Swimming Pool

As you can see we have had a really busy week at 42 Sixth Ave! On Thursday, we started digging the pool. In the 2 days they have pretty much finished the digging and will place the steel on Tuesday and on next Thursday they will gunite. The gunite then has to cure for 10 days and with the rains on the way we will have to see when we can marbalite. We have tried to place the pool as close to the patio as possible. This will hopefully allow pool action and shade seekers to still socialise easily. I have watched the sun over the last few weeks and we seem to get sun on the pool for most of the day. The soil that has been removed from the pool will be spread around the garden to level out the fall of the land as best as possible. We have opted for smallish pool - 5x3m and 1050-1700 depth.
To summarise the rest of the action - rinolite, plaster and ceiling work continues at a slowish but steady pace. The stone work has made no progress and this has caused plenty aggravation. Electrical work continues and security ires etc all in place. The screeds are looking good and we all set for the painting to start next week. The doors are due to be installed on Thursday and Friday and we should then have a property that more resembles a house. The end is in sight....

The Wine Cellar

One of the things Chris has been "obsessed" about is his wine cellar. As you know, some months back, we dug out +2m underneath bedroom 3. The only problem was that we never settled on an entrance/access point. Many ideas have been thrashed out over the months but with completion time creeping closer, action had to be taken. An important factor to consider is that at this particular part of the house we have 3 levels.

1. The wine cellar under ground

2. Bedroom 3 at ground level

3. Main bedroom upstairs

Foundations and retaining walls are not to be tampered with or we may have an "all fall down"

There is light at the end of this tunnel though - we have decided to access the cellar from the patio outside bedroom 2&3. There will be a trap-door in the corner of the patio with some stairs leading into the 3x3m room. We have built shelving and a bench in-situ and before the stairs went in we had to put Chris' old desk inside. (Our home PC is now on the dining room table). Thembe - who works for Errol - and his team finished the stairs and cast the patio slab on Thursday. We now need to source the trap-door and alls well that ends well.

Simply Screed

One of the things we have always had our hearts set on is "tinted screeds". This has however proven to be a rather complicated process. A few Sundays ago we spent a few hours testing out different oxides as well as different application techniques. I was not convinced with the out come nor the colours, so during the week phoned around to try find out what the correct technique is. Greg and Mel also tried to help by explaining the technique they had used. I tried to explain to the "men" and my words fell on deaf ears. Naturally, this sent me back to the drawing board. I was starting to get desperate so I phoned around to get prices (labour & material) per m2 and was shocked to hear quotes ranging from R180 - R260 per m2.... I can get good Italian tiles for that. I also know that the labour only subies charge around R25 m2 and materials come to no more than R30 m2. I like to think I am not a fool and I am not prepared to be taken for a ride with such astronomical profit margins. Martin the plasterer has the technique but we had to get the colour right. All the oxides just didn't seem to suit the house. We wanted to try get a grey/white marbled effect and tried to find a white oxide - NO LUCK! I then had a brainwave - what about a mix of white & grey cement. In theory this would give that marbled effect. So off to the hardware to buy a bag of white cement - yes, you do get white cement, however it costs more than 3 times the price of standard grey cement. Anyways, I bit the bullet and loaded the 50kg bag into my car. The urgency was that on Thursday the cabling for the under screed heating was being laid and the screeding had to be done super fast to prevent damage to the cables. Martin got stuck-in and we are both very happy with the result. His rate is a far cry from the person who wanted to charge me R260 m2. Now we need to let it cure and seal it with a polyeurathane finish.

Before and Now

With the carport gone I am now able to get back into the north west corner of our property and show you what we have managed to "grow" in the 6 months since we started. There is still a huge pile of rubble in front of the garage which will all be carted away by end of Wednesday. The last column on the patio has to still be cladded but this will only be done once the gutter box, down pipe and solar heating pipes are in position. Thank goodness the cladding will cover all of that as they are not the most attractive features on the front facade of the house. We are still on track for starting painting internally and on the roof next Wednesday. Garden wise, our short term intention is to clear the mess, level the land and lay the grass just before we move-in. In time we will build up a garden that will hopefully be low maintenance.

My Sanity !!!

