New Year

To see the old year out and the new one in, we invited my whole family to join us at the Vaal.  That is 18 people, for those who do not realise the size and scope of that invitation!!!  Our lovely neighbours kindly allowed us to sleep some adults there (swiftly named Calm Cottage), while Carl and I and Heidi and Darrell got to share our house with 8 kids and 2 puppies!. Swiftly named Chaos Cottage!!!  It is a wonderful thing that the kids are old enough and water safe enough to pretty much disappear.  Which suits both kids and adults alike!!  We attended the annual NYE party at the club house and surprisingly, even the adults managed to stay awake.  It did help that we braai-ed late which meant we only had a couple of hours left until New Year.  The kids were given a curfew of 1:30am, which turned out to be perfect timing because that was when the drunk party goers really started getting out of hand.
Apart from the party, we lazed about, went on the boat (record:  Darrell and I and 10 kids!!), went paddling, fished, swam, rode bikes and played with the puppies.  After the gang had left, we stayed on for a few days and had a time of real peace and calm.  The weather was just perfect and we had a chance to ski/wakeboard.  Carl and I are doing well with our slalom skiing (I am actually enjoying it now, rather than just hanging on for dear life!!); Ali is a fabulous wake boarder and Megan managed to slalom ski for the first time.  No small feat!  Trust me, I know!!
It worked out so well that our last few days were restful, so we got home energised and almost ready to take on the New Year with its many challenges that lie ahead.



Loppe on the boat.  Not too happy!

 

Our new baby...

Alistair got a puppy for Christmas.  It was not something we were able to take to Howick & wrap up and put under the tree for him, so he had to wait until we got back. We found a breeder who had a female puppy for us, who was on the way to the Vaal.  So after a lightning turn around (arrived home from Hilton on Sunday, and left for the Vaal on Monday - 4 loads of washing, unpack, shop, repack in that time!!) we headed off to pick her up.  There were 2 females from which to choose (We don't do male dogs), and it was a nearly impossible decision for Ali.  He finally decided he preferred the one with the darker coat.  So, this little bundle of joy has joined our family.  She spent a week with us at the Vaal, and is now trying to make our Jack Russells like her (not succeeding!).  A chew monster of note, but really, who can stay cross for long. Her name is Loppe (pronounced Loppa), which is Norwegian for flea.

Christmas

I am glad that I am about to report a whole lot of interesting things that ARENT HOUSE RELATED!!  No small miracle that!  Yes, my past year has been all about the house, but now, seeing as builders went away and no activity would happen until mid-Jan, we could relax and really enjoy our December.
This year, it was a van der Riet Christmas, so we all descended on the KZN midlands for a week. We (our family & Carl's sister Sarah's family) rented accommodation on a farm just outside Hilton College.  It was so beautiful and served us perfectly for the time we were there.  Christmas eve was at Laurie's house in Hilton, and Christmas day was at Selma and Bruno's place in Howick.  It was a wonderful time for us all to be together and for the cousins to catch up.  Far too much eating went on, but plenty of exercise too (not by me, I'm sorry to say!).
Christmas Eve at the Keysers:

The whole fam-damily (except me, I'm behind the lens as usual)

Anna took this lovely pic of us.  At least there is now a record of me having been there!

Carl holding the Keyser's new baby - Penny

The kids table - although they aren't kids for much longer!

Selma and Bruno
 

Christmas Day at Selma & Bruno:

What a handsome guy!!

The Girls

 Our beautiful accommodation in Hilton:

so it was unlucky afterall....

Friday 13th came and went.  And for those of you who were waiting with baited breath to hear about our move.... we didn't.  We postponed it until tomorrow.  And now have postponed that too.  Most likely until the end of January.  I don't really have the words for how disappointed I am but cést la vi.
One HUGE blessing is that we are not under pressure to get out of Heidi's house which we are currently renting, which goes to show that God does look after us, even when things don't work out the way we plan.
The house has been an absolute hive of activity since my last entry and is getting closer and closer to completion, but there is just too much still to do.  Especially internally, so we have decided to wait until it is more complete, so as to avoid having workers in our house once we are in.  Probably the biggest deal clincher was the fact that the security is not yet up and running.  There are no burglar bars, security gates, linked alarm system or garden beams. Sadly, living in SA, these things are pretty important.  And one is particularly vulnerable after having hordes of builders in and out of the house.  So, there it is.
All the other incomplete stuff (staircase, garden, finished etc,etc.) will at least now be done before we get in. Hopefully!
On a bright note, there has still been lots happening:
I am SO HAPPY with the stone work at our entrance.

