House Inbetween

Mama Ciel (even bigger)

2009-10-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

Mama Ciel's stomach has just ballooned in the last week or two.

No it's not a disease it's just chinese cups. "Cups velly gooo"

The small garden challenge

2009-10-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

The back garden is coming along, helped by the spring rain.

The office

2009-10-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

The floor came out nicely even though the polyurethane stuff was nasty to work with.

A provisional office has been set up until I get a feel for the space. Then I'll get custom made desks and some furniture.

Finally... balustrades.

A nice moody afternoon viewed from the balcony.

Mama Ciel

2009-06-22T12:25:00.001-07:00

Boasting a healthy stomach.

Kitchen confidential

2009-06-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Before...

After... A punctured water pipe and emergency plumbers made it a rough ride but in the end its all worth it. Now we need some tiles...

Now if we can just get that dishwasher going...

Waiting for a back garden

2009-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Two Zimbabwean guys helped to clear all the cement and rubble from the back.

Johnson, former shop clerk in Harare.

Obvious (yes, its obviously his name) was a driver. Both now do hard labour to survive.

At, a plasterer from the neighbourhood, sculps plant troughs.

A great job but now everythings a cement mess again.

Be kind... Rewind

2009-06-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

The builder agreed (we had kept some of his money) to replace the floor and stairs. Sounds simple? Both were particularly painful processes, but more so the stairs as that involved the original third party builders.

Jy maak n gamors!! Shoveling the cement in for the new effort.

Most of the floor looked great with some bits in the middle a bit crumbly. I fixed it with a bonding key and cement wash but now theres nasty marks on the floor so the clear sealer is not an option anymore?

The new and improved stairs. The risers and treads are now much better, although we had to come out a bit in front. Also everything is a bit rounded off, hopefully making bone crunching falls a bit less likely.

We have plumbing!

2009-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Apart from the tiles issue the bathroom looks nice. Just needs a door and a clean.

These stairs are ok

2009-04-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

It feels like I'm gonna be...

2009-04-03T01:39:00.000-07:00

...forever blue

Nobody ever warns you, or tells you what to do.
She walks away, your left to stay.
Alone forever blue.
The stars have all stopped shining, the sun just won't break through.
Each days the same, more clouds more rain.
Your left forever blue.
Forever blue 'cause you love her, but she dosen't love you.
You did your best, life did the rest.
Your left forever blue.
( Guitar Solo )
No reason left for living, still there's alot to do.
New tears to cry, old songs to sing.
And feel forever blue.
And be forever....Blue

Lots of little (and some not so little) problems to fix for the rest of the year.

So that's how they do it

2009-04-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

Cretestone gives the walls that smooth finish.

Bathroom blues

2009-04-03T01:28:00.000-07:00

Lummy from Zimbabwe did a fairly good job on the wall tiles.

But struggledwith the marley floor tiles because he hasnt done them before. It took me 3 hours in the middle of the night to replace 3 tiles. In retrospect we realised we made a mistake and should have gone with normal tiles as these get very dirty and can break.

The final day with the plumber was a terrible experience I dont want to repeat. Looking quite nice despite all the dramas.

The stairs issue

2009-03-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

We are not happy with the stairs. There are extra steps and other modifications that we didnt sanction. The tread is also only 22cm.

Some weird stuff happening here.

The back yard starts looking like a million dollars

2009-03-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Suffering because of ugly cracked walls?

Viola. Nothing a bit of cement cannot fix.

(Hopefully) No more rising damp

2009-03-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

The alley has been lowered and the angle adjusted so the water now actually flow out!

It's a messy business

2009-03-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

The keys left their imprint in the dust.

Manon and Katja braves the conditions to check out the view.

And there was light!

2009-03-29T01:10:00.001-07:00

Remember these 2 doors?

Gone! And now there's much more space and light!

And we can see the view from the lounge...

But what a mess to break them out!

It always looks different on the wall

2009-03-28T05:37:00.001-07:00

Still getting used to the color. We settled for Plascon Wall n All in the end instead of the rougher textured Micatex.

Lost air vent found

2009-03-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

I discovered a hidden air vent under the alley cement.

An unusual but cheap solution using rain gutters. Cement will cover it with only the pipe portruding.

Final week coming up?

2009-03-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

Chaos reigns in the kitchen as Cecile paints the bath with a rust primer.

The newly inserted window sans burglar bars, with paint sample on the wall outside.