As we all know, renovating/building is generally a stressful task to undertake. Having heard many stories from many friends, Chris & I realise how fortunate we have been during our renovations. To date we have only fired the first project manager and this was only one week into the job. This doesn't mean that we haven't come close to firing others. Using labour only sub contractors is trying at the best of times and they tend to want to do the easy work first and pretend to not understand what you mean when you want the more challenging tasks completed. I must admit that on Monday last week was the first day that it all got too much for me and I had my first good drizz. This was when Errol stepped in again and lived up to his other nickname "Wilde Builder". There was a fair amount of shouting and many unhappy faces, but it seems to have had the desired effect. Of course there has always been the question of my sanity but one thing is certain and that is without Errol it is almost guaranteed that I would be in Tara and the keys chucked away!

All the commotion got the guys got going and by Saturday the majority of the plaster work was done and the only other brick work is the wine cellar entrance as well as the wall between the garden & garage. This wall can only be built once the pool has been dug.

So as it stands for now this is the short term programme:
plastering to be completed by Wednesday
rinolite to start on Wednesday
prep for roof painting started today
pool digging starts Thursday/Friday
underscreed heating to be laid on Thursday
floors to be screeded on Friday onwards
internal painting starts next Wednesday
all doors/windows to be completely installed by next Friday
kitchen cabinets start 28th

This leaves us with a month till expected completion date!

Operation Clean-up

This past week, Errol truly did live up to his nicknames. For the past few weeks we have 2 of Errol's guys helping us keep the site relatively tidy but as I explained some posts back, rubble never stops multilpying. Last tuesday and wednesday we had Jorum cart 15 loads of rubble (approx 45m3) away and this was still not the end of it. Knowing we had not got to the bottom of the rubble/mess,Errol oganised a team of 7 men for saturday & sunday = Operation clean-up. The guys spent the entire day on saturday and sunday piling the rubble in the driveway for the "final" rubble removal due to take place this wednesday. While the guys were cleaning on saturday they told me Errol's one nickname is "Mr Clean"

As you can see, cleaning rubble is truly exhausting.... On thursday Errol & I popped across the road for lunch and when we came back we found Richard & Victor catching a nap in the sun during their lunch break.

The reason for all this tidy up is that by thursday the intention is to have all the rubble producing work complete. We really want to feel like we in the final stage (with about 6 weeks to expected completion date) and the pool guys are also due to start digging our pool They will put the soil removed for the pool around the garden for easy spreading. If we still have a mountain of rubble lying around we can't start the pool..... At one stage even Chris got stuck in helping.

To show our appreciation for the hard-work to date, we bought the guys - cleaners/plaster/electrician/ceiling - some rolls and meat and they had a little braai on site before leaving on saturday afternoon. As you can see in the background of the braai, with carport gone, we finally have a real sense of our space. I mention this because while setting out the pool last thursday I was worried we were losing too much garden with the pool, but I now see we actually still have a nice sized garden for any future baby Atkinson's to run around.

Action Action Action

Being on site today was like being in a bussling metropolis. For a change the was a lot of action with garages in (already a week ago), stone cladding progressing, demolitions, brick work, ceiling grid installtion, window installations and roofing still continuing. Shew what a day! All at the start of August with the winds and rain as well. We now have 8 weeks till completion and Errol is sure we will make it! Things are going to get hectic but I will try keep you posted! Spare some good vibes and send them over yonder please.

More Demolitions

Just when I thought we had just about finished all the demolition work something else has cropped up. While removing the old plaster from the wall separating the games room courtyard from the servants quarters courtyard we found the wall to be very unstable. Just by leaning on it slightly it was moving..... not a good idea to ignore esp as it was to be made higher. So last week I took the hammer in hand and started the bashing. As you can imagine this had the guys in fits of laughter and Errol got it all on a video clip. The good thing is this has allowed us to move the wall over a little and shield the door accessing the back courtyard from obvious view. At the same time they have started working on the games room by breaking out the opening for the stacking door and bricking in old windows and the divide between the games room and the servants quarters. All this brick work is due to be completed by Friday. At the same time the roof over that area is being extended. There was originally a slab over the SQ, but, it leaked terribly and left all different levels. This way we have the same level/pitch/angle and finish throughout. The roof (which is a full month behind schedule) is also due to be complete by the weekend.