 Our carpets have been laid.  The trick is now to keep them clean.  Builders are not known for their clean feet!

 Megan has been having such fun with her room.  She, Jordynne & Stephanie (first cousins) spent last weekend doing the Mural.  She had seen the design at a restaurant in Parktown North.  So we took a photo, enlarged it, transferred it onto transparency and shone it onto the wall using a good old fashioned Overhead Projector.  Worked like a bomb.  The girls copied the outline onto the wall and then painted.  So chuffed with the result.  In the foreground is Megan's chandelier, which she also hand made - painstakingly cut out and attached every one of those circles.

The levelling of the ground has been a mammoth job.  450m2 of grass arrived yesterday and that is busy being laid.  Was so grateful for a nice downpour this evening.

 

8 days and counting

The pressure is on now.  Only 8 days left until we move and still a million things to get done.  The biggest achievement of the week is that we now have POWER!!!!  We took an executive decision that to wait for City Power would be a problem (need I explain??), so our wonderful electrician did the job himself - all he had to do was take the connection from the old meter box inside the property to the new one we were told to build which is just outside the gate.  It took him all of an hour and voila!!  You will not believe how excited I was to walk down our driveway and see the lights on in the house!!  Yippee!!  This also means that other jobs can now be completed - the sewerage pumps, the solar geysers, the security etc. etc.

Anyway, here are some pics...

I bought these mirrors for the kid's bathroom.  Just have to find someone to put them up for me! 

 The front wall is finally finished, and this is the view from our bedroom.

 I found such a lovely light at Block and Chisel  for the stairwell.  Now that I see it in, it looks a bit like a science logo! 

 Please admire my tiles for my kitchen splash back.  I was SO excited to find them.  They are hand painted tiles from Mexico.  I'm so chuffed!

 I don't think I've posted a picture from this perspective - I am standing in the garage looking up the driveway.  As you can see, our paving is going in.  Once that's done, I guess I can hang up my gumboots.  We have had so much rain - the place is a mud bath (not to mention having flooded our neighbours on more than one occasion!!).

 As you can see, the garden is still a total mess.  The bottom section (beyond the pool) is going to have to wait until next year.  I'm more worried about the top section.  Beds too, will have to wait. At least it will give me something to do next year!!

Tick Tock says the clock....

It is two weeks tomorrow until we move.  We are getting along really well now, and there is a glimmer of hope that it may actually happen on the appointed day!  I will confess that in the middle of the night I am convinced it will never happen, but come the light of day, I return to my usual blind, naive optimism and keep moving forward.
The house painting, inside and out, is done.  Now they have to move onto the garden walls.

At last the garden is starting to be levelled, and is much improved on the photo in my last entry.

Finally, we have our poop-pumps installed.  The ground levelling and backfilling is nearly done and paving should start on Saturday.

The biggest hurdle left is getting City Power to come and reconnect our mains to our new electricity box.  Now THAT will take a miracle.  But, we have seen one miracle after the other happen on this project, and I am full of faith that God won't let us down now.
 'Twas Grace that brought us safe thus far, and Grace will lead us home'.
(Amazing Grace, for the uninformed!).

More small steps

With only 4 weeks to go until our move, there are still tons of things to be done.  Some small, some big.  But each day something else gets ticked off the list (and something new added onto the bottom).  Here are the latest changes:
Light fittings in the entrance hall and the dining room:

 

 I'm thrilled with the black and white tiles in my guest loo:

Um, I think we have a loooooong way to go with the garden!!!  At least the garden wall is coming along nicely, even though the garden itself is a million miles off completion!