (probably also has a fancy name!).  What an incredible thing to witness.   

It was early evening and they were still busy at work.  I caught Megs in the most beautiful light.  Not to mention the mielies in the background!!

A quick update...

I have been very tardy with my updates, considering this is the most exciting part of the building process.  The couple of pictures I put in on the last post were just taken with my cell phone.  Carl gave me a beautiful camera for my birthday last year which I am using to document the progress of the building.  Only two minor problems:  I keep forgetting to take it to site, and I keep forgetting to download the photos and update my blog (or does that make it 3 problems?).

Anway, clearly I have just done a big download and I am going to let the pictures do the talking....

We buried a Bible in our foundations.   We have no doubt that the Lord is the builder of our house, and we wanted to commit the house to Him by doing this. 

The foundations are so deep and wide that the whole of Houghton could end up on the M1, but our house will stay standing!  Not only Jesus is our sure foundation!!

The brick work finally began after so many delays with the foundation stage and then it was go go go...

The builder, Esrom and our architect, Rodger:

Our patch of mielies!  I had no idea where these mielies had come from - they certainly weren't there when we bought the site.  However I discovered that some enterprising builder planted them and now has a bumper crop nearly ready for harvesting!!  In fact the garden is like Eden - avocados; figs; tomatoes; gooseberries; squash!  We'll have to try and preserve them when we do the landscaping.

There was a LOT of back filling to be done to get the ground ready for the slab.

See how fast it goes....

Nearly at First floor level....

The kids are just loving the process and are filled with excitement everytime we go to site....

We have lift off.....

 At last we have reached above the foundations and have got to ground floor level!!  Yippee.  Now it is getting exciting when I go to site - a horde of builders doing their thing.  I am practicing my Zulu on them much better!  Ngiyahlaganiphile!

Hail the Conquering Hero!!

Our Lucy, yes, our gorgeous, aged, rickety Lucy is a hero!

We had just moved into our new (temporary home - the building didn't get finished in record time over Xmas, sadly!).  I was upstairs trying to have a nap, and Ali was in the kitchen, getting something to drink.  Lucy came to the back door and was turning around and around, and barking at him.  She then walked off towards the garden, so Ali followed to see what was wrong.  He looked out of the window at her, and next thing she leapt into the fish pond!  A revolting pond scum of a pond.  Now Lucy, despite being a retriever x Labrador DOES NOT SWIM!  She tried once in our pool and sank like a stone - Carl had to rescue her.  So for her to willingly jump into a pond was more than a little unusual!

Ali raced to open a door so he could get to her and pull her out.  We did not realise that the pond is actually rather deep (thigh height in the middle, with sloping sides) so there was no way she could get purchase with her back legs to haul herself out.  So Ali grabbed her by the collar and yanked her out. 

Then in the corner of his eye, he spotted Gemma, also in the pond, but in a part that was hidden by some bush.  She had fallen in and couldn't get out, so Ali rushed around and hauled her out too.

So Lucy, our hero, fetched Ali, put her fear aside, and her own life at risk, and Gemma was saved!

Our own true life Lassie story.