Contentious..... No More

One of the most debated over sections to the house has been the patio area. Clive first suggested an aluminum louvre system. At first I was all for this idea and Chris was dead against it. But as time went on, with more debate, I decided that I was anti and Chris became keen. So ... more time, more debate and it became an area we were both avoiding. Researching the louvre system I learnt that no sofa would be able to stay out there permanantly as they are only 95% waterproof. I wanted a "proper" undercover patio with nice sof furniture. The guys were more concerned we would loose too much light and esp warmth in winter. Naturally you would then suggest a skylight option. Not a chance there either - I was keen and Chris NOT! I tried to explain the windows/skylight that Brett & Lara have in their kitchen but merely using "skylight" in the explanation killed my suggestion. So, what to do........? Thank goodness for Brian's birthday and our trip to London, Chris got to see first hand what I meant and was eventually persuaded. With this option, we can close the blinds in the window to shade the entire patio/open the window to let trapped heat out/let in warmth & light during the winter months. However, our next hurdle was to find the product locally. This is where I need to thank "google", within a few searches we had located the Velux supplier in Cape Town who put us in contact with a Joburg agent. After a bit of to & fro & haggling all is well that ends well and the Velux skylight windows are in the process of being installed. As you can see this has turned into a mamoth task. The windows need a min 15 degree pitch. This has meant building special boxing with flashing etc. In the end, though, we have the working patio we both wanted.

First Finishes - Cladding

Today marks the day the "first finishes" started going in. I must admit that it gives me a somewhat warm and fuzzy feeling that finally something is "finally finishing". The stone cladding is looking great and we are somewhat excited about the aesthetic appeal it gives the house. We also realise the amount of work it takes and the skill required. The truck delivered the sandstone yesterday (which is an entirly different story involving a heated altercation with a very rude and obnoxious neighbour who doesn't realise that public roads are public and not merely for the residents around it).The cladding guys arrived on site at 8am this morning to start on a sample. First the stone needs to be sorted, it is then chopped,shaped and only then mounted with hoop iron and a cement mix to the desired surface. Each piece of the puzzle is 100 mm thick and then shaped to fit together and create the finished look.By 4pm this afternoon they had done most of the first pillar and we have given them the go ahead to bring more guys and push ahead.

5 Months Down!!!

Can you believe it! Yes, truly, it has been 5 months already....we started on the 17th February.
A lot has been achieved - 99 % of the brick work is complete. We have ordered all our windows and doors and expect installation to begin in the next 10 days. The kitchen design is done and we are waiting for the plastering to be done for final measurements. The swimming pool is being sorted on wednesday-hopefully. General plastering,plumbing and electrical continues. The garage doors are to be installed on Friday - no motors. All the plaster has been stripped of the servant quarters and as soon as the garage doors are on we can start work on the "games room" and servants quarter. The reason for the delay is so that Steve and Simeon (who have been staying on site from the beginning) can move to the garage. This adds a little security to the property. We also have a beautiful gas braai on the patio and a wood fire in the living room. What more can the Joburg Johnnies ask for...............................maybe to move in?

Plaster Pleasure

This time we really seem to have found a gem! While looking at the plastering for our house I feel I found a rare gem in the building industry. His name is Martin and our luck happened upon us when Martin popped his business card into our postbox at the house. I check the box everyday and we often have loads of flyers and torn of scraps of paper with contact numbers shoved in the box. However, Martin's card caught my attention - simple & professional! We called him and got his rates which were very reasonable and so went to look at his work. First i went, then Chris went, then Errol went and then Chris & I went again. He came and gave us a quote and we were all very happy and got him on board! His guys are great, and work very hard!! On saturday, they worked on the garage "soffet". There were about 10 of them and it took vertually all day! The best part of it is that he no only plasters but does screed,rinolite,ceilings,cornices and painting!!!! Thank you Martin!!!

No Anger - No Action

As you all know I had been promised that our roof would be completed by July 5th 2006. The day came and went and they had barely started the trusses let alone finished! On top of the delay they neglected to read the plans properly and so the studio roof did not match the plans. This meant that due to technical reasoons as well as time contstraints Clive had to be called in again to approve a solution that was technically sound for the truss company and aesthetically pleasing.