Shafiek showing how it should be done. It came down easily but they left half of it and left early on Friday??

The courtyard will be much bigger with the service alley included.

New views in the neighbourhood

2009-03-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

The old lady across the road told me the house looks impressive from the street below. So I had to have a look. Primer painting in progress.

Just a bit of the parapit sticking out from across the road in front of the house.

Finally... the top floor happens

2009-03-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

The freshly screeded floor on the upstairs room.

Fire on Table Mountain!

2009-03-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-17T10:17:00.001-07:00

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

The roof is up!

2009-03-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

The trusses are placed and cemented in.

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

Will we make it?

2009-03-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-05T07:59:00.001-08:00

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"

2009-03-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Windows

2009-02-19T23:04:00.000-08:00

After days of worrying about which windows would work best and constant re-planning as suppliers are out of stock or timelines are too short, we finally committed. My gripe is that I see too much of the roofs of the neighbours, and maybe not enough mountain. Also we have some burglarproofing issues as they are so close to the roof.

Other good news is that the floor downstairs has been thrown. Who could think cement was so exciting...

A view to a kill

2009-02-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

The 2nd Floor is up!

2009-02-15T04:56:00.001-08:00

Finally the 2nd floor is up. The builders had to get two more men to help hauling the beams up in the heat. It's extremely hard and hot, not to mention dangerous, work. I climbed up before the blocks went up and had a minor height-freight freeze. Now if only we can make up our minds what windows we want upstairs...

Next floor coming up!

2009-02-12T23:21:00.000-08:00

It's high, it's hot... at least theres no wind. The beams for the next floor are hauled up and placed in 30+ degree heat.

The zen of insitu beam casting

2009-02-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

Thankfully this will be the last round of insitu beams that need to be cast. These are for strengthening the openings where the slab will be placed on. It generally involves iron rods inserted through iron stirrups and then cast on site in concrete. An engineer provides drawings and requirements and needs to check it before casting.

Not wanting to remove the doors for security reasons, we have to cast the beam in the wall.

Metal rods tied together before it gets cast in concrete.

Plumber problems

2009-02-12T23:05:00.000-08:00

I wanted to say "plumbing problems" but in fact the trouble lies with the plumber. Every time our man from Marocco shows up there are problems. He misinterpreted the plans, he didnt ask enough questions, etc. etc. It's not a sexy subject but for a few night I had pipe dreams or rather nightmares. Thankfully all the taps and toilet are where they should be... for now.

week 8: half way?

2009-02-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

Its week 8 now and we have only one floor to go, which means we are pretty much on schedule. Although I am told that once the 'wetwork' is done, the finishing takes quite some time.

They were plastering the ceiling, and Shafiq's cool glasses got all sement splattered.

To make a long and sad story short, the bathroom is 23 cm smaller than it should be, which is quite a disaster in an already small space. But what a nice view from my bath!

Week 7: Aan die gang!

2009-02-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

Work is continuing at a pace and with luck we'll have the second floor up by start next week.

Above shows the double door frame in place and the shell of the new bathroom.

Spade fried chicken

2009-02-04T23:15:00.000-08:00

What looks like a photo from a crime scene is in fact one of the builders attempting to make lunch. I came apon him frying chicken in a spade over a piece of burning cement bag. As the wind blows the paper he just follows it. This has given me unique insight into why fires burn down large parts townships as well as parts of the peninsula every year. Not too mention cement poisoning...

Building Blues

2009-02-01T09:04:00.000-08:00

Yip, I’ve definitely had the building blues this week. It started so well, with the deck taking only one day to stack. But then the engineer didn’t approve the builders' beam construction, the wall went up skew, the bathroom is 23 cm smaller than on the plans and I’m still unhappy about the light the stoep lintels is cutting off from the dining room. Boo-hoo.

On the good news front I have found and ordered the sliding folding door, and the doorframe with fanlight I wanted all along.
And on Friday evening we sat on our new stoep and after a Southern Comfort and Ginger ale it all seemed OK again. Till Monday anyway...

View to a kill

2009-01-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here is our new view from our new stoep...

...and the rib and block system that has made it possible.

It was a rough day at the building site juggling job responsibilities and some minor and major problems with plumbing logistics and engineering. Not much progress today, hope tomorrow will be better.

All plastered and nowhere to go

2009-01-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

The blocks for the slab has arrived. Monday they start packing and Tuesday we'll have our first floor. God willing. Insha'Allah.

