Meanwhile, back in the Office

Here's a picture of Keith in his Office.
It is immaculately and very impressively tidy and well-ventilated, but perhaps just a little cramped.

Birthday Sunshine, and a song to go with it

Ruben is a man after my own heart - he loves a hat.  And if he aint got one to hand, he'll just figure out a way of "making do".  Here's an old tune, which you may or may not be familiar with - It starts off with the Muppets, but moves on to Roger Miller, that old charmer ! Enjoy.....

13 Weeks Into The Build

Working conditions are not that bad up here in the bundu.  Although there isn't exactly a roof on Keith's office, it surely must be able to boast one of the best views in the world (taken the day before his computer crashed - I think it's trying to tell him it doesn't like being outside).

OK, although you cant quite see in this picture, Eric is strapped to the ridge beam above, balancing on a ladder, and hammering the board onto the frame outside our bathroom.  The plumbing pipes were put in today for bath, basin and loo.

Here you can see our bedroom, which is a mirror image of our bathroom on the opposite walkway. I've measured that I shall have to walk about 30 footsteps to get to the loo in the middle of the night. Note the beautiful double door, made of Oregon pine, with a fanlight above it; we were lucky enough to find two to match, so they stand directly opposite each other.  Then at the bottom you can just see the corners of three very large sliding doors.  Can't wait to see them in position.

Reuben is painting the exterior woodwork.

Toriq's hair has turned bright bottle orange for some uncanny reason.

Two small sash windows are going on either side of our bed.  One is old, salvaged from an old Cape homestead, and the other is being made to match it, by Kiwi Craig.

Special insulation paper is going up on the outside.  Waterproofing membranes, I'm told.  Over the top of them will go the corrugated iron sheeting. Yes, that's what I said.

Mmm... maybe we should leave it like this for a truly original decor trend

I clambered through the bathroom window, tra-la

(and almost did myself an injury climbing back in)

This shot is supposed to show the plumbing pipes for the bath.

Aha, here they are.  Situated so that we can wallow in the bath during the day, and check the seals on Robberg Peninsula (seen in far distance).  The hook for the binoculars will be right there.

And now for Frootie's trick.  He's designing and building an open fireplace, taking Count Rumford's advice.  He & his team have knocked a hole into the S-W downstairs bedroom, and are trying to work out where the chimney should go.  It's going to be a bit of an Inglenook design, with a lovely old railway sleeper mantlepiece (courtesy Zambian Railways), for all our party invitations and Christmas cards! 

(not that we get too fussed about Christmas, and seldom get invites either, ha-ha)

and here's the fireplace opening taken from inside the S-E downstairs bedroom.  Mmm this is going to be interesting. 

That's all for now folks!  Night-night !