In the meantime, the sheeting was started on the main bedroom and NO start was made on the patio or kitchen. Day after day of asking for the kitchen to be done but hold the patio. On thursday, my requested was totally disregarded and they started marking positions for the rafters on the patio.

My request ACTUALLY had reason behind it : kitchen = plastering = final measurement for cupboards = make-up = finishes on time and patio = hold as we waiting for velux skylights)

Needless to say that by friday - I had cronic sense of humour failure. I am not proud but action had to be taken. I had plenty of words with the guy and eventually he guaranteed me that by close of day on friday the kitchn and patio rafters would be up as well as sheeting completed on the mainbedroom. To add insult to injury - his staff are too lazy to go downstairs to use the working toilet onsite and find it necessary to relieve themselves all over the walls inside our bedroom and my studio - DISGUSTING PIGS!!!

I was on site at 3pm when these guys walked off telling me that they were not meeting their bosses promises..... Errol then called Attie and told him off. He then committed to being on site on saturday by 8am.(he was unable to get his staff to take his calls never mind return to site to finish their work)

Amazingly enough I was hardly surprised when they only arrived at 9.30am! They did however almost finish sheeting the studio and will sheet the patio and kitchen on monday. He has even offered to cut out the perlons where the skylights need to be installed....... but the moral of the story : ANGER = ACTION!

Pre-London Progress Report

Rewind my brain to the 21st June...the day we are leaving for our trip to London. The outdoor gas braai is being built and there is lots that needs to be lined up for the next 2 weeks.

The week before, I rushed around ensuring we had :
all the taps for the plumber,
light fittings for the electricians,
had a meeting with the window people to finalise the quote,
appointed a gas fitter,
ensured the gas braai was on site for installation by the builders,
the roofing people were on track so that the roof would be complete by the time I got back.

All in all, I felt good and thought I was pretty organised - bearing in mind Errol would also be away for 10 days, I THOUGHT WE HAD IT WAXED!

While in London...."they" soon twigged I am was not around = "while the cats away, mice DO play" The taps were collected late, the roof was never started, the final quote for the doors come in way more than expected (mainly due to my mis-understanding the original quote), the gas fitter runs over on expected installation date etc etc etc. Chris was on top of things but eventually told me that it was time I came home and "kicked some butt". So on my return with vertually no change at the house and I sat on the phone trying to get people into action.

Errol got back on Friday (as surprised as I was at the lack of progress) and together we are getting things moving....

As of tomorrow, plastering continues, gas pipes are being laid, roof trusses/perlons to be completed, servants quarters are being modified, ground is being leveled.......

Errol is still confident we can meet the completion date of 30 September (2006)

Fleeting Visit

Last month Chris and I went to London for a fleeting visit. It was Brian's big 30th and so we booked to go over for a long weekend and celebrate with him! Lucky me... got to extend my ticket and was there for 2 weeks! Although short, Chris and I really enjoyed our first time in London together! Quite weird when you think about it...we have been together for going on 13 years and have never managed to get there together. As you know, leaving home is always a rush and for this trip even more so, with both of us being self-employed as well as renovating = wrapping things up a little harder. Never mind we got to the airport on time and sat waiting to board our flight. While waiting, I noticed a strange man (wearing sunglasses at 9pm indoors) being escorted by two men who looked like they were impersonating Popeye having swallowed copious amounts of spinach. Chris casually told me he was actually handcuffed and probably being deported. Little did we know at this stage that he was on our flight. Yip, that's right, as we were about to take off he started shouting "help!". Eventually the captain announced that we would be returning to the airport buildings and one of the passengers would be disembarking and they would have to locate and remove his luggage. Everyone around him started cheering and clapping! This whole process delayed take off by 2 hours - LOVELY!!! I must admit it was rather exciting as the cops were there and everything. During this time Chris and I chatted a stewardess and she said she would try find out some info. In the morning, she told us that he was apparently a German man who had tried to enter SA about 9 times without the correct documents. He had told the cabin crew and passengers around him that he had been kidnapped by the guys escorting him and was being very disruptive to fellow passengers. I am pretty sure we got the very basic outline and things must have been a little more intense than we were told for them to actually take the decision not to fly with him on board. After that the flight was uneventful and we arrived at "the Londoners" safe and sound, albeit a little late. It was really lovely to see the family, Brian & Lisa and Michele again. We had fun shopping, visiting, picnicking and even sorting some wedding admin. Thanks again for all the laughs and fun shared (not to mention "patience personified" with beds & luggage all over the livingroom floor) we look forward to visiting again (in Switzerland too) - only hope it won't be so rushed for Chris next time.