Cecile feeling out her new store room. Cozy fit.

Portraits from a building site

2009-01-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

These guys are very excited about these portraits. They all want a copy. Shafiq is playing it cool.

Shown in order of importance.

Shafiq

Joe

Rasta

Cannot remember his name (damn)

Isaack

My, what lovely window sills we have!

2009-01-23T06:34:00.000-08:00

I never knew one could be proud of windowsills, but i am! The plastering is looking great, and the best news ever is that the rib and block system has arrived from the fine folks at Bobcrete. So from Monday it will be full steam ahead!

Week 5: plastering and (holding thumbs) a roof

2009-01-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

The first of the three levels we are building is now up to roof height. We are waiting (and waiting...) for Bobcrete to deliver the rib and block system, so in the meantime the guys are starting to plaster the walls. (Actually the electricity is meant to go into the walls before they plaster, but the electrician is in Riversdale for the week... ) In the meantime im still chasing down that elusive sliding folding door from the company who has been liquidated. All in a days work i suppose... More about our bathroom fittings soon!

My substitute for gin & tonic

2009-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

Southern Comfort. It's refreshing. It's bold. It's the drink to make you forget the skew walls and to rinse the cement from your mouth. After a hard day at the building site there's nothing like it.

Innie Kaap noem ons dit "Suidelike Gemak".

Recipe:
Generous dollop of SC
Top up with ginger ale
Add some ice
...and Obama's your uncle.

Progress Report: Affirmative!

2009-01-16T05:59:00.000-08:00

Things are finally happening. The bitching about the foundations has stopped. Walls are going up at lightning speed and the builders are looking cheerful again. Very possibly because they don't have to lug wheelbarrows of rubble around. Next challenge will be the slab. The pressure is on Bobcrete to deliver drawings and material, like, yesterday.

Owner Building: The New Frontier

2009-01-13T23:46:00.001-08:00

Ruan with the 'bible'

Me inspecting the trenches at the frontline....

And this is our housemate Charity.

Week 4: Drain Pain

2009-01-12T08:22:00.001-08:00

After last weeks demolition we are finally ready to start building again!... but have of course encountered a few speed bumps. Firstly we have discovered that in real life the sewage drain isn't even close to where it is meant to be on the plans (the blue block is where its meant to be, the yellow one where it actually is.) And of course this is right in front of the door. So we had to get the plumber in to advise us. Turns out it would be very costly to move the drain, but we can lower it and hopefully cover it with some paving stones.

And then of course the engineers that the builder had contracted to do the decking (floor slabs) had never done the drawings, so now we are racing against time to try to get someone who can do the drawings and deliver the rib and block system on time (next week).

And lastly, the only guys who make the folding doors in the size we want it are being liquidated. At this stage they are still taking orders, so on the one hand i feel i should put in an order quickly, and on the other hand i'm not so sure that my deposit wont disappear in the murky depths of liquidation... sigh

Excavation in progress

2009-01-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

As the house sits on the slopes of Devil's Peak huge sandstone boulders are plenty. Joe and Rasta takes turns to break up what the builders call a "mamba".

Isaac bringing back the wheelbarrow after dumping it's contents across the road. The narrow alleys make access difficult and the building process more labour intensive.

The doors of perception

2009-01-08T23:28:00.000-08:00

As I sit here I can hear the 'thud, thud, thud' of the builders hammering out the few pieces of concrete foundation that's left. The last few days have just been about rubble removal. All done via 2 wheelbarrows through the service alleys to the back of the house. Then dumped on unused municipal ground across the road and taken away by truck.

In between wheelbarrow loads 3 of the workmen posed for a pic in front of the house next door. Left (not sure what his name is), center (Joe) and right (Rasta - minus his dreads - too hot at the moment).

week 3: demolition!

2009-01-05T07:53:00.001-08:00

wow, our bathroom has been all these colours!

Christmas Critters

2008-12-24T01:38:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been taken up with sourcing taps, tiles, basins etc for the renovation. I only came away with about half the tap fittings for the bathroom, but I've made decisions about all the important stuff. At the moment i can't decide between two antique cabinets for the bathroom. The one is a bit small, and the other a bit... well, burnt. The dealer assures me the burnmarks add character....

We'll be taking a break from this blog untill we get back from holidays on the 3rd, be sure to check back on the 5th when the demolition commences!