Sheer Vanity = Otoplasty

As most of you know I had my Otoplasty done today! In laymans terms - my ear pinned back.

Many of you have been very kind to say that you had never noticed the sticky out ear but we all have our idiosyncrasies and this particular one has lurked around me for the past 20years. All it takes is one comment once in your life - you may even forget by whom - for the insecurity to set in.

SO.......I went in to the Morningside Clinic at 6.45am this morning with my surgery booked for 8.00am. The service within the hospital was so bad that by 8.10am I was till being checked in. I was incredibly nervous (having had an aweful experience with anesthetic from my wisdom teeth) that all one had to do was look at me for the flood gates to open. The anethetist was very kind and re-assuring. He even complimented my Barlow's Syndrome as a "beautiful heart murmor - very loud & clear". No sooner was I out and they were waking me again. I was groggy & freezing!!!

Chris popped by at 10.30 am to check in on me - HUGE SURPRISE and very welcome. The nurses eventually called him at 12.30 to tell him I was out of theatre and all had gone well - hmmph! I had been told that I would be able to leave as soon as I had had my lunch. Like a very good girl - desperate to get to my own space I guzzeled my boarding school reminder (lunch) and the wait began. Between 12.30 and 2pm I asked at least 5 different nurses when I could be discharged. The standard reply was when Dr had completed all his surgeries and checked in on me. Eventually a kind lady took the trouble to walk across to the consulting rooms (on the same floor as the ward) asked Dr Snijman and brought back the good news. I eventually got home at 4pm. Besides a sharp pain on my ear I am feeling fine.

I look like a cross between Frankenstien, a Basotho with tooth ache and a Formula 1 driver minus the helmet! Now you will understand why I will not be going out in public. SO my sheer vanity results in this - at least it is short term and I will hopefully enjoy the long term benifit for years to come.

The bandages will stay in place till next week Wednesday, thereafter I need to wear an "elastic" headband at all socially acceptable times and especially at night for the next 6 weeks.

Thank You to you all for the good wishes!!!!

Major Mile-Stone

Its been a long/hard week on the renovating scene! The ribs,blocks and steel were installed and for some reason the time to do this was miss-calculated and landed up taking the guys an extra 2 days! This in turn left only ONE day for the electrician and plumber to do their thing before the pump arrived today. Once again praises to Errol for building in the extra"fat" so as to stay on schedule with our programme. Besides the delay in installation of the slab, I found the team doing the job to be rather rude & unfriendly, basically ignoring us when we arrived on site and just looking at us when asking a question. You must know how well this went down when they had done NOTHING on sight for 2 days - apparently waiting for the beams (which should have arrived on the 15th) to be delivered!!! To my dismay - this morning when I arrived the guys were still putting in the last minute re-inforcing etc at 9.30am (the pump was scheduled to arrive at 10.30am....)

Anyway - I suppose "alls well that ends well...." the pump arrived on time this morning and they started pumping half an hour early
I must say, there was a very good vibe on site when the pumping started. With a whole crew including the electrician, plumber, builder, project manager and 1 excited owner (poor Chris was stuck in meetings). Its amazing to see how its all done and even more fasinating at how quickly its over.

Once the final had been called and completed, Errol treated Peter, Chris and myself to a celebratory pizza & beer at the Jolly Rodger! Our first major mile-stone completed on target - YAY!

Its been a while

Its been a while since my last post..... things have been slow and we have had to voice our disapproval. Not always an easy situation but at times necessary! At the begining of May Chris & I could see that we may hit a few delays so we sent an email to Errol detailing what we expected to be done by our return on the 7th May.

We left on our trip to Namibia - a trip that took us through 5 passport control (exit SA, enter & exit Zambia, enter & exit Botswana and enter Namibia) to a beautiful setting on the Chobe river. On our return to SA, we went past the house to see what progress had been made. To our dismay - BASICALLY NOTHING!