I made these little guys for my youngest niece and nephew Malaika and Ethan.

Merry Christmas!

Builders Holiday and a holiday from builders

2008-12-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

We finished stage 1 of our building project a week early, and since we don't want to start stage 2 (demolition!) over the festive season (for security reasons) we are having a wonderfull break from building untill the real madness begins on 5 Jan. We are reasonably happy with the work so far.

Shafiq the builder's report card so far:
On the plus side he runs a neat, clean and tight building site; he arrives early and is on site all day; he has met his first deadline. On the down side, he seems to try and get away with cutting any corners he can in the building process, so you have to watch him very closely, and make sure you are informed enough to spot any mistakes! Mmmmm, i'm sure i've heard people say that before about their builders, is this an industry thing? If only we had lots of money and could pay for a project manager and a big building contractor!

O well, whenever I get despondent about our renovation i like to look at the pics of the front of the house when we bought it- the horror!

...and what it looks like now:

week 2: Oi vey!

2008-12-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was spent fixing the mistake below: we noticed that the floor wasn't excavated enough to allow for the desired height of the roof, so they had to excavate and underpin some more... lets hope this was done right.

And tomorrow will partially be spent fixing today's mistake: these bricks standing out from the side wall indicate a wall in completely the wrong place... oi vey.

BASHEWS

2008-12-09T00:16:00.000-08:00

During excavations we discovered this bottle of Bashews mineral water under the house. Bashews is a soft drink only sold in the Western Cape, and still sold at our corner cafe. I can only assume it landed there when the house was built, which is estimated to be around 60-70 years ago. Could that be? I can't find any info about how old the factory is.

Check back tonight for a progress report and some pics of the build.

Progress!

2008-12-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

After some initial panicking and sweating about the builder deviating from the engineers drawings, we had the engineers in and they gave the foundations and the underpinning the thumbs up. (Underpinning, I soon found out, means excavating under an existing wall and then strenghthening and stabilising it with brick and concrete to make it strong enough, in our case, to carry the weight of three stories on top of it. You have to do this in sections to keep the wall stable.)

Hard to believe that this pic was taken 2 days ago!

And here's the start of another wall...

...and more progress on the other side

Day 4 Keep calm and carry on!

2008-12-04T01:04:00.000-08:00

In times like these you need some extra help, sometimes in the form of a desktop or poster that has to carve itself into your subconscious, ensuring you dont commit any crimes in a moment of madness. Look no further than the classic British WW2 poster. You can make it a desktop as I have or order it from Etsy.com.

Day 2 The Great Wall part 1

2008-12-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Our building is 2 days down and we hear that we were supposed to notify the building inspector for our ward 3 days prior to commencement of building. So now we have to try and get hold of him and put the brakes on what is brewing under the house.

What is brewing is that the builder already seems to be doing things his own way, Shafiq style we'll call it. Well I dont care as long as it stays up and it's legal. But we might have to get in the structural engineers at a little fortune to come and give us 15 minutes of their time.

Day 1, week 1

2008-12-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had to prepare the space in the back for the builders to start today. This required cutting the vines that creeped over from the neighbours. It was really painfull as the vines were lush and we were finally seeing grapes on our side of the wall.

This morning we were really anxious before the arrival of the builder. I imagined him laughing about the suckers that gave him ten grand as he parties it up in Grand West or wherever builders go to blow your hard earned money. But he showed up in time with his off beat sense of humor intact and now we have a neat hole under the hole that's already there. In his words "I found a big mamba (very poisonous african snake) in your backyard." Translation: I found a bloody big rock that took hours to break up. Relief...

AAArrgh!

2008-10-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

This blog is n hold till council are done with our plans..... eight months and counting!

Welcome to Woodstock

2008-06-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is our little green house in the suburb of Walmer Estate in the greater Woodstock area, Cape Town. It was very run down when we bought it, but with a lick of paint and a lot of TLC, its starting to look really nice now! ...except for the back of the house. This is where we want to break down the current bathroom, build a storeroom, a new dining nook, a stoep, a bathroom and an office upstairs.

It has been over 4 months now since we submitted or plans to council- and still they are coming back with changes and objections. Most recently - after spending weeks trying to get a particularly elusive neighbour to sign a letter of no objection for our renovation, my architect has advised us to also get the signatures of our local councilor and the Rate Payers Association too! Who next? Should I just get the signature of the President for good measure as well? Has anyone else had these problems?