The major issues that could become critical were the stairs, celler slab and kitchen beam. Peter also went away, however failed to instruct his staff clearly on what to do. We then had to get cracking so not to created any further delays and so got Errol on board to build the stairs while the others did the celler slab. Needless to say Peter was annoyed (as were we) and the tension on site was rather bad for a week or so. Subsequently, Errol has drawn up a programme giving us an expected move-in date of 1 October 2006........

So on Thursday the Super Slabs chaps arrived on site and placed the ribs & blocks in place for the garage/studio slab - note all the props to hold it up:

They were supposed to work over the weekend as well but on Saturday we had the cold front hit us with a vengence bringing unseasonal rain so today they got started on the mainbedroom slab:

So much for our famous NFC rule.... We have been contemplating the size of the kitchen and been rather worried that its too small. We met with Clive again and had a serious brain storming session. It was eventually decided that we would knock down my pantry and build the entire kitchen out a few metres. I am sad to loose the separate scullery/pantry design but realise that a bigger open plan kitchen is the answer.

So for now we plod along and hope for the best......

A Trip to Council

Having had some feed back from the Building Inspector on the progress of our plans , we also got a contact number for the Plans Examiner-Thapelo. Trying to get hold of Thapelo prooved to be a rather difficult task but eventually Chris managed and got some information.

Basicaly, he told us we needed to apply for a building line relaxtion in front of the garages. This means signatures from all neighbours who would touch your property where the line is to be relaxed = more forms and another +4 weeks delay in approval. We also need signatures from our direct neighbours for the "subsiduary dwelling" (studio). Everything else seemed to be in order!

So, on Friday afternoon we took ourselves into town to apply for A) zone certificate B) locality map C)building line relaxation application form. Now you would expect chaos at the relevant departments. Besides very lax security, where your hand bag gets x-rayed on leaving the building and even though the metal detector beeps - you get waved through, Chris and I were most impressed by the friendly and efficient sytem. Do not forget that this is also due to how you treat the staff!!! Anyway, within 30mins ,armed with all the relevant documents and information we dashed back to the house to double check the building line....

According to the zone certificate the building restrictions are as follows :
building line on all roads = 6m, 3 storeys with a 50% floor ratio for double story.

According to our plans ,the garage has been detailed with a 5m line. We got the tape measure out and re-measured 3 times (just to be sure) and to our relief we have 6m exactly and our floor ratio is 40% - What a spot of luck!This means no building line relaxtion is needed - all we need to do is make the changes on the plans and resign the changes. Clive, as the architect, will also need to sign the change. However we DO still need our direct neighbours to sign the "subsiduary dwelling" issue - Hope they won't be a problem.....

I can't tell you what a relief this is as we have a rather nosy old duck over the road who seems the type of person who will make a problem just because she can..... when explaining to her about needing neighbour consent I said to her "you won't have a problem will you?" so she replied "can I make it a problem?"and then when we saw her yesterday ,we said "looks nice with the wall complete?" Her response was "NO, I don't like it, its too high and I can't see what's going on" - THAT IS EXACTLY WHY WE HAVE AN 8FT WALL!

The Wire Coat-Hanger Syndrome

Many of you may have experienced the incredilble reproduction process of the wire coat-hanger. They seem to multily in the dark - it's an absolutely facinating phenomenon. Even when you think you have cleared every single last one out of your home - in the blink of an eye, another one happens to be in your cupboard. This is pretty much the same reproduction process with rubble during a renovation. You may recall a few posts back I showed a photo of the front garden/garages with next to no rubble - well take a look now.........
Just to give you an idea of exactly how much rubble there was/is/will be...... In the last month we have had three 6m3 bins and about 18 x 3m3 truck loads of rubble removed, with about another 10 in the front garden...... This service does not come cheap by any stretch of the imagination, thank goodness for Errol and his advice to add a large figure to the budget!

Other than that, the boundary wall will basically be finished tomorrow - it will no doubt please our back neighbours to know their property is secure. The foundations,floor and walls of the cellar will be done next week with the slab being cast on friday and then they can move onto the en-suite bathroom for the guest bedroom as well as tidying the site until the other slabs are ready.

And so the rubble grows!!!!